Summary
- Hulk’s gamma-enhanced strength could overpower Homelander, making him a strong contender.
- Thor’s Asgardian strength and uru weapons could pose a significant threat to Homelander.
- Characters like Sentry, Captain Marvel, and Ikaris could easily defeat Homelander with their immense powers.
While Homelander is the strongest “supe” in The Boys’ universe, there are several MCU heroes who are stronger and could likely hold their own against the leader of The Seven. Played by Antony Starr in Amazon Prime’s The Boys, Homelander is the series’ leading antagonist, a corrupted and immoral equivalent to DC’s Superman possessing many of the same abilities. However, some Marvel characters could still likely take him down all the same.
The Boys‘ universe is full of superpowered beings, though the universe as a whole is comparatively underpowered next to the MCU and DC realities. Case in point, although Homelander has many of the same powers as Superman including super strength, flight, and heat vision, the Kryptonian Man of Steel is far stronger as an alien powered by the sun compared to Homelander who’s simply an enhanced human experimented on by the Vought Corporation. While quantifying strengths and various power levels across franchises is often subjective, here are 10 MCU heroes who are arguably stronger than Homelander and have a solid chance at taking him down.
10 Hulk
Gamma-Irradiated Rage Monster
Right off the bat, Bruce Banner’s Hulk is a prime MCU candidate to take down Homelander. Having been enhanced by high levels of gamma radiation, The Incredible Hulk only gets stronger the more angry he gets. Massively strong with a high threshold of durability, one could imagine that Homelander’s lethal heat vision probably wouldn’t do much damage before the Hulk got close enough to smack the leader of The Seven around like a rag doll (not unlike Loki in 2012’s Avengers)
Furthermore, the Hulk would also have no problem matching Homelander’s rage even when the supe is at his most unhinged and volatile. That said, it can be argued that earlier iterations of Banner’s Hulk could wipe the floor with Homelander. The odds would likely be lower for the MCU’s current “Smart Hulk” whose strength and rage have been mitigated in favor of Banner retaining his intelligence as seen in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
9 Thor
Asgardian Strength And Uru Weapons
The God of Thunder should also be able to take down Homelander pretty easily, considering his own great strength and Asgardian command over lightning in the MCU. His uru weaponry shouldn’t be discounted either, such as Thor’s legendary hammer Mjolnir and axe Stormbreaker. Both weapons should be capable of leaving lasting damage to Homelander (using The Boys as a reference when other supes have managed to land hits).
Thor is also capable of flight, meaning Homelander wouldn’t be able to evade the God of Thunder so easily. Likewise, his otherworldly physiology as an Asgardian likely gives the Son of Odin a leg up in the durability department. Having gone toe to toe with Thanos more than once in the MCU, Thor should have no problem when it comes to Homelander. It would also be humorous if Thor were to simply give his hammer to Homelander, whose fragile psyche and ego would likely come undone in the face of his abundant lack of worthiness.
8 Sentry
The Power of A Million Exploding Suns
At present, Bob Reynolds’ The Sentry is a bit of an unknown in the MCU, though he is expected to debut in 2025’s Thunderbolts. Played by Lewis Pullman, the Sentry will either serve as an ally to the MCUs’ upcoming Thunderbolts team or a potential antagonist (perhaps both). At any rate, there’s no doubt that The Sentry would tear through Homelander like paper (just as he would with 90% of the Marvel Universe’s heroes), assuming his on-screen power levels are going to match those in the original comics.
Imbued with the power of “a million exploding suns”, Sentry is one of the most powerful Marvel heroes of all time. However, that power is closely tied to Bob’s mental stability, as well as whether his darker personality is in control (known as The Void). Regardless, the expectation would be that the MCU’s Sentry would be able to swat and squash Homelander like a fly (even though they do share some major mental flaws). Much like with Superman, the power disparity between the two is quite significant.
7 Captain Marvel
Cosmically Enhanced
Powered by the Space Stone itself, it’s likely that the MCU’s Captain Marvel could also take on Homelander and emerge the victor. Having been cosmically enhanced with seemingly limitless energy potential, it’d likely be hard for Homelander to do any kind of lasting damage to Carol Danvers. After all, Avengers: Endgame saw Captain Marvel battling Thanos one-on-one, and she kept coming even after taking a direct hit from the Power Stone itself. Keeping that in mind, it stands to reason that Danvers is stronger than Homelander and could take anything he could throw at her with his own powers.
