The Worst Things Homelander Has Ever Done In The Boys

There are few characters on "The Boys" who could be considered morally upright, but Homelander (Antony Starr) stands out for his sadistic viciousness, even in a world filled with amoral and apathetic superheroes who are more interested in abusing their powers than saving the day. Although he's viewed by many in-universe fans as the golden boy of The Seven, the world's most elite group of superheroes, his all-American persona obscures a much darker presence.

But if there's one thing you can say for Homelander, there's never a dull moment when he's around. His instability makes him unpredictable in the extreme, sometimes committing vile acts that require some forethought and other times letting impulses of the moment guide his dark desires. Whether Homelander is manipulating other characters, outright attacking them, or participating in a little light terrorism during his off-hours, the sociopathic Supe is pretty much guaranteed to be spearheading some of most gruesome moments in both the show and the comics it's based on.

With Season 4 just around the corner and darker than ever, there's no telling what he'll do next. But in the meantime, here are some of the worst things Homelander has done.

To begin with, on the scale of horrible things Homelander has done over the years, this one is relatively quaint. Although it's not as violent or gruesome as some of the acts that follow, it nonetheless showcases the more conniving side of Homelander. As much as he employs his super-strength, flying abilities, and laser eyes to take out his adversaries, he also knows how to devastate them emotionally.

By season 2 of "The Boys," Homelander and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) are very much on the outs. So when they appear on a talk show together, Homelander can't resist the urge to pull a fast one on his Wonder Woman-esque counterpart by announcing to the world that Queen Maeve is a lesbian. Rule number one of being a good ally, Homelander: We don't share the private information about our co-worker's sexuality, especially not when we're just using the announcement to mess when their heads.

When Homelander learns that he has a secret son floating around out there, he resolves to become the father that he himself never had. But Homelander's not exactly Dad of the Year material, even on his best days. He's ecstatic that Ryan might make him feel less alone in the universe, considering that his son is the only one on the planet who has superpowers that rival his own. But his desire to see those powers manifest themselves leads Homelander to make some questionable parenting choices, to say the least. 

The end result is a father-son relationship filled with trauma — Homelander love-bombs Ryan one moment, alienating the boy from his mother with a rush of attention and praise, and then literally pushes him off a roof the next. How Ryan will eventually turn out is anyone's guess — it's still possible that the good qualities from Becca might win out over the baggage of Homelander's inheritance. But with Homelander for a dad, he's certainly not going to reach adulthood without a mountain of trauma to wade through.

Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) was the Senior Vice President of Hero Management at Vought International, which means that she has a close and personal relationship with all the members of The Seven, especially Homelander. That is, until he flies into a fit of rage and melts her face off with his laser eyes, like a super-powered and super-petulant toddler.

But after her death, Homelander still finds himself in need of her ... unique brand of comfort. That's where Doppelganger (Dan Darin-Zanco) comes in. They have the power to shapeshift into any human form — a talent that Homelander uses to his advantage, forcing Doppelganger to impersonate Madelyn so that he can fulfill his weird little fantasies with her. Because Homelander is much more powerful than Doppelganger, this relationship isn't exactly consensual, and it's made even more disturbing by the fact that we learn that these transformations cause Doppelganger significant pain if they drag on for too long.

Homelander doesn't exactly have a reputation for conventional tastes when it comes to sex and romantic relationships — but Stormfront (Aya Cash) is a little out there, even for him. When she joins The Seven as its new, media-savvy hero, sparks fly pretty quickly between her and Homelander. They certainly play well to the public, a consideration that Vought International is never going to ignore. But over the course of the series, Stormfront begins to amass a large collection of red flags. She seemingly derives pleasure from collateral damage while on her superhero missions, especially when the victims are people of color. She begins to subtly push a white supremacist agenda with her public statements. 

Eventually, we learn that she's not just a fascist — she's an actual, literal Nazi from World War II. Stormfront, it would seem, doesn't age like most people, and was in fact born in the early years of the 20th century in Germany, where she joined the Nazi Party in the 1930s. She was even the wife of Frederick Vought, former chief physician of the Dachau Concentration Camp and founder of Vought International. Homelander may be many things, but a good judge of character he is not — and her twisted ideology allows him to act out on his more genocidal instincts.

Homelander does a lot of perverse stuff on "The Boys" television series, but some of his most unhinged behavior is reserved for the original comics. In one sequence, he storms the White House, taking out the president and rather graphically ripping off his head. While he sits in the Oval Office, Billy Butcher (who has his fair share of unforgiveable moments) walks in, and Homelander tosses the decapitated head to him. When Butcher notices a hole in the skull, he asks, "That a d**khole in the back of it?" 

Implying, as we can all guess, that Homelander had ... relations with the dead president's skull before Butcher's entrance, an insinuation that Homelander quickly confirms with a smug grin and a casual, "Well, you know how it is." (Which also suggests that this is not the first time Homelander has gotten intimate with a decapitated skull, but we're not even going to go there.) Over the course of the series and the comic books, Homelander commits heinous acts that would send him to jail if he was an ordinary person — rape, assault, mass murder — but there's a certain societal taboo against the desecration of the dead that gives this scene a little extra stomach twinge for the reader.

Homelander's not without an altruistic streak — every year on his birthday (or at least the birthday the marketing team made up for him, since he doesn't actually know when he was born), he does something nice for humanity and stops someone from attempting suicide, which is what we see in the season 3 episode "The Only Man in the Sky." Chelsea (Nia Roam) is standing on the edge of a roof, and it seems like Homelander might actually do some good and convince the girl — who already seems to be having second thoughts — to return to safety with him.

