Boomstick: And Homelander, the world's greatest superhero, brought to you by Vought International.
Wiz: Few heroes have stood the test of time with as much aplomb than the very first, Superman. But what if absolute power did, in fact, corrupt absolutely?
Boomstick: Answer: we're all screwed.
In the fifth episode of DEATH BATTLE!'s ninth season, An Ass-Kicking Christmas is in season as Wiz and Boomstick examine two of the most notable Corrupted Character Copies of The Cape himself. For about a century, the Last Son of Krypton has served as a paragon of what it means to be a superhero, with his virtues and powers defining an entire genre's worth of storytelling. However, when those who emulate the power he commands and the surface-level looks along with them lack the heart to be that man for others Superman naturally is, we get these two diabolically twisted mirror images who are about as invincible as they are brutal and devious. Viltrum's greatest warrior takes on Earth's most popular superhero to see which of these corrupt capes comes closer to emulating the Man of Steel's might in a death battle.
Starting off the episode with the first caricature of the Man of Steel, Nolan Grayson, also known as Omni-Man, was sent to Earth on a mission by his own planet, Viltrum, to serve as one of Earth's protectors and was successful; saving the planet many times over, becoming a member of his universe's equivalent of the Justice League, The Guardians of the Globe, and even ended up marrying and having a son, Mark Grayson. Life couldn't have gotten better until Mark had ended up inheriting his father's Viltrumite powers, and subsequently found out that Nolan's reasons for being sent to Earth weren't as benign as initially thought.
As it turns out, the Viltrumite Empire, rather than being a utopic society, was in fact the result of a mass culling of half of Viltrum's population, leaving the remaining half united under a Darwinist ideology that would lead them to conquer every planet in their home galaxy, slaughtering anyone that fought back, with Nolan being sent to do the same to Earth. And he's proved himself more than capable thanks to his Viltrumite heritage, aptly described by Boomstick as the combination of a Kryptonian's raw power and a Saiyan's bloodlust. Thanks to his DNA, Nolan can manipulate the "Smart Atoms" in his body in order to perform superhuman feats, similar to his inspiration's Bio-Electric Aura. Viltrumites like Nolan can fly, survive being subjected to absolute zero temperatures, and possess extreme healing factors that can heal them from injuries such as impalement through vital organs and disembowelment, though it does have limits such as extreme trauma to either the brain or heart, prolonged exposure to extreme heat and, thanks to their own abilities, intense sound attacks.
But despite these weaknesses, pushing a Viltrumite to their physical limits only makes them stronger, and due to Nolan fighting for millennia before coming to Earth, one can only imagine how strong he is in the present, with other species trying to attack him splattering on impact without any effort on Nolan's part. Despite his efforts, Nolan had difficulties trying to convince Mark to join him thanks to Mark being raised as a human rather than with the Social Darwinist ideology of Viltrum, as demonstrated by how they responded to an invasion by the interdimensional Flaxans; Mark tried to outwit his foes and minimize casualties, whereas Nolan attacked the Flaxans at the source, systematically destroying the planet for even attempting to take over Earth. During this devastation, Nolan demonstrated his power by flying fast enough to ignite the air around him, creating massive explosions as a result. His other achievements under his belt include flying across galaxies in the span of a week, punching a hole through a planet, deflecting a meteor as big as the state of Texas, and, to ensure a seamless assimilation of Earth into the Viltrumite Empire, brutally slaughtering his former allies of the Guardians of the Globe.
It is this very horror that spurred Mark into fighting his father for the sake of the Earth, and while he ultimately lost the fight, Nolan ended up leaving Earth of his own accord nonetheless, in order to engage in self-reflection of his deeds.
After a promotion for Better Help online therapy, focus shifts from Nolan to the second caricature of Superman but first focuses on the company he works under; Vought International, a multi-billion-dollar American MegaCorp that focuses on its top product in superheroes, monopolizing the concept as much as it can with merchandise, movies and video games based on the heroes associated with the company, including its ace team, the Seven, and their leader, Homelander.
