Diksha Sundriyal
Set in the same universe as Prime Video’s ‘The Boys,’ ‘Gen V’ presents a different side of the superhero world, seen from the lens of young adults who are still figuring out their powers and place in the world. The main protagonist of the show is Marie Moreau, whose unique powers, the extent of which even she doesn’t quite understand yet, make her one of the most formidable Supes in the ‘The Boys’ universe. But how powerful is she really? Can she stand against someone like Homelander? In the final episode of ‘Gen V’ Season 1, Marie is attacked by Homelander, and as Andre later puts it, she takes it “like a champ. Anyone else would have been in the ground.” What does this say about Marie?
Why Didn’t Homelander’s Blast Kill Marie?
Homelander is, by far, the most powerful Supe in ‘The Boys’ universe. There have been Supes who have been powerful enough to go against him, like Soldier Boy, Queen Maeve, and even a Suped-up Billy Butcher. But even when they have fought him together, they haven’t been able to kill the Superman-esque figure. Homelander has either defeated them or survived long enough to flee when he felt he was about to lose.
One of the things that have made Homelander so invincible is his laser eyes. He has used it to blow up planes or cut people into half all the time. Just as his eyes start to get red, even the strongest of Supes knows that things are about to go south for them. Still, the laser from Homelander’s eyes is known to not be lethal to other Supes. For example, in the second season of ‘The Boys,’ Stormfront and Homelander engage in sexual activity, which includes Homelander lasering her chest, while she too “takes it like a champ.” In their case, it was merely foreplay and some twisted kink on their part. But it does show that the laser beam from Homelander doesn’t have to be lethal every single time.
Considering this, there are two ways we can explain what happened to Marie and how she survived the encounter with a much more powerful Homelander. The first, and rather logical, explanation is that Homelander went soft on Marie. When he lasered her, he wasn’t aiming to kill, only to hurt. This is comparable to his lasering Stormfront. When she asks him to laser her, he doesn’t attack her with full force. The intensity of the lasers is less, and he increases it when she asks him to.
This shows that humans can be killed by Homelander’s lasers, even if he is operating at the least intensity. But things are different for Supes. The more powerful a Supe, the more intensity Homelander needs to blast them with his laser eyes. It’s already established that Marie Moreau is quite powerful, so it makes sense that Homelander resorted to just enough to subdue her. This also falls in line with the fact that Andre, Emma, and Jordan are also left alive.
If Homelander wanted, he could have easily killed all four of them. If Vought was going to paint them as terrorists, it would have been favorable for them to just kill the four young Supes and be done. But the last scene of the show suggests that they are not done with Marie and her friends yet. Instead, Vought has imprisoned them and will most probably experiment on them. Vought was already aware of Marie’s unique powers, and they’d rather study her than waste her potential by killing her. This is why Homelander didn’t kill Marie.
The second explanation is that Marie is just that powerful. Homelander isn’t exactly known to be the calmest person in a crisis. He is volatile and impulsive and rarely has the foresight to plan ahead. Maybe he hit Marie with full force but didn’t anticipate her power and was surprised when she survived his attack. This would make her an interesting subject, which is why he and Vought threw her into a research facility, along with her friends.
Whatever the case might be, it’s clear that Marie is not your everyday Supe. We already knew that her powers of blood manipulation make her extremely dangerous, much like Victoria Neuman. But her surviving Homelander shows that she’s much tougher than previously imagined. Whether she survived of her own accord or due to Vought’s plans for her remains to be seen, it does place her on the list of the rare cases where a person went against Homelander and survived.
The mystery of Marie’s survival also raises a question about Victoria Neuman’s powers and strength. They have the same powers, though Victoria is expected to be more powerful because she has had more experience with it. Till now, she has never actually fought Homelander, so we can’t say how she’d fare in a fight. But considering that Marie made it out without a scratch does make one wonder if Victoria has been deliberately holding back, and if so, what happens when she doesn’t anymore. What happens when Marie and Victoria go up against Homelander at the same time? They just might be the ones who bring down the Supe once and for all.
