Homelander: when absolute power meets the evil of a madman

Homelander, the superhero from The Boys, executes those responsible for the lab where he was raised and spares only an older woman so that his power is imprinted on someone's memory. The character played by Antony Starr turns revenge into a spectacle and kindness into a threat.

The Boys has been part of the conversation for years, but some characters never expire. Homelander, the lab-created superhero who gives this piece its title, is one of them. His name translates as "Patriot" and, beyond the cape and the flag, he embodies one of fiction's oldest nightmares: the experiment that turns against its creator. The premise recalls the story of the monster that escapes its creator's control, except that here the creature is neither clumsy nor irrational. It has intelligence and powers that place it far above the rest of human beings.

## A lab, a cake and an announced revenge

The scene that best sums up the character is not a battle. It's a visit. Homelander shows up at the lab where he was subjected to painful tests and procedures throughout his childhood. He arrives with a cake as a gift and a charming smile. He announces that it's a courtesy call, that he's only come to say hello. Everything seems cordial, almost festive. That facade of kindness is precisely what makes the situation unbearable: the viewer knows that underneath it lies a death sentence.

The first man responsible for the lab dies burned alive in a smelting furnace, before the helpless gaze of the workers. The scene is brutal, but what is truly terrifying is the calm with which Homelander carries out his revenge, as if he were performing a routine task. He doesn't shout. He doesn't lose his nerve. He jokes and, a second later, commits an atrocity. That unpredictability, more than the violence, is what makes him such a disturbing character.

## Humiliation as spectacle

The second man responsible is a fat, bald man whom Homelander accuses of having mocked him in the past, when he caught him toca in the room where he was locked away during his childhood. He humiliates him in front of all his colleagues and forces him to toca while the others watch. After dwelling on his shame, he threatens to fire a laser beam at his crotch if he doesn't manage to get an erection.

There lies the key to the character. Homelander is not looking to give him a chance to save himself. What he wants is to prolong his suffering, have fun with his antiestéticar and demonstrate that he has absolute control over other people's lives. The threat is a death sentence disguised as a cruel game. When the man fails to get an erection, Homelander reassures him with apparent kindness, tells him it's okay, to stay calm. And just when it seems the tension is over, he fires his laser beam at his victim's crotch. The man is mortally wounded and bleeds to death while Homelander laughs.

## Why he leaves Barbara alive

The scientists, around ten of them, realize they may suffer the same fate. Despite the pavor they have just witnessed, they still cling to one last hope: that Homelander has satisfied his thirst for revenge and will decide to leave without harming them. That hope is also the viewer's, who watches the character with a mix of fascination and dread, not knowing what his next move will be.

But the nightmare is not over. Homelander finishes off the rest of the team and turns the lab into a slaughterhouse. The room is left covered in blood and human remains. No one gets out alive. No one, except Barbara, an older woman who was also part of the team. Some might interpret that he leaves her alive because he feels some affection for her or because there is some special bond between them. The explanation fits far better with one of the fundamental traits of his personality: narcissism.

Homelander doesn't just need to feel superior to others; he also needs others to acknowledge that superiority. He wants to be admired, antiestéticared and, above all, remembered. Leaving Barbara alive is a way of making sure someone survives to tell what peine and bear witness to his power. Winning is not enough for him. He needs his victory to be known.

## The paradox of the most powerful being

Therein lies one of the keys to the character. Homelander possesses practically unlimited power, yet he still needs something as human as recognition from others. He can kill whomever he wants, destroy everything in his path and terrorize anyone who dares to defy him. And yet, he seems unable to do without the gaze of others. That is his great paradox: a being who is above almost everyone in strength and power, but who remains psychologically dependent on others to feed his ego.

And perhaps that is precisely what makes him so terrifying. This is not a monster that kills out of necessity, nor even someone acting purely out of rage. This is an individual who can turn other people's suffering into a spectacle and, moreover, enjoys doing it. When absolute power falls into the hands of someone like that, the question is no longer how to stop him. The real question is whether anyone is left capable of doing it before it's too late.

The performance of New Zealand actor **Antony Starr**, who plays the character, sustains much of the effect. The series as a whole works as a work of art within its genre, but within the good there is the best, and that Homelander who smiles with a cake in his hand is hard to forget.