Butcher's Last Words to Homelander Reveal He's The Boys' True Villain

The bloody rivalry between The Boys' Billy Butcher and Homelander ended with the former delivering a sad, yet chilling message. The last words Butcher imparts to his nemesis highlights what sets him apart from the Supe he hates more than anything.

The bleak world of The Boys is driven by two of its main characters, Butcher and Homelander. Homelander is the leader of the Seven, a Justice League pastiche and Vought International's premier superhero, or "Supe," team. Billy Butcher leads a crew of CIA operatives meant to keep the superhero community in line by any means necessary. Butcher has a hatred for Supes, particularly Homelander, whom he blames for an assault that eventually killed his wife. Over the course of The Boys, the venerated Homelander begins cracking once he recognizes the potential darkness in him.

Everything comes to a head during the penultimate arc of the series "Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men." While the two confront each other in The Boys #65 by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun, it's revealed that Homelander's teammate, Black Noir, is a clone who has been impersonating him to commit atrocious acts and convince Homelander he was blacking out and doing awful things. Homelander recoils at the news, claiming he never would have consciously done anything wrong if he didn't already believe he was losing control of himself. Butcher coldly sums up Homelander's situation, telling him "It means you turned into a f***** psychopath by mistake."

Billy Butcher Homelander The Boys Dynamite

BIlly Butcher Final Decision The Boys Dynamite

Butcher doesn't feel much better from the revelation that Homelander didn't assault his wife, nor does getting revenge on Black Noir for doing so. But he recognizes that the man he hated for so long was essentially gaslighted instead of being the devil he had long thought him to be. The entire experience brings Butcher to a breaking point and sets him down a path to commit one of the most heinous acts in the entire series by committing a genocide on every Supe on Earth. Butcher's conscious decision shows how different he is from the Supe who'd long been thought to be the series' main antagonist.

While Butcher and Homelander have both done terrible things, several of Butcher's final moments show that he's arguably the worst of the two. Homelander was influenced by an outside force that wanted him to be a villain. Butcher, on the other hand, chose a life filled with vengeance and bloodshed. Part of his work with the Boys may have come from wanting revenge on the Homelander, but there's no doubt Butcher liked being able to kill Supes without impunity. Under the guise of keeping the Supes in check, Butcher freely indulged in his psychopathic tendencies. He even chooses his ultimate plan of genocide on Supes, knowing that he'll have to take out his friends so they won't stop him. One of The Boys' biggest tragedies is that Homelander was manipulated into becoming a monster, but Billy Butcher intentionally became one.