Who Is More Powerful, Superman Or Homelander?
Now that the second season of The Boys has wrapped up, it's clear that Homelander's position as the show's greatest villain remains unchallenged. Homelander is the most powerful superhero on the show, and his name strikes fear in the hearts of those who understand what he's capable of. Like many things on The Boys, Homelander has an analog in popular superhero fiction.
As the leader of The Seven, a group of superheroes based on the Justice League, Homelander is basically Superman. He has many of the same powers, and he even wears an American flag as a cape. The Boys takes the idea of Superman and subverts him, asking audiences to consider what the world would be like if there was someone as powerful as Superman who didn't feel bound by truth, justice, and the American way. For all that we know about both Homelander and Superman, though, we don't know what might happen if the two were to come head to head with one another. In a battle between them, who would have the upper hand?
Strength
Of the many powers that Superman and Homelander have in common, strength may be the most important. It's part of their appeal to the public, and one of the reasons that they're so iconic. The Boys has yet to make it clear exactly how strong Homelander is, but he's never really come close to being beaten by anyone except his son, who has the same powers he does. In the universe of The Boys, Homelander is unrivaled, which means that he's never had to show off everything that he's capable of.
Superman, on the other hand, has fought a variety of foes. Most of the time he wins, but he does occasionally find himself in situations where he's outmatched, either by cosmic forces or villains who were created explicitly for the purpose of killing him. Still, thanks in part to his long history in both comics and onscreen, we know much more about what Superman is capable of, so the edge has to go to him on strength.
Moral compass
Although they project the same image to the public, Homelander and Superman have very different moral outlooks. Superman is meant to be an ideal, a vehicle for all of the good and kindness that America is capable of. He's truth, justice, and the American way personified, even though he is not actually a human and was not born in America.
Homelander, by contrast, was born and bred in America, and he has a much more depraved moral outlook. Although he seems like a Superman type, behind closed doors he's a narcissistic, nihilistic sociopath who is aware of his own power and the ways it allows him to dominate other people. Homelander doesn't care about other people at all, or, more precisely, he only cares about other people insofar as they can gratify his urges and desires. Although he may seem like a golden boy to the public, Homelander is far from it, and his power will crumble if the world ever discovers who he really is. That's why Superman's moral outlook is much more likely to win the day.
Flight
Superman and Homelander are both fliers. In the case of Superman, that's a power he gained in more recent iterations, but one that is central to his power set today. In Superman, the titular hero famously flies around Earth in order to reverse time, and it's that potent combination of speed and flight that has made him such a force to be reckoned with. In more recent film adaptations like Man of Steel, Superman gains the ability to fly only after jumping great distances first to test his skill.
For Homelander, flight appears to be core to his ability. One of the things that makes him so terrifying is the fact that he can show up totally unannounced at virtually any spot on the planet. Even the appearance of him flying overhead is enough to frighten the Boys at the center of the show. In this regard, Homelander and Superman seem to be almost exactly alike. There's little that separates the two heroes from one another, and so their flying abilities end in a tie.
Fighting style
Homelander and Superman have very similar power sets. The differences between them have more to do with their attitudes, and that also extends to their fighting styles. Because of his enormous strength, Superman is not typically a very subtle fighter. He doesn't need to use his enemy's strength against them, because he's almost always stronger than his opponent. As a result, his style is typically respectful domination, as he uses his physical strength and his range of other abilities to almost invariably defeat his opponent.
Homelander, on the other hand, will do whatever it takes to win. That truth, which is coupled with the fact that there is no one on the planet as strong as he is, means that Homelander always wins, and sometimes there's a lot of bloodshed along his path to victory. He can crack people's skulls or blast them away with his heat vision, and he's willing to do any of those things if it means he's going to get what he wants. Homelander is willing to do things that Superman just won't, which is why he has the edge when it comes to fighting styles.
X-ray vision
Both Homelander and Superman have x-ray vision, and they both make use of it to find people who are trying to hide from them. For Superman, that means finding a thief, supervillain, or other enemies who needs to face justice. For Homelander, it means spying on whoever he feels like spying on and maybe finding some of his enemies as well. On The Boys, Homelander's x-ray vision has been one of his least utilized abilities, although it certainly has some practical benefits when he wants to find out who's in a meeting.
Superman has used the ability to his advantage countless times over the character's existence, and he's proven that he knows it's value. Even still, it's hard to say that one character has more powerful x-ray vision than the other. They can both see through walls and doors, but Homelander has trouble seeing through anything that's lined with zinc. By contrast, Superman typically has trouble seeing through lead. Because both powers have very similar weaknesses, Homelander and Superman come to a draw when it comes to x-ray vision.
Vulnerabilities
Superman and Homelander are almost invincible. In their respective universes, they're each the most powerful being on their planet, and as a result, they're nearly impossible to kill. Superman's only weakness is well-known but unfortunate. Kryptonite effectively strips him of much of his power and leaves him in a weakened state. The substance is rare, but as Superman stories have made clear, it is possible for Superman's enemies to get their hands on some in order to get him out of the way.
