The Guy From Vought

The Guy From Vought, also known as the Vought Guy, is a fictional character in the comic book series '' The Boys'' and the resulting franchise, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, an executive officer (and unofficial CEO) of the defense contractor/pharmaceutical company Vought-American Consolidated (V.A.C.), a company which publicly owns the Seven, several smaller superhero teams, and their related franchises, and privately is responsible for the creation and distribution of the superpower-inducing Compound V. The most prominent normal human antagonist often unsuccessfully seeks to impress/cause to fear him, the Guy From Vought is an apparent high-functioning sociopath and practical embodiment of VA (his legal name, James Stillwell, only revealed at the conclusion of ''The Bloody Doors Off''), working only in the corporate interest, including orchestrating/ordering: the near-coup of the Russian government, the massacre of the G-Men teams, Payback's ambush of the Boys, and the takeover of the White House via idiotic puppet ruler U.S. Vice President Vic the Veep.

In the Amazon Prime Video streaming television adaptation, the Guy From Vought was adapted as two different characters: Madelyn Stillwell, portrayed by Elisabeth Shue, and Stan Edgar, portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito and Justiin Davis, and named for the Guy From Vought's unseen boss mentioned in the comic book series, with the latter character adapting the vast majority of the Guy From Vought's role, and referred to in the second season as "The Man From Vought"; Shue and Esposito also play the characters in the spin-off series '' The Boys Presents: Diabolical'' and ''Gen V''.

Appearances

Comic book series

''The Boys'' (2006–2012)

The Guy From Vought is Vought-American's major presence in the series, regularly sitting in on the Seven's meetings. His real name, James Stillwell, while first mentioned in #29, is not explicitly confirmed to refer to him until #63, until which point he is presented solely as the embodiment of the company, also known as the Vought Guy, first introduced in #4. An apparent high-functioning sociopath, the Guy From Vought aims to make a profit at the expense of others, suffering no remorse for any actions. He is highly methodical and considers nothing is unimportant during planning. He also freely admits in #40 that Vought-American are gambling that Homelander will be controllable until they've won, and if he's not they can only "try not to be there at the time". Two major developments occur by sheer accident: the death of VA's CEO by a heart attack in #34, and the President being killed by a rabid animal in #60. When the latter happens, the Guy From Vought said he felt "cheated". ''Herogasm'' #4 mentions he had come up under Vought's recently deceased CEO Mr. Edgar, and #29 has Vought minutes from 1989 mentioning ‘Stillwell’ as a "keen" young man working in then-executive Edgar's office.

His calm exterior is in contrast to the superhero teams he oversees: he never shows any concern in the Seven's meetings or around the Homelander, despite their powers, nor around Russian mob boss Little Nina. He is also utterly ruthless: after ordering the slaughter of every member of the G-Men to prevent the truth of Professor Godolkin's activities getting out (which he'd previously covered up), he then arranges for Pre-Wiz, the children Godolkin was training and sexually abusing, to be kidnapped, locked into a large crate and finally dropped from an aircraft over the sea. Each of these acts are carried out by different groups of Red River operatives, as he thought that even Red River personnel might find the outright murder of children to be too much. Jack from Jupiter considers the Guy From Vought to be worse than the Seven, and has said he used to have nightmares about the sort of things the executive might have had done; Homelander has shown signs of wanting to kill him, but always stops himself and seemed genuinely scared of him (or the true power he wields) in ''Herogasm'' #5.

In #34, the CEO of Vought-American dies, and it seemed that the Guy From Vought would take his place. Instead, by #39, the Guy From Vought allows another generic executive to become CEO, a puppet ruler meant to allow him to maintain his independence and influence affairs behind the scenes. The Guy From Vought also takes on Jess Bradley as a protégé and confidant. By #61, he seems to have an unguarded moment, admitting he feels he can relax with her.

During Homelander's attempted '' coup d'etat'' against the United States government in '' Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men'', the Guy From Vought becomes aware that the Boys and VA had been tricked into a conflict by a third party, ultimately revealed as Black Noir. The Guy From Vought offers medical care to a wounded Frenchman and tries to make a deal with Billy Butcher, asking the Boys to take a backseat role while they tried to clean up their "own shit"; Butcher refuses. After watching the events of Butcher's informational leak onto the World Wide Web, he is confronted by Homelander, who wishes to kill him. As an annoyed Guy From Vought keeps calm in front of the insane superhuman, to the point that Homelander declares he may have finally met a real superhuman, the Guy From Vought states he was never impressed by Homelander, and regards Homelander's actions and use of his abilities to be unoriginal and unimpressive. After expressing a wish to commit suicide to spare himself Homelander's histrionics, Homelander tells him to "keep watching" and leaves.

