The Female of the Species is a later member of The Boys. She is selectively mute, however, and acts as the muscle of the group along with the Frenchman.
History[]
The girl who would later be known as the Female of the Species was born in Japan, where her mother worked for a company in Tokyo that was considered the Japanese equivalent of Vought-American. Being too cheap to hire a babysitter, her mother kept her under her desk at work.
One day, the baby Female crawled into a laboratory and fell into a pot of Compound V waste, giving her superhuman strength and an urge to kill. After killing the scientist that discovered her, she was captured and kept in a cage, while her blood was frequently extracted in order to study the effects of Compound V on humans.
After several failed escape attempts, she was rescued by Billy Butcher and the Boys, and subsequently recruited. Her desire to kill had not gone away, however, so when she is not satisfied with her kills with the Boys, she works for the local Mafia.
She has a penchant for violently disemboweling her victims, a tendency that might be triggered by mere physical contact, possibly stemming from past trauma. Even Love Sausage, a formidable Soviet super, lost two fingers after an inadvertent touch. This violent impulse doesn't seem to affect the Frenchman. Her gruesome penchant extends to tearing off people's faces, as portrayed in various instances. The Frenchman suggests that she commits these acts because she cannot resist doing so.
Stormfront beats her into a coma, but not before she gouges out one of his eyes. She recovers later, much to Hughie's chagrin, as she broke his arm when he reached for a bag of chocolate limes beside her bed. Despite her violent tendencies, she displays a soft spot for animals, particularly Jamie the hamster, whom she rescues and cares for during Hughie's absence.
The death of Terror, a dog with whom she shares a strong bond, deeply affects her, leading her to mourn beside his lifeless body. Despite her seemingly brutal nature, there are moments of humanity. She smiles while savoring her favorite candy, restrains her murderous urges around the Frenchman, and utters her first words expressing amusement at Hughie's actions.
During a meeting about stopping Butcher, Hughie advocates for including the Female, emphasizing her potential positive development. The Frenchman disagrees, fearing it might hinder her progress. Mother's Milk supports giving her a chance to walk away, and Hughie agrees. As they exit, she surprises everyone by stating, "I hate mean people," her only complete sentence to date. She then joins the team, with Hughie declaring it's all four of them against Butcher.
The Female and the Frenchman meet their demise when Butcher bombs The Boys' headquarters, the Flatiron Building.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Superhuman Strength: The Female is incredibly strong and incredibly brutal, even among her team of super strong brutal powerhouses and even in a world filled with super powerful beings. She has a tendency to rip apart her enemies. Even extending as far as to skin and or rip off body parts such as the face of foes. The Female possesses the level of strength that she can easy crush machine guns with her bare hands, as well as rip the ends of shotguns off with her teeth. The Female's prowess is evident in encounters such as when Butcher brought her along to keep Tek Knight in check. The armored member of Payback has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in his technologically advanced power suit, yet it took the Female mere moments to tear apart his suit and leave him incapacitated.
- Superhuman Agility: The Female has demonstrated extraordinary levels of speed and agility, even as a young girl, being able to evade and wound several armed and trained gunmen.
- Superhuman Durability: She is durable enough to take hits from powerful supes like Stormfront. Although she was severely wounded when fighting him, the fact that the Female was able to contend with him briefly single handily speaks highly of her durability.
- Superhuman Reflexes: The Female possesses particularly keen senses, able to catch snowballs thrown at her by the Frenchman with her fingers without viewing where the projectile was coming from.