Homelander Just Got V1 — Only 3 Supes Can Still Stop Him in The Boys

Spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 6 ahead. After this week, Homelander is juiced to a new level, and the list of people who can realistically stop him is very, very short. The Boys have spent the whole series trying to take this guy down, and now he has V1 running through his bloodstream. Translation: he was already a nightmare, and Soldier Boy basically gave him a booster shot from hell. Even Butcher (Karl Urban), who usually sprints toward a fight, signs off the episode acting like things are about to get worse. If he’s not eager to mix it up with Homelander (Antony Starr), that’s a big neon warning sign.

Quick reset on where we are

Homelander sits alone at the top in raw, physical power. If you put every supe we’ve met in a cage match, he’s the last one standing. That part hasn’t changed; it’s gotten worse. The only real hope now is finding a very specific counter — a power that exploits a weakness, removes his abilities, or works around them entirely.

Also, a quick clarity note because the show’s lore gets wonky: when people say V1 here, they mean the old first-generation Compound V lineage — the early-era supes like Soldier Boy, Stormfront, and Bombsight. Homelander getting V1 in his system is a new twist, and it spikes his threat level even higher.

Who still has a shot at stopping him?

• 3) Ryan Butcher — On paper, no. Their one-on-one earlier this season made it clear: even before the V1 upgrade, Homelander outclasses Ryan. But Ryan did what almost nobody else has managed — he made Homelander bleed — and he survived getting rag-dolled, likely because Homelander will not fully cut loose on his own kid. That messy father-son dynamic is Ryan’s only real weapon right now. If he can use that connection to lower Homelander’s guard, he might land something decisive. And when Ryan’s furious, his ceiling is scary; he nearly killed Stormfront (another V1-era supe) with pure rage and heat vision. Inexperience is the problem. Potential is the reason you don’t rule him out.
• 2) Marie Moreau — The season only has two episodes left, which is prime time to pull in the missing Gen V crew. Marie’s ability to control blood — including the stuff inside you — is exactly the kind of loophole this situation needs. If she can yank the V1 out of Homelander’s bloodstream, Butcher’s supe-killing virus suddenly matters again and the team can go back to Plan A. And if she can go further and rip out his Compound V entirely? That would drop him to plain-old human, which he would absolutely hate, and it opens the door for anyone (Marie included) to finish the job without worrying about laser eyes from across the room.
• 1) Soldier Boy — Yes, their Season 5 relationship is complicated, and yes, Soldier Boy is the reason Homelander got V1 in the first place. That doesn’t mean they won’t turn on each other in the final stretch. More importantly, Soldier Boy has the one proven counter that actually matters: his radiation blasts strip powers. We saw it work on Bombsight, which tells us it affects V1-era supes too. The catch is timing — his blast takes longer to prime than Homelander’s heat vision, so he’ll need a distraction or a clean setup. But if that blast lands and Homelander’s powers drop, it’s open season. Anyone can swing the killing blow after that.

The path forward

No one is beating Homelander in a straight-up brawl right now. The only viable plays are psychological leverage (Ryan), biological sabotage (Marie), or a power-wiping nuke (Soldier Boy). If any of those three line up, The Boys actually have a shot. If not, Butcher’s grim mood at the end of 'Though the Heavens Fall' is about to make a lot of sense.