In ''The Bloody Doors Off'', the Guy From Vought tells Wee Hughie the company can survive the superhuman attack on the White House as they were genuinely uninvolved, growing superhumans as weapons "is disturbing but not yet illegal", and most of the other revelations about them can be shrugged off; he cites WikiLeaks, saying the general public reaction to such things is to say "the world works the way I always suspected". However, he knew they could not survive the revelation that they had tried to kill the President, and so when the Boys released everything they had on VA and the superheroes, the Guy From Vought used Jess Bradley as a scapegoat; his plan all along was to blame everything on her. Hughie then reveals the existence of the V-bombs and threatens to use them if VA approaches any country in the world about weaponizing superheroes. The Guy From Vought then meets with his subordinates before seeing the newest superhero team, wearing all-white costumes and going by the name of TRUE, and noting the redressed nature of it, scraps it. Realizing Compound V cannot supersede human nature, the Guy From Vought laments that Compound V is a "bad product" and starts to undergo a nervous breakdown in the final issue.

''Dear Becky'' (2020)

In the epilogue ''Dear Becky'', set twelve years later, the Guy From Vought is revealed to have become a bearded hermit following his breakdown, wandering around a pineapple plantation while quoting Milton Friedman and repeatedly muttering about good products and bad products, and is quickly dismissed by Wee Hughie as a suspect for being the individual who sent him Butcher's old diary.

The character has received a universally positive critical reception.

Television series

''The Boys'' (2019–present)

In the streaming television series adaptation, Elisabeth Shue portrays a loose red herring adaptation of the character, Madelyn Stillwell, in all eight episodes of the first season as a part of the main cast, who sexually manipulates Vought's premiere superhero Homelander, while Giancarlo Esposito portrays a more comic-accurate adaptation of the character, Stanford "Stan" Edgar, in a recurring role in the second and third seasons, following a guest role in the first season finale. Unlike the comic series, the adaptations of the Guy From Vought are respectively depicted as a woman and black man, embodying Homelander's positive and negative thoughts/opinions towards the Guy From Vought, while Edgar's surname is taken from the Guy From Vought's unseen (later deceased) boss from the comic series.

The short film ''Butcher'', set between the first and second seasons and following Billy Butcher on the run after being framed for Stillwell's murder (before he could kill her himself), briefly features him watching a television re-enactment of her death, with actors portraying both him and Stillwell.

In the third season, a now toddler-aged Theodore "Teddy" Stillwell is revealed to be one of the Supe children held in Red River, with Madelyn having been feeding him Compound V prior to her death, leading to him developing teleportation, allowing him to escape from Butcher's bomb, while Edgar is revealed to be Victoria Neuman's adoptive father, and to be looking for a way for Vought to get out of the superhero industry in favor of solely focusing on their pharmaceutical/military clientele.

In the fourth season, Stan Edgar is freed from prison by Mother's Milk, and then further taken off the grid by Victoria Neuman.

''Diabolical'' (2022–present)

The first season finale of '' The Boys Presents: Diabolical'', a prequel episode entitled " One Plus One Equals Two", features both Stan Edgar and Madelyn Stillwell as the former orders the latter to oversee the 18-year-old Homelander's debut as a superhero, ignorant of her sexual abuse/coercion of Homelander. Wishing to eventually supplant Edgar, Stillwell attempts to turn Homelander against Black Noir, the "Homelander before Homelander" and the most-famous Supe worldwide, claiming that he will seek every opportunity to destroy him. However, secretly guiding Noir's actions, Edgar arranges for him to cover up Homelander's accidental massacre of both a group of eco-terrorists and their hostages, claiming them to have had a bomb. In the aftermath, back at Vought headquarters, Homelander tells Stillwell that she was wrong about Noir, while Edgar and Noir watches them both. Esposito and Shue reprise their roles.

''Gen V'' (2023)

In the series premiere "God U.", Madelyn Stillwell cameos in a flashback to when A-Train first joined the Seven.

Development

On Stan Edgar's working relationship with Homelander adapting the Guy From Vought's "fearlessness" of him, Giancarlo Esposito stated that:

I believe he's truly fearless. Look, I've watched these episodes, and in the moment, of course, I wanted to know all the information that I'm trying to pass on it and share with Homelander in regard to what V ght really is, and where he stands within the company. And I love when he's asked, when he turns in that wide shot from his desk, and he says, 'Oh, oh!' He's genuinely surprised. 'You wanted to be consulted on Stormfront?' Like, whoa! He really starts to get that this guy's ego is out of control, and he has to put him in his place, but also has to educate him. Look, when I see what Homelander does, I would fear him. But I don't believe Stan Edgar has any fear of Homelander at all. And when I was doing the scene, I thought, 'Just think in regards to being very calm, and dealing with a child, but with respect.' But also, you can't forget the vision of how Homelander could take you out. So in the back of my mind, I've got Compound V in my blood, so I'm not worried at all.

Reception

Critical response

Elisabeth Shue's and Giancarlo Esposito's depiction of Madelyn Stillwell and Stan Edgar in the Amazon Prime Video streaming television adaptations have been positively received, with Justiin Davis' portrayal of a young Edgar in the third season being praised, and their complicated relationships with Victoria Neuman (portrayed by Claudia Doumit), Starlight (portrayed by Erin Moriarty) and Homelander (portrayed by Antony Starr) also having been complimented.

Accolades

References

{{The Boys

The Boys characters
British comics characters
Characters created by Garth Ennis
Comics characters introduced in 2006
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics supervillains
WildStorm supervillains
Dynamite Entertainment characters
Fictional business executives
Fictional mass murderers
Male characters in television
Television characters introduced in 2019
WildStorm characters