Homelander

The Homelander
The Boys character
The Homelander as portrayed in the comics book series (left) and the television series (right) by Antony Starr
First appearance	Comic series: The Boys #3 (November 2006) Television series: "The Name of the Game" The Boys Season 1 (July 2019)
Last appearance	The Boys #65 (April 2012)
Created by	Garth Ennis Darick Robertson
Adapted by	Eric Kripke
Portrayed by	Antony Starr Rowan Smyth (young)
In-universe information
Full name	John
Species	Supe
Gender	Male
Title	The Homelander
Occupation	Superhero Leader of The Seven Vought-American test subject
Family	Jonah Vogelbaum (creator) Stormfront (biological father) Black Noir (clone; comic series) Unnamed mother
Significant others	Queen Maeve (formerly) Soldier Boy (Herogasm) Madelyn Stillwell (season 1) Stormfront (season 2)
Children	Ryan Butcher (son, television series)
Nationality	American
Abilities	Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, smell, and hearing Poison and Toxin Immunity Regenerative Healing Factor Invulnerability Heat vision X-Ray vision Flight

The Homelander (John) is a supervillain in the comic book series The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The leader of a group of hedonistic and reckless superheroes funded by Vought dubbed The Seven, and the archenemy of CIA black ops agent Billy Butcher, the Homelander is depicted as an arrogant narcissist thought by Butcher to be a sadistic psychopath who cares little about the well-being of those he professes to protect. Initially serving as the primary antagonist of the series, the Homelander is eventually overridden by Black Noir, revealed to be a deranged clone of the Homelander created to kill and replace him if he ever went rogue, who framed him for the rape and death of Butcher's wife (and various other acts of murder, cannibalism, and necrophilia), as part of a plan to gradually drive him insane in order to be allowed by Vought to do so, having been driven insane himself by a lack of purpose.

In the Amazon Prime Video streaming television adaptation, John (simply known as Homelander) is portrayed by Antony Starr and Rowan Smyth. This Homelander is depicted as a nationalistic and lactophiliac father of Ryan Butcher (having committed the acts of the comic series version of Black Noir), who becomes romantically and sexually involved with Madelyn Stillwell and Stormfront.

Appearances[]

Comic book series[]

The Homelander is a patriotic superhero who leads the superhero team, The Seven, and the most powerful superhuman created by Vought-American. The company's cover story for the Homelander is that he is an alien who landed in the United States as an infant, much like Superman. In reality, he was grown in a secret laboratory, the progeny of genetic material taken from Stormfront, who was injected with Compound V while still a member of the Hitler Youth. Homelander spent most of his young life chained down with a hydrogen bomb strapped to him in case he tried to escape. His mother was a mentally disabled woman who died giving birth to him, similar to how Butcher's wife died giving birth after she was raped.

Homelander remains under the financial thumb of VA, as their money funds the Seven's hedonistic lifestyle. Homelander eventually tries to encourage the other superheroes to do what they want, but relents due to his fear towards his boss James Stillwell.

Until the events of the series' climax, it is implied that Homelander had raped Billy Butcher's wife, Becky, who then died giving birth to a superhuman baby Billy had then killed. In Issue #40, the Boys receive a series of incriminating photos seemingly showing Homelander engaging in grisly acts of murder, cannibalism, and necrophilia against men, women, and children. The series eventually reveals that Homelander cannot remember either these incidents or the rape of Billy's wife, and suggests that Homelander has dissociative identity disorder and may have sent the photographs to Billy himself. In private, Homelander shows signs of suffering a mental breakdown, talking to his own reflection in a mirror, and having bouts of nausea. He eventually decides that he is damned anyway for the acts depicted in the photos, and decides to give in to any intrusive thoughts that cross his mind.

From Herogasm onwards, Homelander resolves to free himself and the superhero community from Vought-American's control. 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 Vice President. During the subsequent confrontation between Homelander and Butcher, the masked Black Noir arrives in the Oval Office and reveals himself to be a clone of Homelander created solely to kill and replace him if he ever went rogue. Gradually being driven insane due to not being allowed to kill Homelander, Noir reveals that he committed the atrocities documented in the photos and had raped Becky to set Butcher and Homelander against one another so that he would be given authorization to fulfill his purpose. Outraged, Homelander attacks Black Noir, who proceeds to tear Homelander apart. Before dying, Homelander manages to seriously injure his former teammate, allowing Butcher to later finish him off with a crowbar.

Television series[]

The Boys[]

In the television adaptation, Antony Starr plays the Homelander. As interpreted within the television series, he is considered by some reviewers to be analogous to DC's Superman.^[1][2] Having been reared in a laboratory environment to become Homelander, John Vogelbaum displays many sociopathic tendencies and is openly contemptuous of those he considers lesser beings. He is also possessive, paranoid, vindictive, insensitive, reckless with his powers, and incapable of accepting the possibility of any flaw in his person or decision-making. Serving as a composite character with the comic version of Black Noir, unlike in the comic series, Homelander is the one that raped Butcher's wife, Becca, but left her alive and, though he was unaware of it until the end of the season, pregnant with his child. His discovery of the lies surrounding his child's existence influence his decision to maim the scientist responsible for his upbringing, Jonah Vogelbaum, and murder Madelyn Stillwell. However, his emotional incompetence and sociopathic traits initially alienate him from his son, and the loss of Stillwell's moderating influence on his behavior unbalances him further. He enters a sexual relationship with Stormfront, despite a difficult beginning, and conspires with her to remove his son from Becca's care and turn the public against "supervillains", creating public outcry for the creation of more superheroes. Stormfront is critically injured by Homelander's son Ryan, and Homelander is blackmailed by Maeve into letting the boy go and leaving her alone.

Powers and abilities[]

The Homelander's powers include heat vision, super strength, durability, flight, and enhanced vocal cords. He also ages more slowly than a normal human, due to Compound V. Though it is mentioned that his first name is John, there is no indication that he ever uses an alias or secret identity. In the finale of the first season of the Television Series, when asked about Homerlander's weakness, Madelyn Stillwell claims he does not have one, saying, "There isn't a weapon on Earth that they haven't thrown at him. They've all failed.'

The Homelander's powers and sense of entitlement have led him to exhibit extreme megalomania, causing him to commit crimes against innocent people, including acts of rape and mass murder, out of the idea that he can do anything he wants because of who he is.^[3]

Development[]

The character was designed as an evil version of Captain America and Superman. His cape pulled to the left resembles the first costume of Captain Marvel a.k.a. Shazam.^[4] Homelander's backstory in the original comics is similar to that in the television adaption of The Boys.^[5] The character was toned down for television in comparison to his comics counterpart.^[6]

Garth Ennis describes Homelander as: "an almost entirely negative character. He is really just a series of unpleasant urges kept in check by his own intelligence, which is enough to understand that he can have anything he wants so long as he doesn't push his luck too far." Also: "It might help to think of the Homelander as having all the self-control of let’s say a fourteen-year-old."^[7]

The Boys producer and showrunner Eric Kripke has stated that while Homelander can "in theory" be killed, a plot twist which involved the character being killed by his clone Black Noir in the comic book version will not be used in the television adaptation, where Black Noir is instead depicted as a black man and the character's psychopathic traits are amalgamated with Homelander.^[8][9][10]

Reception[]

The character and Starr's portrayal in the series have received critical acclaim.^[11][12]

The character has been described as the living personification of how the world sees America.^[13][14] Homelander has been compared to Captain America and Superman.^{[1][2][15][16]}

References[]