The Homelander (John)Ennis, Garth; Robertson, Darick (October 4, 2006) The Boys #3. WildStorm. Homelander: "John. And it's not Starlight all the time, is it?"Cragg, Nelson; Monahan Ellie (June 17, 2022) The Boys Season 3: "The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies" "Queen Maeve: John- Homelander: Don't you fucking John me." is a character in the adult superhero comic book series The Boys created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The Homelander is the psychopathic, narcissistic, and extremely powerful leader of The Seven—the world's premier and secretly hedonistic team of superheroes (referred to as "Supes") bred and funded by the multi-billion dollar conglomerate Vought-American. Beneath his public image as a noble hero, the Homelander recklessly abuses his powers for personal gain and cares little about the well-being of those he professes to protect. He has been described as a personification of negative perceptions of the United States. As a satirical parody of the DC Comics character Superman, the Homelander's powers include superhuman strength, speed, flight, X-ray and heat vision, and near-invulnerability. He serves as the archenemy of Billy Butcher, the leader of "The Boys", a team of CIA-sponsored vigilantes dedicated to opposing corrupt Supes.
In the Amazon Prime Video television adaptation of the same name developed by Eric Kripke, the character, simply known as Homelander, is portrayed by Antony Starr. This version is the megalomaniacal son of Soldier Boy and the father of Ryan Butcher, born as a result of Homelander raping Billy Butcher's wife Becca (a crime committed by Black Noir in the comics). Kripke has stated that he views the series' version of Homelander as a metaphor for U.S. president Donald Trump. Starr has reprised his role as the character in both spin-off instalments of the franchise, including The Boys Presents: Diabolical and Gen V, and outside media such as Death Battle!. Starr's performance has received acclaim.
Appearances Comic book series The Boys (2006–2012)
Homelander is a supposedly patriotic superhero who leads the superhero team The Seven. He is the most powerful superhuman created by Vought-American. The company's cover story for Homelander is that he is an alien who landed in the United States as an infant, much like Superman. In reality, he and the rest of the original roster of the Seven were 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. Homelander remains under the financial thumb of V, 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 of his boss "The Vought Guy"/"The Guy from Vought".
Until the events of the series' climax, Billy Butcher is tricked into thinking Homelander had raped his wife Becca, who then died giving birth to a superhuman baby Butcher had then killed. In Issue #40, the Boys receive a series of incriminating doctored photos seemingly showing 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. 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 onward, Homelander resolves to free himself and the superhero community from Vought-American's control. 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 president. During the subsequent confrontation between Homelander and Butcher, the masked Black Noir arrives in the Oval Office and reveals himself as a clone of Homelander (the first of the Seven grown after him), created solely to kill Homelander if he ever went rogue. Gradually driven insane due to not being allowed to kill Homelander, Noir reveals he committed the atrocities in the photos, including raping Butcher's wife, to trick the initially truly benevolent Homelander so that Noir would finally be allowed to fulfill his purpose. Outraged, Homelander attacks Black Noir. Black Noir and Homelander violently brutalise each other as Butcher flees, due to Homelander's lasers destroying the room. A badly wounded Noir emerges from the White House holding only a section of Homelander's arm and ribs, having torn him apart with his bare hands. Butcher then orders the waiting Marines to open fire, bringing Noir to his knees, before killing him by beating his head open with a crowbar and crushing his prefrontal cortex with his hands, hoping that Noir's memory of raping Becca is destroyed in the process.
DC K.O.: Boss Battle (2026)
Homelander was incorporated into the DC Multiverse over the comic-book event DC K.O. in 2026, revealed to still be alive in other universes, where he takes on Superman in a one-on-one duel, with Superman noting Homelander's laser vision to be equal to his own.
