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Amidst the loud and bright members of the Seven, Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) clearly stands out for his dark suit and the mysterious aura he exudes. But ironically, it’s his silence that most draws attention to itself. For the longest time, the character of Black Noir has been a character of intrigue, shrouded in secrecy. His silence is often a source of discomfort to those he lingers around. Indeed, though we never hear him speak, there is an intimidating weightiness to his presence, one that only gets amplified when we witness his aptitude for brutal violence. This enigmatic existence made Black Noir a fascinating character in The Boys, and when his heart-breaking background was finally revealed with a flood of overwhelming information, he instantly became a fan favorite, garnering sympathy and even relatability for the traumas he went through. So it came as bitter disappointment when the show decided to kill off the character just as the viewers were starting to care for him.
‘The Boys’ Season 3 Revealed Black Noir’s Harrowing Backstory
In Season 3, the news of Soldier Boy’s (Jensen Ackles) return sends Black Noir spiraling into terror. We don’t yet know of the history that transpired between the two but judging by Noir’s panic, it’s obvious that something awful had happened. In Season 3, Episode 7, Noir rips off the tracker implanted into his forearm by Vought and retreats to an abandoned Buster Beaver’s Pizza, supposedly his safe space. There, he is greeted by imaginary cartoon characters who come alive out of the eatery’s wall. Apparently, Black Noir has been seeing these anthropomorphic cartoon characters since he was 9, possibly even younger, and since then he’s turned to them for comfort in times of distress. Initially, Noir is reluctant to open up, but the cartoon squirrel, Buster, insists that he can’t hide from Soldier Boy forever, that he must come to terms with his shame and failures. And so, his friends put on a cartoon show for him which serves as a fascinating flashback into Noir’s buried trauma.
Through Noir’s eyes, we see his memories reimagined in an animated format with anthropomorphic animals — Soldier Boy as an Eagle, representing the facade of courage, truth, and honor conveyed to the American public and Noir as a black sheep, representing the worthlessness and placelessness he feels. Soldier Boy, as it turns out, was a big bad bully who was insecure about his position in the company. So, he sabotaged Black Noir’s opportunity to star in a cop show, telling him that he’s nothing. When Black Noir attempted to protest, Soldier Boy brutally beat him down. Even after his fury of fists left Black Noir mangled, Soldier Boy didn’t stop. Black Noir tried to crawl away, leaving behind a trail of blood, but Soldier Boy dragged him back. The violence of it all is so brutal and unrestrained that its authenticity could only be captured through an animated sequence. In real time, Black Noir flinches and droops his head down, traumatized and ashamed for not being able to help himself. But more than the physical pain, the tragedy leaves Black Noir with everlasting mental scars, depicting himself as a helpless victim of bullying in his own image and shattering his self-esteem.
‘The Boys’ Makes It Easy to Root For Black Noir
So a few years later when Stan Edgar, future CEO of Vought, (Giancarlo Esposito) proposes his plan to take down Soldier Boy to pave the path for a new hero, Black Noir is eager to jump in and redeem himself. With the help of his Payback teammates, Black Noir ambushes Soldier Boy, but he is too strong. And in the process of extracting revenge, another tragedy befalls Black Noir as he gets his face burnt and his head bashed by Soldier Boy. Since then, Black Noir has been unable to speak. The reality of what happened was so visceral, so intolerable that Black Noir had to find a way to detach himself from the horror by storing the memory in a cartoonish 2D format.
Black Noir is scared of Soldier Boy in the way that a middle-schooler is scared of his school bully, and similar to how a kid would hide from his bully by avoiding school corridors or taking the long way home, Black Noir is avoiding his bully by ripping off his tracking device and isolating himself in an abandoned eatery. But he can’t spend his life running and hiding from Soldier Boy, and that’s what Buster tells him. He also gives Noir just the right words to uplift him — “Bravery isn’t having no fear. Bravery is having fear, but you do it anyway.” And now, after finally confronting his traumas and getting the motivation he needs, Black Noir feels ready to redeem himself. His walk is confident, and it exudes the fiery energy of a kid ready to stand up to his bully. At this moment, Black Noir’s murderous mask melts away and gives way to his tender, childlike side. After learning all that Noir has been through and the weird, yet cute and innocent manner in which he sees those cartoon animals, you can’t help but root for him.
Black Noir’s Death in ‘The Boys’ Was Deeply Unsatisfying
When a character is set up to be as mysterious as Black Noir, the audience usually expects a grand payoff. The comics delivered on this setup by revealing that Black Noir is actually Homelander’s (Antony Starr) identical clone, created to ensure that there was someone powerful enough to stop him if he ever slips out of control. The sole purpose of Black Noir was to eventually kill Homelander, but Vought kept postponing it, and this eventually drove Black Noir insane, unable to complete the one task he was made to do. Soon, Black Noir starts committing crimes while pretending to be Homelander in order to undermine him, and it turns out it was actually Black Noir who killed Billy Butcher’s (Karl Urban) wife, Becca (Shantel Yvonne VanSanten)
The show, however, takes a completely different route with the character, providing his backstory with a rich complexity that actually outdoes its source. And just as the audience was starting to connect with Black Noir, learning his history and rooting for his future, he gets unceremoniously killed by Homelander. It felt awful to think that Black Noir would never get his redemption, especially after having us invested in his story. After years of secrecy, his backstory was revealed so suddenly that the viewers couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the heaviness of it all. And then, just as abruptly, his story was concluded with an anti-climatic death. It was a deeply unsatisfying way to end his arc, one that left the viewers with more questions than answers — does Black Noir always see the imaginary characters? What made him this way? What are his thoughts and feelings when he isn’t being leashed by Vought? And so much more. There are many characters on The Boys who suffered unfortunate fates and that we wish we’d have seen more of, but none more so than Black Noir. He — and we as viewers — deserved so much better.
