The Deep (character)

Flight Accelerated healing Indestructibility Slowed aging X-ray vision Laser vision Highly trained operative, Skilled tactician, strategist, and leader Intimidation Television series:

Marine life empathy, telepathy, and control Resistance to extreme temperatures Aquatic adaptation Echolocation |

The Deep is a fictional character in the comic book series The Boys and the media franchise of the same name created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. He is depicted as a member of the Seven—a group of corrupt and hedonistic superheroes grown and funded by Vought-American—with the Deep being the black genetic son of Stormfront, having all the same powers as Homelander and Black Noir (his biological half-siblings), but themed around the ocean and marketed as the King of the Seas, due to the company's belief that black people are "unmarketable" to the public. The character is a parody of the Marvel Comics character Namor and DC Comics' Aquaman.

In the Amazon Prime Video television adaptation developed by Eric Kripke, the Deep is portrayed by Chace Crawford. This version is white (given the real name Kevin Moskowitz in the fourth season of The Boys and Kevin Kohler in the second season of Gen V) and has the ability to communicate with and control sea creatures and breathe underwater; additionally, he is solely responsible for pressuring Starlight into a sex act, an act committed by A-Train, Black Noir, and Homelander in the comic book series. The Deep has also appeared in the promotional web series The Boys Presents: Diabolical and Death Battle!, and the podcast series The Boys: Deeper and Deeper. Both the character and Chace Crawford's portrayal in the series have received acclaim.

A member of the Seven since their inception, one of the original roster grown from the DNA of Stromfront implanted into random women injected with Compound V, the Deep is an Afro-American man dressed in a dry diving suit with a prominent metal helmet. Despite lacking aquatic powers, in-fact having all the same powers as Homelander and Black Noir, he is marketed by Vought-American as the "King of the Seas", who believes his suit to be irremovable due to an Atlantean curse, due to being brainwashed by Vought into thinking that after his creation. The Deep seems to have embraced his own back-story, as he is heard mentioning the curse to A-Train when the latter wonders why he doesn't remove his helmet but opens the helmet's frontal porthole to drink from a beer bottle. The most mature and civilized member of the Seven, one of the few genuinely interested in heroics, he often counsels his fellows to be prudent and think of the long term effects that rogue supes have on their marketing, and going as far as to (futilely) propose the Boys to collaborate to find out who is setting them up against one another. He also is the target and bears the brunt of the others' contempt, disregard, and racism due to being black; which he bears stoically most of the time. He can be pushed too far, though, as seen when he backhands Jack from Jupiter across the room for going over the line, or turning down attempts by Vought to rebrand him as a jungle-themed caveman with an angry "there are no sea leopards!" He also has a more selfish side, frequently arguing about royalties and engaging in the depravities of Herogasm every year. When presented with Homelander's plans to attack the U.S. government he chooses not to join along with A-Train, urging the younger supe to just like him recover their version of their employment contract with Vought as a potential warranty for the future. Later on, the Deep joins American Consolidated's group "True", being made to adopt a new suit that features a large, cone-shaped hood resembling a Ku Klux Klan hood while still wearing his "cursed" suit underneath (which leads to the Guy from Vought recognizing him straight away).

Chace Crawford plays the Deep in the TV series.

In the television adaptation, the Deep is portrayed by Chace Crawford. This version is a white man with fish-like traits (which he is insecure about) and the ability to hear the suffering of all sentient ocean life as they are eaten by humans, which he has had since childhood. When Starlight joins the Seven, the Deep pressures her to perform oral sex on him; when she discloses the incident on live television, Vought forces him to publicly apologize for the sexual misconduct they covered up for him over the years and reassigns him to Sandusky, Ohio, where he is raped by a fangirl via his gills. The following year, Church of the Collective members Eagle the Archer and Carol manipulate him into taking a hallucinogenic substance which causes him to believe that his gills (voiced by Patton Oswalt) are confronting him about the root of his sexual malfeasance: his abilities and the death of a dolphin he had been romantically involved with. Following this incident and his arranged marriage to Cassandra Schwartz, the Deep joins the Church, also convincing A-Train to do so, and assists Queen Maeve in securing blackmail material to use against Homelander in return for her vouching for his return to the Seven. However, he is denied, and the Deep leaves the Church.

