Characters I personally think the comic handled better than the show
Mallory- I never really cared for the TV show version of Mallory, she’s not the best actress and she’s never given enough depth to be a believable character.. plus that shit she pulled with Ryan in the finale was insanely stupid. Comic Mallory isn’t necessarily great by comparison, but his story is a lot more fleshed out and overall is just a far more understandable character
Tek-knight- Ironically enough, I didn’t care much for this story in the comics. It was in the beginning when the boys was still finding it’s footing and it just felt raunchy for no reason. However, after seeing how badly they handled his character in the show I have a whole new level of appreciation for the comic version. His illness is still a joke, but it’s not something he’s proud of and genuinely wants to get better, he’s not even a horrible person like the other supes he’s just a guy suffering from a brain tumor. The tv show version was essentially a collection of weird fetishes and outdated Batman jokes.
Love sausage- Admittedly, he works well as a joke character in the show. However, in the comics he’s a likable side-character who makes several appearances and has a genuine friendship with Hughie which makes him infinitely better imo
James stillwell/Stan Edgar- Yes, I know the show had Madelyn stillwell in the first season but she was more of an original character with the opposite relationship with Homelander as the comic version. I think everyone knows Stan Edgar is supposed to be the show’s version of James stillwell, who definitely works and Giancarlo is great as always but he’s never given enough screen time. James is genuinely one of the best Ennis villains, his methodical manipulation of Jessica Bradley into making her the fall-guy for Vought, his antagonistic relationship with Homelander which was so good it was basically adapted one-to-one in the series, his cold unfeeling demeanor as the villain embodiment of the company, everything about this guy is just so badass
Ue - I went back and fourth with this one in the beginning, but I really think the series has taken Hughie in the wrong direction as the seasons have gone by. His masculinity complex arc in season 3 really fell apart toward the end, and season 4 had basically delegated him to a side-character and the butt of various sexual assault jokes, none of which are funny or remotely clever. Comic Hughie never loses his Main character status and his entire backstory is fleshed out, we even visit his childhood home and learn more about him than we ever did about tv ue. I also really liked him being Scottish, there’s just something so funny about reading the Scottish dialect and imagining how he sounds in real life.
Butcha- Y’all gonna jump on me over this one, but I really think Butcher is better in the comics. While he’s much more of an asshole, his motives, morals, and relationships are far more complex than the tv show version. This one is a little different than the others though because I really do like Karl Urban’s Butcher, I just prefer how the character is written in the comics. His complicated relationship with Hughie is also at the heart of the story, which is something the show acknowledges and does a pretty solid job adapting, particularly in season 3. As for his brutality, It makes sense that in a world where something as scary as Vought exists the guy who’s capable of taking them down is infinitely scarier than they are. There’s a lot more that I didn’t touch on with this one, but that’s the summary