All over the place. Superheroes are used to satirize how celebrities and politicians use their power and influence to behave unethically and then escape consequences.
- Superheroes are used to satirize how celebrities and politicians use their power and influence to behave unethically and then escape consequences.
- Robin's death at A-Train's hands is a blatant parallel of a DUI hit-and-run.
- The popularity of superhero movies and media gets lampshaded mercilessly, with the Seven constantly being concerned about PR and merchandising.
- Starlight exposing The Deep's sexual assault on her is easily drawn from the #MeToo movement.
- Lots of satire targeting the American right wing:
- Stormfront's public M.O. is deliberately designed to evoke the new wave of young alt-right political commentators, who are often very web-savvy, know exactly how to play to their audience on social media, and manage to be overt about their political agendas without watering down their appeal to their target demo and remaining relevant and trendy. It's very easy to imagine Stormfront standing alongside the likes of Tomi Lahren and Faith Goldy. Even her name, Stormfront, evokes the name of the Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Stürmer and the Stormfront website, which have both used similar tactics to spread anti-Semitic propaganda.
- In "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker," Homelander and Stormfront's rally includes hearkening back to an unspecified golden age in the country's history and calling for increased security over imagined threats from immigrants and cultural outsiders. This sounds suspiciously similar to right-wing rhetoric in 2020, at the time of the episode's release. It's hardly a coincidence that Stormfront is a Nazi, while contemporary political commentators have accused such rhetoric of having fascist overtones.
- Supporters of Stormfront and Homelander are a collection of all the most unflattering stereotypes of American right-wingers and Trump supporters. They are racist, nationalist, and religiously zealous, bedecking themselves in American flags and carrying signs like "God, Guns and Homelander." When Homelander announces that he won't apologize for being better than everyone, his numbers with white midwesterners shoot up, satirizing the support that "strong man" politicians receive from that demographic.
- Homelander's public spin campaign regarding Soldier Boy's emergence and accidental destruction in New York is very reminiscent of the Trump Administration's initial response to the burgeoning Covid-19 pandemic, with Homelander telling people to continue visiting public places such as theaters and bars, that the situation will quickly resolve itself and not to let fear control their lives.
- Stormfront's actions as Liberty in the 70s is clearly supposed to allude to real life cases of Police Brutality, as well as her victims' families being unable to do anything about it. Her outfit at the time also sported a white hood.
- A-Train is a stand in for sports celebrities, particularly fading athletic champions who struggle to keep up due to their age. Showrunner Eric Kripke has even stated his story was inspired by Lance Armstrong.
- His use of Compound V to win at a publicity race is a reference to countless steroid abuse stories from professional sports.
- Blue Hawk's targeting black people during his patrols, and the subsequent fallout of Vought's efforts to control the situation for good PR, is another clear reference to Police Brutality along with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, made all the more blatant by Blue Hawk's SWAT-inspired uniform. He even yells out "Supe Live Matter," referring to opponents of BLM using the phrase "Blue Lives Matter."
- The firearms convention that Gunpowder speaks at incorporates many of the pro-gun movement's unsavory features. That includes marketing weapons to children and blatant threats of violence towards those who disagree.
