What Exactly Is Black Noir’s Deal On The Boys?

You know the Seven, you love the Seven, but do you know everything about the Seven? The answer is no, as The Boys' Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) is still shrouded in a cloak of mystery, in more ways than one. We never see his face, we never hear him talk, yet Black Noir is one of the deadliest members of the superhero team put together by Vought International. It’s rare — in The Boys' world, anyway — for a super to remain so secret but somehow Black Noir has managed to do just that.

Black Noir has been a member of the Seven as long as we, the viewers, have known the Seven. While he was introduced in season 1, in season 2 of Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys he takes a more prominent role as an established member of the group and to say he embraces being the strong, silent type would be an understatement. Most of his scenes find him sneaking around all over the world, often striking down his enemies before they even know he's there. He is dressed head to toe in a black suit, including a mask completely obstructing his face. So who is he, how does he factor into everything, and even more importantly, what is he? If you’ve got Black Noir questions we’ve got (some, but not all) answers. 

We’ve slowly come to learn the stories behind all of the members of the Seven and how they came to be in the Seven — except for Black Noir. Considering he’s never spoken he’s yet to offer up any sort of backstory so we don’t know where he’s from, how he came to first receive Compound V, or how he even joined the Seven in the first place. It’s at one point mentioned that he trained with a sensei in martial arts but... that’s about the beginning and end of concrete information we have about Black Noir. 

The beginning of The Boys season 2 reminds us of just how deadly Black Noir is when he kills the super-powered terrorist that Homelander (Antony Starr) created in season 1. He has extreme super strength, heightened agility, along with super hearing and, of course, stealth. Members of The Boys, notably Frenchie, are actually pretty frightened of him, and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) fought him once — in the end, Black Noir won. He used his knife-throwing skills and precision to stop Kimiko, but just barely. Also, just a fun fact: he plays the piano! 

Black Noir’s got to have a weakness... somewhere. That's how superheroes work. We just haven’t seen it yet. Everyone in the Seven has some sort of kryptonite (like Homelander’s is breast milk…) so it’s somewhere under that all-black suit. 

Don’t forget, we’ve also seen him cry, so even under that tough exterior he’s got feelings. When it’s revealed at the start of season 2 that the supes weren’t born with their powers, but rather received them via Compound V, Black Noir breakdowns and cries in a Vought International hallway. 

The Black Noir we see on The Boys series lines up with the Black Noir in the comics, but the latter has a different backstory. In the comics, Black Noir is actually a more dangerous clone of Homelander, created to stop Homelander should he ever get too big and powerful. But one thing that does track is that just like in the TV series, no one knows his backstory or what his deal is.

He's just stationed with the Seven just in case he needs to be the one to defeat Homelander in the end.