Amazon's The Boys stretches the limits of VFX in diabolical Season 1 sizzle reel: Watch

Much like Watchmen on HBO, Amazon's adaptation of The Boys is a major subversion of the superhero genre.

Even so, no comic book project, however avant-garde, is complete without a few VFX shots here and there. When it comes to The Boys, computer-generated images are often utilized to underscore just how dangerous metahumans would be if they actually existed. Laser vision and super-speed are used not to save the day, but to royally trash people's lives.

In this exclusive sizzle reel (courtesy of Pixomondo), you can see how the graphic and violent show achieved some of its outlandish visual effects, like the stretchiness of Ezekiel (Shaun Benson), the hypocritical religious crusader; and the grisly death of Vought's Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) at the hands — or eyes, we should say — of Homelander (Antony Starr).

Both Ezekiel and Madelyn were both instrumental in the overarching plot of Season 1. Threatened with blackmail by Hughie (Jack Quaid), Ezekiel spilled on how Compound V was being delivered to hospitals under the guise of vaccines. This allowed The Boys to discover that heroes are not naturally born, but man-made with chemicals. 

Madelyn, on the other hand, was a powerful Vought executive who had an intimate relationship with Homelander that could not withstand a revenge-fueled hostage plot by Billy Butcher (Karl Urban). Hopefully, her baby, Teddy, was spared from the ensuing explosion caused by Butcher's detonated grenades.

Based on the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys follows a group of regular humans who exact revenge on superheroes who step out of line. The Amazon version (produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg) isn't an exact interpretation of the comics, but it still retains the book's unrestrained personality of explicit violence and brutality.

Season 2 of the series is currently in production and is expected to premiere sometime in 2020.