Though they’ve become a major factor in pop culture, superhero adapations will sometimes deviate from their source material. Sometimes this is necessary, as some elements don’t age well. (Go look up Iron Man’s origin story in Tales of Suspense #57 and tell me that would have worked in a film.) Other films, particularly Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, have managed to take beloved characters in an entirely different direction while staying true to the core of what made said characters great.

Perhaps the show that makes the biggest deviation from its original source is The Boys. The original comic from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson was in some ways a vehicle for shock value, as well as Ennis’ way of expressing his disdain for the superhero genre. The television series, on the other hand, has managed to explore superheroism in terms of celebrity culture, pinpointing just how terrifying it would be if beings with godlike powers didn’t have the moral strength of icons like Superman. Nowhere is this more evident than with the world’s biggest superhero team, the Seven — and one of their members was invented out of whole cloth.

Translucent Was an Original Creation for ‘The Boys’ TV Show

The Seven are to the world of The Boys what the Avengers are to the Marvel Universe or the Justice League is to the DC Universe — they’re the world’s biggest superheroes, or as Homelander (Anthony Starr) puts it, the « one true justice » the world needs. They appear on talk shows. Their faces are plastered over movie posters and ads for energy drinks. The parallels to other superheroes are blatant, as well. Homelander is meant to parallel Superman, A-Train is a modern version of the Flash, and The Deep is pretty much every bad joke you’ve ever heard about Aquaman if it was a person.

Translucent (Alex Hassell) is an interesting case as he was meant to replace Jack from Jupiter in the comics. Jack himself was a parody of the Martian Manhunter, and ironically, much like J’onn J’onzz, Translucent can turn invisible. He uses this superpower to nefarious effect; first he spies on Starlight (Erin Moriarty) as she’s using the restroom and then tracks Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) down when Hughie plants a bug in Vought Tower.

Hughie, with the help of Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), manages to incapacitate Translucent and lock him up. However, the Boys are forced to find a way to kill the invisible man, lest he tip off the rest of the Seven. Hughie does the dirty deed — solidifying his bond with the Boys while also pitting the anti-heroes against the full might of Vought Industries.

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Translucent Sets the Events of ‘The Boys’ Into Motion

Though he only technically appears in two episodes, Translucent has a lasting effect on The Boys‘ narrative. For starters, his battle with Hughie and Butcher underlines how the Boys have to use wit, cunning, and multiple dirty tactics in order to get a leg up on their superpowered opponents. Translucent isn’t just invisible — his skin is coated in a special carbon fiber that makes him bulletproof as well as virtually indestructible. Hughie manages to use this to his advantage, electrocuting the invisible man (who happens to be a very good conductor.) When Hughie and Butcher bring Frenchie (Tomer Capone) into the fold, Frenchie figures out that sticking a wad of C4 up his ass will solve the problem. And solve it, Hughie does — in extremely gory fashion.

Translucent’s death, as previously mentioned, sets the Boys against the Seven as well as the rest of the superpowered community. In their quest to take down the rest of the Supes, the Boys learn more about their origins while also gaining their own superpowered companion Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara). Each of them is also revealed to have a history with a superpowered being that put them on their current path; Butcher’s wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten) was assaulted by Homelander, Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) witnessed his family being killed by Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Frenchie has his own axe to grind with the Seven’s former member Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore).

But it’s Hughie who is the most changed from his experience with the invisible man. Prior to meeting the Boys, he was just an AV technician who had his world ripped out from under him when his girlfriend Robin (Jess Salgueiro) was killed by A-Train. Throughout the Season 1 episode « Cherry, » Translucent taunts Hughie that he doesn’t have the stomach to kill him…which makes it all the more surprising that Hughie is the one who blows him up. Throughout the series, Hughie is torn between doing dark yet necessary deeds and trying to move on — a situation that becomes complicated when he falls for Starlight while also trying to use her position in the Seven to take them down. Season 1 ends with the Boys being framed for the death of Vought CEO Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue), while Translucent receives a hero’s funeral (complete with an over-the-top power ballad from Starlight).

Translucent Was Followed by Two More Major Changes to ‘The Boys’ Canon

In the same vein as Translucent, Seasons 2 and 3 of The Boys would feature major changes to characters from the comics — and those changes proved to be for the best. First up was Stormfront (Aya Cash), who was a man in the comics. Here she’s depicted as a social media-savvy superhero who steps up to fill Translucent’s place in the Seven. But there’s a rather dark secret to Stormfront’s success; she was the first ever superhero — and a blatant Nazi! Season 3 saw the debut of Soldier Boy, who unlike his comics counterpart was a competent fighter. Too bad he happened to be Homelander’s father as well.

Like Translucent, showrunner Eric Kripke used Stormfront and Soldier Boy as vehicles for commentary about current events. Stormfront is meant to be a statement on how the alt-right gained influence and power while Soldier Boy is a walking, talking front of toxic masculinity. In Translucent’s case, he’s a commentary about how the rich and famous often get away with heinous acts. It’s this type of storytelling that elevates The Boys well above its source material, and it’ll hopefully continue into the series’ fourth season.

Seasons 1-3 of The Boys are available to stream on Prime Video.