A-Train is a member of the Seven and one of the many morally corrupt Supes in ‘The Boys’ universe but his run may have finally come to an end.
A-Train was the first introduction to the destructive nature of the Supes in ‘The Boys’ after he runs straight through Hughie’s girlfriend, an incident that inspired Hughie to eventually join the Boys.
Switching the character to an African American gave him an extra dimension and heavily affected his development. Let’s take a look at A-Train’s fate in The Boys season 3 and how it compares to his fate in the comics.
Honouring his community
Years of Compound V abuse have led to A-Train being unable to run fast anymore at the serious risk of his heart exploding. He attempts a major rebrand of his character to show that he’s more “in touch with his roots” so that he can remain popular, and a member of The Seven.
When his older brother Nathan, calls him out for this shameful attempt at pandering, he wonders out loud how he can help the community. That’s when a superhero named Blue Hawk is brought to his attention.
Blue Hawk has been over-policing African American neighbourhoods and Nathan asks A-Train to shine a light on this issue in front of Vought or The Seven. Keeping in line with a recurring theme of this season, Blue Hawk is a satirical representation of the aggressive and often discriminatory methods enforced by Law Enforcement in the USA.
When A-Train tries to bring up the matter at the following meeting with The Seven he is disregarded, with the Deep pointing out that punishing Blue Hawk would affect Homelander’s popularity amongst his loyal base.
Reigning in Blue Hawk
Ashley holds a meeting between A-Train and Blue Hawk where A-Train tells Blue Hawk that he’s being excessive while Blue Hawk insists there’s nothing wrong with his methods. A-Train suggests a public apology for his actions to which Blue Hawk agrees.
A-Train brings Blue Hawk to a local community centre to apologize but Blue Hawk’s apology is clearly insincere and half-hearted which angers the people there. They begin chastising him and Blue Hawk reacts aggressively, throwing people around before A-Train stops him.
Nathan ends up being one of the victims of this melee and the doctors tell A-Train that his brother will never walk again. A-Train tells Ashley that Blue Hawk must be punished but she hits back at him saying that Homelander wants The Seven to present a united front so A-Train can’t just get what he wants.
A-Train goes to the TNT twins’ house during Herogasm to see Blue Hawk but he bumps into Hughie who was hopped up on Temp V at the time. When Hughie brings up the fact that A-train never apologised for killing his girlfriend, A-Train offers up a real apology, telling him that he’s now been on the other end and knows what Hughie felt like to see a loved one get hurt.
Hughie is taken aback but still ends up landing a punch on A-Train before Starlight gets in between the two of them and shepherds Hughie away.
A new lease of life
After Soldier Boy destroys the house leaving behind a bunch of rubble, A-Train finally confronts Blue Hawk and tells him that he will pay for what he’s done. A-Train grabs him and runs as fast as he can, dragging Blue Hawk across the asphalt and killing him. Using his powers at that capacity once again turns out to be the final straw as he gets a massive heart attack and dies right there next to Blue Hawk.
However, A-Train wakes up and finds himself in a hospital with Ashley waiting for him. She spins a story about how Soldier Boy attacked both him and Blue Hawk and how A-Train tried to save his fellow hero but was unsuccessful.
She then informs him that he got lucky because the doctors gave him Blue Hawk’s heart. A super-powered heart means that he’ll be able to run like before and his career is back on the rise with many projects in the pipeline.
In the comics
A-Train is just as insecure and insufferable in the comics, but he’s also more of a sexual deviant who constantly harasses Starlight at every opportunity.
He recently joined The Seven from Teenage Kix and hasn’t shed his juvenile habits just yet, constantly displaying immaturity that does not gain him any respect among his peers.
A-Train decides to lay low when Homelander carries out his takeover but is eventually captured by Butcher. He is killed by Hughie who finally gets revenge on the Supe that killed his girlfriend.
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