Invincible's Omni-Man Vs. The Boys' Homelander: Which 'Hero' Is More Evil?
There are some pretty big commonalities between Amazon Prime's two subversive superhero stories, "The Boys" and "Invincible." Both feature a plucky underdog as the main character, both characters are slowly ushered into a morally ambiguous conflict that changes the world, and both, of course, feature an extremely evil take on America's favorite hero, Superman.
However, despite both Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) and Homelander (Antony Starr) being morally repugnant scumbags who treat genocide and human rights abuses like they're just everyday parts of the job, which of the two characters is more evil? Well, in order to answer that, we're going to have to go into a bit of spoiler territory for where their source material eventually goes.
Like another notable Robert Kirkland character, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) from "The Walking Dead," Omni-Man is eventually redeemed to a certain point despite his many unforgivable actions. Homelander, on the other hand, seems only to get worse and worse as "The Boys" ratchets toward its ending in the comics, and his TV counterpart looks to be following the same trajectory.
Homelander is morally bankrupt and totally irredeemable
As the comic series continues, Invincible (Steven Yeun) eventually discovers his dad on a far-off planet, working to save its inhabitants from the scourge of the Vultrumite empire. Incredibly, it seems to be Mark himself who has shifted Nolan's point of view, and the two begin to team up at this point to stop the genocidal expansion of the Viltrumites from crushing the universe under its weighty heel.
Meanwhile, the narcissistic murderer Homelander only sinks into further moral depravity as "The Boys" continues in its original form. His final arc sees him waging a war on humanity and committing various horrific atrocities along the way. Thus, Homelander, like most characters in the Frankenstein's-monster archetype, inevitably becomes the walking terror he was made to be despite once being capable of good.
On the other hand, though Omni-Man may never be able to wash the blood of his countless victims from his red-gloved hands, he does at least try to change and address his past mistakes in hopes of building a better future for everyone. With this obvious distinction in mind, Homelander is incapable of change and is clearly more evil than Omni-Man, despite both characters sharing the distinction of being villainous takes on Superman.