Black Noir

Development

According to some media outlets, he is a parody of Batman. Per Screen Rant, Black Noir is a parody of Bizarro and not Batman. The official The Boys TV account on Twitter compared him with Jason Voorhees. Fans have compared him with Marvel Comics antihero Deadpool, but per Looper, it "doesn't really seem he bears a direct correlation to any DC or Marvel hero". In the comics, he has a black and featureless bodysuit. In The Boys: Selected Scripts, Garth Ennis wrote: "Where I went wrong, however, was in not asking Russ to change Black Noir's hairstyle; it seems slightly unlikely that he'd have gone quite that far in mimicking his prospective target".

Appearances

Comic book series

His first appearance is in The Name Of The Game, Part 1. Black Noir is a member of the Vought-American-sponsored superhero team The Seven. A member since the group's inception, the reason for his presence and backstory are voluntarily left nebulous by Vought-American. Both his appearance and attitude reinforce this: he is clad head-to-toe in black spandex and never shows his visage, never moves unless necessary, barely ever uses his voice but communicates nigh-on exclusively through body language. This tends to severely unnerve whoever is facing him, up to his own teammates. When Starlight becomes a member of the Seven, he sexually assaults her along with Homelander and A-Train. Starlight visibly backs away from him when Noir confronts her about her refusal of wearing her new revealing costume (where she stood her ground before anyone else), and A-Train admits to Jack from Jupiter having been deeply unsettled by Noir's complete lack of other reactions beyond actually 'squirting' when forcing themselves on Starlight.

Very little is known about Noir and everyone, including his own teammates, believe he is just some sort of superhumanly strong, agile and durable ninja; something Vought-American's "Victory Comics" division plays into giving him a role of mysterious vigilante taking on the worst opponents and the worst situations. The only details that are 'known' is that he is the only superhuman who can beat the Homelander in arm-wrestling (true) and that he is a fighter jet pilot (false).

The truth of Black Noir's situation is much darker, however: Black Noir is actually an improved clone from the Homelander possessing all of his powers; bred, raised and trained for the specific purpose of killing Homelander should he ever go rogue (because the only other feasible option, nuking Homelander to take him out, was considered too dangerous and bad for business. This however is a closely kept secret, as only people at the level of the Guy from Vought (and Noir himself) are aware of the deception within the society. Noir is skilled in deception. There are only a few incidents that might hint at him having more powers (surviving a thousand-meters free-fall during 9/11, or escaping the burning and exploding wreck of a jet fighter unscathed, or actually some emotions (emitting a soft maniacal giggle when seeing Starlight's new costume, and confronting her to force her to wear it.

This situation ultimately takes a turn for the ugliest, as the stress of living right next to the one he has been bred to kill without ever receiving the order, eventually turns Black Noir insane. Being clones, Noir physically resembles Homelander to the point they can pass for one another (something Homelander himself once comes close to realizing playing a nasty prank on Queen Maeve, and at the eleventh hour by the Boys as well, so he starts committing first questionable then more and more depraved acts impersonating him in the hope of getting the order to fulfill his mission. Until the events of the series' climax, it is implied that the Homelander had raped Billy Butcher's wife, Becky, who then died giving birth to a superhuman baby Butcher had then killed; but that crime was actually perpetrated by Black Noir. At one point, the Boys receive a series of incriminating photos seemingly showing the Homelander engaging in acts of murder, cannibalism, and necrophilia against men, women, and children; but once again, those acts are committed by Black Noir.

Television series

In the live-action television adaptation, Black Noir is not depicted as Homelander's clone and there are two characters who operated as Black Noir.

