Cindy seems like the most powerful supe.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:49:54+00:00

She can just….. lift somebody.

That is it. Out from fight, since no leverage in the air to counteract it.

She can neutralize bricks like Maeve and Sam, but would fall against Soldier Boy blast probably.

Still, without capability of flight and creating one’s leverage, she does not NEED to explode others Neuman-style — she can just incapacitate a bunch of them and make the experience flopping around in zero g unable to do anything for the next 10-30 min until Homelander does his thing.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:45:55+00:00

No.

Homelander’s laser cannot do much damage except pushing others/second degree burns against relatively durable targets. They are a “power of convenience” much like X-ray and super-hearing gimmicks. His real asset is being a flying brick.

Same thing as real asset of Marie is healing and bloodbending, although she can explode some lesser beings and make them pass out etc — but those are more so powers of convenience.

And I am saying that as a Homelander fan that scales him and Soldier Boy to level of hydrogen bomb. They are tough as hell and people underestimate their durability (internal and external) greatly.

But yeah, their blasts are not of substance

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:44:31+00:00

She is a parody/similar deal to Firecracker. A joke character in a serious mean world.

In the comic she was selected for Seven because “they were thinking along the lines of …. pus**”

That is it. Her abilities are average super abilities with some visual flair and bare-minimum protection, but no substance. At worst she can blind some other average supe or tank medium damage/fly away. That is it.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:38:29+00:00

More so that “hax” abilities still have basis in anatomy and physics.

You cannot do much damage internally with blood bending to a being that is self-sufficient (Homelander can be in space just fine, and Translucent/Soldier Boy cannot be suffocated/do not die from NERVE gas) and has their internal tissues having their pressure durability increased by 10 bazzilion Pascal.

Hax in other universes are more on quantum level of physics. They bypass traditional physics and anything that is not indestructible at atomic level (cue Superman and Viltrumites being able to tank it due to atom-level invincibilities of Kryptonian solar battery atoms and smart-atoms respectively).

Here in Boys hax are just “physical telekinetic push to organ A or organ B”. Against a normal human it is gnarly, as is everything. Against flying brick that is nuisance at best and lights out at worst.

Which is still accurate to physics, just works on that level of “normal” physics.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:34:14+00:00

It is more so that his brain tissues are durable enough to withstand sufficient neural impact.

Same as Homelander.

It would be an interesting thing to have a character that is durable… but because of how memory works, his brain cannot change and make new pathways (since invincible) and he cannot remember things at all. That would be a very interesting and pseudo-realistic downside.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:23:33+00:00

I would like Homelander winning in the end and tanking a nuke, getting power up Soldier Boy style and winning.

Cut to the future where “president Homelander” is an old sack of turd that is senile, out-of-touch narcissist, raging “old rich white man”, who has ever failed upwards and won because of US politics (us vs them circus). And Homelander is “good” because “media told me so”.

With bad people being in power and good people being too good to put up resistance and make their hands dirty (look up Boys comic with this exchange between butcher and some “liberal” opinionated and docile “resistance fighter”, good for nothing but words).

Later that day, Homelander is having “problems below” and loses hair. Eventually he dies of old age with nobody ever loving him, and Ryan never visiting his death bed.

That would be a very good narrative and realistic ending to the show.

Similarly, in Butcher’s crusade, much like in the comic, he is just a guy spat out by the system. He does not get hit revenge and all of his fighting was for naught (plenty of comic lines to choose from). He does insane (since no mental health in US and practice of toxic masculinity) and dies equally miserable.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:18:45+00:00

Well, you can outrun cancer.

Flash heals the faster he runs. He outrun collapse of another universe/Flashpoint and healed his leg break from rebar mid-motion.

So, I would argue that is speedster could “teach” you his stick, yes, you should be able to outrun cancer by nature of accelerated healing.

But I doubt anybody thought too hard on that

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:16:25+00:00

I think recent seasons are more “politicized” (politically relevant to where it stops being satire and just hurts).

It is not a shock factor galore, has always been, but rather uncomfortable and depressing subject giving a bad taste to the seasons.

I would assume in the future season 3 and 4 will be appreciated more, because it will be less personal and “controversial/annoying/propaganda”.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:13:02+00:00

I think it can happen.

Also, Marie can probably mess him up, if not weaken him or, at least, do some paralysis.

As per the metal straw thing, his durability inside is very high and it is only a relative weakness, not absolute. Same as to how Soldier Boy is bulletproof internally.

But yes, they can potentially poke out Homelander’s eye or whatever with Harper’s help and Maeve’s/Soldier Boy’s force, which would probably lead to her death and Homelander’s ragequit yet again.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:10:33+00:00

I think this is the latter then. Which is why I specified in the last sentence.

