Homelander

The Homelander is a character in the adult superhero comic book series The Boys created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The Homelander is the public superhero persona of John Gillman, 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, and has been described as a personification of negative perceptions of the United States. As a parody of the DC Comics character Superman, the Homelander's powers include superhuman strength and speed, flight, X-ray and heat vision, and 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. 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[a] 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.

Visiting the lab where he was raised, he proceeds to torture, humiliate and kill the people responsible for testing on him in an act of revenge, with the exception of Dr. Barbara Findley, whom he leaves locked up amongst the corpses of the staff. Following the events at the lab, Homelander begins to connect with and support Ryan. Later, Homelander informs his team that they will have to be more cruel and ruthless for the greater good, before he orders the Seven to kill Cameron Coleman, who is believed to have leaked evidence exonerating Starlighters. Homelander, along with most of the Seven and Victoria Neuman, attend a party organized by Tek Knight, in which he plans, along with Sage and Neuman, to turn the congressmen against presidential candidate Robert Singer. Homelander learns from Firecracker that the mole is still alive; the two soon become intimate when she feeds him her breast milk. Homelander subsequently begins to give Firecracker more influence on the team. Believing him to be the mole, Homelander kills Webweaver and sends the Deep and Black Noir to kill Butcher and the rest of the Boys, without success. Feeling betrayed by A-Train, Homelander expels Sage from the Seven, having discovered she hid the fact he was the mole. Later that night, Homelander overhears how his son talks about his mother and Butcher, which leaves him in shock. Homelander discovers Butcher's gift and, in a fit of rage, destroys his apartment and scolds Ryan, making the latter leave. Afterwards, seeking to sabotage Singer's presidential campaign, Homelander outs Neuman as a Supe, and orders the Seven to kill everyone in Vought who may have leverage over him, to gain total control of the company. When Neuman is killed by Butcher, Sage reveals to him that it was all part of her plan, and the new president of the United States, Steven Calhoun, swears loyalty to Homelander, declares martial law and deputizes him and his superhuman army. Calhoun then shows Homelander the pod that Soldier Boy is being held in.

A year later, Homelander begins to enact his increasingly authoritarian rule on America, having political dissidents sent to internment camps and purging the government. He releases Soldier Boy to help him search for V1, with which Homelander can become immortal; despite deeming him to be unfit to be so, Soldier Boy ultimately chooses to give his son the formula, believing that Stormfront would have wanted it. Having enabled his position and believing the world will soon descend into a war between humans and Supes, Sister Sage, seeing Homelander's potential immortality as a threat to her goal of total self-isolation and peace, defects to the Boys. Soldier Boy, trying to leave Vought behind, is forced into stasis by Homelander. The latter then executes Calhoun and kills Frenchie while searching for a rogue Sage, who had helped the Boys replicate Soldier Boy's nuclear depowering beam by using Kimiko as the test subject. Having had a hallucination of Stillwell as an angel who promised him Godhood, Homelander prepares to declare himself so before the entire world. He also recruits psychics to act as his "thought police" to hunt down and execute heretics. In a final confrontation, the Boys kill Oh Father and the Deep while Butcher and Ryan restrain Homelander for Kimiko to hit him with the nuclear depowering beam. Without his powers, Homelander is effortlessly defeated by Butcher. Showing his true colors to the world, Homelander realizes he is powerless and desperately tries to bargain with Butcher, offering to gift him Vought amongst other pleas. Butcher ignores Homelander and instantly kills him by impaling him through his skull with a crowbar and splitting his scalp from his head, causing his blood and brain matter to spill out. A camera recording Homelander's planned speech broadcasts the scene worldwide, leaving his legacy tarnished.