One of the least likely persons to kill Billy Butcher at the conclusion of The Boys comic book series was Hughie, who killed his former boss after lying to him about the passing of his own parents. In issue 71 of The Boys, Butcher flashes a sinister grin as Hughie stabs him in the chest. The once-vicious Supe-hunter turned villain had no more reason to live and had conned his erstwhile protΓ©gΓ© into taking his life. The moment of astonishment was a fitting conclusion for Butcher.
Billy Butcher leads the squad named The Boys in the comic book series of the same name as they track down Supes, or The Seven, who are posing as superpowered criminals while the general population still thinks they are heroes. After his wife was attacked and died at the hands of Homelander (later identified as Black Noir), Butcher set out to exact revenge on all Supes in order to make one for his terrible loss. Butcher lost control at the conclusion of The Boys and began killing teammates, which set up a final confrontation with Hughie in which he tricked him into killing him.
As Butcher loses control and suddenly kills Mother’s Milk, Frenchie, and The Female, his mission to eliminate every superpowered person on Earth comes to an end in Garth Ennis, Tony Avina, Russ Braun, Simon Bowland, and Darick Robertson’s The Boys #71. After tumbling off the Empire State Building, Butcher and Hughie are severely hurt in the ensuing altercation. Speaking about his late wife, Butcher advises Hughie not to lose hope for Starlight since he doesn’t know how long he will have left with her. He also divulges information about his history. He informs Hughie that he killed both of his parents in secret, which prompts Hughie to stab the man in the chest and kill him as he gets ready to leave the seriously injured man to be apprehended.
In the end, Butcher decided to kill Hughie to demonstrate how much working with The Boys had altered him in a sort of horrible way. The fact that Butcher lies about killing Hughie’s parents and dies smiling suggests that he knew his job was up and that making the most helpless member of The Boys become the one who killed him would be his final act of defiance. Hughie had one last horrific event he would never forget as Butcher had nothing more to live for. It’s a gruesome farewell for Butcher that demonstrates his influence over Hughie right up until the very end.
In the scene of Butcher’s death, he goes out in style, eliminates The Boys, and is killed by a devious falsehood told by Hughie. From the moment he brought Hughie into his group, the Supe-killer most certainly plotted his own death. At the end of the comic book series, Butcher emerged as the most formidable antagonist, mastering his surroundings to the very end. His decision to take Hughie’s life was a symbolic jab in the stomach of the guy whose life he had altered irrevocably.
