Cigars On “The Boys”
Cigars and comic books have a longstanding familiarity, with characters such as Marvel’s Wolverine and Nick Fury, DC’s Lobo and Dark Horse’s Hellboy often battling foes with a lit cigar clenched in their teeth. Amazon Prime’s “The Boys” has its own coterie of vibrantly-attired heroes—though their morality is far from super. The show turns the genre on its head with most superheroes (known in this world as “supes”) abusing their abilities and causing mayhem. Opposing them is a group informally known as “The Boys,” consisting of (mostly) non-powered vigilantes trying to expose and end the mayhem wrought by supes—particularly the villainous Homelander, and Vought International, the corporation that creates, markets and profits from supe operations.
This year marks the show’s fifth and final season. Despite the longstanding pedigree of cigars in comics, this season marked the first instance of actual cigar smoking on the show. In this season’s third episode, the beleaguered Boys retreat to the bunker of unlikely ally and former Vought CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) to regroup as they search for any remaining vials of V1—a more potent version of the chemical compound that gives the supes their powers—to prevent the evil Homelander from using it to make himself immortal. But the group have been tracked down by Homelander’s henchmen and our protagonists must find a way to fight their way out.
As Edgar and Mother’s Milk (played by real-life cigar lover Laz Alonso) search for weapons in a storage room, one box gives them pause: a massive humidor filled with cigars. “I’ve been looking for those,” Edgar murmurs before taking an appreciative whiff. “Oro Blanco, $500 a stick,” he reverently announces, before offering one of the pricey Davidoffs to MM.
It's a great scene, layered with humorous juxtaposition as elegant billionaire Stan Edgar meticulously cuts and lights his cigar, while MM roughly bites the head off his smoke and spits it into an ashtray—eliciting a look of disgust from the ordinarily poker-faced Edgar. (Note: we at Cigar Aficionado agree with Edgar on this.)
In both fiction and reality, cigars are a great unifier, allowing individuals of different backgrounds to bridge the gap and open a dialogue. These two men have a lot of history—none of it pleasant. But the two speak cordially as they leisurely savor their smokes, with the gravelly-voiced MM noting the irony that his father spent his life fighting to bring down Vought and here he is now smoking a cigar with his father’s nemesis. Edgar replies that not only did he remember the elder Milk, but admired him as Vought had to enlist a team of over 30 round-the-clock Ivy League attorneys to thwart one small-time lawyer from Harlem.
But Edgar’s tone turns sardonic as he tells MM that, despite this, his father was doomed, just as The Boys are as they fight an unbeatable foe and he’s not talking about murderous superheroes, nor even Vought’s endless wealth and resources. Trivialities such as supes with the ability to wipe out populations are dwarfed by “the elegant flow of currency across the globe.” Superheroes are a commodity and can and will inevitably be replaced with some other new product to keep the cash flowing and expand corporate reach.
Though the scene has no soundtrack, the oily-voiced Stan Edgar’s monologue seems to carry an ominous orchestral score within its depths. With growing horror, MM stares, realizing the alliance with Edgar is not only temporary, but that he plans to return as head of Vought. With the spark of camaraderie now ashes, MM replies that if that day ever comes, he’ll take Edgar out himself.
Though the first scene of cigar smoking, this is not quite the first instance of cigars being a part of the show. In Season 1, Episode 7, the characters Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) and Starlight/Annie January (Erin Moriarty) spend an evening sequestered in a hotel room and the pair briefly peruse a copy of the June 2018 Gary Oldman issue.
The penultimate episode of the show’s fifth and final season premiers on Amazon Prime today.
