The vast majority of fans would agree that Amazon has done a spectacular job on its hit Prime Video series, The boysbut that doesn’t mean the live-action show is without its flaws. Overall, the tradition of The boys as established in Dynamite Entertainment’s comic book series, it is closely followed or respectfully honored in the Amazon show. However, when it comes to one character in particular who was vital to the comic’s origins in Boys’ World, Amazon completely missed the mark (although perhaps for the better).
In The boys: butcher, baker, candlestick #6 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, Billy Butcher explains how the Boys became the CIA-backed autonomous anti-SUPE strike team. The boys #1. Originally, the Boys consisted of just Butcher and Greg Mallory, and were little more than a hit squad distributed among different law enforcement agencies such as the CIA and DEA.
They had to answer to whatever agency hired them and follow whatever mission they were given. No independent investigations, no funding and no autonomy. Mallory knew the only way this would change was if he and Butcher got an A-list super boss, who Mallory could use to convince the powers that be that the Boys needed real funding and could operate as their own unit. Finally, Butcher and Mallory (with the help of Love Sausage and the Legend) got that super, which was none other than Webweaver.
Webweaver is the reason boys became boys, and Amazon ignored it
Amazon’s Webweaver had nothing to do with the boys’ origin
Butcher, baker, candlestick makes it clear that if it weren’t for Webweaver, the Boys wouldn’t be the version of the team fans know and love today. They would still be hired by CIA and DEA agents for special missions involving superheroes, without having any real participation in anything they did. But because of Webweaver, the Boys were able to truly become the Boys, setting the stage for the events of the entire series.
In the Prime Video live-action series, however, Webweaver was completely left out of the boys’ origin. Instead, he was just another super-dead who was willing to be an informant for the Boys for the promise of immunity and drugs. Although he helped the boys carry out a major operation in season 4 (one that took a hilariously memorable left turn for Hughie Campbell), he ended up being torn apart by Homelander, meaning he had no impact on the two boys. -world origin or future on Amazon series.
Amazon may have actually improved Webweaver by ignoring its history with the boys
In some ways, Amazon’s Webweaver is even better than its comic book counterpart
While Webweaver certainly wasn’t part of the Boys’ origin in the Prime Video series, and won’t be part of the team’s future either, this version of the character is still, in some ways, better than his comic book counterpart. For starters, the Prime Video version actually appears on screen, while Webweaver is only referenced by name in Butcher, baker, candlestick (and would not be seen until 2020 The boys: dear Becky). This allowed the series to really give the character personality. Additionally, Amazon has brought Webweaver into the present day, allowing it to have some foothold in current history.
There are definitely aspects of Webweaver where Amazon has undoubtedly surpassed the comics, but ultimately, it doesn’t compare to what Amazon left on the proverbial cutting room floor in terms of comic book adaptation. Amazon stolen The boys of this main character who was originally vital to the team’s origin, forever making Webweaver infinitely less impactful in the series than in the comics.