Homelander vs the world · City to planet · Mismatch
Homelander vs Captain America
Two men in red, white and blue. One of them is America’s greatest hero. The other is America’s greatest product.
Tale of the tape
| The Boys | Universe | Marvel |
|---|---|---|
| City to planet | Tier | Street level |
| Flight, heat vision and invulnerability | Strength | Super-soldier body and an indestructible vibranium shield |
| Never trained, never tested, and desperate to be adored | Weakness | Fights fair even when the other side won’t |
| 4–10 | Record on Versus | 3–3 |
The Arena
Homelander had always considered himself the true symbol of America. When he discovered that another world had a hero called Captain America, a man in the same colours who had fought in a real war, he took it personally. He flew to Washington to confront him, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, with every camera in the city watching.
Steve Rogers walked out to meet him, his shield on his arm. “You wanted to see me?” Homelander smiled his famous smile. “I wanted to see the man people think is the real American hero.” Steve looked at him calmly. “I’m not a symbol. I’m just a guy who stands up when it matters.” Homelander’s smile tightened. “How quaint.”
He fired his heat vision without warning. Steve’s shield was already up.
Round One
The heat vision struck the vibranium shield and scattered across the Mall, scorching the grass. Steve held his ground, his arm braced, and then threw the shield. It hit Homelander in the face, a perfect throw, and rebounded back to Steve’s hand. Homelander touched his cheek, surprised. The shield had actually stung.
He flew at Steve and punched him, and Steve blocked it with the shield, sliding back thirty metres across the Mall. Steve was a superb fighter, every movement disciplined, and he used the shield to deflect blows that would have killed him outright. But Homelander was not a soldier. He was a god who had never been taught restraint.
He hit Steve with a blow that cracked the ground beneath them, and Steve went down on one knee.
The Turn
Steve got up. Homelander hit him again, harder. Steve got up again, blood on his face, the shield still raised. The crowd watching from behind the barricades began to murmur. They had expected Homelander to win easily. They had not expected the man in the old-fashioned uniform to keep standing.
Homelander felt the crowd’s attention shifting, and something ugly rose in him. He did not want to beat Steve. He wanted to humiliate him, to make the crowd love him instead. He hit Steve with a flurry of blows, deliberately, cruelly, and still Steve rose, swaying, his shield cracked at the straps.
“Why won’t you stay down?” Homelander shouted. Steve wiped his mouth. “Because someone like you shouldn’t win.”
The Finish
Homelander lost his temper. He grabbed the shield, tore it from Steve’s arm and threw it into the Potomac, then hit Steve with a punch that sent him flying across the Mall and into the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Steve lay at the feet of the statue, finally unable to rise.
Homelander floated above him, breathing hard, and turned to the cameras with his biggest smile. “Ladies and gentlemen, the real symbol of America!” The crowd was silent. Nobody cheered. They were looking at the man lying on the steps, the man who had gotten up eleven times, and they did not look at Homelander at all.
Homelander’s smile flickered. He flew away. He had won. But the photograph that ran on every front page the next morning was not of him. It was of Steve Rogers, bloodied, rising from the grass for the eleventh time. Homelander burned every copy he could find.
The verdict
Homelander wins
Captain America is the better fighter and refuses to stay down, but Homelander is nearly invulnerable with heat vision and flight, and a peak human cannot win a long fight against him.
- Power gapHomelander is far stronger and nearly invulnerable.
- Heat visionIt keeps Steve on the defensive.
- Steve’s willHe loses the fight, but wins the crowd.
How the rematch could go differently: There is no rematch Steve wins by force, but there is no rematch Homelander wins in the hearts of the crowd either.
Who do you think wins?
Who would win in a fight between Homelander and Captain America?
Homelander wins. Captain America is the better fighter and refuses to stay down, but Homelander is nearly invulnerable with heat vision and flight, and a peak human cannot win a long fight against him.