At first glance, Hughie makes for an odd member of Billy Butcher's Supe-hunting team on The Boys, but a twist in the final issue of the comic book series revealed why he kept a spot on the squad throughout the series. In The Boys #71, Butcher tells Hughie he wanted someone good on the team to stop him from turning into the monster he knew he would become.
Throughout the comic book series, The Boys work with the CIA to monitor Vought-American and Supes as the team is filled with characters who are part of the squad for a good reason. Mother's Milk is incredibly organized and methodical, as his family has been deeply impacted by the effects of Compound V. The Frenchman is uber-violent and paired alongside The Female, the pair are incredibly effective killers. Meanwhile, Butcher isn't afraid to do pretty much anything from intimidation to torture to get to Homelander, who was responsible for killing his wife. However, "Wee Hughie" doesn't have any special skills or violent tendencies, as he's often the butt of the jokes on the team. But Butcher recruited him for a particular reason after A-Train killed his girlfriend in a bloody freak accident.
In The Boys #2 by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, Tony Avina, and Greg Thompson, Billy Butcher reveals to Hughie that he's putting The Boys back together and wants him to join. His rationale for Hughie joining is he's seen what Supes and the Seven are capable of, and after his girlfriend was killed, he wasn't looking for a payout. Butcher believed that Hughie's quest for justice (and not money) made him empathetic as he isn't looking out solely for himself. The moment comes full circle by the end of the original comic. In a twist, a dying Butcher reveals he recruited Hughie because he wanted to give someone with compassion the chance to stop him from losing control in his mission to kill every Supe linked to Compound V.
Butcher admits that seeing Hughie not care about money and being a good person made him the perfect foil to his breaking point. Hughie's empathetic nature wasn't some kind of advantage to The Boys team, but it was important for Butcher's desire to have someone beat him when he finally went too far. That finally happened when Butcher turned on his own team, as he went completely off the rails, leading Hughie to stab him and take him out for good. Butcher can't help but be proud that the "good little bloke who can't help bein' reasonable" stopped him.
It seems inevitable The Boys' television series will end with a similar reveal and final confrontation between the two characters. The twist that Butcher brought Hughie on The Boys because he wanted someone good to take him down after crossing a line he couldn't come back from is too good not to use in the live-action series. Hughie might be weak and not as prolific at killing Supes as his fellow team members, but in the end, against all odds, he was the perfect person to stop Billy Butcher in The Boys.
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