The Homelander Superpower That Makes No Sense To The Boys Fans
Amazon Prime Video's "The Boys" features many superheroes employed by Vought International, a corrupt organization that breeds superhumans from the time they are infants by injecting them with a serum known as Compound V. Fans know that Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is one of the many characters subjected to this. However, some of the rest of Vought's most popular superhero team, The Seven, come about their powers in a slightly different manner.
Homelander (Antony Starr), arguably the most powerful of the supes, is actually created with Compound V as a fetus. In the first two seasons of the series, fans discover that Homealnder's creation and the trauma associated with his childhood have led him to become such a monstrous supervillain. In many ways, Homelander's powers very obviously mirror those of Clark Kent (aka Superman). Either way, Homelander has the power of flight, super strength and super speed, basic invulnerability to gunfire and explosions, and of course, laser vision — something he likes to use often.
Needless to say, Homelander, like Superman, is one of the most powerful superhumans in his universe. Interestingly, one of Homelander's lesser-known powers is one that he tends to use inconsistently but would surely come in handy whenever needed. This is the Homelander superpower that makes no sense to fans of "The Boys."
Does Homelander have or use superhuman hearing?
According to a thread on the r/TheBoys subreddit, fans of "The Boys" are scratching their heads about a power that Homelander seems to use only when the plot prescribes it. In fact, some fans aren't actually sure that Homelander possesses this power: super hearing. U/AwesomeBaconL initiated the conversation by referring to a moment in the show where Homelander should have heard the commotion from Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) after Stormfront (Aya Cash) kills her brother, Kenji (Abraham Lincoln Lim).
Many fans were quick to respond to this criticism, like u/buddy-thunder, who agreed that one of his main problems with "The Boys" is how often characters should have been punished by Homelander's hearing. However, u/awesomeproblem made the point that Homelander's super hearing could be difficult to manage with all the noise that would likely fill his ears. However, this doesn't seem to have stopped Homelander from using the power on occasion.
Throughout the television series and the comics, he actually uses it quite frequently. While in Vought Tower, Homelander repeatedly uses this ability against characters like A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) and Starlight. In fact, Starlight even goes to the trouble of blasting loud music while speaking about Homelander with Supersonic (Miles Gaston Villanueva).
Of course, one potential explanation could simply be that Homelander chooses not to listen out of a sad sense of self-preservation. For all of Homelander's many super abilities, even Antony Starr has noted that the leader of The Seven is arguably the weakest person on the show because of his constant struggles to define himself (via Collider). Perhaps even Homelander recognizes that his hearing what everyone else quietly says about him isn't the best idea around. Based on what we've seen so far, this struggle is slowly leading Homelander to unravel even further.
Fans have various theories about Homelander's super hearing
On the whole, various users online have pointed out an additional number of times when Homelander's super hearing seemingly could have proven useful, only for this particular power of his to turn out to be a non-factor. For example, one Reddit user started a thread criticizing Starlight for openly discussing sensitive information despite Homelander's presence in the same building. In response, u/Put_It_All_On_BCLK pointed out that one possible reason for Homelander failing to utilize his power at this and other key points could be that he simply doesn't view too many others as serious threats. "How does a guy with partial omniscience & partial omnipotence have living enemies that actively plot against him, if not for his complete disregard for the capabilities of others?" they wrote.
Meanwhile, another commenter proposed that the times Homelander seems to ignore this particular superpower of his are acceptable, as long as he consistently ignores it, instead of it eventually becoming essential to a storyline at some point down the line.
In a similar thread, commenters shared a few other theories as to why Homelander doesn't utilize his super senses more frequently. U/Best-Dragonfruit-292, for instance, suggested that Homelander's super senses are inactive by default, and that he has to consciously opt into using them.
Ultimately, "The Boys" is unlikely to provide a definitive answer, so the precise reason Homelander doesn't employ his super hearing more often may just be up to each individual viewer.