Could Lamplighter From The Boys Beat Green Lantern In A Fight?
Both in their comics and television iterations, the superheroes of the Seven in The Boys are obviously meant to be Justice League analogues: Homelander (Antony Starr) is supposed to be Superman, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) is supposed to be Wonder Woman, and so on. Of course, outside of powers and costumes, the DC heroes and their The Boys counterparts couldn't be more different. The former are true champions of justice, but the latter... not so much.
Still, superheroes are superheroes, and fans will forever wonder who could beat who in a fight. Power levels are a difficult thing to determine unless explicitly explained, and even then, with all the media superheroes appear in, they may change depending on the writers' needs. The Seven only appear in The Boys, but the effects of Compound V — the thing that grants them their powers — vary from superhero to superhero.
Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore) is the perfect example. He has the same enhanced physicality that all Compound V users have, but can also control fire — an ability unique to him. That energy manipulation is mighty similar to Green Lantern, the DC hero he's based on. Assuming they ever met and — in classic superhero first impression style — locked horns, it's hard to say who would win without looking at their abilities a little more closely.
Be warned, spoilers for The Boys ahead!
Lamplighter lights up the competition
Interestingly, Lamplighter doesn't show up at all in The Boys season one, leaving his powers all but a mystery to the audience. He's mentioned a few times, most prominently by Grace Mallory (Laila Robins), the CIA retiree whose grandchildren were killed by the hero. When he finally appears in season two, viewers get a taste of what this former member of the Seven is capable of.
As aforementioned, Lamplighter's primary ability is pyrokinesis. The fire he controls is powerful enough to melt through steel as easily as human flesh. There are, however, two drawbacks: First, Lamplighter can't simply generate fire from thin air. He requires a source to draw from, which is where his trademark staff comes in. His staff is everything to him, just as Green Lanterns rely on their Power Rings. Second, the old saying about playing with fire applies to him as much as it does anyone else: he is, ironically, susceptible to the very flames he uses.
In terms of strength, speed, endurance, and resilience, Lamplighter also outclasses normal humans by a decent margin. Viewers witness this for themselves when he keeps one step ahead of Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara). Lamplighter also has an advanced healing factor, as seen when he's able to both survive and recover from an acid spray fairly quickly.
Still, Lamplighter is far from invincible. In spite of his significant physical attributes, he can, as mentioned earlier, burn at the touch of his own flames. Hughie (Jack Quaid), an average person, is also able to break Lamplighter's wrist post-mortem, subsequently using a broken bottle to remove it. Gruesome details aside, the fact that a lanky guy like Hughie is able to bypass Lamplighter's Compound V enhancements says something, whether the hero was already dead or not.
Green Lantern wills his way through
More than one Green Lantern exists, so we'll use Hal Jordan, for clarity's sake. Jordan began facing down his fears well before his days as a Green Lantern, becoming a military test pilot in spite of the fact that his father died in a plane crash — because of it, actually. He's a bottomless pit of willpower, never letting abject terror be the reason he refuses to tackle a new challenge. For that reason, Hal was a natural choice for the Green Lantern Corps. He has access to a vast array of abilities via his power ring: On the more "normal" side of the superpower spectrum, he can fly at great speeds, possesses super strength, and can take hits from the likes of Superman, so long as the power ring's aura protects him. The ring can also protect Hal from the vacuum of space, as well as heal him or repair others' minor wounds.
But none of that is what makes a Green Lantern so special.
The Corps' most famous and most commonly employed ability is energy projection, the strength of which is completely dependent on the user's willpower — and Hal's will is second to none. He can fire energy blasts and form shields, both of which are useful on the fly, but more importantly, he can create energy constructs. These constructs are limited only by Hal's imagination, and they can be as simple as a giant fist, or as complex as an anti-aircraft gun.
What are Green Lantern's weaknesses, though? Notably, power rings require recharging. That means Hal could easily be left vulnerable if he's not careful. High-speed vibration can disrupt the ring entirely. Most importantly, mental state can negatively affect ring performance, from drug-induced haziness to the onset of a phobia.
Lamplighter vs. Green Lantern: Who wins?
So, hypothetically speaking, who beats who?
In all honesty, Lamplighter probably doesn't stand a chance. Yes, his fire can turn steel into pudding, but Hal Jordan regularly survives much more powerful forces, from space to Superman-level punches. Sure, maybe Lamplighter could catch Hal off guard, at a time when he's not encased in the Power Ring's energy (as Batman once did, via CBR), but that's not likely. Coming up against a man with the ability to blast fire, Hal would err on the side of caution.
Assuming Lamplighter really is powerful enough to stick it to Green Lantern (again, superhero power levels are a bit of a mess), the latter could then fall back on his many abilities to counter or escape: flight, energy constructs, what have you. Any way you slice it, Lamplighter would have a difficult time getting around Hal's defenses, only to have an even more difficult time setting up a plausible defense of his own. Were the Power Ring to somehow run out of charge (it indicates when it's running low, but you never know), then Lamplighter might be onto something. Hal's certainly no slouch without his ring, but up against a healthy heaping of fire, he'd burn just as quickly as the rest of us. It's still an unlikely scenario, though.
To be clear, there's no telling what would truly happen if Hal butted heads with Lamplighter. Weaker comic book characters have a tendency to rise to the occasion despite all odds, so counting out Lamplighter completely would be a disservice to him. But if we're going purely off the facts posited here, Green Lantern wins, pretty much every time.