- For the Dynamite version of the character, see Black Noir/Comics.
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―Black Noir to anyone.
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Black Noir is one of the main characters in the Amazon series The Boys. He is a darkly-costumed superhero, pilot, and a member of The Seven.
Silent, stealthy, and enigmatic, Black Noir is The Seven’s superpowered ninja. His super strength and heightened senses are matched only by his proficiency in the martial arts. Criminals run in terror at the mere mention of his name. Little is known about this lethal warrior, other than having trained with a master sensei to become the death dealer he is at present. Whatever lies behind Black Noir’s mask is a complete mystery – which only makes him more terrifying.
Curiously, despite his brutality, Noir has a great deal of solicitude for innocent lives and has displayed profound sensitivity.
The Boys Series
Career as The Seven member
Black Noir is perhaps the most feared member of The Seven, often dispatched for his lethal combat skills, ruthlessness, near-indestructability and extraordinary strength. Black Noir is one of the few that has faced Kimiko and was able to incapacitate her. His reputation is such that the mere mention of his name is able to strike fear into the hearts of the public. He has, for instance, put Frenchie and Cherie into a panic after they noticed him outside of their flat.
Season 1
While searching for Kimiko, Frenchie spots Noir on the rooftops. Correctly deducing that Noir is searching for him, Frenchie attempts to hide, but Noir quickly finds him. Before Noir can attack, however, he is blindsided by Kimiko, who knocks him into a dumpster, giving Frenchie the opportunity to escape. The battle between Noir and Kimiko is swift and brutal, but Noir quickly gains the upper hand. He then slashes her across her chest, then leaves her for dead. Kimiko, however, recovers within seconds due to her phenomenal regeneration factor.
Season 2
Near the beginning of the series, Noir is sent to assassinate the Super terrorist, Naqib. He sneaks into Naqib's hideout, brutally slaughtering several people in his path, including one by ripping his head from his jaw.
Using his explosive power, Naqib attempts to kill Noir, but Noir easily survives and beheads Naqib. Still carrying Naqib's head, Noir encounters Naqib's son as he leaves. Noir picks up the son's teddy bear and briefly plays with it to entertain the son, then places the bear back onto the bed and leaves.
Noir is then seen to be with the rest of the Seven as they encounter The Deep, who attempted and failed to stop The Boys, mortally wounding a sperm whale in the process. Seeing the dead whale (whom The Deep had named Lucy), Noir places a hand to his heart in an expression of sympathy.
Noir is later seen in the Vought tower, sitting near a wall and crying in the middle of the hallway while holding his phone, watching the news story on Vought and their 'Lab Made Heroes' realizing he was lied to his whole life.
A Butcher to Slaughter
Black Noir tracking Butcher
In Nothing Like It in the World, Black Noir approaches Anika and wants her to track down Billy Butcher, initially hesitant, Anika is eventually coerced from Black Noir's silent intimidating presence. By the end of the episode, Anika runs a facial scanner and finds surveillance footage of Billy Butcher climbing the wall to Becca's homes, Black Noir uses this to hunt down Butcher. With the information he obtained, Black Noir stalks Butcher and tracks him down to his aunt Judy's in We Gotta Go Now. M.M is able to stall Black Noir by calling in a fake gas leak in the area, buying them time to prepare. After their distraction is over, Black Noir enters the house and repeatedly triggers the makeshift bombs created by the group, however the bombs don't faze him. Black Noir then gases the group out of their safe room. The group attempts to flee, then Butcher decides to stay behind after realizing that Black Noir is only after him. Butcher confronts Black Noir, but Noir easily beats him, until M.M and Hughie return to help Butcher, although Noir easily beats them too. Butcher then blackmails Noir, that he will expose the truth about Becca Butcher and Ryan Butcher. Black Noir ignores the threat and chokes Butcher against the wall, but then Noir's phone rings. Noir answers it and hands it to Butcher, Stan Edgar speaks to Butcher and makes him an offer: Butcher doesn't expose the truth about Becca and in return, Edgar will call off Noir. Butcher takes the deal and Noir drops him and walks away.
