Jared Padalecki finally makes his arrival in The Boys season five, and it was as chaotically delightful as we’d imagine. Fans have been waiting to see him onscreen with Jensen Ackles to bring the Winchester brothers together again in a different universe. We’d gotten small tidbits about Mr. Marathon, the speedster character that Jared Padalecki plays in The Boys, but it wasn’t clear what his role would be. Could he help the Boys like our recently departed A-Train? Or would he be an antagonist on Homelander’s side? Who is Mr. Marathon in The Boys and how does Jared Padalecki’s character show up? It turns out he’s not on anyone’s side in particular.
Soldier Boy and Homelander press Stan Edgar, who is locked up at Vought, for information. He genuinely doesn’t know where any V-One is or where Bombsight, who may have it, is at. But he says that there’s someone who could give them more answers. That person is Marathon, a former member of the Seven who lives in Hollywood. He lost his place in the collective when Homelander replaced him with a faster A-Train. It’s a pain point that he brings up when Soldier Boy and A-Train show up at his mansion but he agrees to have Bombsight come over. However, Marathon has an agenda of his own.
He teams up with another supe, Malchemical (played by another Supernatural alum Misha Collins) to temporarily knock Homelander out. Malchemical uses his powers of gaseous breath to do so, which initially angers Soldier Boy. We see Sam and Dean, ummmm, we mean Soldier Boy and Marathon have a conversation along with Malchemical about why they did this.
They are upset that Homelander’s freedom camps and weird religious stances are locking up all the cool people, like drug dealers and sex workers. Marathon and Malchemical want Soldier Boy to blast Homelander and take away his powers so he can no longer ruin America. Honestly, I dig the thought process.
However, Soldier Boy is not with it, and he quickly dispatches Malchemical. After a lot of bloody chaos involving Marathon accidentally running through a host of his comedian friends, Soldier Boy ends up beat him down to get information. Marathon dies when Homelander stomps his head in after waking up, ending all the fun like he always does. Well darn. Jared Padalecki’s time on The Boys as Marathon was more like a sprint, but we loved to see him all the same.