Soldier Boy

He was the America's first and greatest superhero before Homelander and the former leader of the superhero team Payback. As a young man, Soldier Boy helped good triumph over evil in World War II, widely celebrated as an acclaimed war hero for his efforts. With his superhero team Payback by his side, he was said to have fought for liberty and justice for all until his disappearance during a botched military operation in Nicaragua, with the cover story being that he heroically sacrificed his own life to save America from a nuclear power plant meltdown in 1984. In reality, Soldier Boy was betrayed by his team for his aggressive behavior and mistreatment towards them and, with Vought's approval, was sold out to the Russians, who would later conduct dozens of agonizing experiments on him over the next four decades. Benjamin, also nicknamed “Ben” was born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1919. The official backstory of Soldier Boy by Vought was that he was born poor and learned the values of hard work, tenacity, and bravery while growing up on the streets. In reality, Benjamin was born into a wealthy home under his distant, judgmental and overbearing father, a prominent industrial magnate who owned half the steel mills in the state. Despite his personal wealth, Ben’s father was verbally abusive and neglectful, but never physically hitting him because he viewed him as such a massive failure that he did not consider him worth the effort, and Ben recalls that he used to sneak sips of his father's cocktails to try and cope with his father's mistreatment. His father shipped him off to boarding school at a young age; not to mold him into a better person, but rather to get rid of him, leaving Ben feeling abandoned. Unfortunately, Benjamin struggled in boarding school and ultimately flunked out, causing his father to deem him a disappointment and declare him unworthy to carry his name. His older brother was a decorated army veteran whose courage and bravery from the service including a Silver Star he earned at the Battle of Anzio and made Ben greatly jealous of his war hero status and their father's respect and admiration. To make his father proud, Benjamin enlisted in the US Army in 1944 during World War II and approached the War Department by using his father's contacts to volunteer among other human subjects to be experimented with Frederick Vought's field tested Compound V, specifically, V-One - Vought's first super serum. Ben was terrified of the experiment, needing to be strapped to the table for the injection and wetting himself during the procedure. The experiment succeeded, and he became one of the first and strongest supes in the world. He gained the moniker “Soldier Boy” and became America’s first superhero, a popular sex symbol and an iconic mascot for the then Vought-American and the US military who reportedly fought in WW2 and lead the 116th infantry regiment in Omaha Beach to victory. However, according to The Legend's claims, Vought-American utilized Soldier Boy primarily for war propaganda films and publicity shoots rather than deploying him to fight the Nazis, presumably due to how much he was worth to the company and refusing to risk putting their most valuable asset in harm's way by overstepping his boundaries. Also part of an unknown team, Ben was a teammate of Private Angel, Torpedo and Bombsight, with whom he developed a fierce rivalry. In 1945 following the end of WWII, an executive order was drafted, presumably by President Harry S. Truman, to establish the date of April 28 as Soldier Boy Day as a way of honoring his heroic efforts during the war. However, Ben intervened and had the day be known as National Superhero Day as a way of honoring all superheroes instead. Ben returned home to a hero's welcome, with ticker parades held across the nation in his honor. Despite all he’s accomplished, his father once again expressed his disgust towards his son by calling him a “cheater” that took a “shortcut” the way he had by using Compound V, something a "real man" would never do; specifically chastising him for never being a soldier beforehand, and automatically proclaiming himself a decorated veteran simply by becoming a super soldier. Soldier Boy remained a major superhero with Vought for decades. In 1951, Vought released a pseudo biopic film about Soldier Boy titled The Soldier Boy Story. It was nominated for Best Picture at the 24th Academy Awards but lost to An American in Paris. Despite this, Ben got to have anal sex with Jane Wyman in the coatroom. At some point, he met Stormfront during her time as Liberty, as the two of them founded Herogasm together in 1952. During the time they got to know each other, Soldier Boy and Liberty became lovers for a while. Around this time, Soldier Boy also took part in the Red Scare and testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Soldier Boy has performed several black ops and atrocities for Vought and the U.S government between the 1960s and 70s. For instance, he brutalized and silenced civil rights activists with fire hoses during the 1963 Birmingham protests, massacred several anti-war demonstrators during the 1970 Kent State shootings and it has even been rumored that he was the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy. During the 1970s, Soldier Boy would also become the leader of the superhero team Payback, where he would fight crime alongside Crimson Countess, Gunpowder, Swatto, Mindstorm, Black Noir and the TNT Twins. In the fall of 1980, Jonah Vogelbaum called Benjamin to his lab and asked him to ejaculate into a cup so that they could study his genetics. Unbeknownst to Soldier Boy, Vogelbaum would use his sperm to create a powerful supe intended to surpass Soldier Boy himself. That baby would eventually grow up to be Homelander. During his period as a