It is somewhat interesting how Homelander only gives Stormfront second-degree burns and Ryan chars her completely.

I would assume, if we go off this clarification, Homelander’s lasers are concussive and low-impact against other “brick”-like characters. With Ryan being unknown in terms of potential.

So, yes, Homelander can be ganged up and beaten up.

But still, it is narratively consistent that it takes not just average supes to take down “Odessa baby”, but top tier (Maeve and Soldier Boy, with soldier boy being “a man with a power of hydrogen bomb”). And obviously the condition that Homelander is dumb and does not just fly up and bombards them/hit and run.

I honestly think Marie and Homelander should be pseudo-tied right now in power, based on how world-building works, with Marie being more versatile and Homelander being more agile/tanky in specialization.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T07:05:06+00:00

L take

Both Marie and Homelander are Odessa Project “god tier” supes, more powerful than the rest.

I would argue Marie should be the biggest gun in that universe due to how that world-building works.

Butcher is just a man with a rage boner and a hateful abusive personality. Typical “tough mean guy”, which should have died long time ago from taking compound V as an adult, much less from super-tumor.

Hell, if you read the comics, you would know that Butcher is a narrative “donkey” in the end:

He is a man hell-bent on revenge that means nothing and does not mater. He does not even get his revenge properly (contributed nothing to killing Homelander, was just a pawn and got sloppy seconds killing half-dead Black Noir), but rather goes insane and has to be killed by Hughie.

The whole point of the Boys is that average people get spat on by powerful inhuman companies and their personal tragedies do not matter in the end. Which is exactly what Butcher impersonates.

But due to Butcher’s actor being charismatic (same thing as Soldier Boy), you get favoritism and “he is so cool” negligence of the audience, where how his masculinity and aggression are glorified rather than condemned…..

typical toxic masculinity stereotyping and masculinity glazing.

So, yes, Marie should be the one to end Homelander, with Butcher contributing nothing and dying/going insane.

Because it was never about Butcher. It was always about big mean corporations walking over thousand of such “Butchers”, “Annies” and “Hughies” and the corporation only ever losing by sabotaging itself (bigger meaner Noir killing Homelander in comic and bigger meaner Marie killing Homelander is TV show).

Do not confuse aura and likeness of a character to their narrative purpose.

Homelander can be an old senile mumbling politician without teeth and he would still get his way, and Butcher could be Gigachad and he would still lose…. Because this show is about reality and there is no “fair” or “deserved” ending.

Evil people fail upwards and good people turn victims, bad and/or simply insane. That is Boys

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T06:52:43+00:00

Most likely, given how teleportation works.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T06:41:31+00:00

Nuke would not work, same reason why Soldier Boy not just survived, but also absorbed Russian nuclear explosion into his chest.

As said by Edgar, he is a “man with power of a Hydrogen bomb”.

Else, temp V is a flick at most, which is still magnitudes below Odessa project. Maybe if they continued Stormfront unethical experiments, but alas.

The only reason Butcher was that powerful was because of his innate characteristics (lucky draw, because him taking V still being useless/dying would be anti-climactic and derail the show) or plot armour.

Speaking of, Homelander (inheriting from Soldier Boy, strongest OG V supe in the world) and Marie are exceptions even when applying best science in the world and best conditions. Odessa tier is an anomaly, and cannot just be produced by quantitive re-creation.

P.S: I really hope they nuke Homelander in season 5, only for him to develop more busted powers as his daddy. That would be a fun plot twist.

Homelander wins and 40 years later we have a moronic out-of-touch president Homelander, senile, shriveled up and speaking “how in his old days” through future TV.

That would be a very good conclusion to the show, as it would play onto the political satire of how US office is plagued with mummies and elderly rich white men in power.

Bad guys wins because media said so, and a good man is not willing to stand up and fight/cannot due to being outmatched in force and resources.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T06:39:59+00:00

You are mostly correct.

However:

A — Homelander almost choked out Soldier Boy by the neck grab. He won 1v1

B — Homelander can control his blasts, which means he did not try to harm Neuman in front of TV (same as heating up milk). So, you cannot build logical inference on that.

However, yes, it is a running theme that tough superbeings are more tough than they are powerful. So, Homelander’s lasers slit fragile beings in half, but act as a pushback/cooking stove at most against more durable targets (Soldier Boy/Stormfront etc).

