The Deep | Kevin Moskowitz

Kevin Moskowitz was born in the mid 80s and, like all superheroes, was experimented on at birth by Vought International with Compound V. Kevin first became aware of his aquatic telepathy at nine years of age, as he began hearing the thoughts of every aquatic animal he encountered, whether at a pet store, aquarium, beach, or Red Lobster. At first, he believed was going insane; however, his mother deceived him, calling it a gift and that he was just born that way. Over time his body would continue to mutate, sprouting aquatic gills on his torso, a trait that Kevin was highly insecure about as he believed himself to be ugly and afraid that people would reject him. At some point, Kevin attended and graduated from Godolkin University and was ranked number six.

Kevin eventually became a superhero known as The Deep, rising through fame and stardom as one of America’s greatest superheroes and a founding member to the world famous superhero team The Seven. By 2007, he was popular enough to have his own installment in the Vought Cinematic Universe: Rising Tide. However, despite (or perhaps, due to) his rising fame, his insecurities and shame would only escalate. Over the years, The Deep would sexually harass, humiliate, or assault most of the women he encountered as a way to feel less worthless, thinking they would do the same to him if they knew about his gills, a unique physical feature of his which gave him tremendous body dysmorphic disorder. One year at a VH1 Educator Award Ceremony, The Deep had an encounter with a kindergarten teacher named Melissa Dabrowski, who The Deep was supposed to award teacher of the year. While backstage, he “fingerbanged” Melissa and abandoned her right after while she was dressing herself, humiliating her.

Over the years, The Deep became good friends with fellow heroes such as Lamplighter, another member of The Seven, but received habitually verbal abuse and hazing from other heroes such as Homelander and A-Train, due to their sense of superiority to both him and his powers. Following Lamplighters retirement from hero work, The Deep was chosen to host the debut of The Seven’s newest member and Lamplighter’s replacement, Starlight.

Taking Starlight on a tour of Vought Tower, the two eventually arrive in the conference room of The Seven. As The Deep initially appears charming and supportive of the newest team member, he begins to masturbate in front of her when Starlight reveals she had a "crush" on him as a child. Starlight, appalled, begins to leave, but is told by The Deep that he is The Seven's #2, second only to Homelander in importance to the group. He then threatens Starlight with expulsion from The Seven if she does not perform oral sex on him. Buying into The Deep's ruse, Starlight submits to this blackmail.

The Deep uses this to mock her the day afterward. However, on advice from Queen Maeve, Starlight is able to move past it and ignore him. When they are on a mission, The Deep mocks Starlight repeatedly, still maintaining the charade of being regarded as second only to Homelander in importance to the team.

Starlight then informs him that she has since learned that the Deep has lied about his importance to the group, and he is, in fact, regarded as "a joke." She further threatens to burn his eyes out if he so much as touches her again. The Deep is visibly shaken by her threats, but tries to maintain a calm facade.

After Starlight reveals at the Believe Expo that she was sexually assaulted, withholding the name of the man who did it, Madelyn Stillwell confronts The Deep, correctly deducing he was Starlight's assailant based on his prior history of sexually assaulting women. Vought becomes worried that their stock will dive and they will gain negative publicity for promoting a sex offender, leading to them force The Deep to publicly apologize to Starlight and all his previous victims.

As punishment, Vought sends The Deep to Sandusky, Ohio, on sabbatical from The Seven. The Deep finds this difficult initially, believing himself to be so much more than a small-town hero. While in Sandusky, The Deep himself is sexually assaulted by a woman who forces her fingers into his gills (a process that is excruciating for him) and fails in trying to save a live lobster from a supermarket fish section. The Deep questions when he will return to the public spotlight, and is shocked to find out that Vought does not intend on him regaining his former position as part of The Seven.

Continuing where the show left off, The Deep continues to struggle with coping with his sabbatical. The Deep is brought to an all-time low when, while viewing Translucent's funeral on TV at a bar, he notices that he has been edited out of the group photos shown during a montage. After The Deep gets arrested for creating an alcohol-driven public disturbance at a water park, he's bailed out of jail by Eagle the Archer who offers to help him build his reputation back. With the assistance of Carol, a member of the Church of the Collective, The Deep is given medication that allows him to communicate with his body. At first he rejects his body until his gills tell The Deep that he deserves to be happy and to be loved, but must learn to love himself. Furthermore, Carol promises Deep if he continues to follow the process, he'll be worthy of rejoining The Seven. Eventually The Deep participates in a planned marriage by Carol in order to help him gain the right kind of public attention. At the end of We Gotta Go Now, Queen Maeve approaches The Deep and makes him an offer: He helps her with a favor, and she'll help earn the Deep more positive publicity. Maeve's conditions in the deal are revealed in The Bloody Doors Off, she wants The Deep to search the wreckage of Flight 37 for footage of her and Homelander leaving the passengers to die. He returns and hands her a damaged GoPro camera with footage of a man recording Maeve and Homelander debating with each other on whether or not to let all of the passengers die.

While at the movie set for Dawn of the Seven, he attempts to recruit A-Train and offers him lunch with him and the chairman, Alastair Adana. There, the two attempt to recruit A-Train as a member. Eventually A-Train joins because Adana has information on his abuse of Compound V. At Adan's birthday party in Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, Deep and A-Train bond, with A-Train giving Deep a pet fish and apologizing for harassing him in the past. Alistair arrives and says he arranged a meeting with Stan Edgar and promises them both they will get back into The Seven. Alistair then questions them on their opinion on Eagle the Archer. Deep first calls Eagle his friend, however he changes his mind quickly and berates Eagle the moment Alistair calls Eagle a toxic personality. A-Train and Deep are seen in a bar at the end of the episode. There, they watch a news article with Eagle admitting that he was kicked out the church because he refused to follow the program which would've "required" him to cut all ties with his mother. To the shock of A-Train, Deep still chastises Eagle. A-Train asks Deep why he is so quick to turn on the man he once called a friend. Deep ignores A-Train and asks the bartender to change the channel to the Congressional Hearings. Deep and A-Train can only watch as the courtroom is massacred. Deep grasps his head to check if it's going to explode too, to his relief it doesn't.

Deep and A-Train do meet with Alistair in What I Know, from there, Alistair reveals he knows A-Train broke into the archives room and stole information on Stormfront. Deep chastises A-Train in an attempt to win positivity with Alistair, however. Alistair reveals it was a positive thing and thanks to A-Train's efforts in removing Stormfront, A-Train is allowed back into The Seven. The Deep once again changes his attitude and congratulates A-Train. Deep asks if he's also back in, but Alistair says Vought refused him because "One hero is a redemption, two is weakness." Deep is furious with the church because of this and begins criticizing The Church. Alistair then calls him toxic so Deep insults him one last time before storming off.

The Deep is later on referenced by Vought News Network anchor Cameron Coleman, who says that after abandoning the Church, the Deep started openly criticizing and making allegations against it, accusing it of psychological manipulation, corporate corruption and "an unholy obsession with Fresca", especially Adana, who once again was "unaccounted for" (due to being murdered by Victoria Neuman for blackmail shortly after Deep's departure from the Church).