Annie January

• 1. Introduction

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  Annie January, the superheroine known as Starlight in the comic series The Boys, was supposed to be a joke. Her creator Garth Ennis says so himself: "Annie started out as a joke." He made the series with Darick Robertson. In the story she joins the Seven, a group of superheroes funded by Vought-American. The original plan was for her to endure one degradation after another just to stay on the team. Instead she became one of the few members driven by selfless motives, and later a moral center for the people fighting the team. On television she is played by Erin Moriarty. How did a punchline grow into the heart of the story? What does Annie lose along the way? And what does someone who can project blinding light do once she stops performing for Vought?

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• 2. A Joke Changes Course

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  Garth Ennis can name the moment that wrecked his first plan for Annie. He was writing Hughie Campbell moping in Central Park when, he said, "to my great surprise I saw Annie coming walking down the path." Until then, a romance between the two had never been part of the design. Ennis described the turn this way: "That was when I realized I wanted to take her in a different direction, make her stronger and more rounded." He also admitted to a small debt of conscience: "I probably felt a bit guilty about Annie and ended up treating her a bit more responsibly as a result."

  Mary Marvel, a heroine from DC, supplied the template for Starlight's original costume. Her powers came from somewhere else. They are modeled on Dazzler, a Marvel heroine who also generates light and uses it as both heat and concussive force. Those borrowed pieces gave her a look and a power set. The comic never needed to explain where such a person comes from, but the television version had to invent a mother, a father and a reason for her gift.

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• 3. Born With Light

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  Electricity is the fuel behind Starlight's abilities. Annie can draw energy from nearby sources of it and turn that energy into blasts and blinding light from her hands, and the same ability lets her fly. She also shows some superhuman strength and can withstand impacts, even from bullets. She may have a degree of superhuman hearing as well. In the comics she is athletic and a trained gymnast, and her bursts of light can blind even other superpowered beings.

  In the television version, the gift has a corporate origin. Her mother Donna, played by Ann Cusack, allowed Vought to infuse baby Annie with Compound V after her birth. Donna then raised her to believe the powers were a gift from God. Annie's father disagreed with the decision and left. Donna told her daughter that he had gone after losing the family savings through bad investments. The household was intensely religious, and Donna took Annie to superhero pageants as part of an effort to groom her for the Seven.

  The comic gives her a different start. Annie was among the lucky few powerful enough to show her abilities from birth, and she blinded her parents almost at once. That led to her adoption. The foster couple treated her well and gave her a rigorous Christian education. Over time she saw the cynical commerce behind it, because they pushed her toward Vought-American pageants for young supes. Before the Seven she belonged to the Young Americans. As a teenager she was ordained Starlight, only to learn she was forbidden to help or rescue anyone unless Vought-American had staged it. She then reasoned, naively by her own admission, that the biggest superhero group in the world would get the biggest missions and save the most people.

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• 4. Inside the Seven

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  Lamplighter had supposedly taken a sabbatical, and Starlight was brought in as his replacement. In the comic, Homelander greeted her warmly, and she clearly idolized him. The welcome did not last. Soon after she arrived, he told her to perform a sexual act for him, A-Train and Black Noir or leave the group. She reluctantly complied. At her first team meeting her costume was altered against her will to be more revealing. The other members took sadistic pleasure in tricking her into humiliating situations. A-Train claimed the Seven had hired her only for their own amusement, and Jack from Jupiter expected her to be replaced by a bigger name within a year.

  Stress began to change her. She had aggressive outbursts, lost her faith, swore and drank. What frightened her most was the thought that she was turning into the others, and she realized that even Homelander had once shared her idealism.

  The breaking point came when Vought-American's marketing department pushed an even more revealing costume on her. It also invented a new origin story in which she was a rape victim. Annie violently refused. A staredown with Black Noir followed, and Queen Maeve intervened to rescue her. Annie went back to her original, more modest outfit. It was a Pyrrhic victory. The Guy from Vought turned the modest look to his advantage by giving her a bigger role in the upcoming Believe festival.

