The Boys: 10 Things Only Comic Book Fans Know About Starlight

What happens to Starlight in the comics is not exactly the same as what The Boys TV show reveals. In both the comics and Amazon Prime Video series, Annie January, aka Starlight, is one of the few members of The Seven who is morally right and ends up going against the villainous superhero organization. However, much like the other characters in the streaming series, Erin Moriarty’s portrayal of Starlight is slightly different from that of her comic counterpart.

There is a good reason for this. Even though Starlight’s costume, powers, and relationship with Hughie in the series are more or less similar to the comics, there are a few details about her backstory and relationship with The Seven that the Prime Video show leaves out. While the TV series is not afraid to go in dark and disturbing directions, there are things in the comics that wouldn’t fly on the TV show and things in the series that make even some of the comics’ stories look tame in comparison.

She Was Pretty Bored During Herogasm

Starlight Spends The Event Talking To Queen Maeve

Herogasm is an infamous event in the comics in which all the Supes let loose and engage in sexually deprived activities during a weekend getaway. Disgusted and disinterested, Starlight decides not to participate in this debauchery and instead spends time talking to Queen Maeve. Even though Maeve used to give her a cold shoulder, both open up to each other and rant about the sheer disgust that they feel towards their male counterparts in The Seven.

Starlight also calls Hughie to check up on him (he is actually planning a secret mission to infiltrate the Herogasm with The Boys). Herogasm concludes with an awards night during which Starlight offers a Lifetime Achievement award to the Supe known as Uncle Dreams. On the Prime Video show, the event is much smaller, and Starlight doesn’t even show up until more than halfway through it. In the series, it only sets up Soldier Boy to slaughter his old teammates.

Queen Maeve Risked Her Own Life To Save Her

Homelander Beheads Queen Maeve For Her Betrayal

Around the final story arc of the comics, Homelander figures out the loyalties of Queen Maeve and Starlight, realizing that both have been working with The Boys. As he plans to finish them once and for all, Meave throws Starlight out of a building hoping that she lands safely. She then attacks Homelander with her sword, which surprisingly turns out to be a metal prop.

Homelander easily overpowers her and beheads her. In the end, Starlight survives and owes her life to Queen Maeve but things were different on the Prime Video series. In the season 3 finale, Maeve sacrifices herself by taking down Soldier Boy, resulting in the loss of her powers. Maeve escapes alive with The Boys’ help and goes into hiding with her girlfriend, Elena. It has nothing to do with Starlight in this case.

Was A Part Of The Young Americans

Starlight Started In A Christian Superhero Group

True to her Christian upbringing, Starlight started her superhero career after joining the Young Americans. Vought International sponsored this collective of conservative right-wing Christian superheroes who also had affiliations with similar groups like the Young Republicans. Around this time, Starlight is a devoted Christian with a generally optimistic outlook on life. Of course, after joining the Seven, she becomes more cynical and starts losing her faith in religion.

This lapse of faith comes almost immediately, thanks to the sexual assault she faces from the male members of the team and the sexualization she undergoes with her forced costume choices. In the Prime Video series, she still has faith, but it is mostly forced upon her by her mother. However, the one thing that doesn’t change is that Starlight is still one of the best characters in the series when it comes to positive choices and making the right decisions, but because she is a good person, and not because she feels that she has to make them.

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Drummer Boy Was Her Ex-Boyfriend

The Young Americans’ Hero Cheated On Her

During her tenure at the Young Americans, Starlight shared a brief romantic relationship with Drummer Boy, the team leader. They had first met at the Christian camp called Capes for Christ and had a non-sexual relationship. Later, to her surprise, she found out that he cheated on her with another member of the Young Americans, Holy Mary which led to her eventual fallout with Drummer Boy.

While not specified as a reason for the affair, her powers involve Pheromone Manipulation, where she can command people to do what she wants, making Drummer Boy’s cheating suspect. It’s ironic to note that Holy Mary was otherwise presented as a chaste superhero by the media. She is also someone who acts modest and always talks about Heaven and Hell and how important it is to make the right decisions, which shows her pure hypocrisy thanks to her relationship with Drummer Boy.

She Temporarily Blinded A-Train In One Eye

Starlight Protected Herself During An Assault

A-Train has been very abusive and patronizing to Starlight (just like The Deep in the show). Initially, Starlight bears the brunt of this behavior, but when she reaches her breaking point, her threats are enough to intimidate him. Then, A-Train attempts to sexually assault her in a hangar, proudly proclaiming that he’s a member of the Seven, and he won’t face any consequences for his actions. Starlight then uses her light-emitting powers to blind him in one eye.

After this moment, A-Train kept his distance. There was a slightly similar moment in the Prime Video series, but it was for a different reason, and it ended differently. In this case, A-Train was fighting Starlight and Hughie, and he ended up having a heart attack during the battle. The two remained at odds, even with A-Train getting Starlight’s friend Supersonic killed by betraying her to Homelander.