Dark and Light
When Vought tricks Donna January into luring Starlight out, Black Noir is sent to capture them both. Everyone at the cafe is knocked out with gas, while Noir enters and knocks out Starlight with brute force. Black Noir appears one more time, where he attacks Starlight while she's attempting to escape. Noir apprehends Starlight and begins choking her, however before she blacks out, Queen Maeve intervenes and pulls Noir off of her. Maeve then lifts up Noir's mask and force feeds him an Almond Joy. Noir struggles and reaches for an EpiPen on his person but Maeve throws it aside to buy themselves long enough to escape. Maeve and Starlight run off leaving Noir crawling for his pen.
It was confirmed by Stormfront in What I Know that Noir is still alive, albeit in a vegetative state.
Powers and abilities
| “ | That ninja cunt's here for me, isn't he?"
"Yeah, but you can't go out there--he'll kill you. |
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- Regenerative Healing Factor: Noir’s body is capable of healing injuries and wounds at a much faster rate then normal humans can. From multiple explosions, fire and heat, point-blank gunshot wounds, getting pelted with shrapnel, whatever the injury, it seems to heal within hours or at maximum, days.
- Superhuman Strength: Black Noir possesses significant superhuman strength. He was able to trade blows with and significantly harm Kimiko in their confrontation (and even disembowel her), whereas A-Train failed to do so, even when he rapidly slammed her head against concrete many times. During his mission to assassinate Naqib, he ripped a man's head open by prying his jaws apart. He later knocked Butcher back several feet with a single swipe, and held him up against a wall with one hand. His strength allowed him to completely overpower Starlight, throwing her around like a rag doll and smashing her through concrete.
- Superhuman Durability: Black Noir is more resilient than normal humans, which notably allowed him to withstand the superhuman strength of Kimiko without issue, whereas she was able to significantly damage A-Train and even give him a compound fracture. His sturdiness also allowed him to survive Naqib's self-detonated explosion at point-blank range, without even being moved and only suffer burn marks to half his face and chest. He later survived several explosions in Judy's home. That being said, Noir is not invincible, as Hughie was able to shoot through the palm of his hand with a pistol at point blank.
- Superhuman Speed: According to Mother's Milk, Black Noir can outrun a car. He was able to quickly slit a woman's throat and catch a glass she was holding before she dropped it.
- Superhuman Agility: Black Noir has also displayed impressive, borderline superhuman acrobatic skills, as displayed when he confronted Frenchie and Kimiko. He climbed in top of a roof without any effort
- Superhuman reflexes/heightened senses: Noir was able to catch a glass before it hit the ground just after he sliced a women’s throat with his dagger, all at great speed
- Superhuman Hearing: Black Noir possesses highly acute, superhuman hearing that aids him in his fight against crime. He tracked Butcher from Becca's house, and detected the Boys in a hidden room when Terror barked, giving away their position.
- Pain Suppression: Black Noir is either completely immune to pain, or has developed a great tolerance for it, as he doesn't react when Naqib uses his self detonation, leaving him with severe burns on his head and chest, or when Hughie shoots through his hand at point blank.
- Martial Arts: Black Noir is an expert hand-to-hand combatant, highly trained in various forms of martial arts. According to his bio, he is a ninja and a lethal warrior who is proficient in martial arts, having been trained by a sensei to make him a dealer of death. He defeated Kimiko during their confrontation, placing his power-level well above thugs and trained policemen. During his mission to assassinate Naqib, he stealthily eliminated several terrorists. He later held his own against the majority of the Boys and easily beat Starlight in a fight, and would have knocked her out if Queen Maeve had not intervened.
