Who is the Strongest Supe in The Boys? Sorry, Homelander Fans, There's One Stronger

Summary

• Homelander is undoubtedly the most dangerous character in the story.
• But the danger comes from his unpredictability.
• At the same time, there is a Supe who can kill him in a one-on-one fight.

In superhero media, the powers of many characters are limited only by their own consciousness. Sure, some superheroes are objectively stronger than others, and many make no secret of how much effort they must expend to accomplish a given task. But that doesn't stop Spider-Man from holding the ship together, or Super-Man from carrying the Heavens on his shoulders like Atlas. In general, we've been shown time and time again that the powers of superheroes are virtually limitless, depending only on their motivation – indeed, we don't need to know their true limits to admire them.

Unless, of course, you're planning on murdering a superhero. Like The Boys, for example, who regularly have to come up with elaborate schemes to take down disguised villains masquerading as noble heroes and heroines. The protagonists of both the comic book and the Prime Video series are able to rate the danger level of their opponents and compare them to Homelander.

But to everyone's surprise, there is one character who can defeat the seemingly most powerful and dangerous Vought-American product.

Is Homelander the Strongest of Them All?

Homelander is without a doubt the most dangerous Supe in the entire history of The Boys. It is in his insane, split-second decisions that the danger lies, for as we have seen on the show, even the most elaborate plan involving other powerful Supes is ineffective due to the impossibility of predicting Homelander's next move.

However, as revealed in the original comic created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the only one capable of stopping Homelander's unbridled power is... Black Noir. Yes, folks, the silent Supe, formerly a member of Payback and then an integral part of The Seven, is the one in the comic who can take on the pseudo-patriotic superhero.

The identity of Black Noir I in the series is a Supe named Earving (though we do not yet know the origin of Black Noir II, except that he is also played by Nathan Mitchell), and Vought actively markets his race as 'unspecified'. But at the same time, it's revealed in #65 of The Boys comic that Black Noir is a Homelander clone.

He was specifically designed by Vought-American as an identical doppelganger to keep an eye on Homelander's antics and be the first to stop him when he gets out of control. In the course of events, Homelander invaded the White House and assassinated the President to seize power over the United States and the entire world. It is then that his clone appears from behind the scenes and is the one who finally kills Homelander. This makes Black Noir the strongest superhero in the history of The Boys.

The Limits of This Supe's Power Were Revealed in the Comic

Regardless of how you feel about the source material, Ennis and Robertson's comic offered many unconventional approaches to superhero storytelling, notably becoming one of the few stories to have actual character limits.

For example, Mother's Milk told Hughie that Black Noir could 'bench a dozen Mack trucks.' In other words, if the maximum weight of a fully loaded Mack truck is about 80,000 pounds, Black Noir is capable of lifting up to 960,000 pounds. So while The Boys will never be able to counter Black Noir without Compound V, it reflects the true limit of what Homelander can do. In other words, despite his insane strength, he still can't match the unlimited abilities of traditional superheroes, which makes the story of The Boys even more grounded and ironic.

The new episode of The Boys Season 4 will be released today, July 4, 2024.