A Fourth Of July Message From ‘The Boys’ Sparked A Real Fireworks Show On Social Media

(Spoilers for Season 3 of The Boys will be found below.)

People have strong feelings after The Boys (er, Vought International) posted a Fourth Of July tribute to Homelander. And some of those feelings are difficult to parse, after far-right fans of the show actually did have a raging meltdown after finally realizing that Homelander’s a villain. That kind of confusion and back-and-forth to be expected when the show manages to be a rarely successful satire that skewers superhero culture. Homelander has always been a dirty dog and pure evil; he sent an entire plane full of people to their deaths. Now that he’s facing off with Soldier Boy (that time-capsuled MAGA prototype) about who’s the “upgrade,” laughter has ensued after the far-right’s dismay that a rapist and a murderer would dare to be publicly homicidal and do something bad like make a woman commit suicide because it’s his birthday.

Homelander ain’t the good guy, obviously. Most of the show’s viewers get this, and on Twitter, people are having quite the reaction to a tweet from a The Boys‘ sub-account, Vought International, which made a Fourth of July declaration. During a year when the Supreme Court has made it difficult for a lot of people to feel patriotic, this tweet feels like an intentionally pointed barb:

“It’s our patriotic duty to trust those who can get the job done. And there’s no one better at defending American values than Homelander. Don’t listen to anarchists and the lamestream media, this country is PROSPERING! Happy Independence Day, and thank you, Homelander!”

People who watch the show decided, “Heck, why not?” and joined in on the joke while pretending to be on Homelander’s side after his breakup with Starlight. As fans know, however, Annie January is the one who torched Homelander while quitting The Seven and exposing their leader’s real nature to citizens of The Boys universe.

Not everyone was onboard for the holiday spirit, and here’s an enormously valid point (note: not an actual response to Vought) from Joanna Robinson of The Ringer.

And there were people who pushed back at the Vought tweet, too.

For the moment, Vought seems to have the last (officially timelined) word. In a tweet, they accused Annie January of being “a glory hound who became hysterical after Homelander ended their relationship.” They also declared that she had headed “into insurrectionist territory and made a reconciliation impossible.” Man, the season finale can’t come soon enough this week.

The Boys is currently releasing weekly Season 3 episodes on Amazon.