Homelander, on the other hand, doesn't have any known weaknesses. The only thing we know of that may eventually take down Homelander, at least in the world of the show, is his son Ryan. Ryan was gifted with many of the same powers as his father, and as we've seen from his ability to take down Stormfront, he's capable of killing some pretty powerful superheroes. Right now, though, Ryan is still just a kid, which means that Homelander's supremacy is almost completely unchallenged, making him nearly impossible for his enemies to kill.
Super hearing
As The Boys and Superman have both shown us, having ultra-sensitive hearing can be a gift and a curse. Early scenes in Man of Steel show young Clark Kent struggling to deal with his ability to hear everything that is going on around him, and the season 2 finale of The Boys highlights the drawbacks of Homelander's ultra-sensitive hearing when it's taken advantage of in order to lay a trap for him. For all of the problems with ultra-sensitive hearing, though, it also has some undeniable benefits.
Both Homelander and Superman have been known to use the ability to find people who are trying to hide from them, which is the only remedy that most people have against heroes who are the most powerful beings in their respective universes. Like many of the powers on this list, Homelander's hearing is so directly based on Superman's that it's hard to declare a winner between the two. When it comes to hearing, the two of them seem to be in a dead heat.
Heat vision
Homelander and Superman are both equipped with heat vision, but Homelander uses his a lot more. It makes sense when you think about it. Heat vision is one of the most dangerous tools in both Homelander and Superman's arsenals. Superman is, in general, reserved about killing people, but Homelander doesn't have that same concern. He knows how to kill when he feels like he needs to, and his heat vision is an incredibly effective way to do just that.
What's more, heat vision doesn't have the same kind of messiness that is characteristic of some of the other ways for Homelander to murder people. It's the ability Homelander seems to cherish most, even as it's just another tool in Superman's arsenal. Given Homelander's use of his heat vision, he gets the edge in this category, even though there's nothing to suggest that his heat vision is stronger than Superman's. In a battle between them, Homelander is just going to be much more willing to deploy his heat vision as much as he needs to.
How they've been beaten
Although Superman and Homelander have two of the best win/loss records of any comic book characters, even the winningest characters lose sometimes. Superman's losses have been more numerous, only because the character has been a lot more prolific over the course of his history. Typically, those losses are the result of incredibly powerful forces, or kryptonite, or sometimes both. Superman's weakness is often his undoing, but he's rarely beaten because of defects in his personality.
Homelander has never been physically bested, but that hardly seems to matter. Although he's the strongest person on the planet, he is easily manipulated and often finds himself subject to the whims of those around him. He's been in the presence of Billy Butcher on two separate occasions over the course of the show, and has not killed him either time. Billy Butcher is just a normal dude, but Homelander's need to be loved ultimately keeps him from doing what he wants to do. Superman may have more losses in his record, but his losses are far more understandable than Homelander's.
Who they've defeated
By definition, Superman is a comic book hero. That means the villains he fights are often bent on world destruction, and have the kind of destructive power that that kind of goal requires. Although his arch-nemesis is an evil genius without any powers to speak of, the Superman universe is filled with plenty of powered bad guys that Superman has had to take on. From General Zod on down to Braniac, Superman's foes are superhuman, because it's more fun to watch one superhuman take on another.
Homelander, by contrast, faces much weaker enemies. There are some superheroes who oppose him, but they are enemies that Homelander created himself so that he'd have easy targets to take down for publicity. There is no one on the planet who's a serious threat to him physically, and his arch-nemesis is a normal person with a grudge. Although Homelander dispatches his enemies quickly, he doesn't have the kind of impressive series of wins that Superman does.
Other abilities
In addition to all the powers we've already mentioned, both Superman and Homelander also have a variety of other abilities. Over the course of his run in comics and on screens, Superman has had powers ranging from ice breath to a genius-level intellect that put him on par with the smartest people on the planet. Every iteration of the character has had a slightly different combination of these powers, along with most of the core powers. For Superman, these additional powers are really just the icing on the cake that makes him the most impressive hero in the universe.
Homelander's range of additional powers is, at least thus far, more limited, but he does have the ability to measure someone's heartbeat through physical contact with them. It's a skill that's useful when he's trying to find liars, and he's taken advantage of it on a couple of occasions on The Boys. If Homelander has other hidden powers, he hasn't felt the need to reveal them. After all, he's already more powerful than everyone else. In the extra powers category, Superman dusts him.
The verdict
Superman's battle with Homelander would be a fight for the ages. There would be some name-calling, a lot of brute strength, and plenty of flying around and crashing into buildings, Man of Steel-style. In the end, though, who would emerge victorious in the fight? The answer has to be Superman.
Homelander only exists as a riff on the idea of Superman, and what's more, he's going to have a few distinct disadvantages in any fight against DC's golden boy. The biggest of these comes from his lack of additional abilities. Depending on which Superman he fights, Homelander could have to deal with a genius-level intellect, freeze breath, or being hypnotized. What's more, Homelander is not used to being challenged the way that Superman is. Superman knows how to battle opponents who are almost as strong as he is, whereas Homelander has only had to battle enemies that are far weaker than him. In a head-to-head fight between the two, Superman would emerge victorious because he knows how to handle himself when the going gets tough.