The first Black Noir is portrayed by Nathan Mitchell while Fritzey-Klevans Destine portrays Noir in flashbacks. Largely silent, he primarily communicates in a series of silent gestures and intimidating body language, and possesses a healing factor coupled with a penchant for artistic exploits, standing toe-to-toe with Kimiko Miyashiro and effortlessly playing classical music on a piano in the first season. In the second season, Noir is revealed to be the loyal enforcer of Vought CEO Stanford "Stan" Edgar, who directs his every action in combat, including killing the super-terrorist Naqib and tracking down Billy Butcher and the Boys. However, Noir also displays simple, friendly character traits of his own outside of combat, such as giving Naqib's son a teddy bear, befriending a Vought programmer while looking for Butcher, and breaking down in tears upon learning his powers originated from Compound V injections given to him by Vought with his parents' consent as a child. Later, while attempting to apprehend the then-rogue Starlight, Noir is put into a coma by Queen Maeve after she exploits his tree nut allergy by forcing him to consume an Almond Joy and kicking his epi-pen out of reach.

To promote the third season of The Boys, Amazon Prime Video licensed a line of Black Noir action figures from MAFEX, NECA and the Japanese company MediCom Toy Incorporated.

In flashbacks to the Cold War depicted in the third season, Noir is revealed to be a black man named Earving who had begun his superhero career and joined Payback, Vought's predecessor to the Seven. However, Noir and the rest of his teammates were subject to career sabotage and physical abuse by team leader Soldier Boy. In 1984 amidst a joint operation with the CIA and the Contras to stop the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Edgar secretly assigned Payback to trade Soldier Boy to the Soviet Union so Vought can eventually replace him with Homelander, who had been conceived with sperm obtained from Soldier Boy. Throughout, Noir complained about having to wear a helmet that covers his face as he wanted to be the "Eddie Murphy" of superheroes, though Edgar told him Vought believed a publicly black superhero was neither profitable nor acceptable at the time. Amidst an attack on their camp by Nicaraguan and Soviet soldiers, Noir led Payback in cornering and attacking Soldier Boy. They eventually succeeded in subduing him, though Soldier Boy left Noir disfigured, mute, and brain damaged. Regarding season 3, Eric Kripke stated:"Young Noir grew up going to this pizza chain called Buster Beavers. It's like a Chuck E. Cheese. He sees the animated characters. They come to life and they have a lot of interaction with him. Like everything on the show, it's sort of this organic road to hell, I guess. We wanted to see Noir sort of Dark Night of the Soul. It's hard to do that because he doesn't communicate. We knew we had to go inside his head and someone pitched, like, he goes to a cabin. And I said, 'He should go to a cabin, but all these Snow White animated creatures should be flying around all over him' and that we strongly implied they've always been there. And then someone said, 'Well, it might be a little corny. What about like a Chuck E. Cheese?' So it just evolves." On the use of animation for Noir's imagination, inspired by his development of The Boys Presents: Diabolical, Kripke further revealed that "[w]e worked with this amazing [animation] company called 6 Point Harness, which did create all the animation for us [right at the level of real Disney hand-drawn animation]. But what I love about it most of all is it's definitely implied that for the entire run of the series, these characters just hang out with Noir. If you were to cut [back] into Noir's point of view [during the first two seasons], he'd have these animated characters that he's interacting with. And that just brings me no end of pleasure."

Powers and abilities

In the comics, Black Noir has all of Homelander's powers, including heat vision, superhuman strength, durability, flight, and enhanced vocal cords. In the television series, Black Noir I has superhuman strength, durability, regenerative healing factor, enhanced agility, hearing, stealth, speed, stamina and expertise in hand-to-hand and weapons-based combat, including martial arts. His only weakness is his tree nut allergy, inspired by Mitchell's real-life tree nut allergy. However, his abilities are all far lesser than in the comics; for example, his skin can be penetrated by knives and firearms. Black Noir II has superhuman strength, invulnerability and flight ability, with narcolepsy being his weakness. This weakness was inspired by Mitchell's habit to take naps, although he is not actually narcoleptic.

Reception

The character has received critical acclaim. Collider regarded his backstory in the television series as better than the source material but considered the end of his arc as unsatisfying. It also praised Black Noir II for his humor and talkative nature. Screen Rant ranked Black Noir among the best characters in the comics in 2024.