Victoria Neuman is the secondary antagonist of the Amazon series The Boys. Serving as the final antagonist of Season 2, the secondary antagonist of Season 3, and one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Homelander) of the spin-off series Gen V. She will be a major antagonist in the upcoming Season 4.
She is a congresswoman of the United States, as well as an anti-Supe activist and founding director of the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs. However, it was recently revealed that Victoria Neuman is not only a Supe herself, but she is none other than the infamous "Head-Popper" who murdered Susan Raynor, Jonah Vogelbaum, Alastair Adana, and several other members of Congress. Victoria was adopted by Stan Edgar from the Red River orphanage after Victoria (known then as Nadia) presumably killed her birth parents either accidentally or intentionally.
As the Director of the FBSA, Congresswoman Neuman helps make the world a safer place. By compromising with Vought, she’s been able to root out the bad apples amongst the supes, which has meant more people alive and at home with their families at the end of every day. Now, with her soaring political ambitions — and popularity — there’s no limit to what she can achieve.
Victoria was originally born under the name Nadia Khayat, she grew up with Tony, an orphan she met in Red River, a place used by families who refuse to raise a Supe or kids that lost their family. In Nadia's case, when she was a child, she accidentally killed her parents with her powers being unable to control them. Right after this incident, she was taken to Red River to learn how to control her powers, but always ended up murdering her adoptive families. Eventually, at the age of 12, Stan Edgar adopted her, gave her a new identity and erased all evidence regarding her victims, and made a promise to always look out her. With passage of time, Victoria started a career as a congresswoman with a remarkable profile. Eventually at some point in her life, Victoria had sex with an unnamed man and got pregnant with her daughter Zoe.
In her public persona, Neuman is a young "wunderkind" congresswoman who fights against Vought's corporate agenda and its corrupt superheroes. After the expose of Compound V, she started a rally and pushed the U.S. House Judiciary Committee into starting a hearing about the company and Compound V.
Victoria keeps up with Grace Mallory and certain insiders to get the information and access she needs to take Vought down. She has a big public presence, often leading protests and speaking on the news about the corruption at Vought.
At some point, Victoria meets with Grace who brings her Lamplighter to speak as a witness before Congress about what really happens behind closed doors at Vought. She wants to "bring down the king" and insists that they get more information to accuse Vought. She wants to find more proof about what goes on at the Sage Grove Center.
After Lamplighter kills himself, Butcher convinces Jonah Vogelbaum to speak before Congress, which really pleases Victoria. However, just before his testimony, Vogelbaum's head explodes after the judge's; along with several other people in the audience. Victoria gets splashed with blood and looks on in horror as Grace drags her away with numerous people dying around them.
It is later revealed that she is a Supe and is the one responsible for the attack at the congressional hearing. Stormfront was later used as a scapegoat for her crimes after her Nazi ties were exposed and her defeat at the hands of The Boys and their allies. She blows up Alastair Adana, the Church of the Collective leader's head. It is unknown at this point if she is acting in the interest of Vought as a form of controlled opposition or if she actually has an agenda of her own. At her campaign headquarters, Hughie asks to join her team. She accepts his offer and asks him when he can start.
Victoria works closely with Hughie Campbell at the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, where their job is to regulate Supe activity. They try to keep Supes, like Termite, in check- and put some in jail if need be. Victoria is a very public figure and her work at the FBSA seems welcomed by Stan Edgar and the general public. However, in Season 3, her status as a Supe and past with Stan Edgar is revealed to Hughie who starts to doubt her intentions. Victoria continues to pretend that she is not a Super and has no ties with Stan Edgar as she continues her political agenda.
Victoria approaches Annie about teaming up together, claiming that they could share influence to help each other. Annie turns her down because she's done with playing dirty.
At a pep rally, Victoria confronts Homelander. She tells him to take control of the situation with Soldier Boy. He grabs her by the neck, but she tells him she wants a strictly transactional relationship with him- for them to help each other. She provides him with Ryan's current location and he lets her go.
Homelander later repays Victoria's favor by having The Deep murder Lamar Bishop, who was supposed to join Robert Singer's presidential campaign as his running mate. This opens up the path for Singer to pick Victoria as his running mate, further advancing her political career. This would also put her in Billy Butcher's crosshairs.
Gen V[]
Neuman sponsors Marie Moreau. She gives her a boost making sure she gets into Godolkin university. A few days later she goes to Godolkin university for an interview. She doesn't get some of the crowd's support and they get too violent against her and she leaves, on her way out she officially meets Marie. They go to a private area and talk. Marie finds out through Neuman's blood that she is a Supe. Marie tells her about the lab under the school, Dr. Cardosa and the virus that could kill Supes. Neuman tells Marie that she'll take care of it and says they should keep in touch. Later we see Neuman meet with Dr. Cardosa. He tells her that the virus isn't very contagious. Neuman says that speaking out against Vought takes a lot of courage. Dr. Cardosa says he was so relieved when she contacted him about his work and that he couldn't stand by while dean Shetty twisted his work. He asked her making sure they had the same goals, reciting his phrase "compassionate control". She said that that was a such a great phrase and if he mind that she steal it. He accepted that and asked that she get him and his family in witness protection. She gave him a card and he gave her the virus. She asked if what he gave her was all of it and he confirmed that it was. She also asked if he was the only one who could make it. He confirmed that he was and she walked to her car. Before leaving she said that he was a 21st century American hero she then killed him by popping his head with her powers and flicked off a piece of blood that got on her hand and drove away.