  The television series opens her story with an assault. Right after she is introduced as the newest member of the Seven, The Deep sexually assaults her. Later she prevents a rape while out of costume, and Vought reprimands her for it. Madelyn Stillwell, played by Elisabeth Shue, then coerces her into a revealing costume sold as female empowerment. Annie's own instincts are more puritan. At a Capes for Christ event she begins to doubt the group's approach to faith, after seeing homophobia, religious intolerance and an obsession with opposing premarital sex. In the end she reveals The Deep's assault on live television. The only place she could be Annie January rather than Starlight was a bench in New York.

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• 5. Falling for Hughie

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  A bench in Central Park is where the comic's Annie meets Wee Hughie during a break from her supe role. She introduces herself as Annie January. The two bond over shared hardships and soon begin a relationship, each unaware of the other's true identity. Butcher, who has footage of her induction into the Seven, eventually discovers the pairing.

  Annie tells Hughie that their relationship is "more precious than gold", and she plans to quit the Seven and move out. Her terror is that Hughie will reject her once he learns what she did to get into the team. That fear proves right. When she reveals she is a supe, he flees. She follows him to Scotland while he is on a sabbatical from the Boys and tells him about her childhood. She finishes with a blunt verdict on Vought-American and the Seven, saying they can "rot in Hell for all she cares!"

  Hughie later suggests the relationship will not work, citing people who dislike supes. Annie answers that he is the nicest person she has ever had in her life. She asks him to keep treating her decently even if the relationship ends, and he agrees. After speaking with Mallory, Hughie confesses in turn that he has been working for the C.I.A. in a group that opposes supes. He wants her to leave the Seven and hide until the coming war between the supes and the Boys is over. He also admits he still loves her. Homelander, meanwhile, was keeping his own plans from her, precisely because of her faith.

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• 6. The Comic Exit

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  Homelander's rally went ahead without Annie. He kept his plans from her on purpose, but she eventually learned the truth anyway. She decided to leave the Seven and the supe life, and she renounced the name Starlight. She tried to persuade Queen Maeve to leave with her. Instead they were confronted by a murderous Homelander, who wanted Maeve to pay for planting cameras for the Boys. Maeve threw Annie out of the Seven's base before facing him, and he decapitated her almost immediately. Homelander had his vengeance, and he simply watched Annie fly away without giving chase.

  After Homelander's coup, Annie left New York and Hughie behind. Events after the attempted insurrection in Washington weighed on her, and so did Hughie's continued discomfort around her. She came back six months later. Both the Boys and the Seven were gone, and the two decided to give the relationship another try.

  Twelve years after the main series ends, the epilogue series Dear Becky picks up their lives. Annie and Hughie are living together, but strain remains. Hughie cannot let go of the Boys and what he did with them, and Annie is unhappy after learning she is barren. Once Hughie finds closure through Butcher's diary, they marry and settle in his hometown in Scotland. Annie takes his surname and becomes Annie Campbell.

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• 7. Quitting on Camera

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  Season two of the television series, in 2020, turns Annie into a spy. She helps the Boys leak the truth about Compound V to the press. She temporarily ends things with Hughie, fearing reprisal from Vought and Homelander if they learn of him. Stormfront and Homelander catch her and imprison her, but Hughie helps her escape. By the finale Vought has pardoned her and readmitted her to the Seven, blaming the season's events on Stormfront once her Nazi past is exposed. In the first episode she sings "Never Truly Vanish" at Translucent's televised funeral, and Moriarty performs her own vocals. Moriarty's work as Annie earned a Saturn Award nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Television Series.

  Between seasons, the web series Seven on 7 ran in 2021-2022 with Vought anchor Cameron Coleman. In it, Annie and Hughie make their relationship public. Coleman criticizes it because Hughie now works for Victoria Neuman. Annie also films promos for the streaming service Vought+.

  Season three begins one year after season two. Vought CEO Stan Edgar, played by Giancarlo Esposito, names her co-captain of the Seven. He wants partly to repair the company's image and partly to rein in Homelander. Annie hopes to use the post to recruit allies in a plot to kill Homelander. Those plans collapse when Homelander kills Supersonic, her ex-boyfriend, formerly known as Drummer Boy. She is forced to accept a public persona as Homelander's lover.