At first glance, Homelander seems like an above-board man and a phenomenal hero, but that is only how he's portrayed as by Vought, in actuality, Homelander may as well be the devil himself with how vile he is. Vought's "official" backstory of Homelander is quite similar to that of his inspiration... and entirely false, as he was actually cultivated in Vought's labs using their specially-made superhero serum, Compound V. When he was born, John Gillman slaughtered dozens of scientists, and in the comics, Vought had attached a remote-controlled hydrogen bomb to him in his early years as a means of keeping him in line. Growing up, Vought had subjected John to psychological conditioning in order to maximize his loyalty and profitability as the world's greatest superhero ever.
Homelander's powers are very similar to that of Superman's; flight, superhuman strength, speed, durability and heat vision capable of slicing aircraft, to say nothing of people, in half. He can also perform a sonic scream capable of rupturing eardrums, as he ended up demonstrating on the passengers of the ill-fated Flight 37, and subsequently left them to die to keep them from speaking of him botching the mission, and this reveals that the only thing Vought's top hero truly cares about is ironically his public image, despite not caring about the people he's tasked with protecting.
Speaking of Homelander himself, he's capable of surviving anything humanity throws at him, including a Tsar Bomb, his strength lets him throw a fighter jet with one hand, and his speed allows him to outrun a C4 explosion. However, despite his sheer physical strength and prowess, he has the attitude and psychology of a spoiled child. Still, he's cunning and manipulative to everyone around him, but not cunning enough to avoid angering one Billy Butcher, as this super seemingly killed Billy's wife, Becca. However, the Super did get some form of control over his and Becca's son, so let's hope he'll take better care of little super-powered Ryan...
Boomstick: Or... not...
With our two contestants examined and the promotion for the second sponsor Mint Mobile done, it's time for a death battle!
Christmastime is here, with its happiness and cheer surrounding even the Viltrumite's home, all decked out for the holidays. Nolan returns home, only to find an unexpected guest in blue, red, white and gold with a mug of hot cocoa in hand. The stranger embellishes about his status as a merchandisable cash cow who will not be best by an alien superhuman and tries to agree with Nolan's wife Debbie... who is a charred skeleton. When the guest tells the family man to leave the country, Nolan calmly promises to feed him his own heart, but the Seven's leader scoffs at the threat, causing Nolan to send his fist into his face.
FIGHT!
Nolan begins his beatdown on Homelander with a barrage of punches before flinging him through the nearby table, scoffing at Homelander's motive for his actions. Angered, Homelander plows the Viltrumite through several houses, the road and an oil tanker, causing a massive explosion. Omni-Man is undaunted by the All-American hero's attacks and shoots up to the sky to continue the brawl. Dodging another punch, Nolan grabs the Super's head and forces him to look at an oncoming plane headed straight for him, holding him right in its flight path.
In response to this unorthodox move, Homelander fires his Eye Beams to destroy the plane and goes on the offensive. The Viltrumite, however, is unfazed by the attacks and Homelander's laser eyes prove to be ineffective on him. Nolan resumes his beatdown and makes the lab boy bleed through his nose. As the human alien drags him to the ground upside down, Homelander makes a deafening shout, causing his foe's ears to bleed and the super alien himself to flinch in pain long enough for the cash cow superhero to slam him into the ground in a massive explosion, vaporizing a crowd of civilians in the blast radius.
Emerging from the crater, Homelander sees a crowd gathered around him, now aware of his brutality, having witnessed it first-hand, while also being injured himself. As the lab lad panics over his tarnished reputation, fear growing into frenzied anger, Omni-Man, unscathed from the attack, emerges from the flames taunting his wife's murderer. As his meltdown intensifies, Homelander once more yells at his opponent, stunning him again, before grabbing him and attempting to fry Omni-Man's eyes with his Eye Beams. As he does this, he angrily threatens to kill everyone in the neighborhood, everyone Nolan knows, and even Mark, Nolan's son. Before he can go further, Nolan reaches out and rips off Homelander's jaw, punches through his chest to grab his heart, and stuffs it into his mouth as he reminds Homelander of what he promised before the fight started. As he opens his eyes to reveal how little damage Homelander did to the Viltrumite, Omni-Man crushes his head as the onlookers watching this one-sided battle get splattered with the blood of Vought International's number one superhero, now a headless corpse in a crater. Omni-Man bitterly wishes his audience a "Merry Christmas" and solemnly flies off, leaving the carnage of his battle behind.