Personality[]
Initially appearing to be strong-willed, thoughtful and sincere with a deep distrust and dislike of Vought, Victoria is later revealed to be a ruthless, calculating, methodical, manipulative, and brutally pragmatic woman, whilst possessing some level of sadism. Raised and taught by her adoptive father, Stan Edgar, Victoria had acquired the mindset, skills, and discretion that would be instrumental to pursuing a career in politics and carry out her ambitions, eventually culminating in her becoming a US Congresswoman and later a Vice Presidential candidate. From her career as a politician, Neuman discretely worked in favor of both Edgar's interests and her own.
However, Victoria had at times shown a gentler and kinder side, but this was greatly offset by her dark nature. Though she cared deeply about Edgar, Victoria was not above publicly exposing his crimes in order to preserve herself politically. However, this was largely due to Homelander forcing her into a position to reveal them and to protect her daughter from harm, and Edgar himself states that he taught Victoria to be able to resort to such means. It is shown she truly loves her daughter Zoe, this is shown more closely when she injected her daughter with Compound V to greater ensure her safety and she stayed by her and teared up during the transformation process. She was not above killing Tony, her childhood best friend who shared in the traumatic experiences both had faced at the Red River Institute, in order to keep any information about her past from surfacing. Admittedly. this act was out of reluctance, as Victoria did wish didn't Tony seek her out and attempted to kill him quickly. However, Tony's familiarity with Victoria's powers led him to realize this and attempt to fight back, resulting in him being brutally maimed in the process.
Powers[]
Blood Manipulation:
Victoria exploding Jonah Vogelbaum's head
Victoria's white eyes after using her power
Victoria has the ability to control the blood of anyone.[1] Whilst she seems to favorably focus this ability on exploding the heads of her victims, killing several people at once in the courtroom, including a supe, she has also demonstrated the capability of targeting a single extremity or the entire body, Neuman's eyes quickly turn white when she uses her powers to explode someone. Victoria Neuman is able to cause a nosebleed in Starlight without actually causing her head to explode. Later, Victoria showcased a more direct form of blood manipulation by cutting her palm and making her blood levitate from the wound, the same method typically used by Marie Moreau.
Blood Sense: Like Marie Moreau, Victoria has implied to also share the ability to psychically sense and “read” blood. As shown where she managed to coach Marie on how to sense and identify the components of her blood, allowing her to identify that there was Compound V in it.
Regenerative Healing Factor: Victoria possesses a limited but rapid regenerative healing ability. Victoria was able to quickly heal from a self-inflicted cut on her hand to show off her powers.
Superhuman Strength: Victoria has demonstrated superhuman strength that was sufficient to match that of her childhood friend, Tony. However, she ultimately had to rely on her blood powers to defeat him.
Superhuman Durability:
Victoria withstanding a punch that sent her flying
Victoria can endure strong impacts without getting visibly hurt. One example of her incredible resilience was when she withstood a powerful punch that propelled her about twelve feet away, ultimately causing a forceful impact with a metal dumpster. Nevertheless, she came out unharmed.
Superhuman Hearing: Like all Supes, Victoria has better hearing beyond that of humans. She is able to hear certain frequencies that humans cannot.[2]
Weaknesses[]
Biological[]
Invincibility of target (Tentative): Victoria claims that Stan Edgar adopted her because he believed that she could protect him, which implies that Mr. Edgar believed Victoria was powerful enough to be used as a weapon against even a Supe as powerful as Homelander. However, given Victoria's intense fear of Homelander, she does not appear to share the same faith in her abilities as Stan, and that there could possibly be a limit to the extent to which she can manipulate blood. Further evidence is shown in that neither Homelander, Queen Maeve or Stormfront appeared to be scared when they witnessed her abilities, something that could also be attributed to arrogance, especially in Homelander's case. Hughie also suggested that Soldier Boy could potentially defeat her.
Direct Line of Sight: It appears that Victoria must have a direct line of sight to her victims in order to hit her target, even if the target is viewable through a closed window. When Tony covered her eyes, she was apparently unable to use her power until she was able to see his hand and later his face and body.
High Frequencies: Due to being a Supe, Victoria is able to hear certain frequencies that humans cannot. When a specific frequency is played, it can induce immense pain and temporarily neutralize her.
The character has been compared to the U.S. Representative politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The actress has stated that she drew some of Neuman's mannerisms from her, with the way she holds herself in a room and how she communicates something.[3]
The campaign posters in Neuman's office identify her as the representative from New York's 6th congressional district which is located in Queens, NY.
While in the Congressional Hearing, she was able to make people's heads explode without her eyes turning white. This could be a continuity error, or, knowing that she would be on live TV, she could have prepared by wearing coloured contact lenses to avoid revealing her powers.
Also at the Congressional Hearing, several people's heads exploded after she was ushered out of the room. This suggests that she can possibly implement some kind of delay between using her powers on a person and her powers taking full effect.
Her ability to explode the head of any human being greatly resembles a similar head popper scene found in David Cronenberg's 1981 sci-fi horror classic Scanners, which (much like the plot of The Boys itself) concerns an entire subsection of the population given superpowers (albeit just telepathic) due to being injected with a biochemical drug as children as part of a corporate conspiracy.
Victoria has noted that her and Marie’s power to manipulate and control blood is very rare, and prior to discovering Marie, Victoria had thought she was the only Supe with this power.
