Many villains are at play in The Boys season four. But episode six solidified one fact: Sister Sage and Homelander are one hell of an evil duo. Homelander continues to distance himself further from any shreds of humanity still in his superpowered body as he works to put supes and billionaires in complete power. He is also strong-arming Victoria Neuman into forcing billionaires to commit treason and create a 25th Amendment situation (i.e. if the President dies, the VP becomes President). This would create a world where supes rule without oversight. But, until now, we weren’t quite sure why Sister Sage was so invested in helping Homelander advance his plans. 

Sister Sage’s Family Tragedy Led to Her Hate all Humans

Sage, Homelander, and Victoria Neuman all attend Tek Knight’s alt-right shindig at his estate. While he’s off in the Tek Cave being a wild dude, Sage and Victoria have a conversation. Sage reveals her grandmother was diagnosed with Stage 3 leukemia. She said the doctors didn’t care to save “some old ex-Black Panther,” so Sage came up with a cure. She gave the research to them and they brushed her off. Her grandmother later died in pain.

Sage says she could cure cancer, reverse global warming, and more, but she believes there is no point because humans are animals. She uses this story to appeal to Victoria, saying they both understand living in a world where they are ignored. Sage encourages her to take power by getting one hand in the enemies’ pockets while slitting their throat with the other. Oof. 

If I were a billionaire and a group of supes—including one with the power to laser my head off and another that can pop my skull—asked me to be part of their coup plans, I’d have to consider it. The billionaires push back on a few very valid issues (how to handle the military, stock markets, etc.) but Victoria uses her cunning to sway them in her favor. (Sister Sage was dealing with temporary brain damage courtesy of MM shooting her in the head.) They all seem in favor of supporting her but it remains to be seen if that holds up.

Sage and Homelander Want to Create Internment Camps for Humans (and Anti-Supe Folks)

In this episode, we also discover Sage and Homelander were working with Tek Knight to create internment camps. Knight’s ancestors owned a large portion of the prison industrial complex, which explains why he is so rich now. He agrees to partner with Sage and Homelander to use those spaces to hold humans as supes take over the world. It’s a bleak plan that sets up the possibility for genocidal activity. The show doesn’t make it clear how much Victoria knows about this plan, but she only cares about herself and her daughter, who is now a supe. I am sure she would be down to do something so vile. 

With Tek Knight dead, Victoria getting billionaires into her pocket, and Sage’s hatred of white men possibly leading to her double crossing Homelander, The Boys is spiraling as season four begins to come to a close.

The post Homelander and Sister Sage’s Supe Plans Are Darker Than We Imagined on THE BOYS appeared first on Nerdist.

The Boys will end its story in a fifth and final season. We know that Eric Kripke plans to continue Gen V for a few more seasons and create other The Boys spinoffs, too. And we are getting some very, very strong hints that The Boys‘ main villain, Homelander, could be getting a prequel spinoff series. Is this a good idea? I think so, if it is approached the right way. 

In episode four of season four, Homelander spends time confronting some of his deepest and earliest core wounds. He goes back to the Vought lab where he was born and raised for a “family reunion” of sorts. He confronts a couple of people who mistreated him as a child. Of course, Homelander gets bloody revenge on pretty much everyone, setting the stage for him to become even more unhinged. This small peek into Homelander’s origin story gives us a lot of context to some of his frankly disturbing proclivities. A prequel Homelander series would further establish how he became such a twisted being. 

I am not super interested in seeing a very young Homelander get tortured by adults. That just seems overly brutal, even for this universe’s standards. But I think the period from where he becomes “The Homelander” at age 16 through him becoming the leader of the Seven is an intriguing part of his life that we know little about. After spending years with lots of isolation and brainwashing, how did he learn to navigate larger society and become the hero of America? What challenges did he face? His journey from socially awkward supe loner to the cunning leader we all know would be fun to witness. It would largely hinge on finding the right young man to compliment Antony Starr’s flawless portrayal of an adult Homelander.

I am not always a fan of trying to humanize a villain. But the duality of having the powers of a god yet the innate human need for love, family, and approval, even after excruciating torture, makes Homelander such an effective antagonist. Sure, we could get flashbacks to his young child and pre-teen days in a The Boys spinoff series, like what The Boys posted on social media with the hashtag #HomeSweetHome. (Is that a title hint? I’d like for it to be Home Sweet Home(lander) personally.)

But that shouldn’t be the primary focus of a Homelander prequel spinoff series. By aiming at his late teen and early 20s, we’d get a chance to meet other members of the OG Seven, like Queen Maeve, at a more impressionable point of their lives, too. Maybe we can discover what happened to Mister Marathon, whom A-Train replaced prior to the events of The Boys. In fact, The Boys could even make it a true “Dawn of the Seven” spinoff story about how they all came together but with a larger focus on Homelander’s story.

Right now, we don’t know if Homelander will survive the events of The Boys or not. (My guess is he’s going to stick around.) But, if Homelander does, it wouldn’t be out of the realm for him to appear on other The Boys spinoffs. A prequel series would be an excellent way to have a complete picture of Homelander as he moves forward. In fact, it could even connect to what we get in The Boys: Mexico or future Gen V seasons. Who knows how far Dr. Vouglebaum’s reach extends? Let’s see where this wild world takes us the in future.

The post THE BOYS Is Hinting at a Homelander Prequel Spinoff Series, and It Could Be Rad appeared first on Nerdist.

Episode four of The Boys season four is certainly one for the books. Annie completely loses it after Firecracker takes her Starlight bashing antics a step too far. Hughie and Kimiko go on a wild mission while he tries to save his father’s life. And poor Frenchie finally has to admit to Colin that he killed his parents. But Homelander absolutely dominates this episode with a trip back to his place of birth as he “confronts” his past in the only way he knows how to anything: with unhinged violence. 

At the end of episode three, the many voices existing in Homelander’s head agree that he must confront his past. So, this episode starts with Homelander arriving back at the lab where he was born and raised as a child. The workers there seem both surprised and scared to see him for obvious reasons. He singles out a couple of old faces he remembers, specifically Marty and Frank. Marty even refers to him as John before he quickly tells him to use Homelander instead.

Homelander comes with a fudge whale cake and tells everyone to eat some of the cake. He also asks for a woman named Barbara, who is off-site at the moment, and instructs them that she needs to come back for the reunion. His sinister smile and narrowed eyes indicate that he’s not just there to have a homecoming party. 

Homelander invites Frank over for a game of wastepaper basketball (which most of us just call “trashketball”), saying the best out of three will win. He reminds Frank that he taught him about that game because he watched Frank play it while he was in a nearby oven. Frank was the person who ran tests on kid Homelander, turning up the temperature to see if it would burn his skin. It’s a small glimpse into Homelander’s inhumane treatment that certainly contributes to why he is such an awful supe.

It begins to dawn on Frank and the others that this visit will spiral into violence. Frank says that he was just doing his job and, well, Homelander responds by making Frank get in the oven. Frank apologizes to Homelander but he’s not trying to hear it. Homelander turns the oven up high and cooks Frank to melted bits in front of everyone. Yikes.

Later on, Homelander looks at marks on the wall of his growth and we discover that he got his Homelander moniker at 16 years old. He calls Marty over and says that he is sorry for what he did to Frank. (A lie, obviously.) Homelander says Marty was one of the kinder ones, but notes that Marty used to call him Squirt. He tells the story about why Marty gave him that name. Homelander said he would be left in an isolation room for hours while Marty and cameras watched him. As he got into puberty, Homelander would masturbate at night between Marty’s nightly rounds to feel something good. This explains why Homelander is always getting someone to satisfy him in that way now, if he’s not doing it himself.

Marty caught him doing it one night and laughed at him, calling him Squirt. Homelander decides to get revenge by making Marty masturbate in front of the entire room of people. Marty is having a hard time, uh, getting hard, and Homelander says he will do it or lose his penis to laser eyes. Marty can’t do it and Homelander lasers right at his crotch. He later steps on his head and crushes it. 

At this point, Barbara shows up and, unlike most others, she talks to Homelander without fear. He takes her into a room that he called “the bad room.” She calls him out for his behavior and says they were just people following Dr. Vogelbaum and Stan Edgar’s orders. He refutes this by saying he was a child and someone should have stood up for him. For the first time, Homelander has a point. Barbara says the day he was born he lasered out of his mom’s stomach, killing her and three others that same day. She notes that he could have broken out of there at any time, but his need for approval and love and to not disappoint them took over.

She says they brought in psychologists and helped to engineer and instill that in him so he’d be obedient. And, until this point, it has mostly kept him in check. But that’s over now, it seems. We last see Barbara in that room looking horrified at the remains of her co-worker’s dismembered bodies strewn everywhere. Homelander gets into an elevator with blood all over his face to do god knows what next. 

Between this and a season one vault video posted by The Boys social media team (seen above), there’s a chance that we could get a Homelander prequel series. We know that The Boys is ending in season five and that there are other planned spinoffs on the way. And there’s certainly a lot of diabolical things to explore with the creation and eventual rise of the show’s greatest villain. Until then, we will see how Homelander’s return to his birth place will affect his future.

The post THE BOYS Explores Homelander’s Birthplace and Origin Story in Brutally Bloody Fashion appeared first on Nerdist.

The Boys season four is right around the corner and fans can once again expect a bloody and explosive ride. This upcoming season will have additional layers, thanks to everything that happened in Gen V’s first season, to build on all the chaos. Believe it or not, it has been two years since The Boys’ third season hit our TV screens. We always think a rewatch of The Boys is a good time; however, some folks ain’t got time for all that! Life is busy and there is a plethora of TV to watch at all times. So, here is everything important you need to remember from The Boys season three to be ready for season four. 

The Introduction of Compound V24 a.k.a. Temp V

The Boys season three introduces Compound V24, a.k.a. Temp V. We wrote about it a TON but let’s recap. At the beginning of season three, Homelander is unraveling mentally because 1) his comrades are more popular than him after the Stormfront debacle 2) Starlight becomes his co-captain and 3) Butcher took his biological son Ryan to a safe location with Grace Mallory and refuses to tell him anything. Queen Maeve, the Boys, Starlight, and quite a few others want him dead.

