The fight that Superman fans have been itching to see for years is here, but sadly, it’s…kind of a letdown? For the last couple of months, the DC Universe has been involved in a high-stakes tournament, as seen in DC K.O.. But DC Comics wasn’t content to have the greatest heroes and villains fight one another. Back during last year’s New York Comic Con, the publisher rocked the fandom with the news that DC K.O. was getting a special ‘bonus round’ that would pit its characters against guest stars from other franchises like Mortal Kombat or The Conjuring.
One of the most anticipated characters announced for DC K.O.: Boss Battle #1 was The Boys’ primary antagonist, Homelander. I think we were all excited at this prospect, especially once it became clear that Superman and Homelander were going to duke it out. The gold standard of heroism battling an embodiment of fascism and supremacy? Now that’s something that would really resonate with readers, especially given the current state of the world. And yet, when the big moment finally came and Superman and Homelander throw hands, it’s nowhere near as satisfying or as meaningful as I was hoping for.
Superman and Homelander’s Fight is Sadly Weightless
In DC K.O.: Boss Battle #1 by Jeremy Adams, Ronan Cliquet, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Kieran McKeown, and Pablo M. Collar picks right up where DC K.O. #3 ended. Superman, Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman, and Joker are facing off against a corrupted Absolute Trinity. But the World Forger interrupts the battle, pausing time itself. He tells the fighters they lack the Omega Energy needed to defeat the Trinity, but by gathering it from other worlds, they stand a greater chance at victory. The World Forger opens up various rifts in reality and sends them all beyond the multiverse.
Everyone winds up in the most unexpected places, but in Superman’s case, he ends up in New York City (or at least a variant of one). He hears someone’s cry for help and races to save them, but Superman is too late as Homelander is already on the scene, holding someone’s severed arm. Homelander identifies Superman as a threat and immediately tries to take him out with heat vision (which apparently is equal to Clark’s). Superman dives underground to pull off a sneak attack on Homelander from beneath. And while it works, Homelander’s too resilient for Superman to defeat.
As the two battle, the rifts the World Forger made to send the fighters to different realities start to collapse in on one another. Superman and Homelander’s fight breaks into The Conjuring’s universe, before they, along with everyone else, converge into one reality. Thankfully, World Forger and Gorilla Grodd’s teamwork ends the respective battles and sends the new champions back to their respective worlds. Homelander is just as fiesty as ever, grinning and vowing to kill Superman, even as his body fades and returns to The Boys’ universe.
Superman vs. Homelander Could Have Been a Seriously Powerful Moment
I probably should have tempered my expectations since this comic was clearly more about showing off the character interactions instead of making any meaningful statements. But I can’t help but feel disappointed that this moment wasn’t something more. Admittedly, this issue gives greater time to Superman and Homelander than most. Hell, Vampirella and Batwoman all but disappear until just before the big reality merge at the end. But unlike the rest of the match-ups, which ranged from the interesting to silly, there was the potential for a really good message by having Superman face off against his most despicable counterpart.
Whether you read the comic or watched the show, you know that Homelander is a horrid person. He’s a racist, sexist monster who believes in supremacist ideology, yet this book never really touches on the ideological differences between the two. Oh, it definitely counts on readers being familiar with how much of a disgusting person Homelander is. But at best, it presents him as an evil Superman for the genuine article to defeat. However, the reality is that this fight needed to be just as much an ideological one as it was a physical one.
Hate is thriving right now; this is just a fact. Everywhere we look, we see horrible ideologies like the kind Homelander espouses spreading like cancers. So to have Homelander face Superman (a hero who once throttled Adolf Hitler by the neck), but never once make their battle ideological, feels like an incredible misstep. That’s bad enough, but honestly, this battle’s greatest sin might be the fact that it made Homelander and Superman equal in power. Instead of taking down Homelander a peg or two, it chooses to lift him up to Superman’s level at possibly the worst time in history.
I’m not disappointed that this comic tried to give us an interesting fight between Superman and Homelander. But I am disappointed that we did not get a complete rejection of Homelander and the horrific things he embodies. Instead of making it clear that everything about Homelander is pathetic, we got him presented as a worthy rival to Superman. In a perfect world, Clark’s battle in DC K.O.: Boss Battle #1 would have put less of a focus on spectacle and more of an emphasis on refuting everything about his fascist counterpart.
What did you think about Superman’s fight with Homelander? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!