- Dagger Proficiency: Black Noir has great skill in throwing daggers and using them in close combat. This allowed him to harm Kimiko. During his mission to assassinate Naqib, he took down numerous guards by slicing their throats and impaling them. He also decapitated Naqib and stopped Mother's Milk with a single throw of a blade.
- Intimidation: According to his bio, criminals run in terror at the mere mention of Black Noir's name. Little is known about him; and whatever lies behind his mask is a complete mystery – which only makes him more terrifying.
- Stealth: Noir is usually used as a spy. He killed Naquib’s men without making any sound.
- Pilot Skills: Black Noir is an experienced pilot.
- Music Skills: Black Noir is a highly-skilled, if not concert-level pianist. He is able to play Chopin's Minute Waltz from memory.
Weaknesses
- Extreme Brute Force: Supes of extreme levels of strength can harm and kill him; however few are at this level. Queen Maeve has demonstrated that she can subdue him even force-feed him something without too much difficulty.
- Tree Nuts: Black Noir has an allergy to tree nuts. Queen Maeve uses this to her advantage by force feeding him an Almond Joy, giving her and Starlight an opportunity to escape. When fed something with tree nuts, he immediately goes into anaphylactic shock and requires a epipen shot to stabilize himself. If not administered on time, Black Noir could suffer severe brain damage. As seen where after he was fed an Almond Joy and prevented from using his epipen, Black Noir suffered severe brain damage and was reduced to a vegetative state.
- Durability Limitation: Even with his healing factor, Black Noir can still feel pain from damage taken, although he has a notably high pain tolerance.
Personality
Of all The Seven members, Black Noir is the most loyal one to Vought. He always does the tasks and orders given by Vought. Black Noir appears to be the silent loner type and is somewhat socially withdrawn from other members of the Seven. He never speaks but is apparently very in touch with his emotions as he was shown to be very distraught with the revelation that he and all the other supes weren't born with their powers causing him to sob through his mask. Despite being completely ruthless towards his opponents, he appears to have a soft spot for innocent life. Upon eliminating Naqib, on his way out, Noir finds a little boy in his pajamas and grabs a nearby stuffed animal and plays with it to entertain the boy. His compassion also extends to animals and was genuinely distressed to see a whale beached and killed at the hands of Billy Butcher.
Black Noir is apparently mute, but this may not be the case. In the first episode, during a meeting of The Seven, Homelander calls for the various members to share who they saved this week, asking Black Noir to begin. Although Black Noir's testimony (whatever it may have been) was not seen in the episode, it would suggest that Black Noir can speak when called upon to do so. Although it is also possible that he uses some other form of communication that the remaining members of The Seven can readily understand.
Relationships
Allies
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Enemies
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Trivia
- Black Noir seems to be a composite parody character based on some separate comic book Heroes:
- Noir parodies The Batman's dark color scheme, martial arts mastery, stealth, intimidation and dependence on gadgets.
- His mastery over throwing knifes it’s similar of how The Cape Crusader uses batarangs, little bat shaped like shurikens
- Noir's silence and appearance mostly parodies Snake Eyes of the G.I. Joe comics and movie/television series. This could be a play on his merchandising, as G.I. Joe originally began as a toyline.
- Black Noir's tree nut allergy was inspired by his actor, Nathan Mitchell, who has a real life tree nut allergy.
- A portion of Noir's lower face are severely burned, as it was revealed during his confrontation with Starlight and Queen Maeve in Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker. This was most likely caused by Naqib when he used his self-detonation power against Noir.
- In Nothing Like It in the World, Homelander claimed that Black Noir does not identify with any race. Whenever this is true or not is unknown, as Noir is rarely shown communicating.
Gallery
Promotional
Screencaps
Videos
References
| TV series The Seven members |
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| Current Homelander • A-Train • The Deep • Black Noir II • Sister Sage • Firecracker Former Mister Marathon • Translucent † • Lamplighter † • Stormfront † • Supersonic † • Starlight • Black Noir † • Queen Maeve Associates Madelyn Stillwell † • Ashley Barrett |