The story behindThe Boys' Homelander’s origin and his past comes from a very credible source: the comic writer who was involved in crafting Vought’s “Victory Comics” project. The Legend had access to all sorts of information and was even feddifferent stories to frame such a narrative for Vought’s precious Supes that the public would just lap it up. In his own words, Vought wanted to “give people supes like they wanted supes to be.” The Legend himself hasn’t appeared on the show, but there’s a good chance he might make a cameo in the future. And when he does, his insight will be invaluable.
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For however much he absolutely hated doing the job, in the comics, he made up for it by being an informant for the Boys. Whenever they needed some dirt on the Supe, the Legend came to the rescue. And it’s him who explains Homelander’s origin to Hughie in great detail.
10 Out Of The World Origin Story
In the comics, Homelander is given a Superman-like origin story, in that he appeared out of nowhere and landed on Earth as a baby. His strength was such that he even created a crater on the surface in the process. He is a benevolent alien who decides to stay on and help mankind.
The show gives Homelander a more “normal” background. He’s shown to be just as ordinary as everyone else or, at least, he’s shown to have had an ordinary childhood. They even shoot a faux reality show, where Homelander visits his “childhood home” to give the impression that the Supe is just like them.
9 Killed Everyone At Birth
The truth is far from the alien origin story. Homelander, in comics and on the show, was brought up in a laboratory like a test subject and hardly given any affection as a child. In the source material, it was also mentioned that he killed the entire team of doctors and nurses that was present inside the hospital room at the time of his birth.
The manner of his birth is repeated another time when his clone’s son is born to Becca Butcher. The baby killed Becca and was floating in the air above the bed when Billy Butcher came across him and instantly killed him off.
8 Chained To A Bomb As A Child
To say that Homelander had an unusual childhood would be an understatement. He was so feared—everyone was so terrified of how a childish tantrum might end up with their death—that he was hidden away in a silo in South Dakota, and chained to a nuclear bomb to make sure he wouldn’t do anything untoward.
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The one on the show didn’t have anything as drastic like that happen to him. Instead, he was made to sit and watch generic images like that of baseball and the American flag on the projector.
7 Mother Died Giving Birth To Him
In the comics, Homelander’s mother died on the table, giving birth to him. She had mental health problems, which Vought had taken advantage of and made her the sacrificial lamb for their little experiment.
On the show, he followed suit with other mother figures. There was a doctor whom he favored and accidentally killed by hugging her so hard that he snapped her spine in half. He had other mentors and tutors, but they were all a little afraid of him, and some even suffered grievous injuries because of him.
6 Black Noir Is His Clone
Seeing Homelander’s unpredictable nature, Vought decided that it would be for the best if they had a contingency or back-up in place. A clone that would have the exclusive mission to take over Homelander’s role in the event of a scandal was thought to be the best way to achieve their dual purpose.
Unbeknownst to Homelander or, for that matter, any other Supe, this clone was given the cover of a masked Supe and placed right next to him, in the Seven. He was given a most mysterious name—Black Noir—and created to be stronger than Homelander.
5 Self-Control Of A Teenager
Garth Ennis, the creator and writer of The Boys, has said quite a few things about his creations over the years. In a 2016 interview, he had said that Homelander is “an almost entirely negative character. He is really just a series of unpleasant urges kept in check by his own intelligence, which is enough to understand that he can have anything he wants so long as he doesn't push his luck too far.”
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It would be better, he had added, if the readers and audience were “to think of the Homelander as having all the self-control of… a fourteen-year-old.”
4 Parody Of Captain America
Most of the major Supes in The Boys are a caricature of a more mature, serious, and popular superhero. The Deep parodies Aquaman, A-Train is based on the Flash, and Maeve shares a lot of her powers and look with Wonder Woman.
Similarly, Homelander is a parody of both Captain America and Superman. Like the latter, he flies through the air, and like the former, he wears his patriotism on his sleeve. And while his public persona favors Captain America’s earnest and sincere personality, his fake origin story is shaped to resemble Superman’s true heritage.
3 Created By Stormfront
Just like Black Noir was made from Homelander’s genetic material, so was Homelander himself crafted from taking the DNA of the Nazi Supe, Stormfront. Stormfront himself was an experiment, born from Hitler’s desire to have a super-soldier on his side. He was injected with Compound V, made to fight in the war, and then smuggled off to America where his genetic material was stored in preparation for future Supes.
Show-Stormfront doesn’t quite say there’s a direct link between them, but she does mention that Homelander was the perfect specimen and just the kind of man she and her husband, old man Vought, had envisioned would carry Compound V in his veins.
2 He Used To Be Good
There was a time before all the power went to his head when Homelander actually wanted to do some good. Right at the start, when the Seven was only just formed in New York, Homelander was hopeful and sincere in his desire to help others.
But as more and more of Vought’s PR department began to handle their lives and fix any accident or crime the Supes might have committed, Homelander and the others gave up trying to do the right thing, and began to live a life without considering the consequences of their actions.
1 Nukes To The Dynamite
As the Legend discloses to Hughie in the comic, Supes were not a new thing in their universe. Superheroes had been in existence ever since the 1940s, but only with the birth and evolution of Homelander did Vought find the right recipe to create a strong and stable Supe. “These guys [the Seven] are the nukes to their [the early Supes] dynamite,” the Legend told Hughie.
He added further that Vought thought the Seven to be “exceptional” and Homelander himself to be a big success, so much so that they made Black Noir, Maeve, Jack, the Deep, and Mr. Marathon right after they made him.
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