  Hughie and Butcher meanwhile take Temp-V, a temporary version of Compound V, and team up with Soldier Boy, played by Jensen Ackles. Annie becomes estranged from Hughie and allies with MM, Frenchie and Kimiko. After the carnage at Herogasm, she and MM prepare an Instagram post meant to ruin the public images of Homelander and Vought. In it she says: "I'm not Starlight anymore. My name is Annie January." She then quits in blunt language.

  Vought's news wing hits back. It says she is heartbroken after being dumped by Homelander, ties her to the Shining Light Liberation Army because of Kimiko, and accuses her charity, Starlight House, of human trafficking. Annie infiltrates Seven Tower to get Compound V for Kimiko. There she tricks Homelander into confessing to Supersonic's murder on an Instagram livestream. She also learns that Temp-V causes brain lesions and ultimately death after three to five doses, and she frantically calls Butcher to warn Hughie.

  Butcher knocks Hughie unconscious and abandons him in a gas station bathroom, and Annie collects him. Hughie apologizes for not knowing what strength was and gives her permission to cathartically yell "I told you so." While fighting Soldier Boy at Seven Tower, she shows a previously unknown ability to fly, after Hughie turns up several studio lights to help her. Once Soldier Boy is beaten, she says goodbye to a now-depowered Maggie Shaw. She throws her Starlight costume into the incinerator and is officially welcomed as a member of the Boys.

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• 8. The Resistance Years

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  Months after the incinerator, season four finds Annie still running Starlight House. It is now separate from Vought but still smeared by its news outlets. She is told to investigate Firecracker, the newest member of the Seven. Annie remembers Firecracker as a childhood acquaintance. In her pageant days Annie spread a rumor that ruined the girl's life and left her with a lasting grudge. Firecracker broadcasts Annie's private secrets, including that she once accidentally blinded a hostage and that she had an abortion. Annie beats Firecracker on live television, which ruins her own reputation and brings down Starlight House. The stress triggers an identity crisis, and she cannot use her powers. Her mother lambastes her over the abortion, and Annie learns that Hughie fished the Starlight costume out of the trash in case she ever wanted it back.

  Shifter, a shapeshifting supe, kidnaps Annie and takes her form. His goal is to delete stolen files proving that Vice-President-elect Victoria Neuman is a corrupt supe, and to have President-elect Robert "Dakota Bob" Singer assassinated so Neuman can take the presidency. Shifter also taunts Annie by sleeping with Hughie and proposing to him. Annie frees herself by pulling her hands through her restraints, saves Singer and kills Shifter. She stays with Hughie despite her fury and insists he get tested for sexually transmitted infections.

  Butcher then assassinates Neuman, and Singer is framed. House Speaker Calhoun becomes president, declares martial law, and deputizes Homelander and Vought to keep order. The Boys take false identities and run. On the road to Canada, Annie regains her powers just before Cindy and Vought Troopers intercept them, and she flies away while Hughie is captured.

  Annie also appears in the second season premiere of the spin-off Gen V. She finds Marie Moreau in hiding and tells her to return to Godolkin University to work as an informer. She tells Moreau about the Odessa Project. By the season's end, Annie and A-Train bring Moreau and her friends into the resistance she leads.

  Season five opens one year after her escape. Annie infiltrates a Vought shareholders meeting and leaks a video of Homelander causing the crash of Flight 37 and refusing to save the passengers. She joins Butcher and Kimiko to rescue Hughie, Mother's Milk and Frenchie from a Vought freedom camp, using her powers to blind Homelander during the escape. When a Starlighter cell in St Louis is discovered, she blames herself for the deaths, though Frenchie reassures her. She later visits her father, which helps restore her will to fight.

  In the final stand against Homelander, the Boys invade the White House while he delivers a televised speech from the Oval Office. Annie fights The Deep and flies him to a beach. She tells him to take responsibility, and he refuses. She propels him into the sea, where sea animals slaughter him. They blame him for the Alaskan pipeline genocide caused by Black Noir.

  Months later, Annie is pregnant with a daughter she will name Robin, after Hughie's deceased girlfriend. She helps Hughie run his electronics shop and keeps a police frequency tuned in so she can still do superhero work.

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