Thanos vs. Homelander: Who Would Win & Why?

In this comparison, we have decided to do an inter-universe match-up of villains. One of the characters we are going to compare is Thanos, Marvel’s Mad Titan, and one of the best villains in Marvel’s multiverse. The other is Homelander, the main antagonist of The Boys, one of the greatest indie superhero comics in history. In this article, we are going to compare these two villains to determine who would win and why.

Thanos would win in a fight against Homelander, even without the Infinity Gauntlet. Although Homelander is similar to Superman in a lot of ways, he is nevertheless a weaker version of the Man of Steel. Thanos, on the other hand, is a true threat even without this most famous and powerful weapon, which is why he would easily defeat Homelander in a fight.

The rest of this article will further elaborate on the above-given answer, as we are going to compare Thanos and Homelander in more detail. Through several categories, you are going to see who the stronger of the two is and why our answer is like it is, i.e., why Thanos would ultimately trash Homelander in a fight.

Strength

Thanos possesses superhuman strength whose limits are not known for sure. Death has increased his strength beyond its original limits, allowing him to rival or exceed the power of the physically stronger Eternals. Thanos is one of the strongest beings in the universe and is capable of lifting over 100 tons effortlessly. Thanos’ strength is so great that he has destroyed entire planets, planetoids and satellites with base hits.

He has been shown to be able to fight both Thor and The Thing at the same time for an extended period. His strength reserves are so great that with just a series of blows he has been able to defeat beings like the Silver Surfer, even bringing him to the brink of death. Thanos can augment his strength with cosmic energy when needed.

One of Homelander’s main abilities is his vast superhuman strength, being the strongest man alive. As a child, he broke a woman’s back while embracing her. After intercepting a robbery with Queen Maeve, he threw the first robber far and high into the air. He also easily pushed through a door blocked by scaffolding with one hand and rammed his fist into a shooter’s chest.

He was then able to throw a baseball from New York to Boston, throw a football into a small plane with such force that an emergency landing was needed, throw another baseball in the air, and hit Blindspot so hard in the head that he ruptured his eardrum and caused strong bleeding. He also crushed a terrorist with his foot.

Homelander easily defeated Starlight and Doppelganger, lifting the latter off the ground and snapping the neck with one hand. He later fought with Stormfront and casually crushed a man’s head with just one hand. In a fit of rage, he defeated A-Train and threatened to separate Billy Butcher member by member. Even with the reappearance of Soldier Boy, Homelander remains the strongest supe in the series.

And while Homelander can pack a punch, he is nowhere near Thanos’ level; the latter is among the strongest Eternals, and all of them would beat Homelander with ease. This point goes to Thanos, without a doubt.

Points: Thanos 1, Homelander 0

Durability

Before his “death”, Thanos possessed an impressive degree of resistance to physical damage, even when compared to other Eternals. After his resurrection, Death increased his ability to resist injury to a much greater degree and is nearly invulnerable. He has withstood point-blank attacks capable of destroying small stars or solar systems without any damage.

He has withstood blows and attacks from beings as powerful as the Silver Surfer, Thor and survived safely. His incredible stamina has shown that he can survive attacks from universal-level entities such as Odin and Galactus.

Nearly immune to all forms of physical damage, Homelander is the toughest of, if not all, Seven Supes. As such, not only is he bulletproof, but he’s also unfazed by explosions, such as when Billy blew up the Stillwell residence with him inside or destroyed an entire power plant. According to Madelyn Stillwell, there isn’t a weapon on earth that hasn’t failed against him, meaning he could also survive nuclear blasts.

While pursuing Kenji Miyashiro and the Boys, Homelander survived when a bus and several large chunks of concrete fell on him with no signs of injury other than getting dirty from the incident. Billy Butcher speculated that the power of a thermonuclear bomb was the only thing that could eradicate Soldier Boy, who was almost as powerful as Homelander.

Maeve even described him as invincible, challenging Victoria Neuman to try to blow him up. However, its immense durability has been shown to have limits still. After a brutal fight against Soldier Boy, Butcher, and Hughie, Homelander is revealed to have a large bruise on his face, suggesting that he can be injured or even killed instantly with enough force.

And while Homelander is hard to hit, he is neither invulnerable nor unbeatable. Thanos, on the other hand, practically is. He can be killed, yes, but he is night-invulnerable and Homelander doesn’t have what it takes to bring him down.

