"The Boys" Revealed Exactly How Physically Strong Homelander Is
Superhero stories tend to be unclear about how powerful their characters truly are. However, Garth Ennis' satirical series The Boys managed to reveal Homelander's strength limit. In one of the comic's more subtle yet effective moments, The Boys challenged genre conventions by putting a concrete number on Homelander's strength.
The Boys #65, written by Garth Ennis with art by Russell Braun, features an offhand comment from Mother's Milk that sheds light on just how powerful the Seven's leader truly is. By establishing a concrete range for Homelander's power, The Boys allowed readers to fully comprehend the scale of his strength and his terrifying capacity for violence, making him an even more imposing presence as his shift into overt villainy finally came to fruition.
Homelander's Strength In Comparison To DC's Superman
While Homelander routinely levels buildings, mutilates his allies, and kills people with his superhuman powers, the character is even scarier because there's seemingly no limit to what he can do. The undefined scope of his abilities, alongside his actions, makes him a potent metaphor for unchecked power. However, in The Boys #65, everything the character had been hiding is laid bare for the reader, including a keen insight that quantifies the magnitude of his strength.
This revelation comes as Homelander has killed the President of the United States and is nearing the completion of his coup, seeking total supe domination of the world. Hughie speaks with Mother's Milk, who reveals everything about Homelander's past, including his relationship with Black Noir. Milk reveals that Noir is a clone of Homelander, designed to take him down if he goes out of control. As Hughie expresses doubt about the situation, Mother's Milk theorizes that Black Noir's power level and his inability to act on his mission have driven the Supe insane.
"The Boys" Quantified Homelander's Power In Contrast To Superhero Tradition
Mother's Milk reveals Black Noir's power level, stating that the supe could bench press "a dozen Mack trucks." Given the revelation about Noir's connection to Homelander, it is clear that Homelander's strength is equivalent. This puts into perspective the sheer awesome level of their strength and the true terror of having such power wielded by the most savage individuals imaginable. With Homelander's endgame in sight, Garth Ennis made the deliberate decision to provide an answer to his strength-level. This might seem surprising to some fans, but it is an extension of The Boys' overall project.
The "Mack truck" line from The Boys #65 is the kind of expositional exchange that often comes much earlier in a story. However, Ennis spends a significant portion of The Boys showing, rather than telling, what Homelander is capable of. By quantifying Homelander's power level in the context of his final act, as Billy Butcher marches into a final confrontation with his nemesis, Ennis implicitly reminds readers that, despite the absurd lengths the series often went to, it remained grounded in a measure of realism that more conventional superhero stories are not beholden to.