K.O.!
The Seven have lost their leader, and Vought their cash cow... but given the type of hero Homelander was, it's doubtful anybody would miss him with such a gruesome yet fitting end. Despite both emulating Superman's incredible powers to different degrees, it was Omni-Man who came close to matching their inspiration's power level. The numbers don't lie either; comparing Omni-Man causing the destruction of the moon twice over to Homelander surviving a nuke made the Viltrumite 60 billion times stronger than his blonde opponent, whereas Omni-Man moving faster than light trumps Homelander moving faster than sound with a 7.2 billion times difference in speed. Homelander may have been the strongest being to ever exist within the context of The Boys, and he had access to abilities Omni-Man lacked, but he wasn't powerful enough to capitalize on them. Viltrumite healing factors have been overpowered by excessive heat, but Homelander's lasers were never shown to be on par with that of a star's, which have overtaxed them over a notable duration of time, not to mention that Omni-Man had defeated other superheroes with similar abilities before. Homelander may have also been able to use his supersonic voice to disorient Omni-Man, but he lacked the strength needed to capitalize on those openings. What sealed the deal was not just comparing their experience as heroes, but who they were as people in the end: whereas Nolan Grayson was a millennia-old warrior who had been conquering planets left and right, John Gillman was a test tube baby who never needed to push himself beyond what he was capable of since he already was the strongest in his universe and never really had any experience fighting someone who could even defeat him head-on. Despite his devious nature, Homelander was simply a bully who bit off more than he could chew given Omni-Man's overwhelming advantages in almost every area that mattered.
Wiz: The winner is Omni-Man!
"Omni-Man VS Homelander" contains examples of:
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Nolan is this to Homelander. While he's undeniably evil, Nolan is shown to be capable of forging genuine friendships with people and would eventually give up his Viltrumite mission. Homelander is little more than a Psychopathic Manchild who gets worse over time.
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: The fight takes place during Christmas time, seeing as the Grayson household has the decorations up and Homelander himself has a Santa hat on.
- And Show It to You: Nolan threatens to feed Homelander his heart. He makes good on that threat at the end, crushing Homelander's jaw so it hangs loose before tearing his heart from his chest and shoving it in the hole, then crushing Homelander's head with his hands while he's still chewing on his own heart.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: During his Villainous Breakdown, Homelander threatens to kill Omni-Man's son Mark along with his entire neighborhood once he's done with him. This did nothing more than push Omni-Man to stop fooling around and immediately go for the kill.
- Big Fish in a Bigger Ocean: The basic gist of Omni-Man's victory comes from this. In The Boys, Homelander is the most powerful being in the setting and he's never had to worry about any genuine threats to his safety because of it. Omni-Man on there other hand is considered a top-tier specimen to the Viltrimites, which are essentially an entire race of planet-conquering Homelanders with thousands of years of fighting experience. And that's not even going into the fact that the world of Image Comics is in the middle stage of Superhero Prevalence while The Boys is still in its first stage, the kind of things that threaten the people of The Boys pailing in comparison to the monsters and villains in Invincible.
- Bittersweet Ending: Nolan avenged his wife and likely spared Butcher and the Boys a lot of trouble in the process. However, the fact remains Debbie is still dead, as were anyone unfortunate to be caught in the crossfire of Omni-Man and Homelander's battle.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: At the end of the fight, Omni-Man crushes Homelander's head between his hands, sending blood and brains flying onto nearby bystanders.