Points: Thanos 2, Homelander 0

Speed

Despite his enormous muscular mass, Thanos is capable of running and moving at speeds superior to the finest human athletes. However, he can be intercepted with various strategies at the hands of skilled speedsters from the Marvel Universe.

While Homalander can fly at extremely high speeds, sufficient to track and destroy aircraft, John can also travel at supersonic speeds on the ground. Even as a child, Homelander managed to break the sound barrier. Homelander is quick enough to dodge bullets and unarmed multi-weapon shooters before they even have a chance to react.

Later, after Butcher decided to detonate the bombs attached to Stillwell’s body, Homelander was able to save Butcher unharmed from the blast (a C4 bomb blast travels at around 8000 m/s, which is 23 times faster than the sound). He could disappear from Billy Butcher’s apartment without even noticing, meaning that he can move faster than the human eye can perceive while making little to no noise (the best-trained human eyes can detect movement in 1/220 seconds or 0.0045 seconds).

This one was a close one, but due to Thanos being a cosmic being, we still think that he would outrun Homelander. Thanos is fast under his conditions, which are very different from the ones Homelander lives in.

Points: Thanos 3, Homelander 0

Energy Manipulation & Projection

Thanos has shown great versatility in the use of his energy projection abilities. He has shown the ability to project energy as a devastating force, gamma radiation blasts, infrared heat rays, and disruptor beams, as well as form force shields. The exact extent of the energy projection abilities are unknown, but a single eye-blast has been able to render the thing unconscious and knocking over the likes of Thor. It has been speculated that the nature of Thanos’s cosmic energy pool may be quasi-mystical in nature.

Homelander can generate intense heat energy in his eyes and project it outward as high-energy beams. His bursts of energy are so powerful that they seem capable of penetrating anything, such as airplanes. On one occasion, he utilized his heat vision to melt a thief’s gun in his hand. However, Homelander is best known for using his optic beams on humans, melting flesh and bone easily, and shattering humans in blood.

His heat vision can also penetrate most Supes, which is evident in Homelander’s reluctance to use it on Stormfront. Homelander can also manipulate the strength and intensity of the rays, as shown when he used his heat vision to warm a bottle of Stillwell’s breast milk without damaging the bottle. In addition to his heat vision, Homelander can fire beams of concussive power from his eyes that are identical in color to his normal heat vision.

Thanos’ cosmic powers, although they are not his forte, are significantly stronger than Homelander’s earthly ones. This is why Thanos wins this one as well.

Points: Thanos 4, Homelander 0

Flight

Thanos has shown that he is capable of flight, but this power has not been explored further. He can fly, but he does it rarely and doesn’t use it as one of his main powers and abilities.

Homelander can fly and travel at supersonic speeds, allowing him to cover great distances in minutes. He reached a hijacked aircraft in front of the F-16 fighters; F-16 jet top speeds are just under 1,500 mph/Mach 2. Stillwell also confirms that it is faster than an F-16 jet. As it scanned the city for Translucent, Frenchie’s neural-networked Homelander CCTV ID flew at sea level at nearly 1,140 mph / Mach 1.53.

Although Thanos can fly, he is not a good flyer in that aspect. Sure, he won’t crash land on the ground, but he is not as good as Homelander. This is why Homelander wins the final point.

Points: Thanos 4, Homelander 1

Thanos vs. Homelander: Who wins?

The numbers are pretty clear on this one and we never had our doubts either – Thanos wins this one easily. Thanos is one of the most powerful Marvel characters ever and ever without the Infinity Gauntlet, he is a nigh-immortal foe that was able to take one everyone save for a few characters stronger than himself (e.g. Odin). He is also practically fearless.

Homelander is powerful within his own universe, but he has shown a lot of weaknesses even there, being stopped or slowed down by other superheroes. He was ultimately defeated by someone nominally weaker than him. Although he is similar to Superman in a lot of ways, he is a significantly weaker version of him and would, thus, not be able to harm Thanos, at least not seriously.

This is why Thanos would win. The fight, we think, would also be quite short and the Mad Titan wouldn’t even have to make an effort to trash Homelander in a direct fight. With the Infinity Gauntlet, the fight would probably last no more than a couple of seconds. This is how powerful Thanos really is.