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NOTE: This article is only for the TV version of Queen Maeve. To see the article for the original version of her, go to Queen Maeve (comics).
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| “ | The truth is, our weakness is the same as anyone's. It's people. The people we care about. So I say, cut them loose. For your good and for theirs. That way you're really bulletproof. | „ |
| ~ Queen Maeve. |
| “ | You've managed to make this about you in less than 20 seconds flat. | „ |
| ~ Queen Maeve to Homelander. |
| “ | Starlight: I really thought that deep down you were a hero. Queen Maeve: Well, you were wrong. There's no such thing. |
„ |
| ~ Starlight and Queen Maeve. |
Margaret "Maggie" Shaw, better known as Queen Maeve, is a major character in the 2019 Amazon TV adaptation of the comic book series The Boys.
She is The Seven's second-in-command and the ultimate role model for little girls all over the world. Although she is quite a cynical person, she does appear to be one of the few people trusted by Homelander. Although not fully evil, her cynical and passive nature when going along with some of The Seven's more questionable schemes have made her lose herself over time, a fact she is aware of but sees as a necessary sacrifice to protect those she loves.
She was portrayed by Dominique McElligott.
Appearance[]
Maeve is a tall, mostly slim, muscular, fair-skinned woman in her thirties with flowing red hair and hazel eyes. Her usual attire consists of her superhero persona's get-up, which is maroon and silver Amazonian-style battle armor paired with a matching skirt, boots, and tiara. She also wears gauntlets on her arms with large red jewels in the center of them. After the end of season 3, Maeve gets her right eye gouged out during her fight with Homelander, causing her to wear an eyepatch.
Personality[]
Maeve was a cynical, apathetic, and somewhat dismissive person, although not a fully bad one. Aside from Starlight, she was probably the most friendly and genuinely heroic member of The Seven and was a highly respected member of the group. She got along well with most of her colleagues and was something of a voice of reason to the team, although she was aware that none of them were as heroic as they were told to come across as. Maeve, however, was still heroic enough to put her own reputation on the line to save people, as shown by the plane crash during which she pleaded with Homelander to save at least one person and was left distraught and guilt-ridden from the aftermath of said event, as well as when she saved Starlight from Black Noir.
As she spent more and more time with the Seven, she would grow to become a deeply depressed and mistrusting person due to the severe corruption of the other members of the Seven, aside from Starlight. Due to this, she would often attend a lot of parties, drink heavy amounts of alcohol, and constantly have sex with body builders in her tower, all to distract her from how guilty she was on a daily basis.
With Starlight's influence, Maeve begins to look at herself in a different light, change her apathetic nature, and try to return to the genuine hero she once was. As a result, she becomes more assertive and less accepting of Vought's demands, blatantly ignoring orders in some cases if something more important came up and refusing to cooperate with certain things if she didn't want to, although she was limited in this regard, especially after Vought was made aware of Elena's presence in order to protect her from Homelander. In the end, she was able to redeem herself by sacrificing her powers to defeat Soldier Boy, thus giving her the opportunity to leave her old superhero career behind and have a fresh start with her girlfriend, Elena.
Biography[]
Background[]
Not much is known about Queen Maeve's past prior to joining The Seven. She was born in 1986, and it is implied that her father injected her with Compound V so that she could score higher in pageants, competitions, and talent shows. The money he got from exploiting his daughter fueled his gambling habit. At a young age, she really wanted to make a difference in the world, much like Starlight, and later attended Godolkin University, where she was trained to become a superhero. Despite her initial intentions, Vought corrupted her into their puppet and Homelander's accomplice.
Season One[]
Throughout Season 1 of the TV show, Maeve is typically shown at Homelander’s side. In the first episode, Maeve successfully stops an armored truck and the men inside. As she is about to subdue the final criminal, Homelander comes in and receives all the credit. In episode 3, it is revealed that Maeve and Homelander used to date one another, and there is still some lingering affection from the latter. However, in episode 4, when she fails to rescue a hijacked plane, she is psychologically broken.
In episode 5, we get more backstory when she, drunk, looks for a hookup and consolation in her ex, Elena. Furthermore, in episode 6, Elena shows up to Maeve’s work, trying to care for Maeve. The Newspeople take note that Elena is Maeve’s ex and that she’s interested in women. This could pose a problem for Maeve in the future. In episodes 7 and 8, Maeve seemingly builds her relationship with Starlight by defending her and preventing her from turning into a shell of herself.
Season Two[]
In the second season, Maeve puts more effort into reviving her relationship with Elena; however, she increasingly becomes more cautious out of fear that Homelander may discover her secret relationship. During a talk show, Homelander outs Maeve as a lesbian. After the show, Maeve confronts Homelander about what just happened, but Homelander admits that he overheard her call with Elena and that it sounds like they are more than just friends. Maeve claims that she ended the relationship before she joined The Seven, but after some back and forth, Maeve admits to her relationship with Elena. After that, Homelander has Maeve do movies in which she portrays a lesbian who struggles with her sexuality.