- Bond One-Liner: Omni-Man delivers one after he crushes Homelander's skull and departs the neighborhood. Coincidentally, this is a literal example of the trope, as James Bond himself used this one-liner at one point."Merry Christmas."
- Break the Haughty: Homelander, who's full of himself after committing all kinds of atrocities without anyone being able to punish him, is not so much broken as he is disintegrated by Omni-Man, who's more than tough enough to put him in his place and then some.
- Brick Joke: At the beginning of the fight, Nolan gives Homelander a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner, stating he's going to make the bastard eat his own heart. Homelander thinks it's a figure of speech and commends the one-liner. Come the end of the fight, Nolan asks him if he remembers his words from before, proceeding to shove Homelander's still-beating heart down his throat.
- Bullying a Dragon: Homelander is aware of Omni-Man being powerful, but doesn't see him as much of a threat, going to his home and killing his wife to send him a warning to leave the country. He soon finds that Omni-Man is not only not threatened by him, he's not someone he can stand a chance against.Homelander: So, do we have an understanding? Get the fuck out of my country!
Omni-Man: I'm going to feed you your own heart. - Cruel and Unusual Death: Jaw crushed so it's hanging loosely. Heart ripped out. Being force-fed said heart into your gaping maw while still somehow alive and in grievous pain. Said head crushed like a grape. Were it done to anyone else other than Homelander, it'd be excessively cruel, even by the show's standards.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: This fight may as well take the cake for the most lopsided matchup in Death Battle history, with Omni-Man brutally destroying Homelander. It only lasts as long as it does because Omni-Man really wanted Homelander to suffer for killing his wife and Homelander's supersonic shouts happening to line up with his overly sensitive hearing. Even with both in mind, the fight lasts all of two minutes, most of the time being firmly in Omni-Man's favor.
- Evil Versus Evil: Downplayed, as in comics, Omni-Man would pull off a Heel Realization and give up the original Viltrumite mission, whereas Homelander just continues to be more vile.
- Eye Scream: Homelander's final move against Omni-Man is to grab him and blast his heat vision directly into Omni-Man's eyes. He manages to char the flesh around the eyes pretty bad, but he's so focused on doing so that Omni-Man is able to viciously break his jaw and rip out his heart.
- First Injury Reaction: Omni-Man intercepts a flying charge from Homelander with a simple punch that draws blood from his nose. Homelander covers his face, reacting in shock as he sees the blood in his hands when he brings them away. And then Omni-Man punches him again.Omni-Man: Ever been hit by someone your own size before? You have to turn with the punch.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- Shortly after Homelander greets Omni-Man, Nolan briefly glances to the side. A few seconds later during Homelander's monologue, it's revealed what he'd been looking at: his wife's charred corpse.
- A subtle one follows directly after: Homelander, holding a mug, is punched against the wall for a few seconds, and then thrown at the table by Omni-Man, with the cup landing on his head… where normally, that cup should be laying on the floor. So, Nolan had thrown said cup at his opponent, but that motion is never shown, indicating the massive speed advantage and eventual winner early on.
- Foil: Omni-Man is an alien hailing from a Proud Warrior Race Guy culture where only the strongest are allowed to live, infiltrating human society with the intent of conquering it. Homelander is a human who Vought "claims" is actually an alien who crash-landed and lived a life on Earth and is one of the strongest Supes in his universe, along with having an inflated ego to match it with plans to overthrow the Presidency. Whereas Nolan had a Heel Realization after ruthlessly and viciously beating his son to near death, Homelander is a complete and utter jackass who lords over others without hesitation or reservation.
- Head Crushing: Homelander bites it this way, having his head pulped and crushed like a grape between Nolan's hands.
- It's All About Me: Homelander's whole reason for threatening Omni-Man by killing his wife and demanding he leaves is because he doesn't want to play second fiddle to some "goddamn alien".
