J Butcher Popular Books

J Butcher Biography & Facts

William J. Butcher, or "Billy the Butcher", is an antihero in the comic book and Amazon Prime series The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. He is the leader of The Boys, a group of CIA-sponsored vigilantes (consisting of Wee Hughie, Mother's Milk, Frenchie, and the Female) who observe, record and sometimes liquidate "Supes" (i.e. "superpowered" or "superhuman" individuals, often acting as "superheroes") artificially created by the mega-conglomerate Vought. He is the Homelander's archenemy, whom he blames for the rape and death of his wife Becky, while also developing an intense hatred for all superhuman beings. Butcher is portrayed by Karl Urban in the Amazon Prime Video streaming adaptation, and voiced by Jason Isaacs and Kay Eluvian in animation. Appearances Comic book series The Boys and Herogasm As a boy growing up in London's East End, Butcher watched his father physically abuse his mother on a daily basis, developing an overwhelming hatred for the older Butcher and almost leading him to murder. His younger brother Lenny talked him down, but only because of the impact it would have on their mother. Butcher went on to serve in the Royal Marines and was wounded in the Falklands War. Following his deployment, Butcher became self-destructive, drinking excessively and assaulting friends and strangers for little reason (even being court-martialed at one point). This changed the day he met his future wife, Becky Saunders. Following that, there was no record of any assaults; Mallory believes Becky's presence had a calming effect on Butcher. Conversely, the cause of Butcher's campaign against superheroes stems from the rage he felt after the rape and death of his wife at the hands of a "supe". Following a strange period of emotional distance between the two of them, Butcher awoke to find his wife disemboweled on their bed, with her prematurely born, superpowered child floating above her; after it attacked Butcher with its heat vision, Butcher beat it to death with a lampstand. The loss of his wife shattered Butcher's tranquility and re-awakened his old demons. After being taken into custody, he read Becky's diary (provided by Mallory) and discovered that his wife had apparently been raped by the world's premier superhero Homelander. After blinding a U.K. government official who threatened Butcher with incarceration if he did not go along with a cover story for Becky's death, Butcher was recruited to join Mallory in the enterprise that would later evolve into the Boys. According to #50: At the time of the Boys' original disbanding, taking place some months after the events of 9/11, Butcher had stated that he had been working for Mallory for 15 years. This indicates that he began around 1986. Butcher and Mallory operated as a pair for several years, until an operation against a high-profile target Web-Weaver (Web-Weaver, hinted at being the Boys' incarnation of Spider-Man), resulted in increased support in the team. In #55, Mallory tells Wee Hughie that Butcher recruited Mother's Milk, and subsequently the Frenchman and the Female (most likely for their willingness to commit violent acts). As time passed, Butcher slowly began to take control of the group, gradually increasing the level of violence the Boys used against Supes, often manipulating events until lethal force was the only option. Butcher is now teetotal, preferring to drink Club Soda, and avoiding the unnecessarily self-destructive behavior of his youth (which had been fueled by alcohol), semi-regularly checking in with his sponsor and former drinking buddy Proinsias. Butcher also seems happy to help out a friend in need, even if it means he takes a beating in the process, telling M.M. after one such beating "It only hurts when I laugh... Hahahahaha". At the same time, M.M. has noted that Butcher never brings this up, instead leaving it hanging over M.M.'s head (as motivation). He seems genuinely fond of Hughie, but at the same time he has deliberately put Hughie into situations where he would have to use violence or kill an opponent, and rarely keeps him in the loop or will engage in one-upsmanship with him. Later, Hughie figures out that it was meant to toughen him up in the face of what the Boys do, and the mental games are likely due to Billy's awareness of Hughie's intuition and skill as an amateur detective. While Butcher seems at times callous with how he deals with his team, openly referring to the Frenchman and The Female as insane, Butcher is willing to take on a job by himself rather than risk losing the team on an operation, as seen when he takes on Payback by himself to cover the team's escape, and his unwillingness to allow anyone else accompany him into the White House to confront Homelander. A bulldog named Terror is his constant companion; this dog has been trained to have sex with anything at Butcher's command ("Terror...Fuck it.") Butcher is extremely protective of Terror, even going as far as threatening the Homelander with breaking a truce after the Homelander moves to attack Terror for urinating on his leg in #20. In that same story, Homelander questions Butcher's motivations and, although Butcher does not verbally respond, the Homelander examines Butcher's pulse and heartbeat and hypothesizes that the Boys' war against superheroes is all that Butcher has to live for, a war that he does not expect to survive. Similarly, Mallory sees that what he unintentionally gave Butcher upon his recruitment into the Boys was a never-ending war which would constantly allow him to exercise the violent part of his being. At the final clash in Washington, Butcher learned that it was Black Noir who'd killed his wife rather than the Homelander, and he finally gained his revenge. In issue #68, it was revealed that he'd secretly been making more of the modified Compound V from #11–14 (which can be triggered to kill superhumans) so that, if he survived, he could kill vast numbers of potential superhumans. The battle for Washington was won because Butcher had information about how to guide missiles towards the neurons in superhuman brains, that and the Compound V made Mother's Milk suspect that Butcher had faked Vogelbaum's death and was using him to develop more for himself. After Washington, revealing his plans to use his Compound V to kill all potential superhuman in an act of genocide, numbering billions of people. Butcher murders their ally Vas (Love Sausage) to cover up his plan, then murders the Legend to prevent any information from reaching Hughie. Butcher suddenly announces a three-month leave for the team, revealing his intention to make Hughie his second-in-command (as Hughie had once asked for, however Hughie admits to having forgotten asking about it), to damage intra-group communication. It also comes out that he killed Milk's ex-wife in front of his daughter in order to prevent Milk from journeying to Los Angeles to deal with her. After confirming with Milk that he would not be .... Discover the J Butcher popular books. Find the top 100 most popular J Butcher books.