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She Blinded Her Parents

Annie Was Raised By Foster Parents After This

In the comics, Homelander burnt up everyone in the vicinity at the time of his birth. Similarly, Starlight’s powers were pretty unstable when she was an infant, so much so that she accidentally blinded her parents and the doctors. Unable to bear the stress of parenting her, they allowed Vought to take custody of her, who eventually assigned her to two foster parents.

These guardians ensure that Annie joins superhero pageants right from a young age. This fact contrasts with the show, in which Starlight’s biological mother has a major role in her story arc, raising Annie to believe God gave her powers. In the Prime Video series, Vought pretty much paid Annie’s mother’s medical bills to allow them to submit her to Compound V, and her mother (Donna January) is perfectly healthy when Starlight first shows up on The Boys.

Joined The Seven After Lamplighter’s Death

Lamplighter’s Fate Was Worse Than Death In The Comics

Lamplighter, a disgraced Supe, was introduced in the second season of The Boys. In the comics, he was killed by the CIA (as revenge for killing Mallory’s children) rather than being discharged from his duties. Hence, Starlight gets a place in the team following Lamplighter’s death. It’s revealed later that Lamplighter still exists as a zombified version of himself. He is resurrected mainly because of the side effects of Compound V in his system.

He, however, lacks human mental abilities and ends up imprisoned in Vought’s headquarters. Stillwell says that the CIA found Lamplighter when searching the Seven’s former headquarters. In the Prime Video series, Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) was also Starlight’s predecessor who was forced into retirement and sent to work at Sage Grove Center, a Vought-owned psychiatric hospital with patients struggling with Compound V stabilization. He ends up dying by suicide.

The Induction To The Seven Was Even Worse In The Comics

It Wasn’t Just The Deep In The Comics

In the Amazon Prime Video show’s pilot episode, The Deep sexually assaulted Starlight after she joined the Seven. This moment was a polarizing scene and received criticism for the sexual abuse involved. There was also a scene in season 4 that turned things around on The Deep, but it was still a horrifying moment when the first assault happened in season 1. That said, there was an even more extreme and appalling assault in the comics.

In The Boys comics, it wasn’t just The Deep. Homelander, Black Noir, and A-Train are collectively involved, asking her what lengths she will go to if she wants in The Seven. In the books, all three men force her to sexually please them, and she does so out of fear. This moment was toned down for the show, though The Deep’s assault is still harrowing. In the comics, it was a terrible moment and shows how deprived every member is from the start.

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She Settled Down With Hughie In Scotland

Starlight Is Forced Into Retirement & Banned From Using Her Powers

The Boys ended its run with a happy ending for Starlight and her romantic partner, Hughie Campbell. Even though every other major character doesn’t survive, both lovers settle down in Hughie’s childhood home in Scotland. However, while this ending seems happy, there is also some sadness seeping under the edges of the final resolution for the two characters.

The eight-issue spinoff miniseries, Dear Becky, gave a further glimpse at their future. In the year 2020, their life is tranquil, and they plan to have children. However, Billy Butcher’s disturbing past catches up with Hughie as he chances upon Butcher’s old diary in which he muses over his late wife Becca and his general disdain towards Supes. This series shows that Starlight is banned from using her powers upon threats of execution, though, and she often seems sad and trapped in domestic life.

Who Is Starlight Based On?

She Has Resemblances To Doctor Light And Shazam

The Seven directly references the classic DC superteam, the Justice League, with Homelander functioning as Superman, A-Train as the Flash, Queen Maeve as Wonder Woman, The Deep as Aquaman, and Black Noir as Batman. Translucent was not in the comics instead, there was a man named Jack from Jupiter who was the Seven’s version of Martian Manhunter. While no clear comparisons can be made in the case of Starlight, she does bear a few stark similarities with DC characters.

Her powers of projecting luminescent energy can be compared to those of Kimiyo Hoshi. Under the guise of Doctor Light (a title held by a DC villain of the same name), Hoshi can absorb as well as radiate all forms of light energy. If that wasn’t enough, Starlight’s yellow-and-white costume is also heavily similar to that of Mary Marvel’s (Shazam), rounding out The Boys’ homage to DC superheroes.

The Boys

The Boys is a superhero/dark comedy satire series created by Eric Kripke based on the comic series of the same name. Set in a “what-if” world that reveres superheroes as celebrities and gods who experience minimal repercussions for their actions. However, one group of vigilantes headed by a vengeance-obsessed man named Billy Butcher will fight back against these super-charged “heroes” to expose them for what they are.

Character(s)

Billy Butcher , Hughie Campbell , Homelander , Annie January , A-Train , Mother’s Milk , Kevin Moskowitz , Frenchie , Kimiko Miyashiro

Release Date

July 26, 2019

Seasons

4

Showrunner

Eric Kripke