The Real Reason Homelander killed Black Noir Might Surprise You
*Spoilers for The Boys Season 3*
To many viewers who loved the silent samurai that is Black Noir including myself his death in Season 3 of Amazon Prime Studios The Boys (a season that gave a lot of heart to the character) came as a shock. However, upon further review you might notice and understand the real reason that Homelander killed Black Noir which is presented in this article. You see if you remember back to that scene Homelander finds Black Noir sharpening a sword, getting ready to kill Soldier Boy, his now know biological father figure, and he reveals some startling information.
(Scene Below)
(2945) Homelander Kills Black Noir | The Boys Clip | Prime Video — YouTube
In episode 7 of season 3 we get to see the shocking backstory of how the superhero team that came before The 7, called Payback, broke up, and the even more shocking face reveal of Black Noir.
What’s revealed is that Soldier Boy’s constant abuse of his teammates finally came to an end when they were informed of the existence of a new lead super (that being Homelander).
Given the excuse of a replacement and seeing their window of opportunity closing, Payback, decides to give Soldier Boy what he deserves, and they form to gang up on him. Soldier Boy doesn’t go down without a fight through, and he leaves many of his surviving teammates bruised and battered. In the chaos of this event Black Noir who played a crucial role in incapacitating Soldier Boy is left facially scarred and with brain damage.
It’s assumed that Vought fixed Black Noir up and used his brain damage to turn him into an almost unfeeling cold, silent, and relentless killer. This is evidenced by his fight with Billy Butcher in season 2. The face reveal was one of the most important parts of the character, because in the original Garth Ennis comics, which the Boys source ther material from, Black Noir was a Homelander clone that framed Homelander for a lot of the crimes that he is pursued for.
The face reveal showed us that he wasn’t another Homelander clone and he is in fact his own character entirely. Another reason that this face reveal was important was that it gave us the real reason that Homelander kills Black Noir.
Right before he dies it’s revealed that Homelander could really see his face the whole entire time and just never brought his battle scars up. But, given his aversion to the crippled and those that he sees as less, evidenced by his treatment of Blindspot in season 2, it’s probable that his constant seeing of Black Noir’s scars most likely disgusted and annoyed him.
At that point Homelander also knew that Soldier Boy was his father and he wanted to go off with his son, Ryan, and start a family. Given that Maeve was being held in a Vought facility, Starlight was off with The Boys, and A-Train and the Deep were just pawns to him, it’s probable that the killing of Black Noir was to him just the hopeful final means to ending his relationship with The 7 and going off to start his own super-team with just his family. Unfortunately, in the Season 3 finale it didn’t work out the way he planned and he ended up killing Black Noir to defend a father who didn’t love him.
Add on to that the fact that Black Noir lied to him, hid the truth of the one thing he wanted all his life, a biological father figure, and was ready to go kill this biological father figure and you have a pretty rounded reason for why Homelander really killed Black Noir. His scars and the cutting-of-ties just gave him a little more reason.
Written by Claudio Corral