public celebrity, he has been a successful actor and singer regardless of the quality of his performances. He performed covers of Robert Mitchum's "From a Logical Point of View," and shortly before his disappearance, Soldier Boy made a guest appearance on Solid Gold and performed a rendition of Blondie's "Rapture," which he was posthumously awarded a Grammy for Best Special Guest Performance. He also starred in a film with Charlton Heston titled King of Kings. His celebrity status also allowed him to meet the likes of Ronald Reagan, Hugh Hefner, and Princess Diana. He was even friends with Bill Cosby at one point, who he admired as both "America's Dad" and a wonderful "drink maker." Ben also mentioned having a threesome with Gary Busey at one point. Beyond acting, Soldier Boy worked across multiple roles in the film industry, serving as a director, producer, stunt performer, and stunt coordinator — a breadth of involvement unusual even by Hollywood standards. He built his public profile through frequent appearances on late-night television talk shows. On July 12, 1982, in Queens, New York, Soldier Boy and Swatto reportedly assaulted a homeless man in a park. The homeless man wanted to press charges against the two, but then mysteriously vanished. In 1982, Soldier Boy starred in the classic film Ghosts of Hanoi. In 1983, Soldier Boy starred in the classic film Red Thunder about the Soviet–Afghan War. In 1984, Soldier Boy filmed an anti-drug ad that was approved by the Vought Ad Council. In the PSA, Ben warned people against taking drugs, claiming that "Anyone who takes drugs is a loser." However, he had several complications on set due to his spoiled attitude and quick temper, and also remarked on his hypocrisy in making an anti-drug video despite the fact that he himself was an addict. A multi-page profile in Vigor magazine was conducted by freelance journalist Leor Boshi, who visited Soldier Boy at his Brentwood home. Despite a reportedly stiff initial meeting, the two spoke for over 13 hours. Boshi described him as "a highly candid man who's a lot friendlier than he lets on at first, especially to people bearing tape recorders." In the same year, despite being publicly against drugs, Vought-American had Soldier Boy and the rest of Payback participate in Operation Charly, a clandestine CIA military operation that was funded by illegal cocaine trafficking and sought to back the right-wing Nicaraguan Contras against the communist, Soviet-backed Sandinistas. During the operation, Soldier Boy displayed a carefree yet arrogant and misogynistic attitude towards the handling operations officer, the young Grace Mallory. He would make numerous passes at Mallory before she finally rebuffed him and reacted by calling her homophobic slurs. Later on, due to Swatto's carelessness, the Sandinistas and their Soviet allies were able to launch a surprise attack on Mallory's base. This, along with Payback's incompetence and lack of training, led to the deaths of 116 of Mallory's men and allowed the Soviets to somehow neutralize Soldier Boy, who they then captured and transported to a secret military compound in the USSR. Despite presenting themselves as a close-knit team, the truth was that Ben was hated by the other members of Payback as he sabotaged any efforts by them to advance their careers and would frequently physically abuse them (at one point delivering a severe beating to Black Noir who had complained about Soldier Boy ruining his chance to star in Beverly Hills Cop). In Nicaragua, Stan Edgar approached Noir and told him that they felt it was time to "retire" Soldier Boy, as Vought had created a child whom they believed will become more powerful and useful to the company. Noir agreed, knowing that the rest of the team (besides Gunpowder) would be more than willing to help take down their hated leader. Payback used the Soviet attack as an opportunity to betray Soldier Boy. After fighting through swarms of enemies, Benjamin soon found himself ambushed by his teammates who launched a brutal attack against him. Although Ben put up a good fight, even managing to burn off some of Noir's face with a burning car and cause him brain damage with his shield, the team were successful in knocking Soldier Boy out by using Novichok gas, and then handed him over to the Russians. Vought covered up his "death" by claiming that Soldier Boy had died a hero sacrificing himself to stop a nuclear meltdown in Ohio. What no one in the US knew was that the Russians had decided not to kill Soldier Boy, or maybe they found out that they couldn't kill him. So, instead, the Soviet Union decided to see what could kill Soldier Boy. On January 24, 1986, Russian scientists performed an experiment on Soldier Boy that included inserting radioactive material into his body and that would cause him to emit high levels of radiation from that point on. He was also recorded and experimented on by Russian scientists on June 8, 1986. In this video, a scientist states that the subject has extremely durable skin, including internally, and that he continues to exhibit high amounts of radiation. He prepares to see if the same applies to his cornea, raising a blade up to his eye; however, Ben escapes his restraints and kills the scientist. In an attempt to escape, he runs for the door but is immediately knocked unconscious when the Russians flood the room with Novichok. There is additional video material of Soldier Boy being experimented on by the Russians dated June 8, 1990 (but this might be a continuity error). In the video, the scientists fire an AK-47 into Soldier Boy's mouth and burn him with a torch, all of which fails to damage him. Other mentioned experiments intended to harm Soldier Boy included sulfuric acid cocktails and other poisonous concoctions, presumably along with various other exploratory procedures.