5 Anti-Superhero Series That Are 10/10 Replacements for The Boys

Published Aug 15, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Robert Wood is a writer and editor based out of Cheshire, England. He is the author of 'The False Elephant: and 99 Other Unreasonably Short Stories' - 100 stories, each told in exactly 100 words. Rob got into comics via Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man and the UK anthology 'The Mighty World of Marvel,' which was running Frank Miller's Daredevil, Classic Hulk and Contest of Champions II. Prior to journalism, he worked in copywriting and copyedited for Oxford University Press. He is on X as @PinchTwigs and Instagram as roobwoodjourno. With the recent conclusion of The Boys, there's still a lot of appetite for TV series that depict superheroes in a satirical or subversive light. While Homelander may be gone, the idea of regular people taking on godlike superhumans is still compelling. Starting out in comics (created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson), The Boys was adapted for television in 2019, with Antony Starr stealing the show as the sociopathic Homelander. Here are five other comic series (and a few honorable mentions) perfect for their own television adaptations, delivering more of the 'anti-superhero' themes that fans of The Boys loved. The Ten-Seconders | Created by Rob Williams and Mark Harrison The Ten-Seconders follows a group of resistance fighters determined to rid the world of 'the Gods' - a group of superhumans who started out as heroes before taking the planet as their personal playground. Each of the superhuman villains very clearly takes their powers from a Marvel or DC icon - Superman, Flash, Spider-Man, etc. - with a Batman-stand-in on the side of humanity. This dystopian series focuses a lot of attention on just how overwhelmingly powerful the gods are, and how smart and careful humans have to be to kill even one, generally with the expectation of massive losses in the process. Even the fighters' nickname - the Ten-Seconders - is a reference to how long they expect to live if they encounter a superhuman. Anyone who found Butcher's final face-off with Homelander anticlimactic should check out this comic series, where taking down an evil Superman feels as impossible as it should be. America's Got Powers | Created by Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch A cross between The Boys and The Hunger Games, America's Got Powers takes place in a world where a one-off event granted thousands of children superpowers. Instead of becoming heroes, the 'Powered Generation' are declared non-human and forced to compete in the gladiatorial Games for humanity's entertainment. The story follows Tommy Watts - the only kid exposed to the event who seemingly didn't gain powers - as he attempts to rebel against the brutal status quo that killed his brother, revealing the dark secrets of the superhero entertainment market and the true origin of Earth's superhuman kids. America's Got Powers would be particularly suited for television in following a non-powered protagonist in a world where superhumans are rare, limiting the effects budget needed to realize this story in a similar way to The Boys. Irredeemable and Incorruptible | Created by Mark Waid and Peter Krause/Mark Waid and Jean Diaz 2009's Irredeemable is considered a hidden gem of the comic world, following a Superman-esque villain known as the Plutonian as he snaps under the pressure of a life of heroism, transforming into a genocidal killer. In the aftermath, his former teammates and friends fight to work out what happened to the world's greatest hero to break him, and try to figure out a way to bring him down. Running in parallel, companion piece Incorruptible follows former supervillain Max Damage, who becomes a hero in response to his former enemy's campaign of unrelenting horror. The two explicitly cross over down the line, but until that point the story follows Max Damage as he attempts to turn over a new leaf in a world where everyone sees him as a villain... apart from other supervillains, who consider him a traitor. Both comics are well regarded, but you'd need to combine them to create a compelling TV show comparable to The Boys. Max Damage's powers make him invulnerable while Plutonian is godlike but generally seen from a distance, making this just about doable in a television format - especially if the Plutonian's reign of destruction is scaled back a little. Sleeper and Incognito | Created by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Brubaker and Phillips are the uncontested masters of crime comics, with unmissable projects including Criminal, the Reckless series and Fatale. In Sleeper, they mix the crime aesthetic with superhuman characters, following government agent Holden Carver as he goes undercover among a supervillain syndicate. The mission quickly goes wrong when Carver loses contact with his handler, stranding him in the superhuman underworld with no chance of extraction and increasingly dangerous missions that threaten to expose him to super-genius crime boss TAO. Sleeper could even be combined with Incognito, from the same creative team. That series follows 'Zack Overkill' - a depowered supervillain living in witness protection who realizes that drug-use restores his former abilities. Overkill begins a new life of crime, trying to avoid the notice of the authorities who are protecting him and the former supervillain network who he betrayed. While not set in the same world, the two series have a similar real-world aesthetic and less flamboyant superpowers - superstrength, pain transferral and hypnotism rather than flight and heat vision - that would make them easy to combine and perfect for TV. Honorable Mentions: Cla$$war - When iconic superhero the American discovers that his country is using its premier superteam to plunge the rest of the world into chaos, he turns against them and goes on the run. Über - In the closing days of WWII, the Nazi regime cracks the process to create superhuman soldiers, turning the tides and beginning a calamitous new arms race. Über is a brutal war story, but set in a completely different world and with multiple Homelander-level villains, it would probably be too costly for TV. Ex Machina - The world's first superhero Mitchell Hundred parlays his heroic reputation into a political career. The comic switches between time periods, following Hundred as both the 'Great Machine' and as mayor of New York, exploring moral grays and the myth of simple solutions to societal problems. Astro City - Not anti-superhero in tone, but in delivery, Astro City is an anthology series following the various stories of normal people living in a world populated by superheroes and villains, building a rich mythology through glimpses of the superhuman world. Minor Threats | Created by Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum and Scott Hepburn After arch-villain the Stickman kills the sidekick of the Batman-like Insomniac, A-list superteam the Continuum lock down Twilight City, trying to find and stop their teammate before he does the unthinkable and kills his nemesis in a fit of rage. Surprisingly, Minor Threats follows none of those characters. Instead, it follows Twilight City's D-list villains as they set out to capture the Stickman themselves, sick of how the Continuum's crackdown is making their own criminal endeavors impossible. Toy-themed villain Frankie Follis, aka Playtime, gathers together a crew of 'minor threats,' as the story follows both their misguided mission and the misadventures that brought them low in the first place. However, that's just the first volume, with Playtime's original mission leading into multiple other volumes and spin-off series exploring the lives of this vibrant world's loser villains. Minor Threats has a particularly intriguing perspective on superheroes, not depicting them as explicitly 'evil' like The Boys, but exploring what it's like to be forced to play by the rules of godlike vigilantes. Those are our picks for five comic series that deserve a television adaptation following the success of The Boys, putting their own unique spin on the anti-superhero concept. Let us know below what you think of our picks, and what franchises deserve their own The Boys-style adaptation. The Boys TV Show(s) The Boys, Gen V, The Boys Presents: Diabolical First TV Show The Boys Cast Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Jensen Ackles Created by Eric Kripke, Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson Latest TV Show Gen V Upcoming TV Shows The Boys, Gen V