6 Rogue
Homelander’s Powers Could Be Taken
Despite being criminally underutilized in Fox’s X-Men movies, Rogue is a top contender as someone who could be stronger than The Boys’ Homelander. Having permanent flight and super strength courtesy of Captain Marvel (seen in the comics and X-Men ’97), Rogue is already a powerhouse before using her mutant gift of power absorption to drain life forces and take another’s abilities with a single touch. To that end, Rogue could easily use Homelander’s own powers against him to win the day.
5 Silver Surfer
Wielder of The Power Cosmic
Despite being the most powerful supe in The Boys’ reality, even Homelander would likely fall before the Silver Surfer and his command of the Power Cosmic. Imbued with this unlimited cosmic energy source by Galactus when he was his favored herald, Norrin Radd is one of the most powerful beings in the entire Marvel Universe. To that end, facing Homelander would likely be a very minimal threat compared to what the Silver Surfer’s is used to traveling the cosmos.
Radd has yet to debut in the MCU, as the only live-action Surfer was voiced by Laurence Fishburne in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. However, a new version of Galactus’ herald is expected to debut in 2025’s Fantastic Four: First Steps played by Julia Garner. As such, the assumption is that this new MCU Silver Surfer will wield the Power Cosmic as well.
4 Ikaris
The Eternals’ Superman
Much like the Sentry, Ikaris is a Marvel character who shares similarities with Superman and his classic Kryptonian powers. In Ikaris’ case, this includes super strength, flight, and heat vision. That also means he shares the same powers as Homelander, though seemingly at a much stronger and higher degree. After all, Ikaris is an Eternal made by Marvel’s cosmic Celestials.
As one key example, The Eternals movie saw Ikaris using his heat vision to damage The Domo which had been able to withstand close proximity to the sun, suggesting his beams are far more powerful than Homelander’s. Additionally, Ikaris is seen flying into the sun at the end of Eternals, suggesting that the full power of a star is one of the few things capable of destroying him. To that end, Homelander would probably have a hard time landing a meaningful hit on the Eternal.
3 Jean Grey
Omega-Level Telepath and Telekinetic
Whether it’s the Jean Grey from the original X-Men timeline or the younger Jean from the rebooted timeline post-Days of Future Past, Homelander would have a very hard time getting close enough to kill the most well-known host of the Phoenix Force. While Homelander may be one of the strongest beings in The Boys’ universe physically, Jean is an Omega-level telepath and telekinetic even without the Phoenix. For all of his power, Homelander is likely still susceptible to mental attacks, especially considering all the conditioning and brainwashing he was subjected to by Vought during their experiments.
2 Scarlet Witch
Chaos Magic To The Maximoff
Additionally, it follows that magic is likely another key weakness for Homelander, especially considering how The Boys’ universe is more grounded and hasn’t explored that facet found in most other superhero universes. As the prophesied Scarlet Witch and wielder of great chaos magic, it follows that Wanda Maximoff is the stronger superhero who could handle Homelander as easily as she handled Thanos in Endgame before he called down a strike on his own troops to escape her grip. It follows that Homelander would likely have a hard time taking her down if he were ever to make his way to the MCU.
1 Deadpool/Wolverine
Healing Factor Plus Adamantium
While it would probably be a closer match-up compared to others on this list, it’s fun to imagine how a fight would go if Homelander were to take on either Deadpool or Wolverine, perhaps even both at the same time. There’s no question that Homelander is stronger than both Deadpool and Wolverine combined, at least in the physical sense. Likewise, his heat vision would likely result in several burns and lost limbs.
That being said, one still has to account for Wade and Logan’s respective healing factors which would help them stay in the game, as well as Logan’s adamantium skeleton and claws (even Deadpool now has adamantium katanas). Perhaps Marvel’s rare adamantium metal is strong and sharp enough that it could do some real damage to Homelander. At any rate, a three-way battle between Homelander, Wolverine, and Deadpool would likely be one of the bloodiest and most brutal fights of all time (regardless of the ultimate winner).