But then, the news breaks that Homelander's fascist girlfriend Stormfront has died by suicide, and he's no longer feeling the spirit of goodwill toward mankind. Quite the opposite, in fact. Shaken by Stormfront's death, he turns to Chelsea and encourages her to finish what she started, flashing his red laser eyes to make sure she gets the message that she's going to end up dead on the ground one way or another. What makes the moment even more disturbing is that the only detail we learn about Chelsea is that she's Jewish, so with her death, Homelander honors Stormfront's legacy by killing a Jewish person.

From the very beginning of "The Boys," we know that Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) is nursing quite a vendetta against Homelander. But over the course of the series, we get more information about exactly what went down between the two of them, and it all has to do with Butcher's beloved wife, Becca (Shantel VanSanten). Before the show began, Becca worked in the marketing department for Vought, which is where she was raped by Homelander, and forced to carry his child in secret. 

Not only did she have to grapple with the trauma of her sexual assault without the support of her friends and family, who were all told that she had died, but once Homelander learned the truth about their existence of their shared son, Ryan, she had to endure visits from him in her own home. After all, Homelander is nothing if not an involved father (if by involved, you mean manipulative and abusive, that is). There's no question that Homelander filled Becca's life with violence and terror, infiltrating even the safe space she had built for herself and Ryan.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

A lot of Homelander's most gruesome acts are spur-of-the-moment — he loses control and people die, or he decides impulsively to hurt those surrounding him. What makes the moment with Timothy so horrifying is the amount of thought he put into torturing fan-favorite The Deep (Chace Crawford). After The Deep's assault on Starlight was made public, the Supe was expelled from The Seven, making him persona non grata in the superhero community. But in this episode, he has a chance to get back into Homelander's good graces, and even win back a spot in the group.

But it will not be without a heavy price. Homelander presents him with a live octopus on a plate, encouraging The Deep to eat it. The only problem? The Deep can communicate with all manner of sea creatures, and this particular octopus just happens to be Timothy, a close friend and sometimes-lover of the anguished superhero. As The Deep wrestles with his conscience, Timothy pleads with him, reminding him of his children back home, even praying. But then The Deep makes his final decision — down the hatch with poor, sweet Timothy. 

In the TV series of "The Boys," The Deep is the one who sexually assaults Starlight when she first joins The Seven, and he becomes perhaps one of the first Supes in history to actually face consequences for his actions. But in the original comics, the attack on Starlight is far more disturbing, and unsurprisingly, led by none other than Homelander himself. When the young Supe is given the opportunity to join the elite group of heroes, it is made clear to her that there's a price to be paid for her admittance. 

Homelander is quickly joined by A-Train and Black Noir, who also expect to have sexual acts performed on them by Starlight. Afterwards, Starlight is shown traumatized by what she was forced to do by Homelander and his cronies. This is just one time out of many where Homelander used his position for sexual gratification at the expense of others, but this is arguably one of the most upsetting, considering how emotionally attached we become to Starlight.

Often, when Homelander does something truly reprehensible, there's some kind of internal logic to it, even if it only makes sense to him. But the incident with the Mullers from the comics is an act of pure, pointless violence that serves no purpose except to cause anguish and pain to its victims. When the Mullers — a family of four with two young children — win a dinner with Homelander as part of a contest they took part in through their church. Homelander offers to fly them to the restaurant in their new car, to give the superfans a bit of a thrill. Or at least, that's how it seems at first.

Quickly, it becomes clear that his intentions are malicious, as he flies them high into the atmosphere, terrifying the children and almost freezing the entire family. After traumatizing the Mullers — especially the parents, who must have realized fairly early on how this trip was going to end — he lets them go, and the car free-falls out of the sky, killing them all. Homelander may have a complicated relationship with the church, but taking it out on the Mullers in such a cruel way is (putting it lightly) a little over the top.

Although Homelander's nefarious deeds often come from a desire to do harm, every once in a while he stumbles upon one while he's actually trying to do something good. Such is the case with the infamous Flight 37. He and Queen Maeve land on an in-flight airplane that has been commandeered by terrorists, and they attempt a rescue mission. But while they easily subdue the would-be hijackers, Homelander uses his laser eyes to kill the surviving terrorist in the cockpit, and in doing so, he inadvertently destroys the plane's entire control panel system, making it impossible to land.

Queen Maeve is quick to come up with potential solutions to save as many people on board as possible, each of which Homelander shoots down. He can't lift the plane, because there's nothing for him to brace against. When Maeve tries to convince him to save just two children, who they could carry to safety in their arms, Homelander refuses for the most cynical of reasons. If the plane crash has survivors, he argues, there are witnesses who might explain what really happened during the rescue attempt, including how Homelander botched it. Rather than take the potential hit to his reputation, he sentences an entire plane full of innocent people to their doom, and blackmails Queen Maeve into doing the same.

Alas, such a (forgive the pun) senseless crime. Between deaths and defections among the elite superheroes, The Seven is pretty much always in recruiting mode. When Vought's hero management team brings on Blindspot (Chris Mark), they're pretty sure they've struck gold. A blind superhero with super-hearing, Blindspot is polite, eager to please, and (important to Vought's efforts to diversify The Seven) a person of color. Homelander, on the other hand, is less convinced of Blindspot's suitability for the role, mostly because he wasn't consulted in that decision, and we all know how Homelander feels about not having complete control. In one cruel, swift moment, Homelander boxes Blindspot's ears, destroying his hearing and making him (in Homelander's words), "just another useless f**king blind guy."

What's especially upsetting about this situation is how much Blindspot simply finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's been nothing but warm and deferential to Homelander, and by all accounts, he would have made an excellent addition to The Seven. But because Homelander needs to pull a power play and remind Vought that they can't install anyone in The Seven without his approval, Blindspot finds himself down another key sense.