The Boys Beats Marvel Heroes in Streaming: Are We Looking for New Heroes?

The Boys Beats Marvel Heroes in Streaming

After mastering the big screen, Marvel has attempted to bring its superheroes into the homes of its fans, with more or less innovative series both in terms of history and direction. However, the huge success of shows like WandaVision, Ms. Marvel and What if…? doesn't seem to have made as much inroads into the hearts of viewers as Disney's upper echelons probably expected. A surprise that today is sanctioned by incredible news: in the streaming sector, Marvel heroes have been beaten on all fronts by The Boys.

In fact, in 2022, according to the Nielsen Ratings viewing calculation , a company that deals with television and radio audience measurement, none of the Disney or Marvel series has managed to enter the top 15 of the most watched original programs. Therefore, the breaking of the fourth wall in She Hulk and the approach to the teen audience with Ms. Marvel do not seem to be enough to grab a place among shows like Stranger Things, Wednesday and Bridgerton, decreeing a certain failure in the Disney house.

The Boys tears up the Marvel superheroes in streaming

But if the creation of the Duffer brothers does not seem so incredible in the first place of the podium, the one that makes the The absence of Marvel is the presence of a show as controversial as The Boys . Born as a parody of classic superheroes such as Captain America and Superman, the unconventional and decidedly incorrect heroes have landed on Amazon, wreaking havoc among the series of the same supers it criticizes.

Thus we have Patriot who mimics Captain America with a murderous streak, A-Train who takes up the lines of Quicksilver and even Stormfront with Nazi ideas but which follows the powers of Shazam. In short, The Boys certainly does not send them to say just like its protagonists that perhaps thanks to their being raw and without filters, they are preferred by the spectators. Of course, a minimum of affinity is always created, but in The Boys this bond is made through defects, showing the protagonists for what they really are above all: human. The mistakes they make, the thoughts that are not exactly in line with today's society, even the heinous actions to achieve their goals: everything that the series created by Eric Kripke brings to the small screen is nothing more than a series of small mirrors of the society, where anyone can actually see themselves.



Maybe they're not actually the heroes Marvel to have tired, after all, children are left with the aspiration to become like Iron Man or Captain America, and we are sure superheroes like them will always be successful at the box office. More likely it's the cloying perfection even during the darkest moments constantly proposed by the Marvel house that goes to no longer be in line with the current worldview. As a result, no longer having leading actors such as Robert Downey Junior or Chris Evans to hold the reins of superheroes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe badly gives way to beloved actors who have perhaps gone a little too often into the background such as Karl Urban , Anthony Starr and Jensen Ackles .

And if losing the reference points for one's universe is already a heavy blow to be blamed, Marvel also has to deal with a decidedly broad continuity that expands from the films and articulates in all the various tv series. New viewers therefore feel a little too intimidated by having to follow different media and stories that intertwine across the years and universes, whereas with The Boys they can enjoy a simple story without too many twists and turns. Maybe the time has come for Disney to change its policy of perennial perfection in its heroes and finally make real competition on the small screen to the more politically incorrect The Boys?