You won’t recognize Firecracker (Valorie Curry) from The Boys comics.
But you might recognize what she represents.
This article contains spoilers forThe Boysseason 4 episodes 1, 2, and 3.
Firecracker represents a similar acknowledgement of how the media environment has changed forThe Boys.
Thats where Firecracker comes in.
Season 4s first three episodes chart Firecrackers quick rise from YouTuber to full on member of The Seven.
Hes an ANTIFA pedo who fucked around and found out.
Thankfully for her, Homelander is always looking for someone to tongue his taint even if he claims otherwise.
If Firecracker seems familiar to you, theres a good reason for that.
It really didnt take a lot of effort to find inspiration, Curry tellsDen of Geek.
A lot of the dialogue is actually lifted from certain people.
Even though Firecracker has some obvious real life analogues, Curry sought to craft the character from within.
When I was building the character, I leaned more into her hurt and her past her backstory.
It would be so easy for her to just disappear into parody.
It was important to ground her so that the commentary and satire could still rise in contrast.
As we find out in episode 3, Firecrackers backstory concerns Annie January a.k.a.
Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and an ugly incident they shared on the young super pageant circuit.
Starlight sabotaged Firecrackers (then known as Sparkler) reputation with a particularly gross rumor.
Starlight was able to move on from that past, while Firecracker wasnt.
Her desire for destruction isnt solely political, its personal.
And that probably sounds pretty familiar to us all too.
The first three episodes of The Boys season 4 are available to stream on Prime Video now.
New episodes premiere Thursdays, culminating with the finale on July 18.