- Just Toying with Them: It's made abundantly clear early on that Omni-Man greatly outclasses his opponent. The only reason Homelander lasts as long as he does is because Omni-Man is drawing it out to make him suffer, even taking a moment to lecture Homelander on how to properly take a punch. Once Homelander makes the mistake of threatening Mark, Omni-Man ends the fight in seconds.
- Karmic Death: You will more than likely not feel bad for Homelander the moment Omni-Man draws blood from him, not just for his actions in both comics and series, but the fact he had killed Debbie prior to Nolan's return home.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Nothing Homelander does really effects Nolan in any way. The concussive shouts do stun him a bit, but Nolan quickly shakes it off and he treats Homelander's attempt at melting his eyes as a mild annoyance, even killing Homelander with his eyes closed.
- Meteor Move: Omni-Man grabs Homelander by the leg while he's upside-down and begins to rapidly descend back to Earth to pull this, but Homelander's scream disorients Nolan long enough for John to get loose and grab his foe to do it himself, creating an explosion and shockwave on impact that kills several bystanders and wrecks the neighborhood. While John stumbles out of the crater bloodied, Nolan isn't even visibly marked in the aftermath.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: In contrast to Nolan, Homelander is so used to overpowering everyone in his universe and not taking damage at all that Nolan's first punch that sends him reeling is enough to shock him. When Homelander actually starts bleeding, he quickly starts losing all restraint.
- Mythology Gag:
- Several moments in the battle call back to Omni-Man's most brutal moments in the first season of Invincible (2021), such as grabbing Homelander by the back of the head (mirroring how he killed a pilot), attempting to shove him in front of an oncoming plane (mirroring a similar thing he did to Mark) and lastly, the coup de grâce of crushing Homelander's head mirroring how he killed Red Rush, his first and most brutal moment. The background music for the fight is also very similar to the music playing during Omni-Man's genocidal rampage against the Flaxxans in episode 2 of Invincible.
- The airplane also doubled as a call back to the Boys when Homelander doomed an airplane with casual misuse of his power (particularly his heat vision in the show).
- On the other side of the coin, Omni-Man's casual dismissal of Homelander's very petty reason for wanting Omni-Man out of the country is simply because he cannot stand the possibility of being in the same spotlight as another Flying Brick carries the same energy as Stan Edgar's chilling dressing down of Homelander in "The Big Ride".
- Homelander's final actions are much like his comic counterpart's. He attempts to kill somebody stronger than him with his laser vision while ranting at him. The attempt fails and he gets his jaw broken off and killed shortly after.
- Several moments in the battle call back to Omni-Man's most brutal moments in the first season of Invincible (2021), such as grabbing Homelander by the back of the head (mirroring how he killed a pilot), attempting to shove him in front of an oncoming plane (mirroring a similar thing he did to Mark) and lastly, the coup de grâce of crushing Homelander's head mirroring how he killed Red Rush, his first and most brutal moment. The background music for the fight is also very similar to the music playing during Omni-Man's genocidal rampage against the Flaxxans in episode 2 of Invincible.
- Not So Similar: Wiz and Boomstick conclude that in spite of both combatants being corruptions of The Cape, hiding behind a heroic facade who don't give a damn for humanity, Omni-Man's had to fight to keep his position of power in a ruthless dog-eat-dog culture and as a smaller part of a universe of superpowered threats while Homelander has merely been an unopposed bully in an otherwise normal Earth.Wiz: And that's the key difference between them: one is a warrior and the other is a bully.
- Not Hyperbole: Omni-Man promises to feed Homelander his own heart before the Viltrumite is done with him. He keeps his word in the end in the most literal sense, ripping Homelander's heart out and stuffing it into his broken mouth before crushing his skull.Omni-Man: Remember what I promised you… Now swallow.
- Out of the Inferno: Omni-Man pulls this on Homelander after the Meteor Move, completely unharmed. Just to run salt in the wound, he taunts Homelander about how he looks like he's about to cry, which really sets Homelander off.
