What’s so good about a Superman gone bad?

polygon.com:

Consider the following story. An alien child comes to Earth in a rocket ship from a distant planet. Growing to manhood, he soon finds that he possesses powers far beyond those of mortal humans: strength, flight, speed, super senses, and vision that can melt a steel beam. Donning a colorful costume and cape, he becomes a heroic idol of millions, and a symbol of old-fashioned Americana as stalwart as a Chevy pickup or an apple pie.

That’s the story behind the comic book version of The Boys’ Homelander — or, at least, it’s the official version presented by his employers at Vought International. The truth, as set out by creators Garth Ennis and Darick Robinson, is far seedier: the real Homelander is crass, cruel, and prone to fits of petulant violence. He avoids responsibility and sacrifice even as he works with his corporate employers to craft a spotless PR image. In the end, losing what little control he had, he perishes in a final mad act of chaotic violence.

If all of that seems decidedly familiar to an audience versed in superhero fiction, that’s no accident. I would be far from the first to point out that The Boys’ chief heel was created as a warped mirror image of Superman, the first and still most recognizable character in cape comics. Even in the more copyright-wary TV adaptation, the parallels are obvious enough to prompt The New York Times to describe him as “Superman gone sour,” and to call on showrunnerEric Kripke to opine on the eternal who-would-win debate between the two characters.

If that comparison seems almost too obvious to be worthy of mention, that might be because we’ve seen it all before — or at least something a whole lot like it. Homelander belongs to a long and growing cottage industry of what we