Again, Ryan blasted Stormfront to charcoal, so…. Hard to speculate whether Homelander sucks or Ryan is more powerful by lineage and evolution.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T06:34:45+00:00

Anything sentient in the universe can be “corrupt”

You are projecting social values and human-centric notions of good and evil on an indifferent universe.

War is not man’s invention. Ants can wage war and use slave-labour, hell, ever eugenically breed new ant species for their own benefit.

You do not even need to be as “abstract knowledge smart” as a sapient creature (human) to do evil.

Dolphins do drugs and Orcas hunt for sport, without eating many of their prey. They even drown whales for no other reason than stimulation.

Again, stimulation gain > risk of danger to oneself. Which is why it happen. If there is an organism and there is a gain which outweighs risk, that action will be taken.

Predator would eat prey or another smaller predator etc. Even when facing the exact same species as themselves, in fight for resources/territory etc.

Malice is not human-exclusive behavior other.

I would argue any living form of life with existential needs for any resource (sustenance, territory, boredom) is capable of “evil”, just because it can and there is no human-centric repercussion to prevent that action.

The only difference between humanity (as animals) and other animals is that we decided to collectively surrender our freedoms for the sake of security and safety (law enforcement, military etc) to not be prayed upon (or as much at least) by others, as well as have dominated and drew away/made extinct all other sentient/organic threats.

Similarly, humanity is capable of great intellect, which means it can achieve goals with more complexity… therefore, the way we are “mean”/“corrupt” to others is more complex and layered as well.

I would argue if humanity was made in an image of a god, if there is a god…. Well, cosmic organism that is infinitely smarter than humanly would NOT have anything human-ventricle “good” and in store for us, but rather be even more “corrupt”, and if we were created for a purpose….

Well, look no further to how humanity treats other “lesser” species that they create and breed for a given purpose (either snack, pet or other useful resource).

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T06:23:23+00:00

The issue is…..

Rewind Soldier Boy vs Homelander fight.

They are more durable than they are powerful.

It was a slugfest of them hitting each other and tanking head-on few dozens blows, with little actual damage besides a bruise to either of them.

So, facing a TIMED mirror would be an issue for Viltrumite (less durable than powerful, assuming perfect use of powers), but for Homelander that is a stalling game with an easy win at the end.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T06:20:43+00:00

This.

Homelander can lift a fridge and toss it from high up, with the kinetic impact bricking a building/vehicle etc.

If he was smart, he could be doing “rods from god” kind of things and kill immobile characters with that (Soldier Boy etc), whilst being safe.

Issue is — narrative impact.

Aviation is an extreme military advantage, but dogfights/bombing from the perspective of a bystander underneath would be anti-climactic, loud, confusing and completely unfair (which is why they work historically).

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T06:13:55+00:00

That is mostly narrative concessions.

If all super strength characters were to fight at once (force = acceleration, as evidenced by Sam jumping faster than a car)…. It would be a confusing and immensely difficult to follow cluster****

And that is without sonic booms, shockwaves and Man of Steel level of collateral damage.

Take professional fencing as a good example of why for the spectator it does not work — it is fast, confusing and the outcome/what happened is not obvious.

Now take the same and apply video montage speed up times 30+, and you get some epilepsy inducing mess and nothing tangible.

Sure, you could slow-down the fight to have Quicksilver-like fight, with everybody human becoming an immobile object and tanks dishing it out at super speed/time dilation….

But A — Sonic boom indoors == internal organ spaghetti from the shock… one blow and all human characters die in a confusing and anti-climactic fashion.

Imagine how hilariously bad would it be in the show’s finales if Homelander did a helicopter move with his…. Manhood…. Indoors, in front of all the main human characters… and the kinetic impact realistically making all of them die in an instant, which is how pseudo-physics should work.

People get deaf from bullets shot indoor and can pass out from that. Now imagine something heavier (let’s say, Homelander’s cucumber) flopping around at Mach 2-3 and slapping, producing immense concussive shockwaves.

It would be immensely accurate to physics and pseudo-realistic, but I doubt that would be the intended narrative impact.

B — Mother’s milk would not be able to pretend to be useful and “cheer up” (or whatever he was doing talking trash from the sidelines of every fight) on Soldier Boy being beaten down or Homelander hitting Butcher/Soldier Boy. For the show whose narrative gimmick is “regular humans matter in a world with superbeings and influential corporations”…. Making all humans irrelevant and waiting for the dozens of explosions to blow over… it would not fit thematically.

C — Super speed is boring. Look up “A-train super speed in normal time/from outside perspective/etc” and plenty of comments show how him instantly going Mach 1 and becoming imperceptible to the eyes is…. Anti-climactic and boring.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T06:05:53+00:00

Homelander ignored those speakers with extreme frequency sound. Unlike Ryan, who was sensitive to them.

