The Boys Season 3 Little Nina Comic’s Backstory and Changes Explained
Season 3 of The Boys introduces Little Nina – another comic book character. How is it different (and how is it similar) to the original version?
Warning: spoilers ahead for The boys season 3
The boys season 3 brings Little Nina to live action – here’s what Amazon’s TV adaptation changes from the comics. Narrowly escaping the penetration of a low-budget Ant-Man and the disintegration of a low-budget Scarlet Witch, Frenchie endures a rocky start to The boys season 3. His problems get worse when Cherie – Frenchie’s girlfriend introduced in season 1 – asks for help after upsetting a notorious Russian mobster named Little Nina. Although Tomer Capone’s ever-chivalrous character tries his best to help, little Nina soon pursues him instead.
Played by Katia Winter, Little Nina interrogates Frenchie in her own style and asks her to atone by personally murdering Cherie. Troubled, he brings this news to Billy Butcher, who just happens to be looking for a route to Russia for his own Soldier Boy-related purposes. Seeing the timely arrival of a Russian mobster as a chance act of universal providence, Butcher suggests paying Little Nina a visit.
Little Nina hails from the original by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson The boys comic book series but, as is often the case with Amazon’s adaptation, a lot changes in the translation. Here’s how Katia Winter’s Little Nina compares to her comic counter-comic.
Little Nina’s Role and Backstory in The Boys Comics Explained
Little Nina’s nickname is quite literal, derived from her limited height. Another well-known trait of Nina is her penchant for vibrators, as she avoids going near people she may have to kill later. Although primarily a Russian mobster, Nina strikes a deal with Vought, receiving a shipment of Compound-V (not exactly the stable type) and turning 150 criminals into a supe army ready to wreak havoc. Having already brought the Russian underworld under her sway, Nina’s ultimate goal is to stage a superpowered coup and seize control of her entire country, and while Vought claims to support this endeavor, society betrays her in a way predictable, only interested in recruiting supes. Little Nina’s many relationships could come together. While Little Nina planned to let her supes go wild and then take them all down with a detonator, Vought left her without one crucial item – a working detonator.
Butcher and the boys discover Vought and Little Nina’s plan, so head to Russia to investigate, join old friend Love Sausage. At the behest of her corporate sponsor, Nina does her best to handle the “five men and a dog” problem, but in Mother Russia, the problem handles her. Butcher secretly slips a bomb into his vibrator, permanently removing Nina from the board.
How The Boys Season 3 Changes Little Nina (And What Stays The Same)
Name aside, Katia Winter’s Little Nina is wildly different from the comic incarnation. The boys The Season 3 character is Russian, she’s a gangster and her name has a tremendous reputation, even Frenchie is intimidated. That’s more or less where the similarities end. While the Nina comic remains based in Russia, the live-action character operates in New York. And while The boys‘ Nina obviously controls a heavy criminal empire, she’s still just a regular drug dealer rather than the all-powerful coup instigator of the comics. Even her appearance is totally different, with the “Little” part of Little Nina purely figurative, and the famous black bowl cut from the comics replaced with a more socially acceptable hairstyle.
Perhaps the biggest change The boys season 3 does to Little Nina lies in her personal connection to the boys themselves. When Butcher hears Little Nina’s name in the comics, he admits to knowing her only by reputation. Karl Urban’s Butcher, on the other hand, clearly has personal experience with Little Nina from before. The boys season 1. Not to mention that Frenchie once worked for (and slept with) the mobster. This personal connection completely reverses the dynamic between Little Nina and Butcher’s team in The boys season 3.
from Amazon The boys however, drops a selection of Easter eggs alluding to Little Nina’s roots. When Katia Winter’s character recalls fun times with Frenchie and a strap-on, The boys refers to his comic book vibrator habit, while the line, “We both got bigger things than the government up our assesnods to a specific comic scene where two onlookers marveled at the size of a sex toy Little Nina was using in a public restroom.
The boys continues Friday on Prime Video.
About the Author