Vought's roster of heroes. As untouchable as he might be, however, Homelander has a sworn nemesis in Billy Butcher. Once upon a time, Butcher's wife worked for Vought and was raped by Homelander in a backroom. Impregnated with the superhero's child, Becca disappears and is presumed dead. Meanwhile, Butcher s an anti-supe black ops team known as The Boys and sets his sights firmly on the red, white and blue villain.
The Butcher and Homelander feud intensifies in The Boys season 2 when Becca is discovered in a Vought compound along with her son. After years of uncertainty, Butcher finally realizes the full extent of what Homelander did to his beloved wife - forcing her to live alone in a controlled environment without even being able to say goodbye to loved ones. Given how Butcher and Homelander sit at entirely different ends of The Boys' spectrum, it's natural to assume the pair are polar opposite personalities, but season 1 suggested otherwise.
During the tense confrontation between Homelander and Butcher in The Boys' season 1 finale, it's heavily suggested that these two mortal enemies are more alike than it might seem at face value. Homelander ires Butcher's anger and his direct methods, and the superhero even its that Butcher is merely doing to Stillwell what happened to Becca all those years earlier. The scene itself acts as a subtle mirror, with Homelander and Butcher reflecting back at each other. While this parallel was always a tacit connection, The Boys season 2 proves beyond doubt that Homelander and Butcher are two sides of the same mucky coin.
How Butcher's Upbringing Mirrors Homelander's
Glimpses of Homelander's younger years have already been seen in The Boys. The pet project of Vought and Dr. Vogelbaum, Homelander was a laboratory guinea pig for most of his childhood. Hardly surprising that he turned out to be a raging sociopath. However, The Boys season 1 did hint at a fatherly connection between Vogelbaum and the young Homelander, and that relationship is clarified in season 2. Vogelbaum returns in "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker" and yet again finds himself discussing his superhero creation. The scientist reveals that he initially took on a more parental role in Homelander's life, reading him stories to soften the hours of isolation and Compound V probing. However, Vogelbaum then ed what Homelander was destined for and changed his approach, taking a firmer hand to young John. How else would Homelander become a tough figure of justice the world could rely on?
Intriguingly, the same episode also introduces Butcher's father, brilliantly portrayed by John Noble, who has made a career of playing unconventional on-screen fathers. Butcher has already made his paternal hatred clear, but is tricked into one final meeting with his dying old dad... and it doesn't go well. Butcher unloads decades of pent-up anger over the abuse he and his brother used to suffer at their father's hand. Butcher also accuses his dad of being responsible for Lennie's death, which is revealed to have been a suicide. Butcher's father shows no remorse whatsoever. Instead, he argues that Lennie was too weak to survive in such a cruel world, whereas Billy was toughened by his upbringing, forging the double-hard supe-buster we see today.
There's a clear parallel between Vogelbaum's words regarding Homelander and those of Butcher's father. Despite hating each other, both characters were treated harshly by their fathers in order to make them stronger.
Starlight Already Pointed Out Butcher's Similarity To Homelander
Butcher's childhood isn't the first connection The Boys has drawn to Homelander. As mentioned previously, the confrontation in The Boys' season 1 finale presents the leader of The Seven and the leader of The Boys as cut from the same cloth. The Boys season 2 continued this theme in even more explicit . During the infiltration of Sage Grove, Starlight confronts Butcher over his treatment of her, accusing Butcher of being a "bigot and a bully" and going on to controversially claim he's no different than Homelander. Naturally, this makes Butcher see red, and the situation surely would've escalated had a Compound V jailbreak not forced everyone's attention elsewhere.
Although there was little time to think on the matter, Starlight was absolutely correct. Homelander was raised abusively by regular humans who treated him as a test subject with no emotions, feelings or rights. It's only natural that Homelander as an adult now views anyone without superpowers with the same level of contempt Vogelbaum showed him - hating an entire species based on the horrific actions of a few. As Starlight points out, Butcher is the same, but his hatred is directed towards superheroes. Homelander committed a horrific act on Becca, and many other Vought heroes have been just as evil. But Butcher knows not every supe is the same thanks to Starlight, Kimiko, the baby with the laser eyes. Butcher hates an entire species based on the wicked actions of a few.
And the introduction of Butcher's father explains why. Hatred begets hatred, and both Homelander and Billy Butcher were raised with an iron fist. Neither has the capacity to direct their anger in a healthy manner because their parents never showed them how.
What Butcher & Homelander's Connection Means For The Boys Season 3
The Boys season 2 has seen Butcher take small steps of self-improvement. When Hughie was being attacked by Homelander in the storm drain, Butcher gave up his chance of finding Becca to save him. Butcher might talk to Hughie with all the subtlety and respect of a drunk uncle at Christmas, but deep down, Butcher is making deeper connections that aren't just based on who can be useful to him. Moreover, the aftermath of the Sage Grove incident drove Starlight and Butcher together. The pair are never going to be BFFs, but Starlight earns Butcher's grudging respect, and they bond over Hughie's strawberry shampoo and buttock rash, showing a crack in the usual Billy Butcher defense mechanism of hating all supes without exception.
Butcher might be starting to evolve as a human being, but what about the far more despicable Homelander? Curiously, The Boys has also teased a slight redemption arc for him too, albeit in a far more subtle way. Homelander has committed crimes that should never be forgiven but The Boys season 2 has added a flicker of humanity with the introduction of Ryan. In his own strange, twisted way, Homelander does have a genuine affection for Ryan, and even begins to show emotion when Beeca pleads to remain part of her son's life. In this scene, it becomes clear that Stormfront has become the driving force behind Homelander, and is pushing him to make parenting decisions he might not choose otherwise.
Just as Starlight brings out the more human side of Butcher and forces him to question his intense hatred for supes in The Boys season 2, the half-human Ryan is performing the same function for Homelander, forcing him to consider that there may be life outside of his own seismic ego.