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"Old Legend" is a supporting character in the Dynamite Entertainment adult comic book series The Boys. He was an elderly Brooklyn comic bookstore owner and the retired editor-in-chief for Victory Comics, Vought-American's comic publishing house for its superheroes. Because of this, he had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the company's corporate machinations as well as the darkest secrets of most of the world's caped crusaders. He was typically an ally to Billy Butcher and his anti-superhero watchdog team The Boys when investigating cases involving corrupt Supes.
Background[]
A former comic book mogul working for the Vought subsidiary Victory Comics, he ran a modest comic bookstore in Brooklyn called Vinnie's Comics and spent most of his time in the basement surrounded by old comic books. Having worked for the company's PR for decades, he had a deep insider's information of Vought's inner working and practically knows nearly everything about almost every Supe in the Boys Universe, from Vought's long history as an arms manufacturer of defective military tech to the latest scandals their Supes find themselves. He released this information parsimoniously and to a small number of favored contacts - initially Greg Mallory, then Butcher and later to Hughie.
The Legend is known to have had fathered at least two children - a non-powered Air Cav sergeant named Stanley who was killed in combat at the Battle of Ia Drang as a result of the Vought M-20 fiasco and another son named Martin Nurse with Seven member Queen Maeve, who inherited his mother's powers and later became the Teenage Kix member Blarney Cock. Martin would later be accidently murdered by Hughie Campbell during a fight between the Boys and Teenage Kix after the Boys exposed their debauched behavior to the press. He would also be later reanimated by Vought-American through their new Compound-V resurrection process, but ended up as a mindless zombie covered in his own feces before later on some waste ground of much the same cause (and a hamster). Other, unacknowledged offspring are possible given a long life of determined - and ongoing - lechery.
For some reason, The Legend is missing both feet, the timing and significance (if any) of their loss is unknown.
As part of his plan to eliminate everyone involved with his superhero genocide conspiracy, Butcher visited The Legend with the intent of killing him. However, before Butcher could lay a finger on him, The Legend suffered a heart attack before falling on a stack of superhero comics. The last thing The Legend sees as he lays dying is the faces of the very Supes his entire career was built on.
Personality[]
Trivia[]
- Unlike the other characters in the comics, a majority of the Legend's key words are highlighted in bold, presumably as a nod to his comic book relations.
- He is a crass and lewd homage to the iconic Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee.
- In omnibus 2 we learn that (according to Darick Robertson), Old Legend is dead because Butcher jumps on him, crushing his spinal column off-camera, hence the throwing of his dentures. Even if the idea that he died of a heart attack according to the community pleased Darick.