The Boys season 3 introduces Little Nina - another character from the comics. How is she different (and how is she similar) to the original version?
Caution: 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 comic books. Narrowly escaping penetration from a budget Ant-Man and disintegration from a budget Scarlet Witch, Frenchie endures a tough start to The Boys season 3. His problems deepen when Cherie - Frenchie's girlfriend introduced in season 1 - asks for help after upsetting a notorious Russian gangster by the name of Little Nina. Though Tomer Capone's ever-chivalrous character does his best to assist, Little Nina soon comes after him instead.
Played by Katia Winter, Little Nina interrogates Frenchie in her own unique style and demands he atone by assassinating Cherie personally. Troubled, he takes this news to Billy Butcher, who just so happens to be seeking a route into Russia for his own Soldier Boy-related purposes. Seeing the timely arrival of a Russian gangster as a serendipitous act of universal providence, Butcher suggests paying Little Nina a little visit.
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Little Nina hails from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's original The Boys comic series but, as if often the case with Amazon's adaptation, plenty gets changed in translation. Here's how Katia Winter's Little Nina compares to her comic counteraprt.
Little Nina's nickname is rather literal, derived from her limited height. Another well-known Nina trait is her penchant for vibrators, as she avoids getting close to people she may have to kill later. Though a Russian mobster first and foremost, Nina strikes an arrangement with Vought, receiving a shipment of Compound-V (not exactly the stable kind) 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 staging a super-powered coup and seizing control of her entire country, and while Vought claims to support this endeavor, the company predictably betrays her, only ever interested in recruiting the supes Little Nina's extensive connections could gather. Whereas Little Nina planned to let her supes run riot then bring them all down using a detonator, Vought leave her without a crucial component - a working detonator.
Butcher and the Boys get a sniff of Vought and Little Nina's plan, so visit Russia to investigate, joining up with old pal Love Sausage. On her corporate sponsor's request, Nina does her best to handle the "five men and a dog" problem, but in Mother Russia, the problem handles her. Butcher secretly sneaks a bomb into her vibrator, taking Nina off the board permanently.
Name aside, Katia Winter's Little Nina is hugely different from the comic incarnation. The Boys season 3's character is Russian, she's a gangster, and her name carries a formidable reputation even Frenchie is intimidated by. That's more or less where the similarities end. Whereas comic Nina remains based in Russia, the live-action character is operating in New York City. And while The Boys' Nina evidently controls a hefty criminal empire, she's still just a regular mob drug trafficker rather than the all-powerful coup instigator from the comics. Even her appearance is totally different, with the "Little" part of Little Nina purely figurative, and the famous black bowl cut of the comic books replaced by a more socially-acceptable hairdo.
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Perhaps the biggest change The Boys season 3 makes to Little Nina lies in her personal connection to the Boys themselves. When Butcher hears Little Nina's name in the comic books, he admits to knowing her through reputation alone. Karl Urban's Butcher, on the other hand, clearly has personal experience with Little Nina from before The Boys season 1. Not to mention Frenchie once worked for (and slept with) the mobster. This personal connection completely flips the dynamic between Little Nina and Butcher's crew in The Boys season 3.
Amazon's The Boys does, however, drop a selection of Easter eggs alluding toward Little Nina's roots. When Katia Winter's character remembers fun times with Frenchie and a strap-on, The Boys is referring to her comic book vibrator habit, while the line, "We both have had bigger things than the government up our asses" nods to a specific comic scene where two onlookers marveled over the size of a sex toy Little Nina was using in a public bathroom.
More: The Boys' Laser Baby May Foreshadow A Season 3 Twist
The Boys continues Friday on Prime Video.
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