- Papa Wolf: While murdering his wife was more than enough of a reason to kill him, Homelander threatening to kill Mark is when Omni-Man decides to stop dilly-dallying and end the fight.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Nolan threatens to feed Homelander his own heart after Homelander tries to bully him into leaving the country. Homelander admits it's a pretty badass line before Omni-Man starts smacking him around.
- Refuge in Audacity: Similarly to Hulk Vs Broly where Wiz and Boomstick calculated the strength difference between the Green Scar and Savage Hulk by using the times both slept with Umar as reference, they also end up calculating how fast Homelander's… load moved when they reveal that he ended up killing a woman he had sex with because of it.
- Scissors Cuts Rock: Homelander has two powers Omni-Man doesn't: heat vision and sonic screams, with extreme heat and loud sounds being Omni-Man's weaknesses. Ordinarily, this would give him the advantage he needs to win, like with Venom vs Crona. However, Omni-Man has faced off against foes with heat vision and prevailed, and the kind of heat necessary to overwhelm his Healing Factor is far above the levels Homelander can generate (as in, direct and extended exposure to a star). Similarly, Homelander isn't strong enough to capitalize on messing with Omni-Man's equilibrium from loud noises, since Omni-Man's superior speed and Healing Factor allow him to recover within moments.
- Soldier vs. Warrior: Both characters' personalities, skills and history boils down to this trope: where despite their respective origins initially setting them up with Omni-Man as the Warrior and Homelander as the Soldier; their personalities are entirely antithetical:
- Omni-Man spent several centuries learning the ins-and-outs of his abilities against all sorts of monsters and knows how to hard-counter everything that Homelander tries throwing at him while making sure to mitigate any damage to the neighborhood, making the Soldier.
- Homelander meanwhile is a Psychopathic Manchild that has never before faced any sort of threat that could pose a direct challenge to him and, because he never learned how to fight beyond taking an Attack! Attack! Attack! approach, creates a lot of collateral damage and even destroys a large chunk of the neighborhood, making him the Warrior.
- Squick: In-Universe; Wiz can be seen in visible disgust as Boomstick segues into the physics of… Homelander's ejaculation making a woman explode. Boomstick meanwhile looks like he's reacting to the scene in a mix of humor and horror.Boomstick: That's right! Homelander can bust a nut faster than the speed of sound! (Beat) Well, good night everybody!
- Strong and Skilled: Omni-Man is far stronger than Homelander and has immense control over his powers, barely causing any collateral damage while demolishing his opponent. Even something as simple as punching displays Omni-Man's skills, as he turns his torso to add even more power to his strength and aims for weak points, such as Homelander's nose.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Justified by Homelander's massive ego. He thought his attempts at intimidation would be enough to make Nolan leave, so Homelander did not get the rest of the Seven to help strongarm Omni-Man. It wasn't.*
- Tranquil Fury: It's obvious throughout the fight that Omni-Man is very, very pissed about Homelander murdering his wife, but he keeps his anger restrained and merely settles for giving Homelander a thorough Curb-Stomp Battle like it's a teaching session.
- Unskilled, but Strong: It's stated that while Homelander is the most powerful character from The Boys, he has no actual combat training or skill and relies simply on being too strong and scary for anyone to compete with or stand up against. Unfortunately for him, Omni-Man hails from a race of planet conquering warriors and has thousands of years worth of combat experience under his belt, resulting in him being far stronger, faster and more skilled than Homelander is.
- Villainous Breakdown: After being seen by civilians as the cause of destruction and deaths of several people and thus ruining his public image in the process, on top of being mocked by Omni-Man for his obvious distress, Homelander snaps and starts trying to use his heat vision on Omni-Man, threatening to kill his son and everyone he knows once he's done. It's the last mistake he makes, because now, Nolan gets serious.Homelander: AFTER I'M DONE WITH YOU, I'M GONNA FLASH-FRY THAT LITTLE SHIT SON OF YOURS, THIS WORTHLESS NEIGHBORHOOD, AND EVERY GODDAMN PERSON YOU KNOW!!!
