The Boys – Fiction Horizon

Superman, Brightburn, and Homelander are very popular sups. All these three super beings have powerful superpowers, some common to all three like the laser vision, and some unique. But who of those three, Brightburn, Superman, and Homelander, would win in a fight? Superman is the strongest of all three, followed by Homelander and then the boy who hasn't yet mastered his skills, Brandon Breyer aka Brightburn. They might not have shared the screen yet, but ardent fans can’t help but visualize what if a fight broke off between these three. Let us see their duels, the first one on one, and then all three together. Brightburn Vs Superman: Who Would Win Superman would win against a fight with Brightburn, and quite easily. He would win because he had previously fought villains who are similar to Brightburn. Where Superman is a popular DC character, who has been around for nearly a century, we were introduced to Brightburn very recently. To be precise we got to see Brightburn in the 2019 Sci-Fi, horror movie with the same title. The concept behind Brightburn is what if Kal-El didn’t receive the upbringing he got. What if he turned out to be spiteful. What if he wanted vengeance for all the Kryptonians who died. What if he turned out to be evil, driven by a desire to take over Earth. In the movie, we are introduced to a young Brightburn who is just a kid, who has very recently gained awareness about his powers. He spent his entire childhood unaware of his origins. It is only when he reaches his teenage years that he learns about his identity and his superpowers. But he has yet to learn how to control his superpowers. He is like Superman’s evil version, and if you are a Superman fan, you already know Superman has fought his evil version multiple times. Superman has fought and defeated Zod, who is equally powerful as Superman. Zod comes from the same planet, Krypton, as Superman, and his body adapts the same way to the yellow sun’s radiation the way Superman’s body did. In the movie Man of Steel, we saw right in the middle of Superman and Zod’s battle, Zod was developing X-Ray vision. You could only imagine how strong he would have grown if he was exposed to the sun for as long as Superman was. However, Zod did have many physical capabilities that were enough to fight against Superman. But in the end, Superman came on top. We even saw Superman fight Ultraman, a powerful supervillain, who was also somewhat an evil version of Superman. The comic series, “Crime Syndicate of America” we saw Superman defeating Ultraman. More so, Superman has traveled through time and fought his evil version too. In the Injustice comic series, we saw how Superman gets overwhelmed with the evil inside him and plans on taking over Earth. But he is stopped by the classic regular Superman, who travels from another dimension and beats his evil version, thus rescuing the people of Earth once again. So given that Brightburn is equivalent to Superman’s evil version, and the fact that Superman has experience of previously defeating Zod, and Ultraman, Superman would easily beat Brightburn. Homelander Vs Superman: Who Would Win Homelander and Superman are quite similar. To assess who would win in a fight between them, let us assess their powers. Homelander is the main character in the controversial adult comic book The Boys. It was very recently adapted for television with the same title - The Boys. Homelander has laser vision. He can shoot fire from his eyes. On the other hand, Superman has heat vision, which is slightly different from Homelander’s Laser vision. Superman can spit fire from his eyes at anywhere between 1-10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. So one point to Superman. Superman has high durability too. In the movie Man of Steel, we saw him get into the way of the World Engine, deployed by Zod. The world Engine was ejecting powerful radioactive waves into the Earth for terraforming it. So that Kryptonians can live naturally in the Earth’s normal atmosphere. Superman had no choice but to get inside the radioactive emission and kill the engine from its core. That proves how strong, and durable his body is against destructive force. So another point to Superman. Much like Superman, Homelander can also spit lasers from his eyes. They can also use X-Ray vision to see through objects. But Superman gets the edge as he can absorb other, much smaller light waves too. As humans, our eyes can pick up only a small portion of the entire visible light spectrum. Typically, a human eye can pick up 380 to 700-nanometer wavelengths. The rest goes undetected. Superman can see a larger portion of the visible light spectrum. Superman can catch infrared lights. Also, he can see electromagnetic radiations that are emitted from star light-years away from him. People who know about String theory know that there is a membrane that connects all particles in the Universe. Be it a small comet, an asteroid, or a giant supernova, everything is linked. Superman can sense this membrane. This is why he can sense what is going on in a distant planet long before the light from that planet reaches him. Another point for Superman. Homelander can reach supersonic speed. He can travel as fast as sound. So that means he can reach 743 mph in 1-2 seconds. On the other hand, Superman can travel at infinite speed. Superman has its bioelectric aura that sits around his body. This aura makes him invisible to the universal gravity. When he is flying, he isn’t affected by gravity from even the biggest stars in the universe. His bioelectric aura cancels out the external gravity pull. Another point for Superman. Homelander lacks the power of Superhearing. On the other hand, Superman can listen to any conversation happening in any place on earth without having to experience it up close. On the flip side, Homelander has Sonic Scream. He could scream and shatter glasses, and even the ear-drums of anyone standing next to him. So one point each for both Superman, and Homelander. Superman has the ability of Super breath. It doesn’t only refer to the ability of not having to breathe for a long time. He can of course do that. But, thanks to Superbreath, Superman can blow