Gen V: Every supe’s powers explained

As Gen V approaches its finale, here’s a rundown of every supe’s powers in The Boys spinoff.

The Boys’ villains and heroes are a bit like X-Men characters: they all have mutant-esque abilities, but the source of their powers isn’t some lucky inheritance from the eons-past tinkering of our DNA by Celestials – they’ve all been injected with a Nazi serum and developed random skills.

Just look at The Seven: Homelander is basically Superman, capable of super-speed flight, heat and x-ray vision, super-strength and durability, and he can survive in space; Queen Maeve is a brute who can leap extraordinary distances; The Deep has gills that allow him to breathe underwater and he can communicate telepathically with animals; and Starlight can control and charge herself up with electricity.

We’ve seen some other bizarro supes over the course of The Boys (we mustn’t forget Love Sausage), and Gen V comes armed with some formidable heroes of its own.

Contents

• Marie Moreau
• Luke Riordan (Golden Boy)
• Andre Anderson
• Cate Dunlap
• Emma Meyer (Cricket)
• Jordan Li
• Sam Riordan
• Tek Knight
• Maverick
• Polarity

Every supe’s powers in Gen V explained

Below, we’ve listed every supe in Gen V and their varying abilities and powers.

We would stress that the extent of a few characters’ abilities isn’t fully known, so we’ll keep this article updated with any new powers that emerge in the final two episodes.

Marie Moreau powers

Marie Moreau is a blood-bender, meaning she’s capable of manipulating and honing her own blood and that of other people, including supes.

She can transform streams of blood into deadly weapons, such as shards capable of impaling opponents and tendrils that can grip people. Marie can detect tiny variations in her own blood flow as well as others; she burst a blood clot in her neck in order to remove a tracker, she quickened Cate’s pulse, and she knew when Emma’s next period would be.

She also has regenerative healing, and like most supes, she has superhuman strength and durability – however, this hasn’t been put to the test as much as her blood abilities.

Luke Riordan (Golden Boy) powers

Golden Boy’s primary power is thermokinesis; in other words, he can manipulate temperature to the point of transforming himself into a human fireball.

While covering himself in flames, Luke can also blast people with fire and fly, much like Johnny Storm. However, there is a limit to his thermonuclear power, as evidenced by the shocking end of the first episode.

Golden Boy has superhuman strength and durability, more so than his Goldolkin peers; Professor Brinkerhoff even says he could be “bigger than Homelander”, suggesting he could be one of the most powerful supes on the planet.

Andre Anderson powers

Andre Anderson has magnetism powers – aka, he can control metal objects.

This means he’s capable of picking up metal objects without actually touching them, as well as bending, shaping, and breaking metal at will; in one episode, he crushes a bronze statue of his father.

As his father says, he’s “made of steel”, so he too has superhuman strength and durability. He withstood punches from Sam and has held his own against other supes, but he’s not one of the strongest on the list.

Cate Dunlap powers

Cate Dunlap is an empath capable of reading and controlling people’s minds. She can make anyone forget anything, plant ideas and commands into people’s heads, and send them to sleep, among other things.

All Cate needs to do is touch someone with her bare hand, and she can make them do anything. She’s easily one of the most powerful supes in the show – especially after Episode 6, when she transported Marie, Andre, and Jordan inside her head and nearly trapped them there forever.

Her biggest weakness is overexertion: if she “pushes” too much, she can fall unconscious and suffer seizures. However, she does have super-strength and durability, though perhaps not as much as other supes.

Emma Meyer (Cricket) powers

Emma Meyer can alter her own size, allowing her to shrink down to the size of an ant or grow to the height of a building.

This comes with a big caveat, though: in order to get smaller, she has to make herself vomit (“purge”, she calls it), which comes with a dangerous risk of exhaustion and dehydration. As for growing bigger, her limits haven’t been tested: in theory, if she keeps over-eating, she could be absolutely enormous – but she’d have to puke to return to normal size, which could kill her if she was the size of Godzilla.

She also has super-strength and unique durability: when she’s in miniature form, she can hop large distances and heights and survive high falls.

Jordan Li powers

Jordan Li has two main powers: they’re capable of shifting their appearance between male and female versions of themself at will and firing energy blasts from their hands.

There are perks to either form: in their female form (played by London Thor), Jordan can release a powerful energy pulse from their hands that can knock other supes off their feet; and in their male form (portrayed by Derek Luh), they’re near-indestructible, withstanding all of Golden Boy’s attacks in the first episode.

Just like other supes, Jordan also has superhuman agility and durability, making them a formidable opponent in almost any fight.

Sam Riordan powers

Sam’s powers are simple: he’s really, really strong, more so than his brother (Golden Boy) and perhaps as much as Homelander.

His abilities are most similar to Queen Maeve: his strength is vastly enhanced compared to other supes, capable of killing people with a single punch and knocking supes off their feet. He can also leap great distances and withstand any and all attacks, including machine gun fire all around him.

You can read more about the prospect of him fighting Homelander here.

Tek Knight powers

Tek Knight has superhuman deduction; his senses are enhanced to the point he can see, hear, and smell the slightest physical reactions, such as adrenaline seeping out of someone’s pores or a tiny bead of sweat on a person’s brow.

While we’ve not seen him put any other abilities to use, it’s safe to assume he has super-strength – when Cate attempts to remove her glove, he warns her he’ll “take her f*cking hand off.”

You can read more about his character and how the show’s portrayal compares to The Boys comics here.

Maverick powers

Maverick’s main power is invisibility.

Maverick is the son of Translucent, the former member of The Seven killed by Butcher and Hughie when they stuck a bomb up his butt. However, this does suggest Maverick could have similar if not identical abilities to his father; this includes carbon skin, effectively making him indestructible (from the outside) and superhuman strength and durability.

Polarity powers

Polarity is Vought’s version of Magneto, capable of manipulating and weaponizing metal.

He’s also Andre’s dad, so it’s believed they have the exact same powers – however, Polarity is battle-tested and far more experienced, and Andre may not have discovered the full extent of his abilities yet.

Gen V Episodes 1-7 are on Prime Video now, which you can sign up for here. You can check out our other coverage below:

Gen V review | Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | When does Gen V take place in The Boys timeline? | Gen V cast and characters | The Boys cameos | Gen V runtimes explained | Tek Knight powers explained | What is the Virus? | Jordan Li powers explained | Why does Soldier Boy return? | Every supe’s powers explained

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