In fact, Maeve visits Butcher, revealing there is a weapon that possibly killed Soldier Boy, who was basically the OG Homelander. She wants them to use it to kill Homelander and suggests that Butcher track down the Payback collective (the original Vought supe team) to find out more info. Maeve introduces him to Temp V, a drug that grants a normal person superpowers for 24 hours. 

Butcher eventually takes it and, like Homelander, can laser his enemies. He also gets super strength. Hughie, who feels powerless next to Starlight and rejoins the Boys after discovering Victoria Neuman is the head-popping supe, swipes some of the drug and is able to teleport. Of course, all drugs have a side effect. We see some of that with Butcher’s sweats, black goo leaking from his ears, and upset stomach leading to green vomit. Starlight later discovers that if you take three to five doses of Temp V, it will kill you. She tells Butcher but he doesn’t inform Hughie of this truth, even though he pressures him into stopping Temp V.

Butcher’s usage of Temp V and partnering with Soldier Boy in an attempt to kill Homelander (more on that later) leads to a splinter in the group. Well, actually all of the Boys (including new member Starlight) hate Butcher for using the drug, putting Hughie in harm’s way, and just generally being an asshole. Going into season four, MM is the true leader of the Boys, as he should be. 

The Red River Institute and Our First Glimpse Into Gen V 

Poor Hughie. He spent a year working for the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, hoping he could change the world with less violence before discovering the truth about Congresswoman Victoria Neuman. He witnesses Victoria’s conversation (and deadly fight) with Tony, an old friend who called her Nadia and said the world needed to know the truth about Red River. This leads Hughie to the Red River Institute, a group home for superpowered kids, many of whom killed their parents. 

While looking at resident files, we see a girl named Marie M., whom we now know is the hemokinetic supe from Gen V. We didn’t see the Red River Institute long, but it turns out Nadia was living there for a while until…

Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Now VP Candidate) Is Stan Edgar’s Adopted Daughter

…Stan Edgar comes in and adopts Nadia as a teen. He basically uses her as his weapon at his disposal. This makes Hughie feel eve sicker about working for Victoria because he confided in her about Ryan’s location at Grace’s home. Speaking of her, she’s at the center of not one but two scandals. First, she made Victoria Neuman the head of the bureau after trying to save her from the infamous head-popping attacks she caused in the Congress. Grace wants to eliminate Victoria but, thanks to Butcher’s deadly encounter with Payback member Gunpowder, he wants to know all about what happened in Nicaragua with Soldier Boy first. 

The CIA Nicaraguan Cold War Mission That Led to Soldier Boy’s Capture

After blackmail pressure from Butcher, Grace Mallory spills the tea that puts everything concerning Soldier Boy into focus. She explains Operation Charly, a CIA mission by Reagan to help Contra rebels fight the Russian-backed Sandinistas. She was in charge of trafficking Contra cocaine into the US and then using the profits to buy more weapons for the conflict.

In 1984, the CIA was gearing up for a fight during the Cold War but a wrench was thrown in Grace’s plans in the form of the Payback collective, led by Soldier Boy and including a younger Noir. Naturally, she wasn’t happy about ridiculous celeb supes getting in her way. A young Stan Edgar, then a Vought associate, explained that the company contracted with the government to fight the war against communism. He said it was a “trial run” for supes in the military, and she begrudgingly has to go along with it because her superior signed off on it. 

It doesn’t take long for Payback’s hijinks to give away the soldier’s position. A ton of people die and Crimson Countess, Soldier Boy’s supe girlfriend, claims that the Russians killed him with some kind of super weapon and took his body.

The BCL Red Weapon Is Actually Soldier Boy

Of course, we eventually find out Soldier Boy was traded to the Russians by Vought/Payback and is still very much alive. The BCL Red weapon that she spoke of is actually Soldier Boy himself after all the experiments done on him. He can release a radiation-fueled particle beam that kills people and fries the Compound V in supe’s bodies. We see this when the Boys find him in Russia and his beam hits Kimiko, taking away her powers until Annie/Starlight gives her more Compound V.

The Story of Black Noir: His Payback Time and His Death at the Hands of Homelander

In the Nicaragua flashbacks, we see Black Noir prior to his head injury. He speaks with Stan Edgar about his displeasure at having to hide behind his mask all time. Ya know, because of racism and all. Later on, we discover that Black Noir was verbally and mentally abused by Soldier Boy, who even blocked him from trying to start an acting career. Noir came into agreement with Stan Edgar and Vought that Soldier Boy was doing too much and needed to be subdued.

During the aforementioned ambush, Payback attacked Soldier Boy; however, he got free and gave Noir a brutal face and brain injury. In the present, Noir takes out his tracker and goes on the run after discovering that Soldier Boy is back. (This is what sends the Deep and eventually Homelander to Vermont for Herogasm, which we will talk about later.) We learn his story through his imaginary cartoon friends. Sadly, Homelander kills him when he returns to Vought tower because he feels betrayed (will get into that more later, too.)

There’s a new Noir in the suit in season four, so we will have to see how things go. 

Homelander Is on His Wildest Behavior 

After Homelander loses his Nazi queen and snaps on live TV about being superior to the human race, he gains a strong following from a very certain type of person. (Do I really have to say it?) Starlight tries to pull the Flight 37 video out of her chamber to control him but he tells her to go ahead and use it. In fact, he threatens to take our several large government entities. He pressures her into playing as his girlfriend for the public and reinstating the Deep in the Seven. She sticks in there hoping that the Boys will get that supe-killing weapon, but fears for her life the whole way. 

Homelander does so much wild stuff that we put it in this post for your enjoyment. Who can forget him making Deep eat a sea creature, him forcing a woman to die by suicide, or how he drank cow’s milk straight from the source?

Shenangians aside, he gains great power and becomes the leader of Vought after partnering with Victoria Neuman to betray her father. She does so to keep her daughter (and her own secret of being a supe) safe. In exchange, she gets Compound V from Homelander to give her daughter powers. He gets Deep to kill the VP nominee so she can take his place. As Stan predicts, he has no damn idea what he is doing and things begin to crumble. But he still has his awful core following, even after he lasers a Starlight supporter’s head off.

In Gen V, he makes a cameo after the big battle at Godolkin, lasering Marie without killing her. Vought locks up Marie and those on her side for being traitors. He brings Cate and Sam (the real chaotic ones) into the supe fold and they will be at Vought in some capacity in season four. 

Homelander Is Soldier Boy’s Son 

What a plot twist. Soldier Boy reveals to Homelander that he is his father, which makes Homelander even more unhinged and desperate. Soldier Boy’s own terrible relationship with his father led him to Vought experiments in the first place. But that doesn’t mean he wants to be Homelander’s daddy. There’s no father/son good feels between them during the big battle at Vought.

Soldier Boy Killed MM’s Grandfather 

This season, we discover a huge reason why MM deals with depression, anxiety, and OCD. Soldier Boy is the supe who killed his grandfather when he was a kid. In Harlem, MM and his granddad woke up to Soldier Boy confronting a group trying to steal a car. He watches in admiration but Soldier Boy picks up the car and flings it at their home, killing his grandfather. This led to MM’s father obsessively pursuing justice (at the expense of their relationship) until he died from stress at his typewriter. The Soldier Boy mission is why MM decides to rejoin the Boys. It also makes things even worse when she discovers that Todd, his ex-wife’s new (white) boyfriend is a Homelander enthusiast. Thankfully, MM takes care of him in spectacular fashion. 

MM comes face to face with Soldier Boy a couple times and, even though he isn’t a supe, he is still willing to fight him. He partners with Frenchie to get Novichok, a typically deadly neurotoxin that is strong enough to at least knock out Soldier Boy. He comes up with the plan to kill Soldier Boy before he murders everyone at Vought. Of course, a division comes with Maeve, Butcher, and Soldier Boy determined to use Soldier Boy to kill Homelander, even if it leads to many casualties. 

With help, he is able to get Frenchie’s quickly made Novichak gas on Soldier Boy’s face, but it doesn’t quite work. He ends up going to his daughter Janine and tells her the truth about Soldier Boy and superheroes in general, which is cathartic for him. He wants her to know that he’s fighting for justice, just like her grandfather. 

Ummm, Herogasm Happened

Whew. So, Soldier Boy, Hughie, and Butcher head to the sprawling home of the TNT Twins, who are having their annual supe orgy known as Herogasm. MM and Starlight, who are not down with this plan, head that way, too. They want to stop more deaths from happening, a rather futile attempt at morality in this situation. Everyone gets more than what they bargained for at this Vermont sex fest. MM has an unfortunate reunion with Love Sausage and gets a huge, um, finish all over him. Supes die. The Deep has intimate time with an octopus. Homelander escapes despite Soldier Boy and company’s best efforts.

It all ends with MM recording Starlight going live and condemning Homelander, Soldier Boy, and Vought. She formally announces that she’s done with the Seven. (At the end of the season, she gets rid of her suit and decides to simply be Annie, a member of the Boys.) 

Homelander Finds His Son to Train Him in the Ways of Evildom

After finding out about Soldier Boy and Nicaragua, Butcher is enraged and breaks Ryan’s heart in the process. The boy didn’t want to let Butcher leave, so Butcher snapped at him to hurt his feels. Ryan’s eyes go lasery but he stops and says he hates Butcher. Eventually, Victoria Neuman gives Homelander the address to Grace Mallory’s to keep him on her side.

He easily takes Ryan after placating his guilt over hurting Stormfront in season two. Butcher tries to get Ryan back at the big Vought battle, but it is to no avail. Ryan chooses to leave with Homelander, calling him Dad. Ryan witnesses his father laser a man’s head off after he throws a plastic bottle. We can only assume that Homelander plans to train him in the ways of evildom. 

Billy Butcher Is Sick and Weeks Away From Death 

After warning Butcher about the Temp V side effects, he takes yet another dose in his relentless attempt to kill Homelander. It doesn’t work and a doctor’s visit reveals that Butcher only has about 12-18 months left to live. But that isn’t stopping him from still trying to kill supes. At the end of Gen V, he comes into the Woods, which means he knows about that supe-killing virus. We know Victoria has the goods, so he will have to catch up with the VP hopeful in season four. 

Maeve Is Alive But Without Her Powers

We don’t get a ton of Maeve in this season but she still plays a key role. In addition to helping (and um, having) Butcher, she verbally eviscerated Homelander, and he along with Noir captures her. She’s locked up in a secret facility at Vought. Homelander says he will harvest her eggs and combine them with his DNA to create perfect super kids.

