How did Mother’s Milk get his name in The Boys? We know from the original comics that MM is a shortened version of Mother’s Milk, but still – what is the origin of his moniker and does MM have any super powers?
Each character of The Boys Season 2 has a pretty self-explanatory nickname, but one of the main characters seems to be overlooked in the Amazon Prime video adaptation. You’ll notice Hughie, Frenchie and Billy Butcher call him MM and his name is never said on screen unless you watch it with subtitles.
So, how did Mother’s Milk get his name?
Mother’s Milk name origin
Mother’s Milk (MM), the same as every main character, has his own arc, which is explained in issue #35 of The Boys comic entitled Nothing Like It In The World.
The story behind his name is that as a baby his mother attempted to wean him off her breast milk but every time she did he would start to die. His mother’s milk was equivalent to his life force and this carried on into his adult life. Another woman’s breast milk wouldn’t have the same effect – but we’ll get to why shortly.
In normal circumstances a mother would stop breastfeeding naturally as she wouldn’t be able to produce but, as MM literally can’t live without his mother’s breast milk, we can assume she is still somehow producing milk he keeps close to hand.
Mother’s Milk has a real name – Marvin T Milk – but this isn’t really mentioned. His character arc – and why he keeps his name MM – revolves mainly around his Mother’s Milk’s backstory and not just the name’s origins.
MM’s backstory
MM’s mother worked at a warehouse packing cans of dog food. In the same location, experiments were conducted with a compound – V – which acted in the same way as radiation and started poisoning anything it came in contact with.
Naturally, after prolonged exposure, all the factory workers were affected. Some contracted illnesses, some died, others survived but with side effects. MM’s mother is one of the affected.
With V permanently in her system, she passed her powers on to her two children – Michael and MM. This is why MM needs his mother’s breast milk as it is pumped full of compound V.
After finding out Vought is responsible for affecting his children, MM’s father took the company to court and won the lawsuit. Not long after the settlement, one of the side effects of V kicked in for Michael and he started growing at a rapid rate while wearing a helmet, which ended up crushing his skull.
The stress was all too much for MM’s father, who died of a heart attack shortly after that. This is something MM mentions briefly on The Boys season 2, episode 4.
Does Mother’s Milk have super powers?
A short while after that, MM’s mother became bed-bound. To help her pay off debts, MM joined the military, but was court-martialled after accidentally killing someone when his powers kicked in unannounced.
This is when Billy Butcher came in and offered MM the chance of revenge against Vought, resulting in him joining The Boys. Somewhere down the line, in the comics, there’s a ceasefire between The Boys and Supes at Vought but this is all brought to a head again when MM is stuck on Brooklyn Bridge on the day of 9/11.
After the Brooklyn Bridge incident, MM teams up with The Boys again in the CIA’s bid to destroy The Seven and other Supes – and this is where Amazon Prime’s The Boys picks up the thread. The rest is TV history.
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