Homelander: The Hero We Deserve?
A powerful man abusing the power he’s been given feels a little too real.
Truth, justice, and the American way are just three of the things that the noblest of heroes fight for. DC’s Superman and Marvel’s Captain America are two of the most beloved heroes in comic books and both are obvious inspirations for the biggest hero in The Boys universe, Homelander.
Whether reading the source material or watching the Amazon Prime show, Homelander is a key figure in The Boys and the leader of the Avengers/Justice League-inspired superteam, The Seven. Homelander is an obvious bastard right from the getgo but is he truly the evil that he seems, or is he the hero that today’s society made him?
Gifted/injected with an incredibly impressive powerset that includes flight, invulnerability, super strength, heat vision, and a whole lot more, Homelander is the answer to one of the biggest questions in comics: What would happen if Superman was a self-serving, fame-obsessed asshole? Right at the start of the first episode, we’re introduced to the two strongest members of The Seven in Queen Maeve and Homelander. After stopping bank robbers from getting away with their cash, Homelander is happy to take time for a bunch of selfies with some bystanders proving that he is the hero that the world loves. From there, Homelander’s actions only get worse and the bodies left in his wake, both living and dead, continue to pile up.
The first season ends with the reveal that Becca, Billy Butcher’s wife, is still alive and hidden away with Homelander’s kid, Ryan. This leads to the second season which dives even more into both Homelander’s origins and his… quirks which include a disturbing love for milk, and a cabin in the woods where he goes to, let’s say, relax. However, it’s his relationship with Stormfront that is the most questionable thing that Homelander does during the season, and the consequences of their unholy and deadly union will affect the direction of the show for the foreseeable future.
In the comic, Homelander is truly a mix of Superman and Captain America. The story told by Vought is that he was a baby that crashlanded on earth just like Superman, but the truth is he was just a human (or in his case a fetus) that was in injected with a drug, Compound V, to become superhuman just like Captain America. The comic book version of Homelander is every bit the asshole he is on the show, but unlike on the screen, his villainous ways are revealed right away. With Starlight an official member of the team, Homelander tells her that she needs to perform oral sex on him to complete her initiation into The Seven. This is a massive change from the show in which The Deep is the only member of The Seven to take advantage of Annie. In the source material, however, Homelander is joined by Black Noir and A-Train in the assault of Starlight. For fans of the comic, this might paint Homelander in a bit of a better light, but the television version of the “hero” does more than enough to make up for not being involved in Annie’s assault. Of course, the big motivator for Billy Butcher in the show is that Homelander raped his wife Becca, which remains the same in the comic but, without spoiling anything, the comic reveals a huge secret about the incident that the TV series may end up eventually taking as well.
Regardless of what Homelander does in the comic in comparison to what he does in the show, the man is still a monster. From letting a packed plane full of passengers crash to their deaths to Becca’s rape and the hiding away of her and his child, two seasons into the show Homelander is already an irredeemable character that’s far too gone to ever being more than a villain. However, is Homelander truly an evil piece of shit or is he just a product of today’s society?
With the world in the current state that it’s in, a hero the likes of Homelander seems right at home. He plays it up for the camera and has a giant corporation, PR people, and tons of money to not only back him up but to cover up his actions, which isn’t wholly different to many of the privileged, white men currently in power in America. Besides the good looks and the superpowers, not much separates Homelander from the idiot currently in charge of America. Both are terrorists that want nothing more than to be loved and crave attention, which Homelander proves when Stormfront tells him how close they are to being “free” from all the adoration and attention from the world, and both are responsible for a mass amount of deaths. The difference being that Homelander is a fictional piece of shit and the idiot in the White House is an all too real piece of shit. In fact, despite all the terrible things he’s done, Homelander displays the hint that a moral compass could exist in him (something the leader of the free world is completely void of) as evidenced by his reaction when Stormfront introduces the idiotic idea of white genocide to Ryan.
In the world of The Boys, the public adores Homelander and The Seven enough to put them on a pedestal and they feel protected by a man who has done some truly horrific things and not all, if any, for the benefit of the world. If this all sounding a little too close to home, it should and it should also sound scary. While the MCU has racked up billions of dollars worldwide, the unfortunate truth is that a hero like Steve Rogers, Captain America, wouldn’t work in 2020 and with social media, idol worship, and powerful men who abuse their power for their own means being so common nowadays, Homelander feels like the hero that the world today deserves.
Of course, the character would not work without the absolutely show-stealing performance that Antony Starr turns in. Before The Boys, the New Zealand-born actor was most known for his role in the Cinemax show, Banshee. While critically acclaimed, the show didn’t create nearly enough buzz and Starr ended up on the CBS show American Gothic, which was canceled after only one season. The team behind The Boys pulled off the perfect casting with Starr in the role of Homelander, both in his ability to portray the cold, mostly uncaring character and just on his look in comparison to the source material. For those who read the comics, Starr has that blonde hair, blue-eyed all-American look down, and that goddamn smile works both when he’s attempting to be disarming, and when he’s just being downright creepy. Starr is the breakout of the show and, hopefully, he gets recognition for his work and doesn’t get typecast in future roles down the line.
The Boys show debuted on Amazon Prime at the perfect time and Homelander is proof of that. Although the original character was conceived in 2006, during the George W. Bush-era, in which times were turbulent but still nothing compared to today, Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson must have had their cynical crystal ball in hand when they created a character that reflected where society would end up just 14 years later.
Homelander is no Superman and he definitely is no Captain America. However, with the state of America, and the world, being what it is, Homelander very much feels like the hero that 2020 deserves. Putting an egomaniacal mass murderer in the position of the world’s most powerful man, unfortunately, just feels all too real today.