Thanks to Starlight shining a public light on Maeve missing, Ashley and Deep attempt to move her to another location but she escapes the transport. She makes it to MM’s place and reunites with Starlight for the final showdown. She sides with Butcher, choosing to attempt to kill Homelander versus Soldier Boy. In the end, Maeve tackles Soldier Boy and takes his blast directly on. She saves all our faves but losing her powers. (She also lost an eye in a fight with Homelander.) Vought reports her as a sacrificial lesbian heroine and condemns “Russian terrorist” Soldier Boy. But she’s actually alive and living quietly with her girlfriend, which Ashley is aware of. 

Soldier Boy Is in Government Custody (Again) 

When the Boys “release” Soldier Boy, he is shocked to find a new world with the Seven as its heroes. He somehow makes his way to Manhattan and starts causing a ruckus. It isn’t long before goes to the Legend, picks up his suit, kills Crimson Countess in retaliation, and constantly makes inappropriate comments. Soldier Boy basically wants help with finding and killing the remainder of Payback, so he’s down to kill his Vought successor. The Homelander killing plan doesn’t work out at Herogasm and things go awry at Vought when Soldier Boy is willing to kill Ryan. He tries to do one big blast but Maeve tackles him out of a window. Now, he’s in custody under the watchful eye of Grace Mallory. 

In addition to ALL that info, here’s some Gen V intel to make sure you’re ready for The Boys season four on June 13:

The post What You Need to Remember From THE BOYS Season 3 appeared first on Nerdist.

Homelander is bringing his unhinged behavior to a whole new universe. It’s no secret that Homelander is the worst superpowered being in The Boys universe and perhaps in any fictional world. He’s ready to sacrifice whomever to make himself look good and has a very dangerous legion of fans condoning his deplorable actions. We can safely say that he would cause chaos and fight wherever he goes. So it totally makes sense that the Mortal Kombat 1 video game is adding Homelander to the mix. The first look at Homelander in Mortal Kombat 1 reveals that Homelander is ready to face any mortal, supe, or god. 

The clip is a slice of delight for The Boys fans as he begins the clip by drinking milk. We know he has a sorta-secret thirst for getting cow’s (and human’s) milk straight from the source. He goes up against Liu Kang and proceeds to fight him before lasering his head to pieces. Yep, that checks out.

The latest gameplay trailer released by Mortal Kombat 1 reveals even more of Homelander in his Mortal Kombat 1 form.

You can grab the Mortal Kombat 1 Premium edition and add Homelander into the mix when he arrives on June 4.

Originally published on May 6, 2024.

The post MORTAL KOMBAT 1 Clip Shows Homelander Slicing Heads and Sipping Milk appeared first on Nerdist.

The Boys ended their third season with a game-changing moment for the series. Homelander discovered he could do the unthinkable in public—and many in the public would love him for it. This left us all foaming at the mouth for season four. And now, it’s almost here. Fans attending the first-ever CCXP México were the first to see the official trailer for the fourth season of The Boys, coming to Prime Video on June 13. Cast members Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Chace Crawford, Karen Fukuhara, and Claudia Doumit were on hand to debut the trailer to a crowded room of fans. You can watch the latest trailer in full right here:

Here’s the official description for The Boys season four, as well as key art:

In Season Four of The Boys, the world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son and his job as The Boys’ leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late.

Judging from this trailer, certain major plot elements from the spinoff series Gen V will factor heavily into season four of The Boys. Namely, the virus that kills super-powered individuals. Homelander himself appeared in the Gen V finale. However, it’s unclear how many characters from that series filmed anything for the parent show. And clearly, the sociopolitical allegories are stronger than ever this season. The Boys will premiere its fourth season on June 13, 2024, with three episodes. These are followed by a new episode each week, ending with the epic season finale on Thursday, July 18.

The post THE BOYS Season 4 Trailer Shows Direct Ties to GEN V appeared first on Nerdist.

In a world full of superheroes controlled by an evil, all-powerful global conglomerate no good deed goes unpunished. That’s what Marie, Andre, Emma, and Jordan learned in Gen V‘s season one finale. But while their medical facility/prison has no doors, the show revealed a way out for them. A post-credits scene featured the world’s foremost supe hater is on the case. Billy Butcher stopped by The Woods to see exactly what Vought was up to at Godolkin University. While he might be looking for a virus that will play a major role in The Boys‘s fourth season, he could also find some super new allies who hate Homelander, too.

Dr. Edison Cardosa had been secretly working on a way to give Vought “compassionate control” over its superheroes. His monstrous experiments in The Woods resulted in a virus that left supes—and supes only—weakened. But Godolkin Dean Indira Shetty pushed Cardosa to not only make it more dangerous, she wanted him to make it contagious. Shetty also wanted him to make it airborne. She hated supes because she knew Homelander was responsible for her husband’s and daughter’s death in a plane crash that occurred during The Boys‘ first season. Shetty wanted the virus to exterminate super-abled beings all over the world.

After threatening Cardosa to give her what she wanted, Dean Shetty reached out to Grace Mallory, former Deputy Director of the CIA and founder of The Boys. Shetty said her project was getting more dangerous and she needed help. The Dean thought Mallory would happily work with her to “neutralize” every supe on Earth. Instead Mallory—who now has Starlight as an ally—called Shetty’s plan a “war crime.”

Shetty said she’d continue with her plan alone and left. That’s when Mallory pulled out a phone and asked someone if they “got all that” and to “keep a close eye” on the Dean. Mallory had someone record the entire conversation. Shetty provided proof of the horrible experiments Vought had been performing on kids at a school.

Meanwhile, thanks to a drunken Cardosa’s rant inside Dean Shetty’s office, a hidden Marie and Jordan learned about the virus. Marie then told a visiting Victoria Neuman all about it after Neuman revealed she is secretly a supe and they both share the same blood manipulation powers. In fact, Neuman had been secretly helping Marie for years.

Congresswoman Neuman would not help Cardosa escape the predicament he’d unknowingly created for himself. The Vought doctor had inadvertently made a virus that would destroy the company’s very own superheroes. The doctor was very happy when Neuman contacted him about the virus and happily gave over every vile in existence to her. He believed they were on the same side. However, once the doctor confirmed he was the only one who knew how to make the virus, Neuman blew up his head.

With Shetty (forced to slice her own throat by a furious Cate) and Cardosa both dead, the only person who has access to the virus is Victoria Neuman, a powerful, dangerous superhero who could potentially use the bio-weapon on enemy supes. She can also use it as leverage over Vought and anyone else who gets in her way. But Neuman isn’t the only one who knows it exists. Mallory and her Boys know, too, a fact Gen V reminded us during its season one finale post-credits scene.

The season ended with Billy Butcher showing up to examine the abandoned Woods facility. There he saw what Vought had been doing to its own young superheroes. (Which he described with his signature vocabulary.)

What exactly was he looking for there? Evidence of the virus and how to create it? The remains of a supe who died from it? Documentation of what really transpired? Anything that could support what Mallory recorded Shetty saying about the program? All of that and more? Whatever Butcher wanted—even if it was just a chance to see firsthand the depravity of Vought—might not be as valuable as what he didn’t find.

In the season finale Cate and Sam unleash The Woods’ patients on the humans of Godolkin. They wanted vengeance. Andre, Emma, Marie, and Jordan stopped the massacre, saving Vought’s entire board of trustees in the process. For that they earned Homelander’s scorn. (The very tough Marie got a laser eye blast to the chest.) Homelander accused them of killing their own “kind.” That earned all four a spot in a secret Vought medical facility. They’re imprisoned there while the world celebrates the free and clear Cate and Sam. Vought—under Homelander’s watchful eye and smile—is promoting the two of them as the “new” Guardians of Godolkin.

Vought is trying to bury the truth once again, but the company’s biggest enemies know about those dark secrets. And in the world of The Boys, where even Billy Butcher has learned to work with good, kind, moral supes, the four real heroes of Gen V might be just what he needs to reveal what the evil conglomerate is really all about. They’re all now natural allies, anyway. Those locked-up God U coeds are enemies of Homelander now. They need Billy as much as he needs them.

Well, they need each other and a deadly virus that can kill Homelander. Billy Butcher will probably wants to find that just as much as he does Godolkin’s true Guardians.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post What GEN V’s Season 1 Finale Means for THE BOYS appeared first on Nerdist.

Nerds contain multitudes. And that applies to your friendly Nerdist crew, too. Our staff doesn’t always agree on everything going on in pop culture. But that doesn’t mean we don’t talk about things, though. Sometimes, us nerds like to debate and argue a bit. Call us “argumentanerds,” if you will. So we are going to doing something unorthodox and let you into one of our discussions about perhaps the wildest show on TV: The Boys. After spending all season attempting to kill Homelander, he survives to the end. Quite the choice, indeed. Let’s dig into what ultimate fate should befall one of TV’s most loathsome characters ever.

Eric Diaz (Nerdist Staff Writer): Homelander is the most hatable character in genre TV. I think only Joffrey on Game of Thrones was on par. (Which is funny, since they are kind of the same character at different ages. But I digress.) Homelander needs a death as horrible and painful as Joffrey’s. Actually, he needs a worse death than Joffrey’s. He’s just too despicable, too irredeemable, and has caused too much harm. The audience needs this catharsis.

I realize Antony Starr is the MVP of this show and one of TV’s best villains ever, but there is only so long he can go without getting his comeuppance before the audience has had enough. Without Homelander, you kind of have no show, though, so we have ourselves a dilemma. 

Mikey Walsh (Nerdist Staff Writer): I think you’re actually shortchanging Homelander. He’s the most hatable character on TV period. (I think I hate him more than Joffrey as well, because at least Joffrey was just a kid. But hoo boy, you know you’re genuine garbage when your closest pop culture comp is Joffrey freaking Baratheon.) That’s why dying is too good for Homelander. He fears death, but it might ultimately be a gift to him. In some ways he hates himself as much as we do. His little talk in the mirror highlighted what a scared little boy he is. Why let him off the hook by taking that away from him?

