The Boys are primarily known as a comic book series, but Amazon Prime’s streaming adaptation of the comic book – which contains a lot of changes and additions – has helped the series become a global phenomenon. Now, The Boys are full of mysteries and questions, regarding both specific characters and concepts. In this article, we are going to talk about Homelander and his obsession with breast milk. It is a very strange obsession of his and in this article, we are going to explain why he is so obsessed with it.
The exact reason behind Homelander’s obsession with breast milk was never revealed, but it is quite obvious that he enjoys it in a compulsive way. Now, we assume that the reason why he enjoys it so much is that it works as a surrogate for an absent mother figure, which is a big psychological weakness for Homelander, and the milk makes it better in a way.
In the remainder of this article, we are going to talk about Homelander and his obsession with milk, at least when the series is concerned. The goal of this article is to answer the question that’s been bothering fans since Homelander’s bizarre obsession was shown for the first time and to give you some facts about the character as well. Be careful, as there are going to be spoilers.
When does Homelander consume breast milk?
If you remember the history of The Boys television series, you know that Homelander drank milk on several occasions in the episodes. We’ll just give you a quick recap of some of these situations.
At CCTV, Stillwell notices Homelander is observing her through the wall. She invites him in, mockingly asking if he feels lonely. She warns him about the speech he gave and has him lay on the couch, and feeds him milk, as a way to “tame” him. This happened in the “Good for the Soul” episode of Season 1.
At Madelyn’s former office, which is now an empty room with very little furniture, Homelander opens the refrigerator and finds a bottle of milk. Homelander takes it, then smells and warms it with his heat vision without destroying the bottle, and then he drinks it. Ashley walks in on him awkwardly while he is doing it and thanks him for helping her get Madelyn’s old job. She says she’ll fill her shoes as best as she can. She says that they found them a new hero to replace Translucent, to which Homelander reacts.
There’s something you need to know about Homelander’s obsession with milk. Namely, it is much more expressed in Amazon’s television series than it is in actual comic books. This is why we’re focusing on the television series rather than the comic books, as the series provides us with more psychological insight into the character of Homelander (in this aspect) than the comics.
Why does Homelander like breast milk so much?
Now, the television series never really addressed Homelander’s fixation on milk. It is something that was shown to us as a fact and the show didn’t really dig deeper into Homelander’s bizarre fetish. It was obvious that milk made Homelander feel calm and safe, but we’re not sure about the psychological roots of this obsession, although we can speculate about it. Let’s see about his history.
Born before March 16, 1994, Homelander grew up in a lab surrounded by doctors like Jonah Vogelbaum, who called him John. Because he had no mother figure, Vogelbaum noted that Homelander became violent, aggressive, and downright hateful towards all those around him. Growing up, he sat in front of a projector for hours and saw images chosen to shape his personalities, such as the American flag, Jesus Christ, and baseball.
He had a motherlike figure, a doctor, but she was killed by Homelander himself when he was young and innocent after he hugged her and accidentally broke her spine. Before his death, he had caused similar incidents with countless other guardians, behavior usually driven by outrage but this time by isolation-induced depression.
Homelander also suffers from an Oedipus Complex, which is, later in life, projected onto Madelyn Stillwell who is the closest thing he has to a mother. However, upon realizing her true feelings of fear, it doesn’t hold him back from burning her eyes and skull. Due to his longing for a true maternal figure women are able to manipulate him with relative ease. Stillwell, Becca, Stormfront, and Maeve, have all been able to manipulate/control him to some degree due to them being women and appealing to a certain part of his damaged psyche.
We have done this brief analysis of Homelander’s psyche to try to explain his obsession with milk. Namely, breast milk is a motherly symbol for him and he uses it as a form of consolation; it actually calms him down. This is why it is absolutely a crucial part of his personality. Through the breast milk, Homelander connects with a missing motherly figure. Stillwell was an embodiment of that, but at the point when he actually killed her, Homelander was so damaged that he didn’t even care.
All that was left of his sentiments towards his mother was the milk, which is now a symbol of both his damaged psyche and his Oedipus Complex. This is, also, why his obsession is so bizarre, but there’s really not much anyone can do about it.
