The Boys Confirms Homelander Is More Powerful in the Show Than in the Comics (Thanks to One Change)

From his debut in comics, Homelander has far and away been one of the most powerful (if not the number one) in the world of The Boys. An archetype like Superman, with a list of powers that is a greatest hits of superhuman abilities and a pile of bodies left in his wake. Despite his near invulnerable existence, The Boys has found ways to damage him, including his wounded psyche, which may actually be his weakness. With one batch of episodes left, though, one might expect the walls to be closing in on Homelander, but that appears far from the truth.

Despite an entire spinoff to set up a plotline about finishing him off, Homelander seems as bulletproof as ever. The full trailer for The Boys Season 5 arrived this week as well, revealing the full picture of the plot, including that Homelander intends to get his hands on the V-One formula (the predecessor to Compound V), which he will use to make himself immortal. As a result, they need to hit him with the virus before this to kill him. In confirming this, The Boys TV series has confirmed that the TV version of Homelander is the most powerful version ever, albeit in a subtle way. Spoilers for The Boys comic book series will follow.

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Homelander Is at His Most Powerful in The Boys Season 5

In The Boys comics, Homelander has similar levels of invulnerability seen in the TV series, but his end is one that doesn’t require a lab-created virus or some classic super serum. Instead, he dies at the hands of his own clone, who rips him to pieces in a violent battle not seen on the page. The Boys TV series has already made it clear that this big twist won’t happen, but in doing so, they’ve created a version of Homelander that is tougher and more powerful than his comic book counterpart, with extra steps needed to take him down.

The series has set up a number of breadcrumbs that indicate Homelander can only die from some non-physical means. He’s fought multiple other supes to a standstill or walked away completely unscathed, which has fueled the search for an alternative means to end him. In the pages of the comics, though, it wasn’t that tough, effectively making that version the weaker of the two.

Homelander will almost certainly die in the final season of The Boys; the matter of his defeat is simply a question of how. Even with his many quotes in the trailer (“Prepare America for my ascension,” “To those who seek to destroy me…I offer oblivion”), the series wants us to perceive Homelander as a god among men. That said, all of the setup and discussion about both Homelander’s power and using the virus to kill him could all be a red herring.

If Season 1 of Gen V was deployed to give us the supe-killing virus, then Season 2 was used as a means to give us V-One. Not only will the substance be front and center in The Boys Season 5, but almost certainly in the Vought Rising spinoff series (which features Stormfront and Soldier Boy, two supes confirmed to have been given V-One). Though the stakes are clear if Homelander gets his hands on V-One, many of the characters who have been given the formula have actually already died, meaning the series has already set up the potential for Homelander to use it and not get his wish of being physically immortal.

There are maybe three characters in The Boys that could go toe-to-toe with Homelander and take him down. Billy Butcher, who has his own superpowers now; Homelander’s father, Soldier Boy; and Homelander’s son, Ryan. Any one of these three might be able to take on the hero, and with The Boys trailer revealing Homelander seated in the Oval Office, maybe it will give us that physical beat down that the comics had after all. The final episodes of The Boys premiere this April on Prime Video, and it will be exciting to see how the series finds a way to take him off the board. It’s going to be hard, though; they’ve made him a tough cookie.