The far better punishment would be to rob him of his powers. Take away everything that makes him both special and beloved. Let that coward rot in prison for all of his crimes, unable and unwilling to defend himself. If you want to see Homelander truly suffer that’s how you do it. That might not be as cathartic as watching a blonde monster choke to death at his own wedding, but it would be a more fitting end for Homelander.

Eric: Yeah, Homelander being robbed of his powers might be the most fitting end for him. And it’s also a way to keep the actor around in some capacity. I suppose in some ways it would be even more satisfying than just him dying. I would still love to see a scene where everyone just kicks the shit out of him, though, like they did to Stormfront. We should at least get that.

But I think you have to rob him of more than his powers. He needs his adoration taken away. Right now, he has the love of a sycophantic cult, one that cheers on his most awful acts. He’s going to see how far he can push that. How long can he go on murdering people who annoy him without any backlash? At some point, he’s going to truly lose it and slaughter a bunch of people like he did in his fantasy in season two. And then he’ll lose all but the most fervent of his cult, and maybe even the love of his son. That’s when the gloves are going to come off. We’ll really want him dead then. Is just taking away his power good enough at that point?

Mikey: You’re right. Taking away his power won’t be enough on its own, because that also leaves open the possibility of him becoming a martyr. He needs to be both powerless and hated by just about everyone. Even getting sent to jail and convicted for crimes won’t be enough for the Storm Chasers, who will just see that as more deep state persecution. We know reality never stops certain people from believing what they want.

He needs to lose his powers the same way he exploited them – publicly. He needs the whole world to see, almost certainly on live television, that he is a scared coward. And hopefully that will happen before he loses his powers so he has no excuse. Let everyone learn exactly who he is at his core. That way he can live out his days in shame, a disgraced fraud hated by everyone and everything. 

That would also be a pretty funny ending for a guy that is fermenting civil war. His downfall might be the only thing that saves America. Which is yet another reminder that this is a) definitely a work of fiction and b) showrunnner Eric Kripke was right that the series is strangely hopeful. I’m way more optimistic for the future of The Boys‘ world than I am our own. Hell, the conversation we’re having right now could be outlawed by early 2025.

…Okay, never mind. I just talked myself into wanting to see Homelander die before it’s illegal to kill off fictional fascists on TV. So the question now is “How?” What’s the best way to murder the worst person in the world?

Eric: Well, without getting too spoilery, they are definitely not going to kill off Homelander the same way he went in the comics (Spoilers: in the comics he ultimately does die. But the show veers wildly from the source material more often than not). I feel like it has to be Butcher who does the deed, even if other people help. The character who takes him out in Garth Ennis’ story is no longer even still alive on the show, and wasn’t  even really the same character. I don’t think TV audiences would be satisfied with anyone but Butcher getting to kill Homelander. Or at least Butcher having a big part in his death or at least his downfall. It would not satisfy viewers if Homelander goes out like a redshirt or dies taken out by a redshirt. 

Mikey: I don’t know, it would also be pretty sweet to see Starlight or Hughie—or Starlight AND Hughie—kill him. And I’d definitely be down for a non-super powered Maeve murdering a non-super powered Homelander. I’d also be fine with the poetic cruelty of Soldier Boy nuking his own needy son…right before Soldier Boy eats it too.

Besides, I think Butcher is likely to suffer the exact same fate as Homelander ultimately. “Two sides of the same coin” and whatnot. However, I promise I do not want to see that. Let our poor little rage monster get his revenge and then maybe find some peace. I want to see that almost (almost) as much as I want to see Homelander slowly bleed to death over the course of seven hours. In real time.

Eric: The Boys has some of the best writing on TV right now, so if anyone can pull off someone other than Butcher getting to be the one to bring down Homelander, I trust them to pull it off. But the heart wants what the heart wants. And my heart wants Butcher to be the one to do it. And yeah, he’ll probably die in the process, too. It’s not like he deserves happiness either, he’s just not as scummy as Homelander. But that would be a good death for both of them.

I just hope the writers don’t nerf Homelander’s fate, whatever it is. We deserve some form of comeuppance for him. It’s not like the people in real life who deserve punishment get any, ya know? 

Mikey: Sadly, on that we agree.

You can follow Eric Diaz (@GeekBoyEric) and Mikey Walsh (@burgermike) on Twitter, where you’ll often see them talking about pop culture during their free time.

The post What Fate Does THE BOYS’ Homelander Deserve? appeared first on Nerdist.

The Boys’ writers have managed to raise the stakes (and gonzo gore) with each season. And they’ve also come down harder on white Christian nationalism each passing year, brandishing their acerbic wit. For those who don’t know, white Christian nationalism is a movement founded upon the belief that the U.S. is a kind of “promised land” from God, established by protestants for protestants. The OG subscribers of replacement theory, these proponents are terrified of “The Other,” and often especially perceive racial minorities as infringing upon their God-given, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) dreamscape.

The show’s creators have intentions that seem poignantly synthesized in the gravelly words of one of my favorite season three additions, the Stan Lee-adjacent character known as The Legend. “Being American means knowing you’re the hero,” he tells Hughie while smoking a cigar. “So what do we do? We sweep our filthy shit under the rug and we tell ourselves a myth like Soldier Boy.”

The Boys‘ Characters and Their Societal Reflections

One way the writers critique this specific mentality is in their constant portrayals of the cut-throat (laser-throat?) underbelly of capitalism. Vought has only ever been an über greedy corporation that long ago traded its moral compass for a spreadsheet that calculates a person’s monetary potential. And knowing the buying power of middle America, Vought opened the series pilot by procuring Starlight.

She’s a white, blonde, corn-fed girl from Iowa who demurely describes herself as “five-foot-six and 110lbs” in her Seven interview tape. Thus, it was no surprise this season when Homelander finally coerced Starlight into playing a couple. Her social image is the perfect yang to his all-American, Superman-ish yin. Meanwhile, bisexual, brunette, and sword-wielding Maeve was always going to be mere fodder for the leftist youth of The Boys universe. She is Vought’s compromise to prevent cancellation and budding feminists’ incentive to buy Vegetarian Pride Lasagna.

Which brings us to Dean Winchester—erm—I mean, Soldier Boy. (Anytime someone said his name this season, my brain immediately went to Soulja Boy’s “Crank That.” Anyone else? No, just me? Coolcoolcool.) This season’s walking MacGuffin is a literal Reagan Era relic, complete with the whole surly “Marlboro Man act,” as Hughie calls it. After being freed from one of those damn commie laboratories, he finds himself in a strange world where Vought actually cares about appealing to newbie feminists.

“Do men really walk around like that?” he asks after seeing a father toting his child in a baby carrier. Initially, his gruff, “Back in my day…” brand of xenophobia contrasts with Homelander’s PR-conscious two-facedness. But by the time we learn that the former unwittingly fathered the latter, the resemblance is uncanny. Soldier Boy and Homelander are both merciless psychopaths. In a parent-child reunion worthy of Jerry Springer, Homelander says that he’s just like Soldier Boy. “I know,” Soldier Boy grumbles in reply. “You’re a fucking disappointment.” *cue chair-throwing*

White Christian Nationalism Through Capitalism and The Boys‘ Classic Satire

Corporations may change the face they show the public but it’s always about the bottom line for them. Any researchers of white Christian nationalism will admit that a fervor for free-market capitalism is inextricably woven into its fabric. German economist Max Weber observed this connection way back in 1905 when he penned his now-famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. The Boys obviously critiques capitalism through Vought; however, capitalism is just one of the facets of white Christian nationalism that this show tackles.

There are many in-your-face satirizations, like when racist Stormfront-lovers march with Tiki torches. It is a disquieting nod to the tragic 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA where a counterprotestor was viciously mowed down. One can’t help but draw this comparison yet again during this season’s closing scene. Homelander murders a counter-protestor at a pro-Homelander (read: white Christian nationalist) rally.

Numerous shows entertainingly satirize hypocritical and xenophobic white Christians for laughs. In fact, The Righteous Gemstones is currently working on its third season of just such content. And The Boys does the same, from Ezekiel’s Believe Expo (a “Capes for Christ” affiliate) in season one to Starlight’s tribute song for Translucent. The latter sounds like it’s straight from Christian radio.

But what sets The Boys apart in its irreverence (besides, y’know, the giant penises, exploding heads, etc.) is its ruthlessness in some instances, as demonstrated in what follows the aforementioned Homelander murder. The counter-protestor’s lifeless body drops, there’s a beat of silence, and then… applause for Homelander. 

Homelander and the Ideals He Upholds in The Boys

It seems that no matter how awful Homelander is, his supporters will continue to love him as long as he represents an ideal. Because that’s all that Homelander is: a walking conglomerate of jawline, blue eyes, ‘Murica, and fireworks that test groups responded well to. Although The Legend said that the myth Americans tell ourselves is Soldier Boy, it’s clear that Homelander is just the 2022 version of that same myth.

White Christian Nationalism (and most kinds of fervent nationalism in general) is built on myth-telling, and worshiping an idea—typically a nostalgic past that never quite existed. It’s a monument, built of words like grace, valor, freedom, liberty, and sacrifice. Evangelicals and white Christian nationalists aren’t interchangeable (some deplore each other); but they do overlap.

As Kristin Kobes Du Mez observes in her insightful book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, many evangelicals’ language and practices indicate they uphold their evangelicalism in a position parallel to Jesus Christ. Thus, evangelicalism in and of itself has elevated to the position of myth. Similarly, white Christian nationalists in the U.S. do not worship the real America but an idea of America, a portrait of purity and patriotism. (Don’t look too closely, or you’ll see that it’s full of flimsy buzz words.)

Homelander fully embodies this kind of fallacious thinking. His personality is inhuman(e), engineered by a lab full of scientists directed by a boardroom full of suits. This is why when he yearns for the maternal love he never had. He of course reaches for the idea of it, guzzling breastmilk first and then—after he’s murdered his only source in Stillwell—cow’s milk. Perhaps he thirsts for milk also for its Biblical, honey-adjacent history that recalls the manifest destiny of white Christian nationalism. Regardless, there’s no quenching this thirst because he only ever chases after something that represents an ideal of what he needs.

