After his Gen V introduction and The Boys appearance, here’s what you need to know about Tek Knight, including a breakdown of his powers.
Vought’s poster boys and girls are The Seven, the superheroes who star in huge blockbusters, kill terrorists, and represent the organization most prolifically.
However, there are loads of supes under the company’s purview who are on a lower rung of the ladder, starring in smaller movies and often helping to maintain the company’s profile wherever they can.
Gen V Episode 4 is where Tek Knight comes in – and The Boys Season 4 Episode 6 went further.
Who is Tek Knight?
Tek Knight, real name Robert Vernon, is introduced in Gen V Episode 4 as a super-powered, award-winning actor and investigator. He’s played by Derek Wilson.
He’s a graduate of Godolkin University, having been injected with Compound V at a young age like all the others. He then went on to star in four major motion pictures and six People’s Choice Awards, becoming most known for hosting The Whole Truth on Vought+, a series in which he digs into unsolved cases.
However, he has a “formidable” reputation: according to Dean Shetty, his subjects generally end up dead or in a coma, and a hero named Ironcast (who appeared in the Diabolical animated spinoff) killed himself after an interrogation.
He’s also a serial pervert, with an inevitably-fatal tumor in his head said to be the cause of an “unusual proclivity”: an irresistible urge to insert his penis into anything resembling a hole, whether it’s bagels, exhaust pipes, vacuum cleaners, or skulls. Anything goes.
Tek Knight in The Boys
Tek Knight is mentioned a few times in The Boys before making his debut in Season 4.
In Season 1, we meet a woman named Sheila whom he’d rescued from a hostage situation… but he also broke her back in the process; in Season 2, Stan Edgar mentions one of his premieres to Homelander; and in Season 3, we see a headline in a newspaper that reads, “Woman Paralyzed In Tek-Knight Hostage Situation.”
In The Boys Season 4, he holds a Federalist Society party at his estate. Turns out, he’s looking for a new Laddio sidekick, Webweaver.
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The episode takes a nasty turn, which we won’t spoil here. But suffice it to say, the party doesn’t go as planned.
Tek Knight’s powers explained
Tek Knight has superhuman deduction; his senses are enhanced to the point he can see, hear, and smell the slightest physical reactions, such as adrenaline seeping out of someone’s pores or a tiny bead of sweat on a person’s brow.
While we’ve not seen him put any other abilities to use, it’s safe to assume he has super-strength – when Cate attempts to remove her glove, he warns her he’ll “take her f*cking hand off.”
In the comics, he doesn’t have any powers at all. All of his strength and combat abilities come from his souped-up armor and gadgets, with which he’s able to fly and handle himself against other supes.
He’s a bit of a parody of Iron Man and Batman – he even has his own Robin named Laddio (he’s due to appear in The Boys Season 4). In an interview with EW, creator Eric Kripke said: “[Showrunner Michele Fazekas’s] pitch was, ‘Let’s make him more Batman than Iron Man.’ He’s a combo of both.
“He has his own underground cave, [but] instead of Tony Stark, if we made him the world’s greatest detective, then he doesn’t need a big, crazy suit. We can have fun with true-crime shows and the inherent fascism of Batman.”
Robert Vernon in the comics
In the comics, he’s one of the founding members of Payback, the group led by Soldier Boy. He was also once part of the Maverikz, who were almost beaten to death by Butcher.
He’s an antagonist, and like on-screen, struggles with ‘sexual psychosis‘.
Fun facts from the page:
- His romantic relationship with the comic character The Talon parodies DC Comics’ Batman and Catwoman.
- Tek Knight cycles through sidekicks with the title Laddio, similar to how Batman always has a sidekick named Robin.
- Tek Knights’s relationship with SwingWing is based on Batman’s relationship with Nightwing.
- Tek Knight’s Car is inspired by the Batmobile.
For more supes, check out when Gen V takes place in The Boys timeline or the Gen V cast and characters. We’ve also got The Boys cameos and every Gen V supe’s powers explained.