The television adaptation of The Boys made a lot of changes to the story, but a few tweaks managed to make Mother’s Milk’s backstory slightly worse. In the third season, fans finally got to see what it was that drove Mother’s Milk against Supes, but it was far more brutal in the comics.

In The Boys #35 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, Mother’s Milk reveals to Hughie that, unlike the rest of the Boys, Milk was exposed to Compound V through his mother, who’d been exposed to the substance while working at a contaminated Vought-American factory.

Mother’s Milk’s father, a man with no legal training, spent months preparing a lawsuit against Vought-American and won. Unfortunately, Milk’s brother Michael died when his powers kicked in. Milk’s father attempted to sue again, but the exhaustion and stress of preparing such a meticulous case again was too much and killed Milk’s father.

Mother’s Milk’s Backstory is Way More Tragic Than the TV Show’s Version

Mother’s Milk’s backstory wasn’t revealed until the third season of The Boys. In this continuity, Mother’s Milk’s family was victimized by Vought, but through their violent Captain America-like Soldier Boy. When Milk was a boy, he witnessed Soldier Boy fighting a group of carjackers, only for Soldier Boy to throw a car at Milk’s grandfather, killing him instantly. Milk’s father, a lawyer, spent months working on a case against Vought to get justice for his father. But like in the comics, the stress of the case was too much and Milk’s father died before his day in court.

The show made two major departures from the comics. For one, Vought-American’s carelessness caused Mother’s Milk and his brought to be born with mutations, making the stakes much more personal for Milk. The show also changed Milk’s father’s backstory by making him a lawyer. In the comics, Milk’s father never got a chance to pursue a law degree, yet he still took Vought-American to court and made them pay at least once for their crimes. Of course, the victory Milk’s father receives is sullied by a young Milk overhearing Vought-American’s lawyers sum the case up as ‘win some, lose some’.

The Boys Misses Out on a Much More Complex Backstory for Mother’s Milk

The television series has been praised for its many departures from the comic. But Mother’s Milk’s narrative in the show kind of suffers by simplifying his backstory. Sure, it made sense to connect Milk to Soldier Boy, the third season’s antagonist. But overall, the decision to change it removes one of the best critiques on corporate evil and how even ‘victories’ aren’t enough to stop some of the heinous things companies like Vought-American do. Sometimes change can be for the better, but in this case, it would have been better to stick a bit more closely to The Boys’ comic.