So we see the crowds of supporters falling for someone who embodies their idea of America. He’s strong, speaks his mind, and doesn’t condescend to what’s politically (or morally) correct. And The Boys is unafraid to show a suburban husband’s stomach-churning descent into just such a Homelander-loving crowd. It’s ruthless in that it traumatizes us again and again by portraying powerdrunk villains mercilessly and unrepentantly eviscerating innocent people. Viewers see this from literally the opening scene of the show. This bloodshed is motivated by prejudice or—you guessed it—just because they can.

The Just Desserts of White Christian Nationalism

We witness horrible things like sexual assault and racist brutalizing. But The Boys is also ruthless in its just desserts. It stokes our anger into a bonfire until we think we can’t handle any more heat before giving us the ending that we all yearn for. The vengeful capitalist Madelyn Stillwell receives fatal LASIK from Homelander. Stormfront (a.k.a. “Nazi b***h”) is beaten by the woman who’s brother she killed, and then set to broil by Ryan’s lasers. The racist “Supes Lives Matter” loser, Blue Hawk, is road-rashed to death by A-Train. The Boys likely won’t help deprogram any white Christian nationalists. But for the rest of us who are in on the joke, this show is a balm to our weary souls. 

The post THE BOYS Expertly Lampoons White Christian Nationalism appeared first on Nerdist.

The Boys season three has had one major question: Will Homelander die? It’s the big goal that’s brought nearly everyone together from the Boys to Starlight to Maeve and even Soldier Boy, who doesn’t even like his own biological son. And this episode gives us the answer that we kind of already knew. Homelander will live to see another day in this universe and return for The Boys season four. While he’s always been a secretly vile human being, he brings it to the light for all to see. And, this big episode hints at him getting even worse next season. 

Here’s all the terrible things Homelander does in The Boys season three finale:

Homelander Kills Noir

Homelander kills Noir for no other reason than he’s mad about him withholding the truth about his parentage. It’s a sad and shocking way to see this silent yet relatively good (in Boys/Payback terms anyway) character go. And he exhibits no remorse for it at all. He even goes on to admit what he did in front of Ashley, A-Train, and the Deep before essentially disowning them too.

Homelander Gouges Maeve’s Eye Out 

The Boys’ great Vought Tower battle is one to remember. Yes, we get a flying Starlight and Maeve sacrifices herself (and subsequently her powers) to save everyone from Homelander. But the big fight between Homelander and Maeve show just how much she is sick of his sh*t and just wants him to die. Even after Homelander takes Maeve’s eye out with his brute strength, she continues to fight with all the strength she has. But, thanks to Soldier Boy being willing to kill Ryan, Homelander doesn’t die. 

Homelander Kills a Man at a Rally… and His Supporters Cheer 

Homelander’s been building his band of supporters who buy into his “cancel culture” bullsh*t all season long. Of course, we obviously know who he’s being modeled after in this case. But it goes to a new level in the finale Homelander lasers a Starlight supporter’s head off in front of a crowd and Todd, of all people, leads them in cheering. Knowing that he can 1) do what he wants in broad daylight and 2) have no consequences for his actions is a very scary reality. And who knows what Homelander can influence his followers/fans to do in The Boys season four.

Homelander Begins to Craft Ryan in His Own Image

This is perhaps the most disturbing part of it all. Homelander has taken Ryan, his child who already felt abandoned/betrayed by Butcher among other things, under his evil wings. Ryan’s latched onto him as a father figure and Homelander is living his dream of having a family. Homelander even introduces Ryan to the world and shows off his powers, clearly intent on continuing the legacy of the supes with a new generation. And, Ryan’s creepy and proud smile at watching his dad kill a man means we will have not one but two antagonists in season four. Big Yikes.

So there you have it. Homelander somehow manages to get even worse by the season finale and there’s no one around to oppose him. A-Train is essentially trapped with nowhere to go. The Deep would never try and is too weak to challenge him. Ashley cannot control him. And Maeve is reclaiming her life far, far away from Vought. Starlight is with the Boys now, but with Butcher’s grim diagnosis, things are rocky in that group. We are already ready for another round to see what Homelander does next.

The post Homelander Does Many, Many Terrible Things in THE BOYS Season 3 Finale appeared first on Nerdist.

Homelander doesn’t just want public adulation. He also craves a real human connection with another person. It would be great for the world if he had that, because it might tether him to humanity. But the problem isn’t that he hasn’t found it yet. The problem is he’s a sociopath who lacks empathy; he’ll never find the personal connection he needs because he doesn’t know how to love anyone back. Now something even worse than him not finding love has happened. The desperate infant with the powers of a god learned he has a father who is nearly his equal in every way. That includes how his dad is also a sociopath. It’s why the shocking revelation of Homelander’s father is The Boys‘ single most dangerous twist yet. Soldier Boy will never be what Homelander wants and needs any more than Homelander will be the son Soldier Boy always wanted.

And the only thing scarier than the damage they can do together is what will follow when they ultimately disappoint each other. Because when that happens the only question will be whether or not they destroy everyone else before they destroy each other.

Soldier Boy and his dead-eyed son’s phone call capped off an episode that was all about family. Kamiko and Starlight both decided to risk their own safety to protect their family, even though their loved ones didn’t want them to. Meanwhile, Hughie double-crossed a mass murderer to save Butcher from a slow death stuck inside his own painful childhood memories. Those past experiences showed Butcher how much his father’s anger and hatred infected him. And MM once again failed to walk the fine line between keeping his daughter safe and keeping his emotions in check. Just like Compound V is neither inherently good or bad, family can drive us to greatness just as easily as it can drive us down a dark path. Family brings out who we really are, for good and for bad.

Homelander and Soldier Boy represent the very worst of what “family” can mean. Both men are narcissistic monsters who only think of themselves. As showrunner Eric Kripke told us earlier this season, each superhero is “so blinded by their ego that they feel like any love they put out in the world should be reciprocated.” But what they think of as love, which is all about giving yourself over to someone, is “inherently selfish, not at all stopping to pay attention, to see how the other person might feel about it.”

That is the story of Homelander’s life and why no one will ever really love him. Raised in a lab without human connection, physical or emotional, he doesn’t know what loving someone entails. He thought he had that type of connection with Maeve once, but she always hated him. Then Madelyn Stillwell became the object of Homelander’s desires. Only she never loved him, either, she feared him. The last mommy figure to satiate his creepy Oedipal issues was Stormfront, who loved what Homelander represented rather than who he was. And that lack of real affection went both ways. When she chewed off her own tongue Homelander didn’t mourn her. He viewed her death as being something terrible that she did to him.

Soldier Boy was no different. He claimed to love Crimson Countess, but he couldn’t see the truth about their relationship – she hated his guts. The whole Payback team did. They willingly served him up to the Russians so they could be free of his abuse. He was a well-curated hero to the American people, but they knew him for the false, empty, uncaring idol he really was. Soldier Boy didn’t raise his son, but the apple didn’t fly far from the rotten tree.

What made this earth-shattering revelation even more terrifying is that Soldier Boy previously told Hughie he wanted kids. He wanted sons he could raise up to be “men,” but instead ended up with “nothing.” Or at least he had nothing. Suddenly he has the thing he claimed he wanted, and that thing is a laser-eyed, invulnerable killer who’s just like him and wants a father to love him.

It doesn’t matter that Soldier Boy didn’t raise Homelander any more than it matters whether he’d truly give up the spotlight to his kid. (Which we very much doubt.) Soldier Boy never could have loved his child even if he raised him. We know exactly what he would have been like as a father, because we just witnessed how a similar type of man raised his kids. Billy Butcher’s dad was Soldier Boy without the super powers. And that violent animal without an ounce of love in his heart drove one son to the grave and another to a life of rage and pain.

Soldier Boy and Homelander seem likely to unite. At least initially. But both are incapable of recognizing how others really feel about them just as they’re incapable of caring about someone else. And a relationship without love is doomed to fail. When both men realize the other can’t give them what they want, what they have will blow up.

In the case of Soldier Boy that might literally happen. In fact, it might be the best thing that can happen. Because if it does Soldier Boy could do what no one else has – stop Homelander yet. Soldier Boy has the ability to drain his son of his powers. Meanwhile, Frenchie has figured out how to neutralize Soldier Boy just as the Russians did. A doomed relationship between the two might destroy both men.

So long as they don’t destroy the world before they destroy each other.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post THE BOYS’ Latest Twist Is the Show’s Biggest Ever appeared first on Nerdist.

Woooow. The penultimate episode of The Boys season three definitely left us with the biggest needle drop of the season. Yes, something even wilder than Herogasm. Now, we really understand why Homelander and Soldier Boy are d*ckheads of a similar vein. It is because Soldier Boy is Homelander’s biological father. We will have to wait until the finale to get further details on this but it will make things interesting. Underneath Homelander’s psychotic actions, he’s someone who desperately wants approval and a family. But we don’t get the feeling that Soldier Boy is going to embrace Homelander as his son. To showrunner Eric Kripke, this big revelation—and yet another departure from the comics—is perfect for The Boys TV show. 

“It makes logical sense that Vought would create the next generation of superhero,” Kripke tells Nerdist. “It’s really important to understand what your season-wide themes are and use them as signposts because they point you in the right direction. So much of this season was about fathers. It was about Butcher trying and failing to be a father and his past with his own father. You’re expecting Homelander and Soldier Boy to smash into each other. But what happens if that’s Homelander’s father? It makes heading into the finale complicated in a really good way.”

Hmmm. Is it possible that they will team up as powerful supes and kill many people? Maybe. Soldier Boy seems to have the killing thing on lock already this season so he doesn’t need his son. Or maybe Soldier Boy told Homelander this news just to mess with him mentally and emotionally to kill him easier. It seems like a move he’d pull. And if Soldier Boy is Homelander’s father, then who is his mother? The many questions that need answers on The Boys. Let’s see how it all ends during the season three finale next week.

The post THE BOYS Reveals a Huge Soldier Boy and Homelander Connection appeared first on Nerdist.

The Boys third season has featured exploding genitalia and the most terrifying version of Homelander yet. It’s also lost its soul to V24 and filmed the dumbest commercial ever made. But the explosive fifth episode added even more chaos and problems. It had unlikely partnerships, painful betrayals, racist attacks, super powered assassinations, and more. What does all that mayhem mean for our favorite group of supe-hunting vigilantes going forward? To find out we talked to The Boys‘ showrunner Eric Kripke about powerful men, addressing real world issues, The Legend’s inspiration, and why he thinks the series is actually hopeful.

