Joe Kessler

For the Dynamite version of the character, see Monkey.

"Joe Kessler" is a major antagonist in Season Four of the Amazon series The Boys.

He was a CIA Case Officer and a soldier during the War on Terror, during which he was acquainted with Billy Butcher, but during a battle in the Panjshir Valley he was left for dead by Butcher and was killed in combat. Years later, as a side-effect of overusing Temp V, and injecting himself with Compound V to stave off the side-effects, Butcher began hallucinating both his deceased wife Becca and Kessler, which were manifestations of his sentient brain tumor, with Becca urging him to make moral decisions and Kessler urging him to take the more violent routes and even having the power to take control of him.

Background[]

Little is known about Joe Kessler. He has a wife named Tanya, a son named Joe Jr., and close ties with Billy Butcher. The two men have shared several missions during the War on Terror,^[1] such as "deprogramming" two men from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Joe promised to name his son after Butcher, but did not end up following through. In 2013, he and Butcher were on a military mission in Afghanistan. He was killed in action, leaving his body in the Panjshir Valley.

On Election Night in 2024, Butcher imagines Kessler's return. Kessler seeks to train Ryan to be able to defeat Homelander, before it is too late and the supes begin to subjugate the humans.

The Boys Series[]

The Boys: Season 4[]

"Department of Dirty Tricks"[]

Joe Kessler first appears at the CIA headquarters, greeting Billy for the first time in eleven years. The two then share a coffee together and discuss the current events, with Kessler also reminding Billy about their past during the War on Terror. Kessler tells Billy they need someone like him to step up, before the Supes start to subjugate and enslave the human race.

"We'll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here"[]

Kessler provides enough carfentanil to "take down ten bull elephants" to Butcher so he can dose Ryan and kidnap him to relocate him to the Hazlet Safe House. Butcher bakes them into cookies to feed to Ryan, but ultimately decides to throw them out instead. After Kessler finds out about this, he says that he would train his own son if it meant saving the world, and gives Butcher an ultimatum that either they will be forced to train Ryan, or they will be forced to kill him.

"Beware of the Jabberwock, My Son"[]

Kessler and Billy arrive at Stan Edgar's farm late at night, entering one of the barns. Billy reveals he has kidnapped Sameer Shah, a doctor who previously worked with a deadly Supe-killing virus. Kessler is unperturbed by Billy's extreme method of severing Sameer's leg, and listens as Billy explains his plans to the doctor; Sameer is going to engineer and replicate more samples of the virus. Billy turns to look at Kessler, who grins at him, with Billy returning a concerning smile.

"Dirty Business"[]

Kessler and Billy continue to threaten Sameer into recreating the Supe-killing virus, with Billy demanding he make it strong enough to kill Homelander. Sameer refuses, revealing that in order to make the virus strong enough for Homelander, it risks becoming highly unstable and airborne, threatening to exterminate every Supe on the planet. Kessler is delighted by this, urging Billy to go forward due to his hatred of Supes, while a hallucination of Becca Butcher in Billy's head opposes it, denouncing it as murder of many innocent people. Kessler suddenly shouts at Becca, revealing that he too was a figment of Butcher’s imagination, shocking Billy. Kessler tells him that the real Joe Kessler died in the Panjshir Valley, after Billy apparently left him behind, revealing that all of Billy's previous conversations with Kessler were just him talking to himself. Kessler states that he is Billy, his V-enhanced brain tumour having chosen Kessler as the manifestation of Billy's darker side. Kessler presses Billy, saying he can't refuse wanting to make the virus, because his own brain is telling him he wants to. He tells Billy not to worry and ends with "Daddy's home", referencing the same thing Billy said to Hughie in Season Two.

"The Insider"[]

Joe will appear in this episode.

"Assassination Run"[]

Joe will appear in this episode.

Relationships[]

Allies[]

• Billy Butcher - Former Colleague, Former Friend and Accidental Killer

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• Before 4x06 revealed that Kessler's appearances were simply hallucinations in Butcher's mind, many fans and viewers had theorized this, as, up to this point, Kessler only ever interacts with Butcher, is only ever acknowledged by Butcher, randomly appears in Butcher's scenes and is often unexplainably absent when Butcher interacts with someone else. Some pointed out the plot being similar to Tyler Durden from David Fincher's 1999 film Fight Club, Rhys Montrose from YOU and Viktor Reznov from Call of Duty: Black Ops.
  • Viktor Reznov in particular bares many similarities to Joe Kessler, as, in Call of Duty: Black Ops, Reznov was a former close friend and ally of Alex Mason who sacrificed himself to help Mason escape a Russian Gulag. Years later, Mason encounters Reznov in Vietnam, and Reznov frequently fights by his side. Like Kessler, Reznov's presence is never acknowledged by Mason's allies, and he unexplainably disappears and reappears by Mason's side during certain missions, with it later being revealed that the hallucinations were a side effect of Reznov reprogramming a brainwashing number sequence in Mason's mind. Reznov repeatedly pushes Mason into ignoring his unit's wishes and killing the 3 targets that betrayed him, similar to Kessler repeatedly pushing Butcher into ditching his morals and going for the kill against Homelander and any Supe that gets in his way.
• The brain tumor that mentally manifests as Kessler is occasionally seen moving in a worm-like fashion. When Butcher sees a rabbit injected with Temp V burst upon with dark worm-like tendrils coming out of it, he realizes the same thing may be in him.
• Butcher's sentient brain tumor appearing as a human-like hallucination is similar to Ultimate Tony Stark's sentient brain tumor from Marvel's Ultimate Universe.
• Joe Kessler, at least Billy's hallucination of him, shares a lot in common with the comic's version of Billy Butcher. Most notably, the obsession with killing supes, to the point where he'll be willing to kill Starlight, Kimiko, and Ryan just to ensure their death.