Tek Knight

For the Dynamite version of the character, see Tek Knight/Comics.

Robert Vernon, better known as Tek Knight, is a supporting antagonist of the Amazon series The Boys, where he served as the main antagonist of the episode "Dirty Business," and its spin-off series, Gen V, where he served as the primary antagonist of "The Whole Truth."

The renowned superhero-detective, Tek Knight, was a Godolkin University alumnus and was well-known for both his career as the CEO of VernonCorp and being a famous TV personality, hosting his true crime series, The Whole Truth and starring in a number of his own movies like Tek Knight Lives and The Tek Knight.

Background[]

Robert Vernon was born in around 1983 to the wealthy Vernon Family, a family known for owning the largest private penitentiary in the United States and has a history of being slave catchers during the 1800s. Shortly after Robert's birth, his parents accepted Vought's offer to inject him with Compound V, subsequently transforming him into a Supe and granting him superhuman powers and abilities. He had an idyllic childhood, thanks to his family's generational wealth accumulated over eleven generations from slave-catching and, later, private prisons. After his parents passed away, he was raised by his butler, Elijah. Upon reaching adulthood, he inherited VernonCorp, his family's business.

Robert would later attend and graduate from Godolkin University, becoming the famous superhero known as Tek Knight. After this, he would eventually mentor Laddio, his sidekick. He also had starred in several of his own movies including Tek Knight Lives, Tek Knight: Heat of the Knight, The Tek Knight, The Tek Knight: Knight Light, A Dark and Stormy Knight, and Let There Be Knight. In addition to his film career, he hosted the crime reality show The Whole Truth With Tek Knight on Vought+.

At an unknown time and date, Tek Knight arrived to handle a hostage situation. He quickly defused it; however, in the process of saving the hostage, Sheila, he inadvertently broke her spine, resulting in paraplegia. The accident was later reported in the newspaper.

The Boys Series[]

The Boys: Season 1[]

"The Innocents"[]

During an Association of Collateral Damage Survivors meeting, Sheila, a hostage Tek Knight rescued, expresses her true feelings regarding the accident that left her paraplegic, wishing that Tek Knight could have been more gentle with her spine.

During The Deep's commercial for "Super in America," he mentions how Tek Knight's Knightracer emitted a carbon footprint similar to that of a 737, but with his help, Tek Knight was able to turn it into a hybrid.

The Boys: Season 2[]

"The Big Ride"[]

Before Homelander is dismissed by Stan Edgar, he is reminded by the latter to attend the premiere of "Tek Knight Lives," a superhero movie starring Tek Knight.

The Boys: Season 3[]

"Payback"[]

A newspaper clipping of Tek Knight's hostage accident can be seen inside of M.M's closet, along with the crimes and malfeasances of multiple Supes.

Gen V: Season 1[]

"The Whole Truth"[]

Tek Knight first appears as the celebrity host of the Vought+ true crime series The Whole Truth, returning to his alma mater Godolkin University to "investigate" the recent suicide bombing of Golden Boy. He reveals to Dean Indira Shetty that his true goal is to help Vought cover up the truth behind "The Woods" by framing one of the students. Tek Knight then conducts interrogation interviews with students close to Golden Boy including Jordan Li, Cate Dunlap, and Andre Anderson. Using leading questions and his enhanced senses, he is able to deduce that Andre is sleeping with Cate among other things. Tek Knight later comes to Shetty's class to question Marie Moreau about her involvement with both Golden Boy and Richard Brinkerhoff. He uses his enhanced senses to recognize her lies and ultimately forces Marie to reveal that Jordan was the one who stopped Golden Boy, not her. After the class ends, Tek Knight tells Shetty that none of the students are suitable patsies and that he will instead blame Shetty herself for Golden Boy's suicide, deducing from a prior meeting that she had failed to prevent Golden Boy's brother Sam from escaping "The Woods". Later that day, the two meet in a secluded area in the forest and Shetty blackmails Tek Knight into dropping his investigation by threatening to leak security footage of him sticking his member into various holed objects. He subsequently records a segment for The Whole Truth stating that there was no conspiracy behind Golden Boy's suicide. During the recording, he becomes distracted by a hole on a nearby tree, and uses it to pleasure himself after finishing the segment.

The Boys: Season 4[]

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

While Ryan chooses a character to play in Vought Tournament of Heroes, Tek Knight is seen as a playable character.