And yes, we asked about that Seth Rogen…moment. Turns out he was literally the only person for the job.

Nerdist: Homelander’s realization he doesn’t want Stan Edgar’s job any more than he wants insincere sycophants sucking up to him felt very reminiscent of The Twilight Zone’s famous episode “It’s a Good Life.” Was that an intentional reference? Or is he just so dangerous right now I can’t help but think about an all-powerful sociopath sending innocent people to a nebulous cornfield?

Eric Kripke: (laughter) We talked about him being a young Bill Mumy in that episode a lot, actually. Not just necessarily episode five, but overall, of how terrified people would be around this all-powerful toddler. His needs are so capricious and infantile. And yet Homelander, by a mile, is the weakest character on the show. But he has all of this physical strength that really threatens everybody. So I think it’s an understatement to say they walk on eggshells around him.

In the moment, Butcher and Maeve’s sex scene felt like it could have gone either way. He was very close to rejecting her, but what was it about both of them that made you decide their own self-loathing would overcome his contempt for her?

EK: It’s interesting, the notion of Butcher having sex with a Supe. If you look at Supes as their own race of people, Butcher’s racist and he just objects to their very existence. And I think what it shows is his own moral lines—which are absolute and too extreme and pretty awful actually—are blurring in terms of how he views himself. Because he’s taken V24 now and has had powers, and has, in his mind, degraded himself. So at that point it seems like he’s not on such a high horse when it comes to having sex with another Supe.

As the show often does, Blue Hawk’s unprovoked, racist attack takes on police brutality without any ambiguity. Why is it important to explicitly address these issues by name rather than with subtext or analogy?

EK: I think it might be a touch less elegant than previous seasons, but I would say society is too. And I give the rule in the writer’s room, “Let’s write what we’re angry about or frightened of and let’s address it.” I think just the super suits and the supefying adds a level of absurdity and distance. Obviously we’re hitting it pretty directly, but it’s with these super-powered characters and they’re being ridiculous and they’re acting in these absurd ways. I think that provides just enough separation that hopefully people can look at it in a different way.

There was a much less obvious moment of social critique at the end of the Blue Hawk sequence, when the news immediately reported out his lies as fact. Combined with Cameron Coleman’s role this season, is there any institution people in the world of The Boys can rely on?

EK: I think people can rely on each other. I think that in the show we tend to focus on VNN as a fill-in for Fox News just blasting propaganda 24/7. We do have another news channel that we consider our more objective one, NNC. I don’t know if it’s CNN or what it is, but it’s what we use whenever we need an outside perspective. So there are more balanced news organizations in our world. But people generally don’t listen to them because they’re not entertaining and aren’t making them furious and getting people addicted to feeling angry.

We’re just trying to reflect what’s really happening in the world. I would say how many trustworthy institutions are there in The Boys? About as many as there are in our world, which is to say not that many. No one’s coming to save us. We have to look out for each other and save ourselves.

Was Paul Riser’s delightful, scene-chewing Legend an ode to legendary producer Robert Evans?

EK: You hit the nail on the head. In the comics Garth (Ennis) very definitively based The Legend on Stan Lee, and that was because Garth was living in a comic book world. The comic books were the huge media in that universe, so it makes sense that Stan Lee was the head of that. But in our world, movies and television are the primary source of superhero media. When you think of a producer from the ‘70s and ‘80s you land on Robert Evans pretty quickly. Paul and I spoke about it and it was a very conscious tribute to Robert Evans.

Will we see more of The Legend?

EK: Yes we will. We’ll see more of him this season. I love that character. Talk about a character that is just a blast to write. He’s just so fun that I want more of The Legend.

Who, and feel free to name the guilty party, is responsible for making the world watch that Seth Rogan scene?

EK: (laughter) Me. I deserve the blame for that. There was “as scripted by Ellie Monahan”, so it’s her fault too. But “as scripted by Ellie Monahan,” we wanted Crimson Countess basically to have an OnlyFans page to sort of show how she’s continually falling on hard times after she lost her job, presumably, and bought land after blowing up the plushy Soldier Boy. So it was about that, and at first we weren’t going to hear anyone on the other side. Or we weren’t going to see anyone on the other side.

But then I started saying we should see someone and it should be a huge cameo, like the biggest we can get. We started looking and we kept going through this long list of very, very big names. And for some reason, no one wants to masturbate and orgasm on camera when they’re a big marquee star. I don’t know why (laughter), but we just got a lot of nos. And with each no we got, I kept emailing Seth saying, “You might have to suit up for this.”

He said, “Well, keep going through your list.” He had just jerked off in Pam & Tommy and wasn’t necessarily looking to do it again. Finally, I was like, “I got one more name and then I’m out, and then it’s you brother.” Sure enough, that name passed. So I sent him in another note, “You got to get off the bench. We need you in the game.” To his credit he suited up. We shot it in his offices in Los Angeles. It was the very last thing we shot for season three. It was shot months after we’d finished the other production and he f***ing rocked it. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Seth Rogan’s pretty funny. His performance just blows me away. It’s just so funny.

With Hughie’s V-24 addiction destroying his soul and Butcher partnering with the original Homelander, Soldier Boy, the boys are coming apart. Can the group survive this schism, especially when MM and Starlight feel betrayed? Or was it always destined to blow up again?

EK: I think that’s a big question moving forward. Not just into this season, but in season four. Can that group come together again? Can they overcome their hurt? You know, can they forgive or let go of their anger? I don’t think it’s easy and I don’t think it’s quick, but I think it’ll be one of the concerns of this story moving forward.

The big musical number was not only fun, it followed this really beautiful moment for Kimiko. And yet, I had a pit in my stomach the whole time, because I was afraid someone would die at the end of it. I didn’t trust a moment of pure joy to last. Is it possible for anyone within this world, or even for us viewers, to feel happiness for more than a brief moment?

EK: Yeah, I think it’s very possible. It’s a long story and it’s not over yet.

It’s funny, clearly something’s wrong with me, because I look at the story and I see purity and almost old fashioned hope everywhere. And nobody else seems to see it. Garth sees it. He’s like, “It’s so hopeful.” And I’m like, “I know! Why doesn’t everyone see it?”

Well, in fairness, you did have Homelander brutally murder hope last week on a rooftop.

EK: Well, it’s all about where Starlight can rely for her power. All of these things are very carefully and morally laid out. It’s a very moral universe. It’s actually quite a clockwork universe they live in. You could actually run a math equation of when a character makes the right choice, something generally good happens to them. And when a character makes the wrong choice, they generally hit a dead end or an obstacle.

And for Starlight, she’s got to claim her own power. She can’t rely on other people, she has to rely on herself and she can’t rely on Stan Edgar and she can’t rely on Supersonic. And ultimately she can’t rely on Hughie. But once she finally accepts that it’s up to her and she has to define her own power on her own terms, you’ll see. She starts wrapping up win after win after win. And every character, when they start making the right or wrong decisions in this show, they start scoring wins or losses. So, believe it or not, it’s a carefully ordered moral universe where the right moral choices lead to positive outcomes.

Then the show is optimistic, because I’m not sure that always applies to our world.

EK: No, exactly right. Our world, unfortunately, isn’t clockwork created by a writer’s room. Sadly.

In this episode, Maeve tells Homelander she never loved him and always hated him. Crimson Countess does the same with Soldier Boy. Do you think it’s possible to have that much power and not have people hate you? Or are those two moments reflections on those men and those men alone?

EK: I think it’s possible to wield power in a conscious and productive way. I think both of those guys, and the similarity between those scenes, are intended to show they’re so blinded by their ego that they feel like any love they put out in the world should be reciprocated. Because it’s inherently selfish, not at all stopping to pay attention, to see how the other person might feel about it. And lots of people in power have that position. But it’s sort of like what Butcher says in episode five, which is really a load bearing theme for us, which is “power doesn’t change or corrupt you, it reveals the thing that you already are”.

If you’re already broken inside and already cruel and capricious, you just have never had the freedom to express it. That’s why so many people, once they get power, just become huge assholes. They were always assholes, it was just social structure did not allow them the freedom to act that way. Conversely, there are people who are always humble and sensitive and have empathy for other people. Then, when they’re given power, they can express something in a more positive way.

So it just depends. Power isn’t so much a thing that alters you as it gives you freedom to act the way you’ve always wanted to act.

Episode six is “Herogasm.” How would you describe what we’re going to see? Is it going to be the most absurd episode of The Boys yet?

EK: I don’t know how you get more absurd than an exploding penis in the first 11 minutes of your season. It’s a real ride is what I will say. It’s definitely sustained insanity once they arrive at Herogasm and you’re definitely going to see things you’ve never seen before. Probably for good reason.

But it’s also a really emotional episode, and it’s also huge plot moves and huge confrontations that we’ve been waiting for. In many ways, even though there are more episodes to go after, it has the feeling of that finale of forces crashing into each other. I felt like, “Look, if we’re going to do Herogasm, we can’t do Herogasm. We have to have Herogasm have so much weight to the story that it justifies us going to an orgy.”

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The “Evil Superman” trope has become a ubiquitous part of the pop culture landscape. From Brightburn‘s Brandon and Invincible‘s Omni-Man to Marvel’s Ikaris and Scarlet Witch—plus the Man of Steel’s many sinister iterations—all-powerful figures capable of destroying the world are nightmares made flesh. Where their counterparts are hope personified, they’re death incarnate. They’re sentient nuclear weapons who could decide at any moment to detonate. And they likely will eventually, since they have no moral compass or an obvious off-switch. But the first three episodes of The Boys third season has upped the terror by making its best villain scarier than ever. The unstoppable sociopath Homelander is willing to forego the one thing he cares about: adulation. And with no one left to keep him grounded, he stands on the precipice of total madness. Which means the world stands on the edge of annihilation.

It’s an understatement to say The Boys ended its second season on an ominous note. Stormfront was filling a crucial role in Homelander’s life. His mommy issues put Oedipus to shame, and he created a massive emotional maternal void in his life when he murdered Madelyn Stillwell. He requires a personal connection to keep him from flying off the psychopathic deep end. Love doesn’t make him a better person, but it does keep him somewhat in check. But he lost that vital figure in his life again when the public learned the truth about Stormfront and Ryan turned her into a husk of Third Reich degree burns.

