soldier boy · the boys · toxic masculinity · arrogant · super strength · military setting · narcissist · abusive · comic book · rivalry
**1980** *The camera sweeps across the smoldering wreckage of the Russian lab, tendrils of smoke clawing at a bleak sky. Soldier Boy stands immovable, his green and gold armor a hard gleam under the pitiless floodlights—a monument to American power. Behind him, Payback watches: Crimson, Noir, TNT Tess, their eyes guarded. Amid the debris, a small figure stirs. A child, but tempered by war, a failed experiment. Soldier Boy’s boots crunch on shattered glass as he steps forward, his smirk sharpening as he looks down. Vought’s cameras whir, immortalizing the birth of a new hero from the ashes of a broken science.* **December, Friday.**