William J. Butcher is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists of the comic book series The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. He is the leader of The Boys, a group of CIA-sponsored black ops agents (consisting of Wee Hughie, Mother's Milk, the Frenchman, and the Female) who observe, record and sometimes eliminate superheroes artificially created by the mega-conglomerate Vought. He is the sworn archenemy of the Homelander, whom he blames for the rape and death of his wife Becky, while also developing an obsessive and intense hatred for all superhuman beings, which consequently deconstructs him into becoming villainous after originally starting as anti-heroic. Butcher also appears as one of the two protagonists, alongside Hughie, in the Amazon Prime Video streaming television adaptation of The Boys. Although the show heavily deviates from the original comic, Butcher's portrayal is similar as he adopts an anti-hero position before he embarks on a darker path towards the end of his arc - which concludes with his death at the hands of Hughie.
Butcher is primarily portrayed by Karl Urban in the adaptation and its spin-off, Luca Villacis and Josh Zaharia portraying him as a youth in the third season, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan portraying his inner self in the fourth season (as Joe Kessler). Butcher is also voiced by Jason Isaacs in The Boys Presents: Diabolical and Kay Eluvian in Death Battle. Urban's performance as Butcher in the television series has received praise from critics.
Development Billy Butcher was created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Billy Butcher seems to have been designed as a parody of The Punisher, a character that series creator Ennis had written for nine years, prior to creating The Boys. Both characters are family men who become violent, unhinged vigilantes who allow their constant thirst for revenge to take them over completely. In early development, the character was named as Savage, in reference to Bill Savage. Butcher is depicted as a British man who is clean-shaven, has a crew cut hairstyle, and is wearing a black leather trench coat. Ennis referred to Butcher as his "all-time favorite creation". The character was originally owned by DC Comics for its first volume until the rights were reverted to Dynamite Entertainment.
Appearances Comic book series The Boys and Herogasm
The character appears for the first time in the first issue in The Name of the Game (released in August 2006) and is the first character introduced in the comics. As a boy growing up in London's East End, Butcher watched his father physically abuse his mother on a daily basis, developing an overwhelming hatred for the older Butcher and almost leading him to murder his father. The one time Bill was set to carry through with killing his father he was talked down by his younger brother Lenny, because of the impact it would have on their mother. Butcher then went on to serve in the Royal Marines and participated in the Falklands War, where he both learned of the vicarious pleasure to kill and was wounded in action. Returning to England, Butcher became self-destructive, drinking excessively and assaulting friends and strangers for little reason (even being court-martialed at one point). This changed the day he met his future wife, Becky Saunders.Ennis, Garth; Robertson, Darick Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #3 (September 2011) Thanks to Becky's guidance, there was no record of any further assaults or misdoings. (Colonel Mallory believed Becky's presence had a calming effect on Butcher.)
Butcher's homicidal tendencies did not remain shackled forever, however. Following a strange period of emotional distance between him and his wife, Butcher woke to find his wife disemboweled on their bed with her prematurely born, superpowered child floating above her. After the newborn attacked Butcher with its heat vision, Butcher beat it to death with a lampstand. After being taken into custody, he read Becky's diary (provided by Mallory) and discovered that his wife had apparently been raped by the world's premier superhero Homelander. After blinding a U.K. government official who threatened Butcher with incarceration if he did not go along with a cover story for Becky's death, Butcher was recruited to join Mallory in the enterprise that would later evolve into the Boys. The loss of his wife shattered Butcher's tranquility and re-awakened his old demons. Devastated by the loss of Becky, Butcher embraced the rage he felt at the rape and death of his wife at the hands of a "supe" and started a campaign against superheroes, with the eventual goal of wiping every last one of them from the surface of the Earth.
According to #50: At the time of the Boys' original disbanding, taking place some months after the events of 9/11, Butcher had stated that he had been working for Mallory for 15 years. This indicates that he began around 1986. Butcher and Mallory operated as a pair for several years, until an operation against a high-profile target, Web-Weaver (Web-Weaver, hinted at being the Boys' incarnation of Spider-Man), resulted in increased support in the team. In #55, Mallory tells Wee Hughie that Butcher recruited Mother's Milk, and subsequently the Frenchman and the Female (most likely for their willingness to commit violent acts). As time passed, Butcher slowly began to take control of the group, gradually increasing the level of violence the Boys used against Supes, often manipulating events until lethal force was the only option.
