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The Boys was originally supposed to be in the DC Universe, and Homelander would've literally been Superman

Inside a political satire for the ages — the grossest, craziest, and smartest show on TV

In the show’s fourth season, (which kicks off today), Homelander, an ever-more obvious Trump analogue, begins to plot outright fascist rule of the United States, with the assistance of a Bible-thumping, conspiracy-mongering new character, Firecracker (Valorie Curry), explicitly modeled on the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Starr’s reminders along those lines have helped push the show to stay focused on Homelander’s decidedly non-Trumpian characteristics, like the fact that he was raised, entirely unloved and parentless, in a laboratory — which we learn more about in a gruesome, revenge-laden return to that setting in Season Four. Starr is slippery on the subject of how much Homelander might reflect any dark side of his own, but suggests it’s overly facile to find any evidence in his widely reported 2022 bar fight in Spain, in which he punched a 21-year-old man twice and hit him with a glass, resulting in assault charges and a suspended sentence.

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