In order to get Elena and her to out themselves as a couple, Ashley and other world officials tell them what they should look like as a lesbian couple. Elena then makes it clear that Maeve is bisexual and that she doesn’t want to take part in that whole public relationship thing. Maeve convinces her to play along, as she is still afraid Homelander will do something to Elena. Later, she goes into a deal with The Deep, in which she will help him get his image back if he helps her find dirt on Homelander. It is later revealed that she hired Deep to search the sunken wreckage of Flight 37 to find a video recording of Homelander abandoning the passengers to die. The Deep returns with a damaged GoPro of a husband recording the incident of Maeve and Homelander debating on how to save the prisoners, showing Homelander threatening the passengers and ultimately leaving them all to die. Elena finds out about the video and confronts Maeve with it, who tells her that it is their leverage against Homelander. Elena tells Maeve that she gets nightmares about that video and has decided to go to her sister's house. She tells Maeve that she does not blame her for what happened on the plane.
At the end of the season, Maeve is given an opportunity to do right instead of wrong. She helps The Boys deal with Stormfront and Homelander and even threatens to upload the video of him leaving all of the people on Flight 37 behind to die if he doesn't give into the following demands: Let Billy Butcher and Ryan walk away safely, stop hunting down Starlight, and leave herself and Elena alone. Homelander caves into his weakness in his desire to be loved by the world and gives in to her demands. Maeve was right next to Starlight when Homelander begrudgingly welcomed her back to the Seven at a press conference, completing Maeve's victory over Homelander.
Season Three[]
Maeve returns in season 3 as an anti-hero, collaborating with The Boys in order to take Homelander down. After noticing her leader's increasing descent into madness after having his reputation tarnished by his affair with Stormfront, Maeve decides to help Butcher. Maeve pays a visit to The Boys' headquarters, where she meets Butcher and starts talking about her plans to defeat Homelander. She hands him some confidential documents from Vought regarding the supposed death of Soldier Boy, a very powerful hero who acted as the leader of the superhero group Payback, stating that whatever was behind his death could be useful to finally kill Homelander once and for all. Maeve also gives Butcher some samples of an untested drug called V24, a variation of Compound V that gives temporary superpowers that last 24 hours to anyone who's injected with it. In the meantime, she also starts secretly heavily training for a potential fight with Homelander, all the while spreading rumors about having stopped training in hopes of making Homelander underestimate her once she finally attacks him.
After that day, Maeve becomes Butcher's smuggler, constantly showing up to give him more samples of V24 for him to use on his missions. On one of these occasions, Maeve and Butcher have a drink and bond over their mutual hatred of all Supes, which leads to the two having rough sex. The other day, Homelander crossed paths with her in the Seven Tower and said he could smell Butcher all over her, implying he knew about their fling. Maeve, however, declines it. After Homelander asks her if her love for him was real during their affair, Maeve responds that she never loved him; in fact, she hated and pitied him. Shortly after, the meeting is revealed to be a trap. Maeve gets kidnapped by Black Noir and locked inside a high-security cell under Vought's facility. During this time, Vought covers her arrest up by saying she had "retreated for betterment," but Starlight soon starts acting against it by making a campaign that accuses the company and Homelander of being behind her disappearance.
After the Herogasm incident and his fight with Soldier Boy, Homelander pays a visit to her cell and inquires if she was behind the presumably dead hero's return as well as the sudden superpowers acquired by Butcher and Hughie. Maeve instead turns her attention to his facial bruises, which she notices were covered by concealer. Homelander then shifts the conversation to his original vision of making a family with her that he had during their relationship, saying that he's going to harvest her eggs in order to create more supe children that can surpass Ryan. Maeve then taunts him by saying that this was the first time in her entire life she saw him scared.
Soon after, Maeve's cell is covered with toxic gas, which causes her to collapse to the ground. Her unconscious body is then put inside a Vought vehicle in order to move her to another location. Midway through the trip, however, Maeve wakes up, kills the guards, and escapes the vehicle, going straight to M.M's house, where she meets Starlight, thanking her for the #FreeMaeve campaign. The Boys, Starlight, and Maeve soon all go to the headquarters, where they meet Butcher, inquiring about Soldier Boy's whereabouts. Maeve then throws away Starlight's perfume bottle of Novichok gas, saying that Homelander needs to die no matter what. The group then drives to the Vought headquarters. Once there, Butcher, Maeve, and Soldier Boy confront Homelander, who tries to persuade his father into making a family with him and his grandson Ryan, to which he declines, calling him a "f*cking disappointment." While charging an anti-Compound V radioactive blast to Homelander's face, Soldier Boy is interrupted by Ryan, who attacks him with heat vision. After Ryan is attacked by his grandfather, Butcher decides that his deal with Soldier Boy is over and starts fighting him. Meanwhile, Maeve engages in a fist fight with Homelander, during which she ends up having her left eye gouged out by his thumb. She then incapacitates the supervillain by sticking a metal straw in his ear. Maeve then quickly glances over at Starlight, who's about to be attacked by Soldier Boy's blast. In a heroic act, Maeve grabs him and jumps out of the window as the latter explodes, sacrificing her superpowers in the process. After the fight is over, the now-powerless Maeve survives the fall and is rescued by The Boys.
