The Boys: Natural Born Supes Are the Strongest
Season 2 of The Boys changed everything. The revelations about Homelander and his son Ryan showed us that there is a huge difference between natural-born soups and those injected with Compound V. If you want to know how Ryan would fare against his superheroic father.
let’s analyze the differences between the two types of soups.
this season revealed to the world that most of the soups in it weren’t naturally born with powers but were given them through a special drug called Compound V. While this revelation shocked everyone, they’re in for another shock when they discover that there are also soups out there who got their powers genetically; that is, those who are children of super-powered parents. 90% of the soups we see in the series are ones that got Compound V. Most of them had their parents inject them regularly with the compound, while others were created specifically in a lab. This process changed each and everyone on a genetic level.
The Struggles of Compound V Soups
While we’ve mostly seen these soups become heroes, or the boys’ equivalent of heroes, some seem to have pretty horrible lives. Just ask A-Train if there are any negative effects of Compound V. He has barely made it through the last two seasons. Natural-born soups don’t seem to have that sort of problem, though.
Ryan's Emerging Powers
We meet Ryan at the end of season one and get to see his powers in season 2. While it takes him a little while to truly manifest them, it’s clear from the start that this kid is a true powerhouse. It seems like the fact that his genetic makeup was already super has negated any potential downsides his powers may have come with. In fact, there’s a fair bit of evidence to support the idea that natural soups like Ryan have far more potential than their Compound V counterparts.
The Ultimate Compound V Soup
So let’s look at our two most powerful subjects of both groups. On the one hand, we have Homelander, commonly believed to be the most powerful soup there is. Though we’ve already covered how we’re pretty sure Black Noir is low-key the greatest of the Seven.
So far we’ve seen Homelander display a ton of truly god-like powers. He has heat vision, super strength, the ability to fly, X-ray vision, super hearing, and possibly more. The show, despite having high production values, can’t really afford to show us the true extent of Homelander’s powers, though hopefully, we will one day see him completely obliterate a city in a big superhero fight like in Man of Steel. Honestly, he may just obliterate a city out of anger, and Vaught might have to use CGI to make it look like he was fighting someone. You know they’re already working on it.
Ryan: The Potential Superman
Ryan, on the other hand, has already displayed some incredible abilities despite the fact that he’s only a child. It seems as though he has all the same powers as Homelander, though he very well may be supercharged with powers. Hopefully, this super kid ends more like the actual Superman and less like Brightburn or his father. The worlds already got enough evil Superman kid, so how can we truly judge these two against each other?
Comparing Powers: Homelander vs Ryan
Well, there’s actually one scenario where both soups have used their powers in the exact same way with very different results. Both Homelander and Ryan had up and down relationships with Stormfront. For Homelander, she went from a rival to a weird mentor/romantic interest figure. For Ryan, she was sort of like a really, really evil stepmom. In one infamous scene between Homelander and Stormfront, the latter begged Homelander to shoot lasers at her as a sort of foreplay. While Homelander initially holds back, he eventually gives in to her demands for his full power. The laser vision manages to burn her skin, but she is able to heal the damage. Ryan, on the other hand, sees Stormfront try to strangle his mom and gives her 100% of his laser vision as well. Instead of a mild skin irritation, Ryan straight up turns Stormfront into Anakin Skywalker from the last 10 minutes of Revenge of the Sith; these wounds appear to be so severe that her healing ability can’t quite cover it.
Natural Soups Are Superior
This scene alone seems to prove conclusively that Homelander may be the most powerful Compound V soup in the world, but Ryan’s natural abilities make him look like any other normal guy. I think this means that the natural heroes are far more powerful.
New Weapon Against Homelander
So what exactly will Butcher and the boys do with this information once they discover it? Right now, Butcher seems to be in charge of Ryan’s care. From the look on his face when the kid accidentally took out his wife while trying to save her, it’s unclear how much he’s willing to take this job seriously. I love Billy and all, but you got to admit that he’s not exactly dad material. Luckily, the kids got Huey, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie to pick up the slack. Eventually, though, Butcher will realize that Ryan isn’t a liability at all. In fact, Ryan may very well present one of the only ways to take Homelander out for good at this point in time. While the boys have taken out soups like Translucent, they really haven’t taken on one of the big boys. Well, unless you count that whale that they drove the speedboat through. The truth is that they really don’t have much of a way to fight enemies that are Homelander level.
Preparing Ryan for Battle
That’s why it was lucky that Maeve, Starlight, and the Female were there to deliver a serious beatdown on Stormfront right before she lit up our heroes for good. Am I the only one who’s watched that scene like, 300 times? It’s so good once the light bulb goes off. However, Butcher will likely dedicate himself to building Ryan up to be the ultimate weapon against his father. This will probably include brutal lessons in how to fight Butcher-style so that he will be able to go all out against his notoriously ruthless dad. Huey and the rest may not agree with this method, but it’s likely they won’t have a choice seeing as he’s pretty much their only hope. I imagine we’ll definitely see a fight scene where an older Ryan beats the bottle blonde out of his super psycho of a dad. Hopefully, he does it far, far away from black and white. Homelander may be tough, but that’s the guy who terrifies me. What do you think will happen to Ryan in season three?