Homelander could have had his son in his life, which might have kept him in line. But Queen Maeve blackmailed the Seven’s leader with footage of them letting a plane crash. That was enough for Homelander to let Butcher take Ryan, because Maeve knew Homelander loves being popular more than any person. Rather than ethics or empathy, Homelander values Q-Ratings and approval scores. Without Madelyn, Stormfront, or Ryan, the only leverage anyone on the planet—even other superheroes— has ever had over an unstoppable monster is his desire to be “loved” by everyone.

But his final moment in the season two finale showed that leverage might not hold for long. He ended the season pleasuring himself atop a skyscraper while repeatedly screaming, “I can do whatever I want!” It’s horrifying to see Superman slightly lose his cool. If Clark Kent climbed to the top of the Daily Planet‘s building and did what Homelander did, the rest of the Justice League would immediately start mining for kryptonite. What they wouldn’t do is antagonize him further, which is exactly what everyone had done at the start of The Boys’ latest season.

The promotional tour for Vought’s blockbuster Dawn of the Seven doubled as Homelander’s apology tour for dating a literal Nazi. Then, because she had record polling numbers while his were in the tank, Stan Edgar offered Starlight the position of the Seven co-leader. (This led to the funniest stare in TV history.) She not only accepted the position, she actually tried to use her power. Starlight planned on picking the two newest members of the group. And Stormfront, still alive (barely) “Million Dollar Baby’d” herself, leaving Homelander with no one to turn to for genuine affection. He found himself alone, with no one he trusts, and cornered. That’s when a deadly animal is most dangerous—especially on his birthday.

Homelander’s unscripted tirade during his live birthday celebration special was not the disaster everyone thought it would be. It was a totally different kind of disaster. His rant about Vought neutering and controlling him was actually a huge hit. It didn’t matter he told the entire world that he’s better and stronger than them, or that he’s a literal god and no one can stop him. They liked his honesty. As he said, he showed people the “real me” and they “f***ing love” him for it. Rather than realize they should be terrified of a murderous lunatic with unlimited power who thinks his equals are Jesus Christ and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the American people decided this he’s actually a down-to-Earth guy they’d like to get a beer with. What could go wrong!

 Homelander told Starlight exactly what could go wrong. After he reasserted his authority by putting the Deep back on the team,  she threatened to release the plane footage. Homelander didn’t cower like he did when Maeve first blackmailed him and he let Ryan go. This time, he told Starlight to do it. Everyone will hate him, sure. But while he’d prefer to be loved, he won’t allow that desire to keep him under anyone’s thumb any longer. Instead, he’ll respond by doing the other thing he cares about—doing whatever he wants.

That won’t end by making Starlight play his pretend girlfriend. When the whole world hates him he will take over the world. He’ll start by wiping out the US government, destroying New York City, and turning every place and everyone Starlight cares about into ashes. He will go full scorched-eyes on Earth. And he’ll enjoy every second of it.

We know he can do it. He has the capability and he’s a mass murderer with no remorse. We also know no one can stop Homelander yet. Butcher thinks he’s on the hunt for a weapon that might, but The Boys season three trailers have shown that effort might be futile. If Homelander decides at any moment to kill everyone on the planet, he can do it. Popularity is the only thing that has ever stopped him from doing that before, but those who knew how to leverage his weakness overplayed their hand. He’s not ready to call their bluff, he’s ready to flip over the table when they put their cards on it.

The Boys already had one of the scariest iterations of an a terrifying trope. An evil Superman is as horrifying as a good Superman is hopeful. But with Homelander ready to fully embrace who he is, the world has never been in more danger.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post THE BOYS Third Season Made Its Best Villain Scarier Than Ever appeared first on Nerdist.

While only a few of the episodes showcase characters from the show, they all use The Boys mythology to tell unique stories that reflect our real world. (Well, except for the one with the runaway laser-eyed baby. We’re not sure that has a real-world parallel). We got to chat with Diabolical showrunner Simon Racioppa, as well as series writer Eliot Glazer, about bringing this wild animated series to life.

Nerdist: So Simon, the episode that you wrote, the “One Plus One Equals Two,” actually goes a long way in humanizing Homelander. To an extent. We’ve seen a bit in the live-action show. But you see him at a point early in his heroic career where he isn’t completely awful. What was the genesis of that episode?

Simon Racioppa: So that was the last episode I wrote. I knew I was always going to write one of them. But I kept it to the very end because I wanted to see how the other Seven came up. And what story areas were we touching on. So after we had the other Seven in process, I started talking with [The Boys showrunner] Eric Kripke, who was involved in the whole series. And we started talking about what we hadn’t done. And he was like, ‘I would love to do something else with Homelander. Maybe an early mission with him and Black Noir.’ So that got me thinking. And we came up together with this idea of doing Homelander’s first mission. Basically, the first time he goes out. And that’s all I needed.

That was a jumping-off point for me to just get into the character and what his first mission would be like. Obviously, he’s a different person. It takes place probably about ten, twelve years before where the show starts. And to examine how maybe he wasn’t born this way. Maybe part of this is through how they raised him. Could we expect anybody raised by a corporation in these horrible conditions to come out normal? I didn’t want to exonerate him of all the things he does. But I wanted to open the door a little crack to let you have a little sympathy for him, as much of a psychopath and a sociopath as he is. That was the thinking there.

Most of the episodes are irreverent and contain dark humor. But the “John and Sun-Hee” episode was very serious and heartbreaking. Very shocked to see Andy Samberg wrote that episode. How was it for you guys to take such a serious turn for this one story?

SR: We were happy to do it. Again, the idea behind Diabolical was that every episode should be completely different. We didn’t want to repeat ourselves. The goal was to give you something different from the mothership show. So when Andy pitched that idea, we were like, yes, this feels really different from everything else. And Andy also is a huge film aficionado. He’s written a lot of short films and a lot of different stories and things like that. So it’s no surprise that he could execute this so well and bring us this amazing story.

The Korean angle of it came from our director on that episode, who is Steve Ahn. And he’s the one who brought that angle. Because obviously, I’m not Korean, Andy Samberg is not. Steve is. And he interpreted it through his own experiences. He had a family connection that resonated with him through that script, that something that had happened to him. So he could bring that Korean angle to it. We found a great Korean studio, Korean composer, and just really brought that to life as much as we could. I was really thrilled with how the episode changed so much in some ways from concept to the finished version, but also that core emotional story stayed the same all the way through.

Eliot, your episode “Boyd in 3D”  was about two ordinary people who use Vought products to make themselves suddenly beautiful. Not to mention social media darlings. I felt it was also very much a commentary on body dysmorphia and how social media has made that a worse problem for many people. So how did you think of tying this real-world affliction into something that’s usually so irreverent?

Eliot Glazer: Trying to explain or understand social media and the effects of it is too much of an existential process for me to wrap my head around. The pitfalls of social media and body dysmorphia are such a huge part of it. And I think it’s just affected me and my sister (Broad City’s Ilana Glazer, who has a story credit), as I imagine it’s affected everybody. And so dialing in onto that one story seemed like the most grounded way to connect to an animated story that could still, again, be fantastical and be outrageous in the confines of a cartoon.

But I think that was just something that we’re both naturally interested in. The idea of not just body dysmorphia as it relates to social media, but also how it forces you to want to present yourself a certain way. And how the falseness of these pictures and videos, the performative nature of it all can be so consuming. This was a way to tell that story and to provide some sense of commentary on it. Not that either of us is above it, and not that we are any less apt to fall into those traps, I guess. But at the same time, you’re right, it’s so common. And it just felt like a pretty natural place for us to go and the story found its route in that world, in that way.

You didn’t just write the episode, you also voiced Boyd. You got to do voice work alongside Kumail Nanjiani, Emily Gordon, and Nasim Pedrad. Was voicing Boyd always part of the intention or the plan, or did you decide on that after writing?

EG: I basically floated it by the team when they started casting it because it just felt natural to me. I guess because the story feels personal and I love doing voiceover, it was just a perfect opportunity to be involved in that way too. And I happen to know Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon as friends, and we didn’t record in the same studio together because of COVID. But I guess the chemistry there was also, hopefully natural because it was born from our friendship. And I know Nasim Pedrad too because she was on New Girl, which I wrote on as well. So it was a blast. I haven’t done that much voiceover, so this was a really fun opportunity to get to do so in a more intimate way.

One of the greatest things about Diabolical is the episode that Garth Ennis himself wrote, which features his comic book versions of the characters. So for anyone who reads the comics, it’s a real treat. So now I have to ask with multiverses being all the rage, is this you guys’ way of saying, hey, the comic book version is adjacent to the TV version? Or am I overthinking this?

SR: I don’t know. It would be fun. We talked, and we joked about calling the show “Into the Butcherverse,” doing an episode of Butchers from all different dimensions and he’s all the same. He’s the one thing that’s always the same in every other dimension. But no, just working with Garth and getting to do his version, it was just a no-brainer. Early on, he was one of the first people, if not maybe the first person, we approached about the show. Because it just made sense. It was like, ‘hey, we can do his version.’ And why not go back to the source for one of our episodes? Where it all started. So he wrote us essentially the lost issue of The Boys, like a stand-alone issue.

And then we got Darick Robertson, who obviously was one of the co-creators and the artist, to do that original cover. When those hands are pulling out that comic book, that’s an original Darick Robertson cover done just for us, just for the show. So in every episode we tried to go as authentic as possible into whatever that episode was. So for that it meant Simon Pegg playing Hughie. It meant going back to Garth Ennis, it meant getting Darick Robertson to do some art. And that guided that whole episode.

Eliot, do you have a favorite moment in your episode, “Boyd in 3D?”  

I feel like the scene where (the two main characters) are in the pool. And technically they’re connecting with each other and reaping the fruits of their non-labor. Or just getting the opportunity to just lounge and be hot in a pool, which I think is pretty silly. I think and I hope that it speaks volumes about the idea of what social media can do and the fact that they’re both in the lap of luxury, but doomscrolling, they’re both in these doomscrolling holes. (Nerdist: these days, we’re all doomscrolling. Is anything more relatable?)

The Boys Presents: Diabolical premieres on Prime Video on March 4.