"Wisdom of the Ages"[]

To be added

"Beware the Jabberwock, My Son"[]

Tek Knight is present at the V52 conference presenting his reboot movie "The Tek Knight" in front of a large audience. He later shows up at Vought Tower where Homelander and Sister Sage strike a deal with him to use his private VernonCorp prisons as internment camps for their disidents. He is later present along with the members of The Seven and the Guardians of Godolkin when Homelander orders them all to execute Cameron Coleman, to which Tek Knight proudly partakes in.

"Dirty Business"[]

Tek Knight hosts a Federalist Society party, to which he also invites several supes. While greeting and spending time with his guests he meets Hughie disguised as Webweaver and talks about the latter becoming his sidekick and after giving him the tour around his mansion he invites him to The Tek Cave, which turns out to be a sex dungeon. There, he persuades Hughie into sitting and farting on a cake butt-naked for his pleasure and then binds him onto the X-cross after Ashley Barrett's arrival. After she's done pleasuring herself, Tek Knight asks Hughie what Webweaver's safeword is, Hughie answers incorrectly and is unmasked and exposed by Tek Knight, who now plans to reveal him to Homelander after he sexually abuses the former in the holes he will surgically make himself. Before Tek Knight begins operating on now gagged Hughie, he is interrupted and knocked unconscious by Kimiko and Starlight. Upon awakening, he finds himself binded to the same X-cross and interrogated by them. They try hurting him into talking which is proven unsuccessful due to his masochist nature but then Laddio, his former sidekick-turned sex slave, frees himself and shows the trio a way to torture Tek Knight - by donating his wealth to charities he strongly dislikes. Shortly after they begin, Tek Knight cracks and tells the trio about his deal with Homelander and Sage, which shocks them and makes his butler Elijah finally lose patience with his master's actions, chocking him with a whip, saying that he will make it look like an accident. Before the trio departs, Elijah tells Hughie that Webweaver's safeword was "Zendaya" while Tek Knight is still being strangled to death with Laddio standing by him completely unwilling to help his former mentor.

Personality[]

Tek-Knight is a selfish, clever and threatening person. He cares only for himself, his reputation, his wealth and his fame, not caring that the people whose lives he destroys, and he frames for crimes people who often kill themselves due to his actions. He is also a casual racist, as he is aware of those remarks to A-Train during his party, and how distraught he is when The Boys use his money to donate to charitable causes that do not line up with his worldview. As shown, Tek Knight takes great pride in his family’s wealth and history, particularly of how they started out as slave catchers, and enjoys flaunting his wealth and family history, further reinforcing his racism and elitism. As shown where he smugly explained his wealth to Firecracker, likely knowing of her past in poverty and later jokingly said how his family could totally have caught A-Train, a clear racist remark.

He is a masochist, as both implied by his shared history with Ashley Barrett, and confirmed by Hughie.

Tek Knight is also a sexual abuser to many of his so-called "associates". One of his victims is his former sidekick Laddio, who he kept chained up at his sex chamber. He is also implied to have a sexual relationship with Webweaver due to his awareness of the latter's safeword, albeit online or via other ways as he never got to meet him in person and planned on doing so at his party.

These courses of actions ultimately became his undoing as his death is caused by his own butler strangling him due to being subjected to years of abuse, with the latest action of building a nationwide concentration camp being his last straw.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

• Superhuman Deduction: Tek Knight possesses meticulous superhuman deduction abilities, which empower him with heightened senses, allowing him to perceive things on a microscopic level.^[2]
  • Superhuman Vision: Tek Knight possesses superhuman vision, granting him better sight than humans and some Supes. He can perceive things with remarkable detail and precision, enabling him to see details from a person, like adrenaline seeping through pores, tiny beads of sweat, eyes dilating, and blood coursing through veins. With this ability, Tek Knight can determine a person's true intentions and emotions, allowing him to uncover the truth behind Marie Moreau's supposed fight against Golden Boy and Sam Riordan's escape from The Woods in a matter of seconds.^[2]
  • Superhuman Hearing: Tek Knight possesses superhuman hearing, allowing him to hear better than humans and some Supes. He can discern minute details, like a person's heartbeat, which effectively indicates their feelings and verifies whether or not they are lying.^[2] Additionally, like all Supes, Tek Knight can hear higher frequencies than humans cannot.^[3]
  • Superhuman Smell: Tek Knight possesses superhuman smell, giving him a better sense of smell than humans and some Supes. He can detect distinct nuances, such as Indira Shetty's ovulation and Cate Dunlap's scent on Andre Anderson's lips.^[2]
  • Superhuman Taste: According to Mother's Milk, Tek Knight possessed superhuman taste, the full extent of this ability is unknown.^[1]
  • Superhuman Touch: According to Mother's Milk, Tek Knight possessed superhuman touch, the full extent of this ability is unknown.^[1]
• Superhuman Strength (Tentative): Tek Knight has a reputation for beating his subjects into comas and even killing them, one of them being Ironcast, a Supe with superhuman durability and skin that was made entirely out of metal.^[2] As these beatings are never shown on screen, there is a possibility that this enhanced strength could be connected to the use of his suit instead, as implied by him not attempting to break his restraints while being interrogated by members of The Boys in his dungeon.^[1]
• Superhuman Durability: Tek Knight possesses a degree of superhuman durability, making him more durable than humans and some Supes. His durability allows him to survive a powerful kick from Kimiko Miyashiro that sent him flying across the room; however, while his durability prevented him from serious injury, it was not enough to keep him conscious after such a forceful blow.^[1]