At the current time in the comics, Butcher is a teetotaler, preferring to drink Club Soda, and avoiding the unnecessarily self-destructive behavior of his youth (which had been fueled by alcohol), semi-regularly checking in with his sponsor and former drinking buddy Proinsias. Butcher also seems happy to help out a friend in need, even if it means taking a severe beating in the process. After one such beating helping Mother Milk rescue his daughter, he tells him: "It only hurts when I laugh... Hahahahaha". At the same time, M.M. has noted that Butcher never brings the incident up, instead leaving it hanging over M.M.'s head (as motivation). He seems genuinely fond of Hughie, but at the same time he deliberately puts Hughie into situations where he would have to use violence or kill an opponent. He also rarely keeps him in the loop or engages in one-upsmanship with him. Later, Hughie figures out that it was meant to toughen him up in the face of what the Boys do, and the mental games are likely due to Billy's awareness of Hughie's intuition and skill as an amateur detective. While Butcher seems at times callous with how he deals with his team, openly referring to the Frenchman and The Female as insane; he is willing to take on a job by himself rather than risk losing the team on an operation. (As seen when he takes on Payback by himself to cover the team's escape, or his unwillingness to allow anyone else accompany him into the White House to confront Homelander, going as far as to order the present Marines to shoot Hughie through the leg should he attempt to follow.)
Butcher has a loyal companion in the form of Terror, a bulldog he trained to have sex with anything at Butcher's command ("Terror...Fuck it."). Butcher is extremely protective of Terror, even going as far as threatening Homelander with breaking a truce after Homelander moves to attack Terror for urinating on his leg in #20. In that same story, Homelander questions Butcher's motivations and, although Butcher does not verbally respond, Homelander examines Butcher's pulse and heartbeat and hypothesizes that the Boys' war against superheroes is all that Butcher has to live for - a war that he does not expect to survive. Similarly, Mallory sees that what he unintentionally gave Butcher upon his recruitment into the Boys was a never-ending war which would constantly allow him to exercise the violent part of his being.
In Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men, at the final clash in Washington, Butcher finally learned that it was Black Noir who had killed his wife rather than Homelander as he had been led to believe. Escaping the destructive fight in the Oval Office between Homelander and Noir, he finally gained his revenge by finishing off the heavily wounded Noir with his crowbar.
In issue #68, it was revealed that he had secretly been making more of the modified Compound V from #11–14 (which can be triggered to kill superhumans) so that, if he survived, he could kill vast numbers of potential superhumans. The battle for Washington was won because Butcher had information about how to guide missiles towards the neurons in superhuman brains; that and the Compound V made Mother's Milk suspect that Butcher had faked Jonah Vogelbaum's death and was using him to develop more for himself.
In The Bloody Doors Off, Butcher reveals his plans to use his modified Compound V to kill all potential superhumans in an act of genocide, numbering billions of people. Butcher murders their ally Vas (Love Sausage) to cover up his plan, then murders the Legend to prevent any information from reaching Hughie. Butcher suddenly announces a three-month leave for the team, revealing his intention to make Hughie his second-in-command (in order to damage intra-group communication), which Hughie admits to having forgotten about after previously asking for it. He also killed Milk's ex-wife in front of his daughter in order to prevent Milk from journeying to Los Angeles to deal with her. After confirming with Milk that he would not be on board with Butcher's plan, Butcher apologizes to Milk and kills him before using a timed bomb to kill Frenchie and the Female in their former headquarters.
With his plan discovered by Hughie and 'Monkey' Kessler, Butcher is eventually confronted by Hughie atop the Empire State Building. After a brief fight, they both fall onto a lower platform whereupon Butcher breaks his neck, becoming paralyzed from the neck down. Butcher then acknowledges his past and admits to having killed Mother's Milk, Frenchie, and the Female to Hughie; the two calmly discussing until a police helicopter shows up. Unwilling to spend the rest of his life as a quadriplegic, Butcher finally deceives Hughie into killing him by falsely claiming he had murdered Hughie's parents. Hughie, in a fit of rage, rams a metal fence spike into Butcher's chest, killing him.Ennis, Garth; Robertson, Darick The Boys #71, "The Bloody Doors Off: Conclusion" (October 2012) Billy praises Hughie and dies with a smile on face. Hughie tells Annie that Butcher is probably fighting in Hell.
Highland Laddie
In Highland Laddie, set between The Innocents and The Big Ride, Butcher cameos in scenes establishing why Hughie took a sabbatical from the Boys, and in silent flashbacks as Hughie reflects on his thoughts about him.
Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker
In Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker, Butcher's background is explored, as he reminisces on his life whilst attending his father's funeral, talking to his corpse about his time spent serving in the Royal Marines, fighting in the Falklands War, meeting and marrying his wife Becky, and joining the CIA and joining the Supe-focused black ops group The Boys following her death. Concluding with a statement on how much he had always hated his father despite not seeing him in twenty years, Butcher urinates on his corpse.
Dear Becky