The Only Realistic Part of "The Boys" is the CIA's Rogue Brutality

Uncontrolled, unaccountable violence is the Agency's bread and butter.

If you omit the superheroes and preserve the state-supported murder, Amazon’s The Boys provides a surprisingly realistic depiction of the Central Intelligence Agency.

For those who haven’t seen Prime Video’s adaption of the acclaimed comic book series, The Boys is an over-the-top, blood-soaked story about a group of misfits attempting to disempower (and sometimes dismember) the omnipotent superheroes that control their world. While each member’s motivation arises from a fictitious event, such as avenging a loved one murdered by a “supe” or being forced to become super-abled themself, their coalescence into an unrestrained CIA militia is a genuine depiction of how the Agency operates in real life.

Codename: The Boys

The Boys, which is the group’s official codename, aren’t the two-step marching obedient soldiers people imagine when they think of the U.S. military. Instead, they’re a motley crew of criminals, vigilantes, special forces washouts, disgruntled supes, and one former RadioShack employee. Their backgrounds are varied, but they have one thing in common: they’ve shown the CIA they can get the job done, no matter the cost. Whether they’re led by the aptly named Billy Butcher or the more-measured Mother’s Milk, The Boys kill far more innocent humans than fascist superheroes. Almost all their missions leave a wake of broken bones and shattered lives. Occasionally, these anti-heroes successfully curtail the devious ploys of Vought International, the superhero’s parent company. But even when The Boys win, their path to victory leaves the viewer questioning if they’re any better than their adversaries.

CIA handler Grace Mallory used Billy Butcher’s hatred for Homelander to motivate him to start The Boys. In real life, the CIA has leveraged similar personal vengeance to found many paramilitary groups.

Throughout the show, the team is shown to be in loose contact with their CIA handler, Grace Mallory. In typical action-show fashion, Mallory is as likely to chew out the team’s leadership as she is to congratulate them on a well-done job. Her appearance is sparse, and it’s not uncommon for Mallory to remain off-screen for multiple episodes, leaving the team to operate absent government oversight. Sadly, the loose relationship between the U.S. Government and its extrajudicial assets is not a writer’s room creation but the actual methodology of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Death Squads & Drug Dealers

While the CIA has a bureaucratic body comprised of thousands of agents and its infamous headquarters in Langley, Virginia, that’s only a portion of its faculties. The other aspect is the unofficial combat teams the Agency employs around the globe. Charged with tasks deemed too sinister for the U.S. Government to be associated with, these teams are often described as “black ops” and “off-the-books operators,” amongst other insidious monickers. Much like the fictitious group at the center of The Boys, these very real teams are often comprised of murderers, gangsters, and war criminals who commit human rights abuses like you and I run neighborhood errands.