Billy Butcher/Comics

*For the Amazon version of the character, see Billy Butcher.*

### **Cause of death**

Impaled through the heart by Hughie Campbell after becoming weakened and paralysed

## Comics Information

### **Voiced by**

Jason Isaacs

―Billy Butcher to Black Noir, as he kills him to avenge his wife's death

**William J. "Billy" Butcher** is the deuteragonist-turned-final antagonist of the controversial comic book series *The Boys* and the posthumous overarching protagonist of its sequel/spin-off miniseries *The Boys: Dear Becky*. A former C.I.A. operative turned vigilante, Billy Butcher is as charming as he is cunning. He is the archenemy of Homelander and Black Noir.

He’s a force of nature, who can talk almost anyone into anything, either through a smile or brute force or sometimes both. He’s consumed by one mission in life: to destroy superheroes. But this personal vendetta is driven by his hatred for one Supe in particular: Homelander. Butcher’s determined to get revenge on Homelander, no matter the cost. And he won’t let anyone or anything stand in his way.

He served as the deuteragonist throughout the series, until turning as the main antagonist of the final comic of The Boys.

## History

### Early Years

William was the son of Samuel Butcher and Carol Atkins-Butcher, and the older brother of Leonard "Lenny" Butcher. Raised in London's East End, the Butcher children often spent their nights listening to their father beat their mother over minor arguments of theirs. These beatings led Billy to resent his father and grow closer to his mother and her family. Because of his rough life at home, Billy started acting out in school, from getting in fights to calling teachers vulgar names. After a few years of this type of behavior, Samuel realized that Billy had taken after him and his lifestyle, something Billy had tried hard to avoid.

### The Falklands War

One night, Billy planned to kill his father, but was stopped by Lenny. As the two calmed down after the incident, Billy told Lenny he planned to join the Royal Marines. Inspired by his grandfather on his mother's side, Billy entered the Marines early enough that he was a participant in the 1982 Falklands War. It was during a battle on Mount Kent that Butcher got his first taste of killing, when he wiped out a small foxhole of Argentina troops after members of his platoon were killed. Not too long after the Falklands War ended, Butcher was kicked out of the Royal Marines following a bar fight. Returning to the East End to visit his mother and brother, Billy proceeded to get into yet another bar fight, which left both of his eyes severely bruised.

### Meeting Becky Saunders

The day after his most recent bar fight, Billy met a woman named Becky Saunders while riding a subway train. After Saunders made a remark that Butcher resembled a panda with his two black eyes, the two struck up a conversation, continuing to talk over drinks after getting off the train. A week later, the pair had lunch together, where Becky listened to Billy explain his parents abusive relationship and Billy told her that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Following this lunch, the two officially became romantically involved. During dinner with Billy, Becky, Lenny, and Carol, Becky encouraged Carol to leave Samuel for good. Carol agreed, and the four went to confront Samuel. After helping his mother get away from his father (almost fighting him in the process), Billy asked Becky to marry him. Becky joyfully said yes, with their wedding being held sometime later.

### Deaths In The Family

Billy's life took a turn for the worse when his brother Lenny was killed by a bus in 1986. While distraught over the loss of his brother, life for Billy continued, and soon got a job in construction. Eventually, Billy and Becky went on a week's vacation to Miami, Florida. During their trip, the two saw the superhero team known as The Seven in the area, having just saved world from a monster. Unbeknownst to Billy at the time, Becky was raped by a member of The Seven just before they were to return home to London. Billy was under the assumption that he had done something wrong to her, with him feeling like they were becoming distant from each other. Three months after returning from Florida while the two were sleeping, Becky was killed when a super-powered fetus cut its way out of her body. Billy immediately shot out of bed and killed the infant with a desk lamp.