A further year later, after he rebuilds his reputation by writing an exposé about the Church, Homelander personally has him rejoin the Seven to spite Starlight after she is made co-captain of the Seven. Additionally, the Deep becomes the new head of Vought's Crime Analytics division and fires all but Anika for posting negative comments about Vought on social media. After engaging in a sexual relationship with Ambrosius, an octopus he encountered at Herogasm, Cassandra leaves him when he attempts to make her join them. Homelander later sends the Deep to kill Lamar Bishop so Victoria Neuman can become Robert Singer's presidential campaign running mate. In season four, the Deep is taught how to stand up to Ashley by Sister Sage, Homelander's new de facto deputy on the Seven, who also fires him as the head of Crime Analytics but manipulates him into a sexual relationship. This strains Deep's relationship with Ambrosius, whom he continues to secretly keep as a pet, to the point that he accidentally shatters Ambrosius' tank and regretfully lets her suffocate. After Homelander kicks Sister Sage out of the Seven, the Deep and Black Noir II, who develop a "bromance", learn that Sister Sage has been sleeping with both of them.

In season five, the Deep assists in locating A-Train's hideout. He later leads a mission to bring Stan Edgar to Homelander; knocking out Black Noir II and taking the credit for bringing Edgar to Homelander. This leads to a falling out between the Deep and Noir. While the latter is working on writer Adam Bourke's stage play, the Deep dispatches an eel to attack and kill Adam via a toilet. Later, he records a promotion for Vought's new oil platform in Alaska, but Noir sabotages the latter, causing an ecological disaster. The Deep then kills Noir upon learning of his role in the disaster, although the fish population believe that the Deep was responsible. After Homelander dissolves the Seven, the Deep is approached by a great hammerhead named Xander, who voices his knowledge of what happened at the oil platform but is unaware that Noir was in fact the culprit. Xander states to the Deep that he is dead to all marine life and swims away stating that if he comes in contact with any body of water, he will be killed. The Deep calls his manager to relocate him to a landlocked location, to no avail, and runs off when Xander's threat makes him unable to save a drowning man. When Homelander finally admits to the Deep that he has always hated him, he becomes forlorn and blames his mistakes on Annie; claiming that "all of it started" when she joined the Seven. During their confrontation, Annie uses her powers to launch him into the sea; as various sea creatures surround him and demand that he says Ambrosius' name, the Deep is fatally impaled by a Giant Pacific octopus before being dragged below the surface.

Crawford returns as The Deep in The Boys Presents: Diabolical (2022) episode "BFFs". In the episode, the Deep is tasked with taking down a low-level pot dealer who has been selling Compound V, setting a shark upon him. After the Deep comes across a young Supe named Sky with the ability to control and give sentience to excrement, and being showered in it by her, he decides to leave her be.

Crawford returns as The Deep in the second season of Gen V (2025), in which his character is revealed as an alumnus of the superhero university Godolkin University. It is also revealed that his full name is "Kevin Kohler", retconning the "Kevin Moskowitz" name he was using in second season of The Boys (while relocated to Sandusky, Ohio) as having been an alias. In the series, The Deep visits his alma mater as Sam Riordan asks if they have found the ones who attacked Cate Dunlap.

In the following 2020–2021 promotional web series, Seven on 7 with Cameron Coleman, which bridges the events of the second and third seasons, Cameron Coleman reports on the Deep having made a rare public appearance to welcome a baby dolphin to Oceanland (the same one the Deep had taken a dolphin from years earlier). Additionally, the Deep begins promoting the Liquid Death brand.

In the 2020 Amazon Prime Video-sponsored The Boys promotional episodes of Death Battle!, in promotion for its second season, The Deep (voiced by Billy Bob Thompson) participates in the Seven's simulated battle royale, mocking Billy Butcher before being immediately run through and killed by A-Train.

On June 8, 2022, Amazon subsidiary and audio storytelling division Audible announced a The Boys spin-off Audible Original podcast, titled The Boys: Deeper and Deeper, to have been secretly produced, to release the following day, June 9. Written by Matt Berns, directed by Chris Sacco, and starring Chace Crawford and Katy Breier, reprising their roles from the television series as the Deep and his wife Cassandra Schwartz, the series follows the couple as they sit down for a "no-holds-barred podcast interview" about their relationship and escape from the Church of the Collective, and about their recent memoir and film adaptation about as such. Leigh Bush, who plays the couple's interviewer Hailey Miller, also later appeared in the third season of The Boys. The podcast has received a positive critical reception.

On the decision to adapt the Deep as the assaulter of Starlight in the television adaptation instead of A-Train, Black Noir, and Homelander as in the source material, show runner Eric Kripke noted that he had found the plot line difficult to adapt due to the Me Too movement, having engaged in multiple discussions of how to do so.

In The Boys comic book series, the Deep has the same powers as Homelander and Black Noir, including heat vision, super strength, super speed, flight, super hearing and enhanced vocal cords, though he is disallowed from expressing these powers publicly. The Deep is nigh invulnerable, and also ages slower than a normal human, due to Compound V. The Deep additionally has X-ray vision, which enables him to see through anything.

In The Boys television series, the Deep has marine telepathy, allowing him to communicate with and control sea-life at great distances, many of whom with he maintains relationships.