air towards a plane flying hundreds of miles above the sea level and make it crash. Another point for Superman. So you see Superman can outpace Homelander in every aspect possible. In terms of speed, durability, and agility, Superman takes the top spot. On top of that, Homelander has never fought anyone as strong as he is. He never fought with anyone on his level. So that leaves Superman with an edge because he has fought both Earthly and other Extraterrestrial monsters, for instance, Doomsday. He even fought Darkseid, the Lord of Apokolips. The biggest difference between the Homelander and Superman is in their motives. In the comic Homelander rapes Billy Butcher's wife. She later dies. Billy swears vengeance and is later shown as the main antagonist in the entire The Boys comic franchise. Superman would never do such a thing. Superman fights for a cause, but he never compromises on his morality. Brightburn Vs Homelander: Who Would Win Brightburn is a boy named Brandon Breyer who has extraterrestrial origins. Much like Superman, he arrived on Earth on a spaceship. Tori and Kyle Breyer, a couple who can't have their children, and who later adopt Brandon, found the spaceship and when they looked inside, they found a young boy who they named Brandon Breyer. After a long time, the spaceship, which was hidden in the couple's barn, starts to send a mysterious message to Brandon. He opens the spaceship and learns about his origin. The ship completely brainwashed him. After that incident, he starts to terrorize his hometown and eventually turns evil. Just to visualize how evil he gets, one day he crushes a girl’s hands out of anger. He later goes on to kill the girl’s mother. Unlike Brightburn, Homelander was created in a lab. Jonah Vogelbaum, who was the lead scientist behind this project, named Homelander John. Despite having many superpowers, he is quite aggressive and irrational. From a young age, he was hateful towards everyone. He had to sit in front of a projector that showed him images of the American Flag, Jesus Christ, and Baseball. This was a regular drill for him. Being detached from any human connection for a long time, he developed a violent attitude. He had a female nurse who used to look after him. One night, out of aggression, Homelander kills her by crushing her spines. Much later in his life, he also killed the mayor of Baltimore by burning it up using his laser beams. So if Brightburn and Homlander broke off a fight, Homelander will win. The results will be in Homelander’s favor simply because he had the time and training to focus his superpowers. Even though he mostly used his superpowers for evil motives, he did learn to exploit them. But on the other hand, Brightburn is only a kid. Even though he has many superpowers, he is alone and has received no grooming. Homelander could easily trigger his temper, and manipulate him into making the wrong combat decisions. Brightburn Vs Superman Vs Homelander: Who Would Win In a nutshell, if we have to arrange these three distinct super beings from the least strong to the strongest, the list will be something like this- Brightburn < Homelander < Superman Now, when we are comparing these sups, we are often subject to an illusion. Someone who appears strong doesn’t necessarily have to be strong. Let us look at how Superman and Supergirl compare with one another. At first glance, Supergirl would seem to be the strongest. But it is because Supergirl rarely tries to hold back. She usually unleashes all her fury in a fight. On the other hand, Superman might often try to reason with an enemy. He does that because he knows this would eventually end up in less destruction. Does that make Superman less powerful? Not at all. Superman might be the only DC superhero that tries to use both his ability of reasoning, and physical strength to win a fight. He doesn’t solely rely on his superpowers. He believes in co-existence. Let us further understand this illusion by looking at Shazam and Superman. In both comics and movies, we have seen that Shazam/Captain Marvel isn’t quite sure about his capabilities. It is mainly because he gets his superpowers from magic, whereas superman gets his powers from the Sun, which he later nourishes via proper training. In one instance, Shazam punched and knocked out Superman. Shazam couldn’t believe his eyes. But to his shock, Superman got up immediately and beat him down. This proves that even the Superheros are subject to this illusion. Like in the above scenario, Shazam quickly formed the idea that he was stronger than Superman, after a rare incident where he knocked Superman out. But even Shazam is not sure whether he could do it again or not. Much like Brightburn, you can think of Homelander as an arrogant, narcissist, and selfish version of Superman. Superman is skilled in different styles of combat. For instance, he learned martial arts to fight Batman, Karate Kid, Lady Shiva, and Cassandra Cain. He could easily beat them using his other superpowers, but he chose to learn the skills his counterparts are good at. This gives him an advantage over his rivals. Moreover, Superman can increase the intensity of his superpowers. As we all know superman gets his superpowers from the yellow Sun. He absorbs the radiation and it fuels his cells. So he could easily exceed his average strength level by overcharging himself. He could even fly close to the Sun so that he needs less time to fully recharge. Another great advantage Superman has over his enemies is he wants good for all parties involved. He wouldn't let any innocent people die. He stands for a cause and a fair one. On the other hand, both Homelander and Brightburn are skilled at bursting his powers. Which means he will drain out pretty quickly. There is a saying that goes, a horse that runs the Marathon will be around for longer than a horse that runs sprints. Superman is the one who is here to stay. Think of Superman as John Wick, who is gifted with many talents, but the reason why he can beat all his enemies is that he trains himself. He knows when to react to something, and when to avoid. He knows his strengths and weaknesses. He learns new things every day, thus giving him enough opportunity to grow.