Four Supermen. One Winner. This is a Superhero Battle Royale.
The following story contains spoilers for Eternals, Invincible, The Boys, and the DC Extended Universe.
Sure, it’s a bit animalistic, but there’s something in our nature that always just leaves us wondering who could best who in combat. We’ve all heard the hypothetical: “Who would win in a fight between…” and the two names, from there, could be anyone. It could be between Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, or Jack Bauer and Dirty Harry, or, hell, Scooby-Doo and Simba (you might be surprised by who we pick for any of those).
With the release of Marvel’s Eternals, the 26th film in the ever-expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe, viewers get to meet a new overpowered, omnipotent character: someone named Ikaris. Ikaris, played by Richard Madden, is one of the titular Eternals, a thousands-of-years-old being who can shoot heat vision from his eyes and fly into outer space whenever he feels like it.
Sounds familiar, huh? Well, that’s because Ikaris is the latest in a group of vastly powerful superheroes; he joins Homelander (Antony Starr) in Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys, Omni-Man (JK Simmons) in Amazon Prime Video’s Invincible, and Superman (played most recently in movies by Henry Cavill in Zack Snyder’s Justice League) as our resident fly-around-and-can-kill-everyone-if-they-wanted-to superheroes. But what if we put them in a fight...with one another?
We keep mighty busy at Men’s Health, but we’re also just big nerds at heart. So that’s why three of our staffers—Fitness Director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. and writers Josh St. Clair and Milan Polk—joined me, as we all debated who would win in an epic battle royale between these outrageously juiced-up beings. Who ya got?
Ikaris Would Win
Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Ikaris only shows off his flight and ability to shoot cosmic energy beams from his eyes, the alien superhero is more powerful than people think.
In the Marvel Comics, Ikaris does more than just fly and shoot laser beams. According to Marvel’s summary of Ikaris, he has complete mental control over his body, meaning he can regrow limbs, and is immune to extreme temperatures, disease, and virtually any other mortal obstacle. He also essentially has the combined powers of his MCU Eternal peers, creating visual illusions of himself, shooting light and heat from his hands, and rearranging the molecules of other objects.
All that’s to say, you shouldn’t discount Ikaris just because he hasn’t had his own standalone movie or television show after all these years. Look, Omni-Man can’t shoot heat from one finger let alone his hands or eyes. And Superman will always have kryptonite to fear. As for Homelander, he’s basically an overpowered bully who has no morals or sense of boundaries. Even if he could put up a good fight, he stands for nothing. Eventually, he’d probably just give up, unless the prize was a photo op for The Seven.
Ikaris is the underdog, but only because his competition won’t know what to expect.
-Milan Polk
Homelander Would Win
The one rule to remember with Homelander, the Superman-esque hero (or, you know, villain) of Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys? He follows no rules. This guy is dead cold ruthless, willing to destroy anyone and anything in his path if it’s getting in the way of what he wants—whether that's some time on the nightly news or a little jar of breast milk. And you’re putting him up against a goody two-shoes (Clark Kent) and a moral, but misguided, puritan (Ikaris)? They've got no chance. My guy is a straight-up madman.
Only Homelander’s fellow Amazon Prime Video resident, Invincible’s Omni-Man would pose any semblance of a threat, because, he, too, does what he needs to do without fear of any sort of moral repercussions. Omni-Man killing a full train full of people in a viscerally gory fashion in the Invincible Season 1 finale was kind of a classic from the Homelander playbook; just a total disregard for any life other than his own. Homelander’s sociopathy—letting an entire airplane of people die without blinking, for example—is one of his strengths.
Now, we do need to keep in mind that Homelander has some major mommy (and daddy, for that matter) issues; a cunning and intelligent fighter could find a way to use that against him. But this isn’t a team-up, it’s an every man for himself battle royale. And you’re gonna compete with this lunatic? He can fly himself to the moon whenever he god damn feels like it, and then start cutting innocent people in half with his heat vision five minutes later. What’s Superman going to do when Homelander starts taking human hostages? He’s gonna back down, that’s what. The world is not a nice place—so the one who’s gonna win this fight, naturally, is going to be someone who’s really not a nice guy.
