I don’t think he’s quite THAT sadistic. I feel like they played the scene as if he really though’t it wasn’t possible, despite what Superman does in the comic books all the time.
I have no idea what nor where wing spars are. And going by his explanation, it’s possible Homelander didn’t either.
Comics info:
The comic made it much more obvious that The Seven lacked any real training for this kind of situation. They’re marketing tools more than they are an effective hero team. Even if they had the power to save the plane, and that’s debatable, The Seven had no clue how to use those powers in inobvious ways, or how to work together as a team to leverage their strengths.
Nope. I think he was that sadistic. The dude can fly. He could have at least slowed the descent over the ocean, or tried SOMETHING. He was full of shit, and just didn’t want to do anything aside from fuck with Maeve’s head on this.
He could have flown in place of one of the engines, anything.
Homelander is an asshole.
No sorry, this has been a nerd discussion since the first time it happened in the comics. His explanation was dead on.
Only Superman/Supergirl can fly in place of an engine, though I don’t recall engines being the issue in The Boys. I believe the issue was depressurization and a destroyed instrumentation panel. Perhaps Homelander could have steadied the plane while Maeve called to find out how to manually lower flaps and slow the plane down (assuming such was/is possible), but Homelander would have to know exactly where on the fuselage to apply pressure (I’d guess somewhere around the landing gear, but what the hell do I know). Smarter would have been to have everyone grab their seat cushion floatation devices and those vests they tell you about before every flight, and put them safely in the water. Shorter trip, two at a time, he might save most of them. Homelander and Maeve did discuss this, but he was thinking about the longer trip to dry land (and even that ignores that it’s insanely cold 6-7 miles up and that after depressurization, hypothermia would already have been setting in).
Now I agree wholeheartedly it would have been better to try than just to say “Fuck this shit! See you on the other side.” and then leave, but Homelander is a shitty human being. But this isn’t a Superman story and in this universe they choose to ignore fewer laws of physics.
No doubt. In the first episode he drops a plane carrying a Governor, his young son and the plane crew, murdering all of them.
But I guess that once he’s flying he’s a bit like a missile. He can ram things at high speed and make holes, very little else.
I think that scene where he talked about why he did it really set the tone for the show, too: he was mad that anyone had the audacity to bargain with him (well, his company/people/organization) as an equal and get the better of him. It lets us know early on that Homelander isn’t happy with how his life has been having to knuckle under to inferior beings.
But we see him holding Maeve in mid-air as they watch the doomed airplane fly off to the horizon.
I’m wiling to buy that he couldn’t stop the plan from crashing. The real horror comes from the fact that he could have saved some of those people, but he chose not to because of how that might have negatively impacted himself.
I like this. A real Superman wouldn’t be able to grab a plane by the wing or fuselage and set it gently down on the ground. The plane would obviously tear apart.
And on that tangent, this is a SUPER-HERO universe. I’m sure that there’s been just as many plane crashes in their universe as in our universe. Don’t you think the plane manufacturers would have made, I don’t know, something like a metal handle or big metal plate that flying superheroes could hold to save the plane? I’m sure OSHA or the FAA would have demanded that by now.
Also that he puts zero thought into his actions and just blasts away without care. There was no reason to eye laser the terrorist in the cockpit. He is just an utterly careless and heartless god.
It’s hard to tell, but I’m not sure that Homelander is that strong, and he does seem to be the strongest. We know that Maeve isn’t in WW’s category. She talked about her arms breaking when she stopped the bus (plus she can’t fly). But he definitely does use his powers carelessly.
As for the flying plane handle, that’s one of those things that depends on which rules of physics the universe always ignores, sometimes ignores, or never ignores. I don’t think it would work without adding really significant weight, but I’m no aircraft engineer (or engineer of any type).
Super powers are apparently only as old as Homelander, tho. And they don’t exist in the universe, as such, only in America (well, until E7, that is).
So not a lot of history or incentive, prolly, to design stuff with “being saved by a superhero” in mind.
Plus as far as we know only one even has the power level to attempt that.
True dat. Remember that Stilwell said “if he has a weakness, I don’t know what it is.” Seems like he’s the proto-supe and all others are somewhat lesser than he is. Which makes the idea of his son REALLY freaky and scary. I hope they make plot points of him confiding to his son that they are better than humans and don’t need to care about them; the inner conflict of the kid, who’s been raised by his normie mother, would be amazing to watch (and maybe the team who made Brightburn could get a few pointers for their still-possible sequels). The father-son fight scene in S5 would totally fucking rock!
Just finished last night- holy shit, need more. Eight episodes were not enough to scratch an itch I didn’t even know I had.
Sadly according to an AMA on reddit season 2 is also eight episodes.
I definitely wish we could all agree that a season is no less than 10 hours of material.
In the comics he wasn’t the first but was by far the most powerful super known, literally grown in a vat of compound V and costing tens or even hundreds of billions. Still, his power level doesn’t scratch that of Superman, but still far outstrips anyone else but (Spoiler) in universe.
The Frenchman says that supers are almost impossible to kill and each requires a custom approach, but that probably only applies to tier one guys, as popclaw and Mesmer went down pretty easily.
Q: When Vought is cooking up these Supes, do they know ahead of time what their super powers are gonna be?
Or do they just inject them with the drug and wait and see what happens?
I don’t know what the series answer is, but in the comics it seemed to depend on the quantity and quality of the V, and possibly the mode of exposure. An adult injected with the proper dose of pure V gets enhanced strength and toughness. Impure or offbrand stuff gives weird effects, and kids who inherit powers seem to get less powerful and more unpredictable results. Highly diluted V is sold as a street drug that gives short term powers, and is shown being used by hookers to survive sex with a super.