Television series The Boys (2019–2026)
In the television adaptation, Antony Starr plays Homelander as an adult, with Rowan Smyth playing him as a child in the first season, and Isaac Weeks playing him as a child in the fourth season. As interpreted within the television series, he is considered by some reviewers to be analogous to DC's Superman. As leader of the Seven, Homelander is viewed by the general public as an affable, sincere and acclaimed superhero and a modern icon of America; however, having been poorly raised in a laboratory environment by Vought scientist Jonah Vogelbaum, he is in fact a sociopathic narcissist who is openly contemptuous of both humans and Supes that he considers "lesser" beings. He is also highly self-righteous, nihilistic, hedonistic, delusional, possessive, paranoid, vindictive, insecure, insensitive, racist, hypocritical, reckless with his powers, and incapable of accepting the possibility of any flaw in his person or decision-making.
In 2011, eight years before the events of season one, Homelander rapes Billy Butcher's wife Becca after she is assigned as his assistant; however, he lets her live and, unbeknownst to him, she gives birth to a son named Ryan. His discovery of the lies surrounding Ryan's existence influences his decision to maim Vogelbaum and murder his pseudo-mother figure and Vought CEO Madelyn Stillwell. However, his emotional ineptitude 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", hoping to create public outcry for an increase of superheroes and for their induction into the United States Armed Forces. However, during Butcher's rescue attempt of Ryan and Becca, Stormfront is critically maimed by Ryan after attacking Becca. Before Homelander can hurt the boy in retaliation, Maeve blackmails Homelander into letting him go and leaving her alone.
In a series of television interviews, he is forced to denounce his relationship with Stormfront and apologize for his actions. Partly to moderate Homelander's behavior, CEO Stan Edgar and Vought's board of directors install Starlight as co-captain of the Seven. However, after learning that Stormfront has committed suicide, Homelander becomes even more unstable and lashes out in a spiteful rant during his televised birthday celebration, claiming he is the world's savior. This skyrockets his approval rating with rural white males; to remove Edgar, Homelander bribes his adoptive daughter Victoria Neuman into opening an investigation into him (ousting him from Vought on corruption allegations) with Homelander assuming control of the company himself. Before leaving, Edgar chastises Homelander and warns that he will not be there to clean up his messes. He appoints Ashley Barrett as his puppet ruler and antagonizes Starlight by reinstating the Deep as a member of the Seven, and falsely announcing that he is in a relationship with her during the finale of American Hero.
After Starlight denounces Homelander and Vought and abandons her superhero persona via a livestream, Homelander claims to have ended the relationship himself and accuses her of engaging in human trafficking via her charitable foundation, the Starlight House. After learning that Queen Maeve not only acted as an informant for the Boys but also slept with Butcher, Homelander has her detained at Seven Tower with the intention of harvesting her eggs. Homelander later learns that Soldier Boy is his father after receiving a call from him; Homelander then savagely murders Black Noir, having confirmed this information with him. He later picks up Ryan from Mallory's house after intimidating her. When Homelander attempts to connect with Soldier Boy by introducing him to Ryan and proposing that the three could be a family, Soldier Boy disowns Homelander as a weak, damaged, attention-seeking disappointment and attempts to kill or depower him, as part of his deal with Butcher. Homelander turns against Soldier Boy after the latter strikes Ryan, but is instead forced to reluctantly fight Queen Maeve, gouging her eye out. Having won Ryan back from Butcher, he later introduces him to supporters at Vought Tower. There, a pro-Starlight protestor hits Ryan in the face with a soft drink can, provoking Homelander to kill him with his heat vision. This, to his own surprise, brings him the applause of his and Stormfront's supporters, while Ryan is impressed.
Having won over his son and in control of Vought, in the fourth season, Homelander faces a murder trial and lacks purpose having gained "everything [he's] ever wanted." Recruiting the help of the ultra-intelligent Sister Sage, he seeks to gain control of the government, believing that humans are inferior and have "too much control." At the trial's conclusion, he orders three of his fans to be killed, starting a brawl immediately after being exonerated. He also organizes Ryan's first "rescue" (a Vought publicity stunt) forcing him to use his power to kill the "criminal" actor. After trying to kill Hughie, he has a fight with Ryan for seeing Butcher and suffers a mental breakdown; experiencing a hallucination of himself who states he must purge his "human" side.