Being a superhero is random acys of sex videoshard, but you know what's even harder? Being a college student just trying to figure yourself out.

Both struggles meet in Gen V, a college-set spinoff of The Boys that gives teen dramas a bloody makeover. The serieswelcomes us to Godolkin University, a Vought International-funded school where the next generation of supes train to master their powers. Here, earth-shattering fights and life-threatening injuries are just as common as roommate drama or worries about grades, and that tension between the familiar and the absurd makes Gen V an absolute blast.

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Gen V introduces a new, troubled generation of supes.

Credit: Brooke Palmer/Prime Video

Our gateway into Godolkin is Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), an ambitious freshman with a dark past. Able to manipulate and weaponize blood, Marie is determined to ace Godolkin's crimefighting courses and become the first Black woman in the Seven. Where Marie's troubled adolescence has left her more reserved, her roommate Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway) is outgoing and intent on making a splash in Godolkin's social scene. She uses her shrinking powers to create fun-sized fight videos and boost her social media following — a necessity in the superhero influencer era.

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In their first days at Godolkin, Marie and Emma cross paths with some of the university's elite students. There's Luke "Golden Boy" Riordan (Patrick Schwarzenegger), the school's top-ranked hero who can set himself on fire; Cate Dunlop (Maddie Phillips), able to command anyone to do anything with one touch of her hands; Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo), a charming slacker with magnetic powers; and Jordan Li (London Thor and Derek Luh), a bigender hero who can switch between male and female bodies, each with their own special abilities.

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With most of The Boyscast out of the picture (minus a few cameos), Gen Vgives its new characters the time and space they need to breathe. Sure, they fall into certain archetypes: Marie is the outcast, while Golden Boy and his friends are Godolkin’s equivalent of popular jocks. But their powers place a new burden on them. Cate masks her own abilities with gloves and medication. Andre's father’s expects him to take up his superhero mantle. Luke struggles to the point of breaking with the pressure of being number one.

Along with these burdens comes the knowledge that these abilities were not a result of some divine selection, but of being injected with Compound V as babies. As the title suggests, Gen Vexplores the first generation to grow up with this realization — as well as the myriad ways in which it’s messed them up. From breaking up entire families to creating monsters with Homelander-style power complexes, Compound V has done far more damage to these kids than good. And with a sinister project underfoot at Godolkin, it looks like things are only going to get worse.

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Gen V is part mystery, part college drama, and part superhero mayhem.

Jaz Sinclair and Lizze Broadway in "Gen V." Credit: Brooke Palmer/Prime Video

The nature of this sinister project and its connection to troubled supe Sam (Asa Germann) make up the main mystery of Gen V, which Marie will attempt to unravel alongside her newfound allies. The deeper she goes, the more she realizes that Godolkin — and by extension, Vought — cares less about helping supes flourish than it does about controlling them.

While The Boys has already examined the monstrous ways in which Vought keeps its supes in check, Gen V's younger cast of characters allows for a fresher perspective. Marie comes into Godolkin excited to do some good, only to be disillusioned by how Vought prioritizes a supe's image (one of the core courses students must take is "understanding branding") over their actual heroism.

Above all else, she learns students are at Godolkin to be fed into Vought's corporate entertainment machine. Like with The Boys, Gen V takes clear delight in satirizing media conglomerates, Disney being chief among them. A pointed WandaVision reference early on is just one of many Marvel digs from the show. Ironic, given that The Boys is currently spawning its own cinematic universe and is produced by a real-world Vought analog.

Chance Perdomo in "Gen V." Credit: Brooke Palmer/Prime Video

However, Gen V (and The Boys universe in general) sets itself apart from Disney superhero fare with its penchant for superpowered sex and violence. College proves an ideal place to let the show's love of raunch fly, with awkward hookups and wild parties getting an extra jolt thanks to Compound V. Your mileage will vary based on your enjoyment of extreme close-ups on prosthetic penises (and the violence wreaked upon them), but there's no doubt Gen V hopes to match and maybe even surpass The Boys' shock value.

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The university setting also gives Gen Va new lens through which to examine characters' relationships to their superpowers. After all, college is a unique coming-of-age experience, one where newfound independence offers students a chance to learn more about themselves. Throughout this process of self-discovery, Gen V's leads deal with everything from questions of gender expression to eating disorders, issues which often manifest in (or are aggravated by) their abilities. Gen V's approach to these more sensitive topics can sometimes feel like you're watching an R-rated after-school special, but there is an undeniable fun to seeing teen drama tropes dressed up in cynical superhero gore.

If anything, I wish Gen V engaged further with aspects of college life. We get a brief sense of Godolkin's classes, with the cutthroat ranking system adding an extra layer of dystopian flair. But as the series dives deeper and deeper into Godolkin's wrongdoings, it loses some sense of its setting's specificity in favor of complicating its own conspiracy. In doing so, it also dilutes its own individuality as a show, risking reverting from Gen V to The Boys lite.

Overall, though, Gen V proves a worthy companion to The Boysand a truly gonzo addition to the canon of college TV shows. It's like if The Sex Lives of College Girlsmeta meat grinder — and the result is wild, nasty fun.

Gen V premieres Sept. 29 on Prime Video.

Topics Prime Video