Gen V Season 2 Delivers A Pitch-Perfect Parody Of A Classic Superhero Trope

Don't burst the bag, Marie: This article contains spoilers for "Gen V" season 2, episode 4, "Bags." 

"Gen V" season 2, episode 4, "Bags," is an impressive barrage of the show's characteristically strange revelations and darkly funny moments, with offbeat details (such as the most peculiar goat-themed storyline this side of "Severance") thrown in. Perhaps most importantly, however, "Bags" continues to showcase the first truly great "Gen V" villain, Cipher (Hamish Linklater). Apart from offering us a long-awaited glimpse of the new Godolkin University dean's powers, the episode proves just how far he is willing to go on his mission to force a power upgrade on Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) ... or, at least, so it seems.

At first, the forced "Bloodbender vs. Genderbender" fight between Marie and Jordan Li (London Thor and Derek Luh) seems like a particularly sadistic punishment after the former proves difficult and the latter speaks out of turn. However, we soon find out that Cipher is merely using an existing school tradition to his own ends. God U has a long history of problematically-named supe vs. supe matches, such as the "Battle of the Sexes" fight between school alumni Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) and the Deep (Chace Crawford), and the "Flightless vs. Sightless" match between Eagle the Archer (Langston Kerman) and Blindspot (Chris Mark).

This is a pretty obvious parody of the classic superhero trope where an impending team-up between any two prominent superheroes must begin with a fan service fight between them, either because of a misunderstanding or — as is the case in "Bags" — manipulation by the story's villain. It's fitting that in the world of "The Boys" and "Gen V,"  Vought is not only aware of the trope's popularity but has actually monetized it into heavily hyped MMA-style events. 

"The Boys" and "Gen V" have been known to use their brutal superhero setting to mercilessly parody real-world events. Some of them, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe-style Vought Cinematic Universe and the ultra-violent fighting game Tournament of Heroes, amount to little more than fun takedowns of pop culture and commercialism. Other targets, however, are more poignant. Antony Starr's Homelander completed his transformation into Donald Trump in "The Boys" season 4, while A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) has done plenty of heavy lifting as the show's take on a young sports superstar who struggles with humility and isn't above risking it all by doping to stay on top. 

On surface, the God U supe battles exist somewhere in the middle ground between these two extremities. While the concept is technically just an MMA parody that Cipher uses to force that long-desired power and control upgrade out of Marie (and for the show to dramatically reveal his "meat puppet" powers), there's an underlying horror in the casual way Vought forces a series of university kids to fight each other for the masses' entertainment. These events combine the massively competitive God U ranking system with brutal gladiator games that are apparently an official part of the most powerful students' studies, after all. 

"Gen V" is streaming on Prime Video.