Are Homelander and Soldier Boy related?

The latest episode of The Boys, “Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed,” ends with a surprise twist: Soldier Boy, the original superhero whom Hughie and Butcher have enlisted to help kill Homelander, gives Homelander a call. It ends up that Soldier Boy was talking to Mindstorm earlier and found out something about Homelander: Homelander is Soldier Boy’s son.

Kind of. As Soldier Boy says over the phone, he was called into a lab in 1980 by Dr. Jonah Vogelbaum, the scientist who presided over the creation of Homelander and the closest thing Homelander had to a dad…until now, anyway. Although Soldier Boy puts it in predictably lewd terms, he provided Vogelbaum with a sample of his sperm…and shortly thereafter, Homelander was born.

It was part of Vought’s long-term plan to phase out Soldier Boy and bring in an upgrade in his place; the company then got to work arranging for the Russians to ship off Soldier Boy so he could be experimented on for decades, which is where the Boys find him in season 3. Of course, Homelander ended up being even more trouble than Soldier Boy, so that wasn’t the best plan.

Are Soldier Boy and Homelander father and son?

So Homelander was made with Soldier Boy’s genetic material, although that doesn’t make him a dad…more like a donor. Still, Homelander is in an incredibly vulnerable place and is probably willing to accept any kind of connection right now, which means Soldier Boy has a lot of sway over the most powerful man on the planet.

How will all this shake out? The season 3 finale of The Boys airs on July 8 on Amazon Prime Video.

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