Homelander

"You guys...are the real heroes."

- Homelander's most famous quote "I'm the Homelander. I can do whatever the f-ck I want."

- Homelander

Homelander is the secondary antagonist of the highly controversial adult comic-book series The Boys and the main antagonist of its 2019 Amazon Prime TV adaptation.

Like most of the superheroes in his universe he is a dark-as-mud parody of more popular superheroes such as Superman and Captain America but deconstructed into a twisted protagonist villain.

Indeed while most superheroes are flawed but ultimately benevolent beings Homelander is the exact opposite - He is a powerful entity and highly malicious super-being who will do anything he desires, being a sexual predator and wanton criminal.

Homelander is the leader of the famous group known as the Seven, who often make matters worse rather than improve any situation and Homelander is among the worst of the already sociopathic team, believing he can treat others as less than human because he gained such immense power.

He is portrayed by in the TV series.

Comics
In the comic series, Homelander is the leader of the Seven and one of the most powerful superheroes of Vought International, displaying powers very similar to those of Superman, an iconic DC Comics character.

Homelander was experimented on with Compound V, before birth, as a subject of Vought's experiments with Compound V, like much of the other "Supes" managed by Vought. As a result, he has developed abilities such as super strength, heat and x-ray vision, sonic scream and flight. At a young age, in Vought's experiments, he was tied to a nuclear bomb, in case of his aggressiveness. To the public, in cover-up of the truth, his origin was claimed as "crash-landed on Earth", like of DC Comics' Superman.

He is thought to be the one who raped Butcher's wife and got her pregnant, ultimately resulting in her death. It is later revealed Black Noir was the rapist. After being driven crazy by being Blackmailed by Butcher and finding out Noir did it, he attempted to kill Noir, only to be killed himself.

Origins
The public story released by Vought-America is that that the Homelander is an alien who dropped down to earth as a baby and was raised by parents in a small town. In reality, Homelander was a part of a series of twisted experiments to create super soldiers that VA could market as "superheroes" to the public. He was one of seven children given copious amounts of Compound V while in the womb.

Compound V was a powerful chemical developed by Nazi scientists to give humans (and other beings) incredible superpowers, but with a litany of side-effects depending on the physiological makeup of the person and the amount used. As a result, Homelander gained incredible power, but his sociopathic upbringing in a paramilitary science lab and exposure to experimental drugs, The Homelander grew up with low moral standards and little sanity.

Superhero Career
As the Homelander began his superhero career with the rest of The Seven (a superhero team meant to parody the Justice League) it became clear that their extreme power and lack of morals would often make disasters worse. Despite starting out optimistic and genuinely wanting to do good, Homelander found himself causing destruction and death everywhere he went. Homelander and The Seven found themselves protected from the consequences of their actions by Vought America, who used their lucrative government connections, expensive legal teams, and powerful PR firms to cover-up or sanitize their actions.

Immune to all forms of damage, Homelander also grew immune to his own humanity, and helping people was no longer a priority. He now became obsessed with hedonism and destruction. He became a living antithesis of what a superhero should be, and his actions grew more depraved, violent and cruel by the day.

Descent Into Madness
The Homelander was terrified to find an anonymous source began blackmailing him with photos of various horrific acts he apparently took part in. He was especially distraught to realize he had no memory of committing any of these atrocities. This even made him even crueler, and slowly but surely the Homelander went from a selfish hedonist to a full-blown violent murderer and torturer.

The Homelander, emboldened by his growing insanity and sadism, began toying with the idea of a "superhero uprising" where he and his fellow false heroes could rise up and destroy all the world governments, effectively taking over the world. He attempted to spread this message at a Superhero award show, only to be intimidated by one of the corporate elites from Vought America, causing him to run away in fear.

These events destroyed any remaining sanity or morality in The Homelander.

The Revelation
The Homelander would eventually put his dreams of an uprising into action, and he and his fellow false heroes would launch a full-scale attack on the white house, killing any other heroes who refused to join them. They were eventually all slaughtered or otherwise defeated.

During a confrontation with Billy Butcher after murdering the president, Homelander was horrified when his teammate Black Noir was actually his clone, created by Vought-America to destroy him if he ever went out of line. Unfortunately, Black Noir was even crueler and viler than Homelander, and was actually the one responsible for the atrocities Homelander saw in the photographs. Distraught by this revelation and the fact that he could have been a real hero all this time if everyone around him didn't constantly manipulate him and tried to kill Black Noir, only for the latter to kill him instead. Before dying Homelander managed to severely injure Black Noir weakening him enough for Billy Butcher to kill him, avenging his wife and child and ending his rampage.

TV Series
Homelander is the main antagonist of the television series, subordinate to fellow antagonist Madelyn Stillwell but far more powerful. Like the comics, he is leader of The Seven and is an arrogant, violent "hero" who cares more about his public image than saving others.

Personality
On the surface, Homelander presents himself as a charismatic superhero, warm, altruistic and revolted by any form of injustice. He often encourages his allies by telling them "that they are the real heroes".

In reality, he is a merciless, sarcastic, mocking, cold, horrible, hypocritical and above all arrogant psychopath.

Because of his immense power, he believes he is superior to the whole of humanity; that is how he does not hesitate to crash a plane, let dozens of people die and rape women.

His manipulative and devious side is also demonstrated when he pursues his own plans behind Madelyn Stillwell's back, creating super-terrorists with the complicity of A-Train.

Powers and abilities

 * Superhuman Strength: One of Homelander's primary abilities is his tremendous superhuman strength. He possesses the greatest level of strength ever seen, allowing him to effortlessly overpower any opponent. After he and Queen Maeve intercepted a robbery, he threw the first thief far away and high into the air. He also embedded his fist in a shooter's torso. In "The Female of the Species" Homelander stated was unable to carry the hijacked plane to safety, suggesting that he is unable to use his full strength in flight, requiring a solid surface to take full advantage of his power. He was later able to throw a baseball from New York to Boston.
 * Invulnerability: Homelander seems to be immune to all forms of physical harm and is thereby the most resilient of the Seven, and possibly of all Supes. As such, he is not only completely bulletproof but is also unfazed by explosions, such as when Billy blew up the Stillwell residence with him inside it.
 * Superhuman Speed: Homelander can fly at extremely fast speeds, enough to keep up with Steve's plane so he could destroy it.
 * Heat Vision: Homelander is able to generate powerful heat energy from within his eyes and can project them outwards as high powered energy beams. These blasts of energy are so powerful that they appear to be able to cut through anything, such as Steve's plane. He also used his heat vision to melt a thief's gun to the latter's hand.
 * X-Ray Vision: Homelander's vision allows him to see through any solid object or surface, with the exception of objects and surfaces that are lined with zinc.
 * Superhuman Hearing: Homelander possesses tremendous auditory awareness, allowing him to detect sounds from miles away. He can also use this power to detect a person's heartbeat, and can tell when they are excited or anxious, such as when he detected Hughie Campbell's blood pressure to be 150/90.
 * Flight: Homelander is able to levitate and propel himself at great speeds, allowing him to cover vast distances in a matter of minutes.

Trivia

 * He suffers from an Oedipus Complex, being very close to Madelyn Stillwell, who is close to mother he had.
 * He's an obvious villainous parody to Superman. It is quite plausible that he is far weaker than the Man of Steel as he cannot lift the plane to save the passengers which is why he let them die. Furthermore, he also doesn't have experience in fighting super-powered villains like Superman.

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