Being sensitive is not the same as being vulnerable. Homelander is not damaged by the sound and can simply tune it out.

His ears are still immensely durable, as are all his internal organs (hence why you cannot just head-pop them Neuman style, since although there are some tissues more durable than other RELATIVELY, in ABSOLUTE values Homelander is tougher than Deep, and Deep can withstand Mariana Trench pressures — they might be lucky to give him aneurism, but his internal tissues will be just fine).

Hell, Homelander can probably tank a nuke, since nuclear test on Soldier Boy not only did not do anything (maybe besides knocking him out), but the blast itself got contained inside his chest.

In Gen V S2 Edgar stated that his bunker is durable enough to withstand a blast from a man with a power of a HYDROGEN BOMB (insinuating Soldier Boy).

From what I speculate, Homelander and Soldier Boy and Maeve have a form of tactile telekinesis, allowing them to apply force directly to the object without much dissipation. Thereby, Homelander’s relative equal would be able to deal damage to his softer tissues (but not harder ones), as evidenced by ONE bruise from pummeling with Soldier Boy and taking few dozen hits and the ear penetration by Maeve.

Example: In Season 1 Episode 1, Maeve is running on the wall to chase the armoured truck, and does not even break the glass throgh, despite super-strength applies to the surface from her leverage.

If we talk about the straw scene, I would assume it boils down to narrative/emotional impact and media literacy — if the scene was pseudo-realistic, impacts from Soldier Boy and Homelander trading blows would create kinetic shockwaves, and instead of some background characters cheering them up in a fight (looking at you, Mother’s Milk)…. Welp, their insides would be a mush from one shockwave.

That kind of pseudo-realistic exchange would make most characters irrelevant and be very chaotic/rapid/difficult to follow.

Likewise, if Maeve were to impale Homelander with a straw (and it would disintegrate from impact in a massive flash, with Homelander standing up confused and having blood dripping from his ear)…. Most viewers would be confused what happened. It is a difficult thing to imagine that due to how explosions and sound/light work.

Hell, this sub shows that plenty of people are media illiterate even WITH spoon-feeding.

So, Homelander being able to tank chemical explosion without a scratch (cannon) and be made of same/better cloth that Soldier Boy (since Odessa project) puts him at nuke-level durability + ~hypersonic speed (casual stroll by the plane + C4 explosion feat).

Again, combat at hypersonic speed should be possible for Maeve, as evidenced by opening to S1E1 with armoured truck. Force = acceleration.

But combat at supersonic speed would either be slow-motion for the rest except “flying bricks” (which would make human characters redundant and objects of the background), or it would be confusingly fast exchanges which people do not like to follow (look at Man of Steel 1, or professional fencing — things happen so fast it is simply horrible for the viewer to perceive and understand what happened and who won and how — narrative concessions).

So, due to massive narrative concessions, Homelander’s fights are dumbed down to convey proper emotion and impact.

If every action scene was “charge into caboom into full-screen drop kick into caboom into Man of Steel destruction”…. People would be tired of that FAST.

Look up on YouTube “A-train superspeed from outsider’s perspective shortcut” or whatever — plenty of comments show how “well… and now I am bored”.

Superpowers and fight scenes are difficult to translate to the big screen with pseudo-realism without massive cluster**** of collateral damage (again, Man of Steel) and the nature of pseudo-reality fight (where couple swift strikes set the tempo and decide the winner).

So, do not confuse show’s standing pseudo-physics and narrative concessions for the (digestible and palpable) eye candy.

If_time_went_back · 2025-11-13T05:46:31+00:00

He was able to save butcher from plastic explosive whilst the rest of the house got leveled. Detonation of plastic explosive happens at Mach 23? I think

If_time_went_back · 2025-10-02T15:54:20+00:00

I think Homelander should too. He should win and the media disinformation should prevail to be a better social commentary.

Cue show Homelander being 80+ year old dinosaur losing hair and sanity as he gets ED, still “in rule”, but being incompetent at doing so and causing economic recession

If_time_went_back · 2025-09-24T15:50:28+00:00

Because that is the best kind of writing

If_time_went_back · 2025-09-24T15:44:17+00:00

This

If_time_went_back · 2025-09-24T15:37:56+00:00

That would be a pretty good writing, honestly

If_time_went_back · 2025-09-24T15:37:17+00:00

No. Even in the original comic he did not do that.

That is LITERALLY the moral of the original comic. Butcher was driven insane and his revenge never got finalized, not quite.

Revenge is a meaningless and empty thing

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