WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Invincible, streaming now on Amazon Prime.
Amazon Prime Video rocked superhero television with The Boys, putting a new and bloody spin on a genre that's become a central fixture of the pop-culture landscape in the past decade. The streamer then repeated that success with the animated Invincible. Though the two shows have quite a few differences, there are also some striking similarities, not the least of which is their central sociopathic villains.
The Boys' Homelander and Invincible's Omni-Man are considered the preeminent heroes in their respective worlds, but are also secretly deadly men who would slay millions to ensure their own success. But if they had to fight each other, which one of these super-powered baddies would come out on top? Let's see how the characters stack up.
Homelander & Omni-Man's Origins
While their origins are literally worlds apart from one another, in their own ways, both Homelander and Omni-Man are riffs on the classic Superman backstory. Homelander's tale explores the false façade created by Vought International 0f the character as an American icon. Injected with Compound V in utero, Homelander's powers manifested from birth and immediately killed many of those around him. From there, Vought molded his image into that of a classic superhero leader while concealing Homelander's psychopathic tendencies.
Omni-Man, like Superman, has alien origins. Hailing from the planet Viltrum, Omni-Man came to Earth as part of a powerful race of conquerors but had a change of heart after falling in love with an Earth woman and fathering the titular superhero, Invincible. Though he posed as Earth's most capable hero, he was in truth only protecting the planet on behalf of the Viltrumite empire.
Homelander & Omni-Man's Powers
Both Homelander and Omni-Man also have powers that are reminiscent of Superman's, including invulnerability, strength and flight. For Homelander that comparison goes even further because he has super senses and heat vision as well. Omni-Man lacks those extra powers but makes up for it by being even more powerful in the abilities he shares with Homelander. While both men are super strong, Homelander's best feats from the comics involve throwing large vehicles, and in the TV show he doubts he would be able to lift a plane.
Omni-Man brings down mountains with his blows and flies so fast that he can reach the moon in mere minutes. All around, he seems stronger, more durable and faster than Homelander by most any metric of comparison. But that might not be enough for a head-to-head fight to go in his favor.
Homelander vs. Omni-Man
Homelander has a key advantage over Omni-Man in the form of his heat vision. Surprisingly, Omni-Man demonstrates little versatility when it comes to just how invulnerable he is. While he may be able to shrug off punches from Invincible or other Viltrumites and has been shown to heal at an astonishing rate even in the rare times he's seriously hurt, there are few instances of him shrugging off heat anywhere near Homelander's metal-atomizing level.
The main question is whether or not Homelander could actually hit the far faster Omni-Man with his heat vision. Ultimately, Omni-Man may have shown impressive displays of speed but his abilities to dodge and react are more limited. As a result, it seems likelier that Omni-Man would to try to tackle through Homelander's heat vision, in which case he'd just get sawed in half. A gruesome end is the only conclusion to a brawl between two heroes who fight so brutally, and it seems The Boys' Homelander takes the edge over Invincible's Omni-Man when it matters most.
Invincible stars Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Mae Whitman, Chris Diamantopoulos, Melise, Kevin Michael Richardson, Grey Griffin and Max Burkholder. The series is produced by Skybound, and executive produced by Robert Kirkman, Simon Racioppa, David Alpert and Catherine Winder. New episodes premiere Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.
Amazon Studios' The Boys stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie, Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk, Tomer Kapon as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Chace Crawford as the Deep, Antony Starr as Homelander and Aya Cash as Stormfront. Seasons 3 has yet to receive a premiere date.