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It seems the current trend in pop culture is to do evil versions of Superman. And we can understand why. What is scarier than a bad guy with all the powers of an alien god? On The Boys, we’ve got Homelander, a cross between Captain America and Superman, but a complete sociopath. On the animated series Invincible, the lead character’s father is a similarly homicidal Omni-Man. Even Superman and Lois has a dark, alternate Earth Superman.

But what if these guys took on the actual Man of Steel in a fight? And what if you threw in One-Punch Man for good measure?  YouTube channel Mightyraccoon! has created a short animated video that showcases this epic battle of the capes. You can watch Superman vs. Saitama vs. Homelander vs. Omni-Man Epic Battle! above. And may the best cape-wearing muscle-bound über being win!

MightyRaccoon!

The ultimate winner of the bloody brawl was maybe not who you were expecting, was it? Still, as much as we were rooting for the Man of Steel, I’m just glad that neither Homelander nor Omni-Man won. That would have been just way too depressing. Especially as those characters are still awaiting their comeuppance on their respective series. It might be just a fan film, but it was still fun to watch those two get their butts handed to them. In the bloodiest way possible too. Nice to see Henry Cavill in the cape and tights again though. Or at least, his animated counterpart.

MightyRaccoon! has other delightful animated brawl videos, including several Spider-Man knock-down, drag-out fights. There’s a Peter Parker vs. Miles Morales video, as well as Spidey vs. Venom. These are somewhat less on the bloody side. They’ve also got a great video showing Thanos vs. Darkseid, as Marvel’s Mad Titan takes on DC Comics’ own God of Evil (who inspired Thanos in the first place.) Visit the Mightyraccoon! channel to check them all out.

The post Watch Superman Fight His Nastier Pop Culture Counterparts appeared first on Nerdist.

Blooper reals are always stark reminders that the folks who are playing all these characters are very much not anything like the characters they play at all. With a show like The Boys though, this is an even bigger splash of cold water to the face. If only because characters like Homelander and Stormfront are so, so awful and hateful, it’s shocking to see the actors who portray them just as silly and nice human beings. And not, you know, as a bunch of super Nazis. 

Amazon Prime Video

I think our favorite moments in this video are seeing tough uber-warrior Queen Maeve just trip over stuff that’s lying around on the floor like a normal person. Not to mention Shawn Ashmore, the ex-Iceman who now plays the pyrotechnic Lamplighter, not able to actually light his lighter. Don’t feel bad Shawn, we’ve all been there. Karl Urban saying “Postmates” when answering the door also had us in stitches. Not sure what we’d do if Billy Butcher was the one delivering our late night Taco Bell.

Of course, the weirdest (and nicest) thing is seeing actor Antony Starr just goofing off, laughing and being a normal dude while wearing his Homelander outfit. It’s kind of like seeing Robert Englund just being nice to castmates while dressing as Freddy Krueger in outtakes. It’s always initially so weird because we are used to seeing them pretty much only as monsters. Now, we won’t automatically expect Mr. Starr to heat vision us to death when we see him at future comic-cons.

Featured Image: Amazon Prime Video

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Sure, The Boys excels at the gross, gruesome, and gory. Heck, this season they even drive straight through a whale in a speedboat. But the real horror at the heart of season two is the white supremacy revealed to be at the core of Vought. And even more scary is the fact that it’s also a key part of their celebrity superheroes.

Ever since the beginning of Amazon’s hit superhero satire, it’s been clear who the villains were. Vought uses its genetically modified heroes to sell the idea of a progressive and safe vision for America. The reality is far more gruesome. The series has never shied away from showing just how dangerous Vought’s superheroes are, and this season they added a backstory that amplified the evil nature of the corporation. Vought’s history with genocide and experiments provided an analog for the current political climate of North America, and some of the things we should look out for if we want to battle fascism in our own lives.

White Supremacy for Profit

Prime Video

When Stormfront was revealed in episode three to be a racist hate monger, it was clear Vought was willing to let her kill, maim, and torture people of color as long as she kept their ratings up. Fans who hadn’t read the comics might not have seen the next reveal coming; both Stormfront and the creator of the corporation, Frederick Vought, were literal Nazis. The reality of successful American organizations being built on Nazism is real. Wernher von Braun was a Nazi who was brought into NASA and became a key part in launching the US space race. Both Adidas and Puma were started by Nazi brothers. And even today, we have seen the President refuse to speak out against the rise of neo-fascism for the fear of losing the support of Nazis.

One Bad Apple

Prime Video

When the truth came out about Vought’s Nazi roots and Stormfront’s penchant for mass murder, the American public was less than happy. But in a depressingly realistic series of events, Vought had a slick response prepared. Rather than admitting the truth or taking accountability for the horrors they and their racist supe had wrought, they instead opted for a popular out. See, the Nazi was just “a bad apple” who had nothing to do with the rest of the organization. This will likely sound familiar to anyone who has followed the movement against police brutality in the US. It may also ring true to those who have ever reported abuse within a system. Remember when Texas horror producer Dallas Sonnier was accused of creating a vastly unsafe working environment including creating a space for accused rapist Adam Donaghey? But it ended up being a situation where apparently no one knew?

Homelander’s Redemption

Prime Video

Perhaps the scariest part of a finale—which included a lot of really scary stuff—was Homelander being accepted back into The Seven’s fold. We weren’t surprised that Vought forgave their most famous son. But after watching him go on sexy murder sprees with his Nazi girlfriend, seeing him posed as a hero once again was horrifying. That’s without even getting into how quickly he bought into Stormfront’s dream for an Aryan army. But Homelander’s actions aren’t even the real horror here; it’s how easy it is for them to be forgiven. We’ve heard the crowing calls of “cancel culture ruins lives,” yet men often bounce back from the most terrible actions and allegations without any ramifications. Homelander fits that bill perfectly. Despite the fact that the events of this season have made him more unstable and dangerous than ever, Homelander is welcomed back as a hero.

TV is meant to be an escape, but it can also be a mirror. It’s to The Boys credit that out of everything in its wild comic book world, the absolute worst and most haunting aspects of the series all reflect the state of the US in 2020.

Featured Image: Amazon

Correction: A previous version of this piece wrongly attributed the allegations against Adam Donaghey to Dallas Sonnier. We apologize for this mistake.

The post THE BOYS’ Most Terrifying Moments Are Its Most Real appeared first on Nerdist.

Writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson’s The Boys comic is a dark, biting satire of American politics and society as a whole. We meet many bad “supers” in The Boys, but Ennis’ most terrifying creation by far is Homelander, an inverted mix of Superman and Captain America. Homelander is a commentary about the dangers of extreme nationalism and hate, and in Eric Kripke’s Amazon adaptation, the analogy to Trump and his most vitriolic supporters couldn’t be clearer or more relevant.

The Boys is in many ways a morality tale, and Homelander has always been a not-so-subtle allusion to the toxicity of white supremacy mixed with patriotism. In the comics, the corporation Vought creates Homelander by taking genetic material from another super, the WWII Nazi Stormfront, whose name derives from the Internet’s first Neo-Nazi website. A member of the Hilter Youth, Stormfront was virulently racist, and in The Boys universe, he’s the one who destroyed the levees during Hurricane Katrina, all to flood New Orleans in the name of ethnic cleansing. He’s so abhorrent that company scientist Dr. Vogelbaum recommends that Vought destroy him. Instead, Vought experiments on him and makes him Homelander’s “father,” meaning Homelander’s propensity for bigotry is quite literally built into his DNA.

It’s also right there in his name: “homelander” is a reference to the post-9/11 period in the United States, during which time the Department of Homeland Security was founded. American foreign policy was defined by a heightened suspicion of non-Americans—in particular people of Middle Eastern descent—which resulted in an uptick of hate crimes. The meaning behind Homelander’s name is even more potent now than when Ennis created it in 2006; as a result of Trump’s crackdowns on immigration, debates are currently raging about whether the DHS and its various agencies (which includes the highly maligned ICE) should now be abolished. As a result of Trump’s exclusionary rhetoric, hate crimes have also been on the rise to match post-9/11 levels. This all feeds back into who Homelander is and what he represents for present day audiences: a more hateful society, where those who fall outside of the white, Christian, conservative establishment are regarded as unwelcome.

Homelander’s retrograde viewpoints and almost limitless power, coupled with his belief that he should be able to do whatever he wants, is what makes him such a scary figure. In the show, Homelander says he embraces a sort of “John Wayne frontier justice,” demonstrating a contempt for due process. (The reference also has a dual meaning: Wayne is a right-wing icon, even openly declaring in one 1971 Playboy profile that he supports white supremacy.) When Homelander attends the evangelical Christian rally after the 9/11-esque plane crash (which he purposely let happen), he invokes real-life conservative talking points by linking religion to the need for more military action, to raucous applause:

“I believe that what God wants me to do is get on over there, find the filthy bastards that masterminded this, and introduce them to a little thing called God’s judgment! Sounds like the American thing to do! But no. Apparently, I got to wait for Congress to say it’s okay. I say I answer to a higher law. Is it not my God-given purpose to protect the United States of America? Psalm 58:10! The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance and he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked!”

While it can be argued that both Superman and Captain America dole out their own form of justice separate from the law, the context is important. Superman and Captain America are understood to be heroes for all people, regardless of ethnicity or religion, and we know they are the kind of men who would subvert their own needs for the greater good. They represent the best of what America could be. Real-life politics tell us that’s the opposite of who Homelander is. From his proudly donning the American flag to his unnerving grimace-of-a-smile, Homelander was never meant to be a comforting figure. He’s a villain, and his actions in the final episode of The Boys cement the idea that his brand of “patriotism” comes at the grave cost of radicalizing some while hurting many, many others.

Homelander is, to put it bluntly, like Trump in a cape. He won’t stop with his dangerous rhetoric or actions, because why should he? He’s in the highest position of power, with deep government and corporate ties, and he believes that no one can check him. The end of season shows us just how hard it will be for Butcher and his team to completely root out Homelander, and by extension, every toxic thing he represents.

The Boys is a grave mirror of our own reality, but hopefully by series’ end, it will be the stuff of pure, wish-fulfilling fiction.

Images: Sony Pictures TV/Amazon Studios

The post THE BOYS’ Homelander Represents the Worst of America appeared first on Nerdist.