The Boys Season 5's Supe-virus storyline is the biggest X‑Men homage yet

The Boys has long drawn on other superhero franchises, but its final season puts the X‑Men influence front and center. Elements of X‑Men worldbuilding have always informed the series, yet Season 5 makes that connection impossible to ignore. After its 2019 premiere the show built a devoted following for its blood, gore, and shameless political satire, a tone that has helped it weather broader superhero fatigue even as X‑Men properties return to screens.

At the heart of the comparison is how powers arise. In The Boys, Supes are regular humans exposed to Compound‑V, and the abilities that follow can be wildly different from person to person—one Supe might approximate Superman, another might simply grow a tail. Compound‑V functions as a catch‑all that lets writers assign powers without crafting new origin stories.

That setup mirrors the X‑Men framework, where the X‑Gene grants abilities; the key distinction is that the X‑Gene is natural, while Supes are the product of genetic experimentation.

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