Brooke Palmer/Amazon Studios
The Boys is the most inventive, extreme, and pointedly satirical superhero saga of its era. It’s also the one with the most dicks, and that continues to be true with Gen V, an eight-episode spin-off—set after the events of The Boys’ third season—that concerns the students of Godolkin University, a place of higher learning for Compound-V-enhanced supes looking to pursue careers in the crime-fighting and entertainment fields. Energized by the same go-for-broke creativity, sharp social commentary, and puerile R-rated sense of humor as its big TV brother, it reconfirms that this franchise remains the comic book genre’s only consistently imaginative player.
According to Amazon, which debuts Gen V on its Prime Video platform on Sept. 29, just about every element of its new series constitutes a spoiler, so consider oneself WARNED.
Developed by Craig Rosenberg, Evan Goldberg, and Eric Kripke, this college story revolves around Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), whose discovery at age 12 that she can control blood results in a horrific, scarring tragedy that alienates her from her beloved little sister. Six years later, Marie is accepted into Godolkin University (“God U”), where she lies about her ugly past, strives to fit in, and endeavors to play by the rules, knowing that any tiny misstep will earn her a one-way trip to scarier environs. That proves easier said than done, however, considering that she’s immediately placed in the showbiz school rather than her coveted crime-fighting program—a situation about which God U’s president, Richard “Brink” Brinkerhoff (Clancy Brown), isn’t very sympathetic.