The Boys Most Disgusting Supe Was Much Better In The Comics
When it comes to The Boys, most people agree that the show is an improvement over the comic. However, The Boys‘ character, Love Sausage, is one of the few things the Amazon series actually made worse. While a supe with a stretchy, prehensile, uh, “love sausage” is great for shock value, the original version of the character serves a greater purpose than a vomit-inducing sight gag.
The Sausage Isn’t A Part Of His Powers
The version of Love Sausage in The Boys comic book is still well-endowed, but there, it’s just a happy accident that came along with his actual powers. Comic book Sausage has the usual super strength, speed, and durability that compound V gives most people.
He may have named himself after his foot-long manhood, but it didn’t play any part in his superhero career—well, except as an occasional weak spot.
Garth Ennis goes to great pains to ensure that readers of The Boys know that Love Sausage is incapacitated if aroused while wearing his tight-fitting outfit.
Amazon’s Version
Meanwhile, as described above, the version from the Amazon series can go all Plastic Man on people with his junk. Surprisingly, the power change isn’t the biggest difference between the Love Sausage from The Boys (2006) and the one from The Boys (2019). Believe it or not, Love Sausage is a good guy in the comic book.
First introduced in The Boys #11, October 2007, Love Sausage is one of the few supes that Butcher actually trusts.
In fact, throughout the whole series, Love Sausage remains one of the few good supes, period. Love Sausage is a member of the team Glorious Five Year Plan, an attempt by the USSR to create their own version of The Seven.
A True Hero
Unlike the TV version, which is essentially a two-bit thug, the comic book Love Sausage genuinely wants to help people. Think of Starlight but with a giant beard and an enormous trouser snake. On second thought, don’t think of that.
Comic book Love Sausage was a former police officer named Vasillii Vorishikin but The Boys call him Vas. He has a particularly close relationship with Hughie.
This is shown several times throughout the series, including during their first meeting when Hughie is the only one who will drink Vas’s homemade “Vodka.”
Love Sausage’s Fall
As Hughie later finds out that’s because Love Sausage makes his “Vodka,” with brake fluid. Ironically that lethal concoction actually saves Hughie’s life later. When the rest of the Boys are fed poison borscht, it’s Love Sausage’s moonshine that keeps Hughie from being affected.
Sadly, it’s his relationship with the Boys that ultimately leads to Love Sausage’s demise. Late in the series, Butcher decides to kill every single supe in existence—including the good ones.
It takes a modified RPG—Rocket Propelled Grenade—to bring Vas down but eventually Butcher succeeds in taking his friend out.
A Version We’ll Never See On Screen
Meanwhile, in TV land, we saw in The Boys Season 4 finale that Love Sausage is one of the incarcerated supes freed and deputized by Homelander.
This could mean the character will have a bigger role in the series’ fifth and last season, but hopefully not. His power in the show is just so… nasty.
Sadly, we’ll never get a comic book-accurate Love Sausage on The Boys. However, there’s always a chance we’ll see Vas on screen in all his heroic glory someday. After all, superhero properties always get rebooted. It’s just a matter of time.
