In both the comic and television series, Noir is a member of the hedonistic and reckless Vought-American superhero group the Seven and is depicted as a "silent ninja" type parody of Batman, Snake Eyes and Deathstroke.

In the comic series arc Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men, Noir is revealed to be a clone of the Homelander and enhanced with Stormfront's DNA, created to replace him if he ever went rogue.

In the television series adaption, Noir, portrayed by Nathan Mitchell and Fritzy-Klevans Destine, is instead depicted as a brain-damaged African-American Supe named Earving, who is loyal to Vought CEO Stan Edgar.

[5] In the comic series, Black Noir is depicted as a member of the Vought-American-sponsored superhero team, The Seven, and the only superhuman created by Vought-American who can beat the Homelander in arm-wrestling.

In Issue #40, the Boys receive a series of incriminating photos seemingly showing the Homelander engaging in grisly acts of murder, cannibalism, and necrophilia against men, women, and children.

In private, Homelander shows signs of suffering a mental breakdown, talking to his own reflection in a mirror, and having bouts of nausea over the images, genuinely confused and horrified by their contents, events which a secretly watching Frenchie decides to keep from Butcher.

In Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men, he leads the other superheroes in a coup d'etat against the United States, launching an attack on the White House and killing everyone inside, including the Vought-controlled Vice President, under the guise of doing so for the Guy From Vought.

Before dying, Homelander manages to seriously injure his former teammate, allowing Butcher to later finish him off with a crowbar, before embarking on his own genocidal plan to kill all superheroes and those "Supes" with the genetic potential to become them.

In the second season, Noir is revealed to be the loyal enforcer of Vought CEO Stanford "Stan" Edgar, who directs his every action in combat, including killing the super-terrorist Naqib and tracking down Billy Butcher and the Boys.

Later, while attempting to apprehend the then-rogue Starlight, Noir is put into a coma by Queen Maeve after she exploits his tree nut allergy by forcing him to consume an Almond Joy and kicking his Epi-pen out of reach.

[10][11] In flashbacks to the Cold War depicted in the third season, Noir is revealed to be a man named Earving who had begun his superhero career and joined Payback, Vought's predecessor to the Seven.

Successfully gaining Homelander's trust, Black Noir writes him an excusatory speech to provide to the press outside, claiming the eco-terrorists had a bomb which he tried to stop.

[5] The original Black Noir is replaced by an aspiring actor who wears the same masked costume that hides his identity from the public; however, unlike his predecessor he is talkative in private and shown to be both excitable and nervous about his new role.

Later that day, Black Noir II and the Deep witness Sister Sage leaving Vought International after Homelander kicked her out for withholding information that A-Train was the leak.

While initially an enigma, it is revealed at the climax of the series that Black Noir is actually a clone of the Homelander, developed by Vought-American as a contingency, in case the leader of the Seven became a liability, and as such, has all of his powers, including heat vision, super strength, durability, flight, and enhanced vocal cords.

In the television series, Black Noir is depicted as a normal man imbued with Compound V. As a result, he gained superhuman strength, a regenerative healing factor and "silent ninja" aesthetic, with his only weakness being his tree nut allergy, in reference to both Superman's weakness to kryptonite and his actor Nathan Mitchell's real-life tree nut allergy.

Noir's role as a "failsafe" against Homelander was similarly supplanted by that of Homelander's son Ryan Butcher (primarily portrayed by Cameron Crovetti), a loose adaptation of the Supe baby killed by Butcher in the comic series after it killed his wife while she was giving birth to it,[22][23][24] with Kripke saying:[25][W]hat makes Noir 'Noir' is he's just this complete cipher; like, you just don't know anything about him and he's just completely mysterious.

"[5] To promote the third season of The Boys, Amazon Prime Video licensed a line of Black Noir action figures from MAFEX, NECA and the Japanese company MediCom Toy Incorporated.