After this incident, Maeve is presumed dead by Vought, who announces her death publicly, saying she had died heroically while fighting Soldier Boy. In truth, Maeve was actually hidden in M.M's house, recovering from her wounds alongside her girlfriend Elena. Her last scene shows her bidding a heartfelt goodbye to Starlight, stating that she and Elena would be starting a new life far away from Vought. Her security footage that shows her being saved by The Boys after her fall is found by Ashley and Anika and is quickly deleted by the latter in order to protect Maeve's identity.
Relationships[]
Elena[]
Elena is Maeve's partner, and although she loves her, their relationship is very strained through a combination of her work obligations and something Maeve has deliberately done in order to protect her from Homelander. Over the course of the series, however, she appears to grow more trusting of her, as she is willing to tell her the dangers of them being in a relationship while she is still under Homelander's thumb. Elena breaks up with Maeve after finding the footage of the failed plane rescue. After the season 3 finale, it's said that Maeve and Elena both ran away together to start a new life far away from Vought's business.
Billy Butcher[]
Although initially viewing him as a threat due to his prejudice against Supes, Maeve soon allies herself with Butcher and The Boys in order to take Homelander down. Besides his hatred for Supes, Maeve is quite critical of Butcher maverick antics as a whole and even points out his hypocrisy in the fact that he's hooked on V24. While Maeve still has some animosity towards him, the two soon after end up bonding with each other quite well over their shared hatred for the superhero industry and Vought. In one of their occasional meetings, Maeve and Butcher have a fling and sleep with each other; however, that was nothing more than a one-night stand.
Homelander[]
Queen Maeve is a member of The Seven Homelander appears to trust the most, and they regularly go on patrols together. Homelander and Maeve were mentioned to have dated at one point. Although they do seemingly get along with Homelander being comfortable enough with her to vent out his frustrations to her, Maeve does hold a great deal of fear towards him and what he's capable of doing, hence her secretive nature about her personal life. However, she is also aware that she is the only member of The Seven he'll at least somewhat listen to, so she tries to use that position in order to protect others from his wrath, such as Starlight. Slowly, their "friendship" crumbles, starting with the plane crash sequence, which makes Maeve realize just how much of a monster Homelander really was. This is only worsened when he digs up the truth about her sexuality and the existence of Elena, leading to her getting even more paranoid and uncomfortable around him than ever before.
Starlight[]
Queen Maeve, although she slowly takes a liking to Starlight, grows an almost sisterly sort of protective nature towards her, even begging Homelander to spare her after the truth about The Boys and her boyfriend Hughie Campbell came to light, although she did stress that she didn't do this for her specifically. She quickly becomes the only member of the team whom Starlight genuinely trusts, and she even goes as far as to save her life from Black Noir after it was revealed she betrayed The Seven. In the end of season 3, Maeve sacrifices herself in order to save Starlight from Soldier Boy's radioactive attack, proving that she indeed cares for her and trusts her.
The Deep[]
Maeve knows of The Deep's sexual exploits and is repulsed by him, especially after he raped Starlight, and doesn't seem too phased when he is kicked out of The Seven. However, in order to secure protection for Elena, she calls upon his help. He gives her footage retrieved from the plane Homelander deliberately crashed in exchange for getting back into The Seven if he acts under her orders, although she did still stress that she disliked him.
Quotes[]
| “ | Take your f**king t***k and get the f**k out of here! | „ |
| ~ Queen Maeve to Starlight and Hughie. |
| “ | This is still a top 3 day in my life... Because today is the day I saw you scared. | „ |
| ~ Maeve taunting the Homelander. |
| “ | It's like you wear a neon sign that says, "Raw dog me, I'm a bottom." | „ |
| ~ Maeve jokingly commenting on Hughie's appearance. |
Trivia[]
- As with her comic counterpart, she is a villainous parody of Wonder Woman, and her being revealed as bisexual in the show might be a reference to Wonder Woman being bisexual in the New 52.
- Despite her being into both women and men, a reoccurring gag in the series involves the fact that Vought tried to market her as a lesbian rather than bisexual upon finding out about her secret relationship with Elena in order to pander to the LGBT crowd; the other reason behind their choice of lesbian was because of their cynical belief that it is easier to sell to the mainstream than bisexuality. This led to her being given the moniker of "Brave Maeve," "Gay Maeve" and "Vought's bravest lesbian" by the Vought marketing team.
- In the show, her hair color is red instead of blonde. Ironically, her actress, Dominique McElligott, is blonde in real life.
External Links[]
- Queen Maeve on the Heroes Wiki.
- Queen Maeve on the Boys Wiki.