### The Boys

After notifying the authorities, Billy was brought in for questioning by investigators, who immediately knew superhuman activity was involved. When Billy attacked one of the investigators who wanted Billy to lie about the official story, he was then approached by a man named Greg Mallory, who gave Billy a secret diary written by Becky. Through the contents of the diary, Billy discovered that the Homelander was responsible for raping Becky, and she purposely keep it a secret from Billy out of fear that his blood-thirsty nature would return, and he would die trying to kill the superhero. Mallory explained to Butcher that he could teach Billy how to get his revenge on Homelander, though it would be a long process that would take years to complete. Billy accepted Mallory's offer. As part of his "training", Butcher's first mission involved him killing the super-occupants of a large cabin in the woods. Using skills he picked up with the Royal Marines, Billy killed everyone inside the house with ease.

Over the years, Billy and Mallory would recruit others to join their cause of "keeping superheroes in-check", such as Mother's Milk, The Frenchman, and The Female. Each member of this team (which Billy dubbed "The Boys"), was enhanced with Compound V, a serum that was responsible for giving some superheroes their powers. This original incarnation of "The Boys" disbanded sometime around late 2001 to early 2002.

Some years later, Billy would be responsible for getting "The Boys" back together, this time adding a man named Hugh "Wee Hughie" Campbell to the team (who himself had a loved one killed as a result of the "supes"). It was during this latest incarnation of "The Boys" that Billy's plans for revenge on The Homelander that had been set up years prior began to come together. By this time, Billy had become more ruthless in his tactics, one example being his utilization of a modified version of Compound V to kill an entire warehouse of over 150 European-based heroes at once.

Butcher's revenge would really kick-off after Seven member Jack From Jupiter killed Butcher's pet dog Terror. Enraged, he blackmailed Homelander with photos that supposedly show Homelander committing several atrocities, including cannibalism and rape. This ultimately backfired horribly, as Homelander didn't remember committing these atrocities and was slowly driven insane by them, which culminated in Homelander staging a coup and killing the president. When Butcher finally confronted him in the White House, Homelander reveals that he has no memory of the events taken in the photos. It is then that Black Noir came in and revealed his true identity as a clone of Homelander and that he framed Homelander for several atrocities, including the rape of Becky Saunders, just to have an excuse to kill him. After Black Noir killed Homelander, Butcher killed the severely injured clone by cracking open his skull with a crowbar, tearing out the brain.

Though he had avenged his wife, this did not heal the pain Butcher felt after losing her during his crusade against the Supes, causing him to break down in tears and realizing killing the Supe who raped her only made him feel worse, not better. Eventually after his emotional breakdown, Butcher decided to to rid the planet of the supes entirely, in hoping no one would get hurt by them ever again like he did. He planned to achieve this goal by detonating hundreds of bombs and releasing a cloud of an explosive Compound V strain, that can be detonated remotely by tuning the device to a certain frequency. With Vogelbaum's help, this strain was modified to target those with Compound V in their blood, meaning that millions of people would potentially die, innocent or otherwise. In pursuit of this goal, Butcher killed Mother's Milk, The Frenchman, and The Female, leaving Hughie alone to stop him. During their confrontation, both Hughie and Butcher tumble off the side of the Empire State Building, falling several stories below. While Hughie's leg is impaled on a fence, Butcher breaks his neck and is paralyzed. With his plan a failure and after a lengthy conversation, Butcher goads Hughie into killing him by falsely claiming that he murdered Hughie's parents. Stabbed with an iron pipe, Butcher died with a smile on his face..

