Based on the comic book of the same name, The Boys on Prime Video takes a more cynical — and perhaps realistic — look at the nature of superheroes. Unlike in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the “Supes” in The Boys might be seen as heroes by the public (and their legions of adoring fans), but they’re actually awful people. Their crimes range from corruption and blackmail to assault and mass murder. The general throughline? These defied Supes are ultimately selfish, arrogant, and cruel, given their perceived superiority.
All the “heroics” are orchestrated by Vought International, the corporation that markets and monetizes Supes. The crown jewels of Vought are The Seven, the show’s version of the Avengers or Justice League. Homelander (Antony Starr), the leader of The Seven, might just be the most despicable Supe of all. (And that’s really saying something.)
A blend of Superman and Captain America, Homelander is the epitome of narcissism. Toted as the strongest Supe in the world, Homelander has godlike powers — he can fly and shoot beams of heat energy from his eyes, and he possesses super hearing, super strength and durability, and X-ray vision. On the surface, he’s affable and charming, like a movie star crossed with a Boy Scout, but the superpowered patriot is the series' enduring antagonist, and the archnemesis of the rag-tag group of anti-Vought vigilantes, The Boys. But why is Homelander so powerful? The answer might be partially linked to his parentage. While fans of the show already know the identity of Homelander’s father, one popular fan theory suggests that Homelander’s mother is an incredibly powerful character who’s already appeared on-screen. So, according to eagle-eyed fans of The Boys, who is Homelander’s mother?
Who Is Homelander's Father In The Boys?
Homelander’s mother is just one piece of the three-part equation when it comes to Homelander’s origins. The other parts? Vought International’s scientists, and his biological father, of course. Viewers learn in earlier seasons of The Boys that Homelander was born and raised in a lab. In Season 3, it’s revealed that doctors used genetic material from Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), America’s first and greatest superhero a la Captain America, and an unknown egg donor.
The lead doctor on the project was Jonah Vogelbaum, who later expressed his regrets about Homelander’s — then known as John — sterile upbringing. “You should've been raised in a home with a family who loved you,” Vogelbaum says to Homelander. “Not in a cold lab with doctors.” Although Homelander argues that he turned out just fine, Vogelbaum feels John’s isolated, experimentation-filled childhood made him violent and hateful.
In addition to testing John’s physical limitations, Vogelbaum and his team pulled a Clockwork Orange on a young Homelander, forcing him to watch videos and images of things like the American flag, baseball, and Jesus, all of which were intended to mold his patriotic persona. In that way, he’s an even more radicalized version of his biological father, Soldier Boy.
What Is Homelander And Soldier Boy’s Relationship In The Boys?
Although Vogelbaum served as a bizarre kind of father figure, Homelander remained curious about his parents — or donors. In Season 3 of the Amazon original series, he learns that his childhood hero, Soldier Boy (a.k.a. Benjamin), is his biological father. The former leader of the superhero team Payback, Soldier Boy allegedly helped win World War II for the Allied powers, though much of this was exaggerated by Vought’s propaganda machine. After a botched mission, Soldier Boy ended up cryogenically frozen, though Vought claimed he died heroically, sacrificing his life to save America from a power plant meltdown.
While looking for a superweapon to kill Homelander with, The Boys end up freeing Soldier Boy from his cryogenic slumber in a military facility. Although Homelander wants to ally with Soldier Boy, the latter isn’t convinced. “It's a shame that I've missed so much. I wish I could've raised you and taught you, father to son,” Soldier Boy says to Homelander. “Maybe if I'd raised you, I could've made you better. And not some weak, sniveling p*ssy, starved for attention. But there's no fixing that now.”
Even meeting his grandson, the young and somewhat-brainwashed-by-Homelander Ryan, doesn’t convince Soldier Boy to join Homelander. In the end, the Supe father and son duke it out. In fact, Soldier Boy ends up fighting The Boys in addition to The Seven, hoping to take down The Seven tower and some of the Supes, so that he won’t be put back on ice.
Who Is Homelander's Mother In The Comics?
Season 3 spent a lot of time on Soldier Boy, the Supe who donated his sperm to the project that birthed Homelander back in the ‘80s. Rightly, fans are wondering when The Boys will reveal the identity of Homelander’s mother. Was she just a random donor, or someone chosen intentionally by Vought?
In the comics, Homelander is a clone of Stormfront. For the series, the writers might be going in a different, though still very much related, direction. Introduced in Season 2, Stormfront is an ageless Supe who was most well-known under the alias Liberty in the ‘60s and ‘70s. With Soldier Boy and Stormfront (then Liberty) being two of the most powerful Supes of the decades prior to Homelander’s birth, it wouldn’t be surprising if there was a deeper connection.
Who Do Fans Think Is Homelander's Mother In The Show?
A leading Reddit fan theory suggests that Aya Cash’s Stormfront is Homelander’s biological mother. Before she was called Stormfront or Liberty, Klara Risinger (Cash) was the first person to receive (and survive) an injection of Compound V. The first-ever Supe was also the wife of Vought founder and Nazi Frederick Vought. As she proves in Season 2 and beyond, Stormfront is also a white supremacist, drawn to the way Homelander embodies the Nazi ideal. Of course, Vought keeps Stormfront’s heinous nature a secret, and brings her back for the first time since her Liberty days just after Homelander kills his manipulative, mother stand-in Madelyn Stillwell, a former top-ranking Vought exec.
Whether Vought brought Stormfront into The Seven fold to give Homelander another controlling figure in his life or not, things don’t play out well between the two loathsome Supes. After Stormfront and Homelander get physically intimate, things go south; Ryan, Homelander’s superpowered son, ends up frying her to a crisp. Lying in a hospital bed at Vought, the seemingly ageless Supe bites off her own and suffocates to death. Is she gone? It’s hard to say with certainty, given all the dark twists and turnsThe Boys takes.
In Season 3, Soldier Boy explains that he and Stormfront/Liberty founded Herogasm, the Supes’ all-out orgy, and hooked up in the past. While it’s said that Homelander’s biological parents provided the genetic material to make him, it’s still possible the public pairing of Liberty and Soldier Boy inspired Vought to create Homelander.
Given what fans know about the world of The Boys, it seems superpowers can be inherited, which means while most of Homelander’s abilities stem from Soldier Boy, his ability to fly might just be a trait from his mother’s side. Not to mention, Liberty/Stormfront vanished in 1979, just before Soldier Boy made his invaluable donation, and a few years before Homelander’s birth.
Disturbingly, the pieces of the Reddit theory do fall into place pretty well. It’s the exact dark, twisted thing The Boys’ creators would do to shock viewers, shatter Homelander’s already-fragile mental state, and comment on the types of lore that dots the pages of superhero comic books. Given Homelander’s long-standing “mommy issues,” it seems like a real possibility that The Boys will go full Oedipus complex when it comes to addressing Homelander’s parentage.