-Evan Romano
Superman Would Win
Here’s everything you need to know about Superman: It took a hyper-adaptive, conscience-less warrior with no soul who basically can’t die and returns stronger after every single defeat (Doomsday, look him up) to “kill” Superman. Except Doomsday never actually killed Superman, who later returned thanks to his regenerative energies.
The greatest superhero of all-time essentially can’t die, Kryptonite be damned. (And, no, Kryptonite can’t kill him; it just hurts him. Think glowing green bee sting.)
So no, none of the wannabes (who are all essentially Superman clones from rival brands, by the way) has a chance. Homelander, essentially a parody of Superman, wouldn’t have a prayer, partly because he’s never fought a meaningful battle. Sure, he’s powerful, but his entire role in the universe of The Boys is to serve as a being with no peer. He’s never faced the steep challenges Superman has and never had to battle an equal. Faced with Superman (or even the more battle-hardened Omni-Man and Ikaris), Homelander would go running back to Elisabeth Shue.
Omni-Man and Ikaris both pose more respectable challenges to the Man of Steel, and both guys actually have much in common with Supes. Omni-Man hails from an alien planet (Viltrum) and essentially easily slaughtered his universe’s version of the Justice League. Ikaris, meanwhile, has Supes-like abilities to fly, fire heat vision, and even teleport—and he’s powered by cosmic energy, which isn’t that far off of Superman, who draws his energy from the sun. Both Omni-Man and Ikaris also have an advantage over Superman too: they’ve never ever had a qualm about fighting and murdering.
But that’s part of the beauty of Superman, and part of why he’d destroy both Omni-Man and Ikaris: The Man of Steel has always fought with restraint. He frequently doesn’t kill his opponents, which means we haven’t even seen him fully unleash his powers. Comic after comic (and the most recent TV show, Superman and Lois) reinforce this. So while we’ve seen Omni-Man unleashed, and we know the upper limits of Ikaris’ capabilities, we’ve never seen Superman unrestrained and unleashed, at full force.
And that full-force Superman would kick anyone’s ass, whether it’s Omni-Man, Ikaris, Homelander, or Thor (just for good measure). And even if you did momentarily beat him, a la Doomsday, you’d die in the process—only for Supes to rise later.
-Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S.
Omni-Man Would Win
It seems like a self-evident fact: the only beings who can defeat Omni-Man are other Viltrumites, beings literally bred to win battle royale-style bouts. And Omni-Man has won again and again and again.
Sure, every figure here has a weakness. Omni-Man has the Source Virus bioweapon, Superman has Kryptonite, Ikaris has literally any star, Homelander has himself. But short of attaining these items, who has the hand-to-hand, laser-eye-beam-to-laster-eye-beam advantage? Well, two of these men have actually died before. (Superman and Ikaris both kicked it. So, their invincibility has obviously been disproven.) This basically leaves Omni-Man to face off against Homelander—and Homelander is about as mentally stable as a 20,000-year-old Ikaris flying into the sun.
In fact, most of these übermensch heroes have psychological stressors; they all struggle with fealty—Superman to the people of his adopted planet, Ikaris to the people of his adopted planet, Homelander to his adopted breast-feeding mom (and also his weird ass son).
As cold as it might sound, Omni-Man is probably the least psychologically vulnerable, because he gives less of a shit about his family. (Though, his inability to finish off his son might be evidence of a turn. To be continued.)
But really the answer to the question comes down to a personal litmus test. Ask yourself this: who are YOU most afraid of? Omni-Man is a fucking cartoon, and he’s the most terrifying of the lot. Is it even a competition?
-Josh St. Clair
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