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Superhuman Strength:** Butcher's physical strength was augmented by Compound V. Hence, he was able to easily lift a grown man and knee him in the groin with enough force to hinder his performance. He crumbled a pistol in his bare hands, and one-shot Big Game with a single headbutt. He held Shout Out overhead with one hand, and easily broke another man's arm. He knocked out another man by pushing his head against a brick wall. He can punch a hole through a computer monitor, and one-shot a Supe with his signature weapon, the crowbar. Butcher also bit off Soldier Boy's nose and broke Crimson Countess' neck with his belt. He stuck a pickaxe through Swatto's head, and similarly, embedded a shovel in Soldier Boy's head and decapitated Mind-Droid with the same tool. He almost shoved his crowbar down Stormfront's throat, and headbutted him to cause profuse bleeding. He brutally caved in another man's face with a headbutt, as well. He was not intimidated by The Deep, who survived getting hit by an airplane. Butcher was able to lift up Jack from Jupiter by the throat and pin him against a wall before stabbing him to death. He also flipped off Black Noir's scalp with his crowbar. Butcher crushed a woman with his bare hands and killed Mother's Milk, despite his own Compound V enhancement. He pushed a Supe's face into a tree, denting it. Following Becky's death, he beat an infant Supe to death with a lamp (Butcher was powerless at the time, and the Supe was the child of Black Noir).
* **Superhuman Durability:** Reacts to brutal beatings and fatal injuries with only pleasure. Survived a grenade, that seriously injured M.M., exploding in his hand, after suffering a beatdown from the same person (although the blast injured his left arm and destroyed some of his fingers). Much stronger than Hughie, who took part of an explosion that destroyed the Flatiron building. He also withstood attacks from Stormfront, who is widely considered to be the second most powerful Supe in the world (3rd if you consider that Black Noir is stronger than Homelander) and survived heat vision from a baby that inherited Black Noir's powers.

### Abilities

* **Expert hand-to-hand combatant:** Butcher is an extremely skilled fighter. He is very strong in combat, physically and mentally.
* **Expert marksman:** Butcher is a highly accurate marksman, demonstrated multiple times throughout the series.
* **Gifted intelligence:** Butcher has been described by Homelander as "very smart." He has impressive tactical knowledge, able to place bugs and send untraceable messages with ease.
	+ **Expert leader:** Butcher is a good leader, having united The Boys and inspired them to achieve their goals of eliminating The Seven. He would often put an end to the bickering between the Frenchman and Mother's Milk.
	+ **Deception:** Butcher was able to make a criminal think he was a police officer to gain entry into a club. He also convinced Mother's Milk to return to The Boys by lying about his association with the Frenchman.
	+ **Manipulation:** Butcher was able to harness Hughie's desire for vengeance against A-Train and the Supes, which was one of the reasons that lead to Hughie joining The Boys.
* **Intimidation:** Butcher commands an imposing presence.
* **Indomitable will:** Butcher is an extremely determined man, never giving up on his mission to keep The Seven and all other Supes in line. He repeatedly stood up against extremely powerful beings like Homelander.

## Weaknesses

* **People:** His care for the people he thinks he needs to protect is not as strong as his drive to use violence as the answer.

## Equipment

* Crowbar (Signature weapon)
* **Beretta 92FS Inox**
* **Serbu BFG-50A:** Butcher's sniper rifle of choice is a semi-automatic .50 caliber rifle with a red laser sight.

## Relationships

### Family

* Becky Butcher † - Wife
* Lenny Butcher † - Brother

### Friends & Allies

* Old Legend †
* Susan Rayner
* The Boys
	+ Hughie Campbell - Killer
	+ M.M † - Victim
	+ The Frenchman † - Victim
	+ The Female of the Species † - Victim
	+ Greg Mallory

## Trivia

* Based off analogue to Marvel's The Punisher.
* Butcher frequently speaks with expletives, including (but not limited to) "bollocks," "wanker," "shit," and more infamously, "cunt" and "fuck." Never was there an issue of the series where he didn't say at least some of these words.
* The Amazon version of the character is nearly identical to his comic counterpart, save a less muscular build and a beard. He's played by New Zealand actor Karl Urban. In a flashback of five years prior the shows events in *The Bloody Doors Off,* his haircut resembles his comics counterpart.

## References

1. ↑ The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker
2. ↑ The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker
3. ↑ The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker
4. ↑ The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker
5. ↑ The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker
6. ↑ The Boys Issue 50
7. ↑ The Boys Issue 14
8. ↑ The Boys Issue 59
9. ↑ The Boys Issue 65
10. ↑ The Boys Issue 71