Abilities[]

• Acting: As an actor, Tek Knight has participated in the production of many films, such as Tek Knight Lives and The Tek Knight.

Weaknesses[]

Biological[]

• Brute Force/Limited Durability: Despite being more durable than humans, Tek Knight could still be stunned, knocked unconscious, and killed by extreme force. Kimiko was able to take him down with an unarmed attack and cut through his skin with sharp objects; he was also strangled to death by his butler Elijah.
• Brain Tumor: Tek Knight has an inoperable tumor in his brain. During the events of Gen V, the tumor stood small; Indira Shetty, after discreetly researching Tek Knight's medical records, notes that it would eventually become terminal.
• High Frequencies: Due to being a Supe, Tek Knight was able to hear certain frequencies that humans cannot. When a specific frequency is played, it could induce immense pain and temporarily neutralize him.

Psychological[]

• Paraphilia: As a result of Tek Knight's brain tumor, he has developed an intense sexual compulsion towards any object with a hole in it.

Equipment[]

• Tek Knight Armor: Tek Knight donned a high-tech suit of armor. Although the suit's abilities were not fully detailed, it likely served combat purposes. His playable version in the fighting game Tournament of Heroes is depicted wearing this armor, suggesting its functionality in battle scenarios.
• Knightracer: The Knightracer was Tek Knight's personal automobile and one of his many means of transportation.

Relationships[]

Trivia[]

• Tek Knight is a parody of Marvel's Iron Man (Tony Stark) and DC's Batman (Bruce Wayne).
  • Tek Knight's interest in making Webweaver his sidekick may be a reference to Iron Man's mentor/student relationship with Spider-Man, whom Webweaver is based on, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  • Tek Knight's interest in a team-up with Homelander is in reference to Superman and Batman's partnership as "The World's Finest".
  • The "Tek Cave" as well as his manor are based on the Batcave and Wayne Manor respectively.
  • Tek Knight's butler, Elijah, as well as the death of his parents are references to DC Comics's Alfred Pennyworth and Thomas and Martha Wayne respectively.
  • The show's version of Tek Knight depicts him as a host of true crime series, The Whole Truth as a detective. This is a reference to Batman's iconic nickname, "The World's Greatest Detective".
  • Tek Knight is known to leave criminals and civilians alike badly injured, this is like a reference to how Batman leaves criminals. Something Batman is often criticized for because of his borderline antihero actions and behavior.

• Tek Knight's superhuman senses are also similar to Daredevil. Both characters can identify a person's psychological state based on their physical condition.
• The allusion of Tek Knight doing sexual activities with Webweaver possibly comes from Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man's actor) and Robert Downey Jr. (Iron-Man's actor) doing two homosexual roles together in both Wonder Boys (2000) and Tropic Thunder (2008).
• In the episode, "The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies," Steel Knight is mentioned, he is the predecessor to Tek Knight in the comics.
  • While not confirmed, it may be possible that Steel Knight and Tek Knight are both related, or that Steel Knight might be the predecessor to Tek Knight.
• Tek Knight's armour is never shown in-person, however he can be glimpsed wearing it in his character profile picture in Vought: Tournament of Heroes.
• According to Elijah, Tek Knight always admired David Carradine, an actor who died due to accidentally strangling himself during auto-erotic asphyxiation.

References[]