S01.E07: We Need To Talk

[AnimeMania]

Feeling lost and confused, Mark looks for advice from Eve. At the same time, everyone’s looking for him.

Release Date: April 22, 2021

[thuganomics85]

So, Amber actually figured out that Mark was Invincible weeks ago, but was upset because he kept trying to hide it, even though it would have been better to tell her at several points.  Really not sure if there will be anyway Mark can save their relationship, but I guess anything can happen on a show like this!

Turns out that Robot was actually some disfigured being in a tank, and was controlling the actual robots remotely.  But now thanks to the Mauler Twins' tech, he's now transferred himself into a body of a teenage boy, because of his feelings for Monster Girl.  Oh, and the teenage boy is actually a teenage Rex, because that was what he was using his DNA for.  Yeah, that's not awkward or creepy at all!

Didn't predict that the Mauler Twin's plan was to resurrect The Immortal, but even he wasn't a match for Omni-Man, although he at least gave him a run for his money.

I'm guessing Nolan is doing to try and paint Cecil and the organization as the true bad guys to Mark.  Of course, I wonder if we'll finally get an answer to why he killed the Guardians of the Globe next week. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

The Immortal being Abraham Lincoln was kinda cool. But how did JWB take him out?

Also, I kinda like that Amber knew that Mark was Invincible, but it makes her pretty unreasonable to not have just confronted him about being Invincible. To be like, "Wah, you were blowing me off because you were literally saving the world and I'm angry because you wouldn't talk to me about it" strikes me as some serious passive-aggressive BS. 

Edited April 24, 2021 by Chicago Redshirt

[ProudMary]

It was pretty impressive that Mark handled the tentacled monster mostly by himself. He's ready.

[moonshine71]

Up until now, I have loved Amber and found her a big improvement over the comics.

You just lost me here. 

Seriously, you're 17 years old, most teen relationships don't go the distance. How long have they even been dating? How soon do you think that you are entitled to the MASSIVE and life altering secret that Mark is a superhero and an alien? That's a lifelong commitment to some extent, even if you break up he needs to be able to trust that you can handle it. It's also putting a huge burden on whoever he shares it w/.

While I find the trope of heroes hiding their identities for extended periods of time, in the name of protecting whoever the are withholding it from, tiresome; I also feel that person is being unreasonable when they act as if they are inherently entitled to immediately know that secret, especially if it goes to the point that they still angry when the hero does come to the point of telling them.

[cambridgeguy]

Teenagers are hardly the most rational people in the world but it's not clear why Amber was willing to stay in the relationship when there were only two outcomes not involving death:

Mark tells her - screw you for lying to me this whole time and potentially putting me in the cross hairs of a supervillain. 

Mark doesn't tell her - she gets more and more pissed about how he won't be honest with her.

I do get a kick out of William recognizing Mark as Invincible but NOT being able to put together that Nolan is Omni-man.  No disguise, a very distinctive mustache, and you still can't figure it out without Mark telling you?

[grawlix]

2 hours ago, moonshine71 said:

Up until now, I have loved Amber and found her a big improvement over the comics.

You just lost me here. 

Seriously, you're 17 years old, most teen relationships don't go the distance. How long have they even been dating? How soon do you think that you are entitled to the MASSIVE and life altering secret that Mark is a superhero and an alien? That's a lifelong commitment to some extent, even if you break up he needs to be able to trust that you can handle it. It's also putting a huge burden on whoever he shares it w/.

Not only was she entitled, she was manipulative asshole.  She accused Mark of abandoning everyone during the first attack of Sinclair's creations at the college even though she knew Mark was Invincible weeks beforehand.

Edited April 24, 2021 by grawlix

[Ottis]

So a cartoon can annoy as much as a live action show when it doesn’t explain the damn key reason for everything. Ugh. 

[TiffanyNichelle]

I liked Amber because she pushed Mark to be better but I didn't like how she knew the whole time and didn't say anything. And if she knew why he was being such a bad boyfriend, then she should have called him out on all his lies and excuses when he was doing them. If she wanted to be angry with him that he clearly only told her his secret not because he actually trusted her with it but because it was a last ditch effort to get her back, I'd be more on her side.

Also, I wouldn't tell my high school girlfriend my huge secret identity either. They barely know each other. It takes a HUGE amount of trust, More than a few months casually dating as teens can provide, no matter how mature one of them is.  Once you know something like that, boom, you're a target and you're kind of stuck in this relationship. Look at his mom and the world she has been pulled into because of his dad.

[tennisgurl]

I am definitely team "Amber messed up more than Mark" even if the show is telling us that Amber is totally justified to dump Mark and be pissed at him. If you have a secret identity, you cant just tell every single person you date about it, especially if your in high school, or else there isnt really any purpose in having a secret identity in the first place. Plus, her being really pissed at him about him apparently abandoning her at the attack at the college when she knew he was Invincible makes her seem really passive aggressive.

I did not at all expect the Mauler Twins to resurrect The Immortal, and even if he is apparently dead again, he really went down swinging and exposed Omni-Man to the world as the murderer. Cecil really threw everything he could at him, and it still wasnt enough to stop him. Is Mark going to have to fight his dad now? Poor Mark, he thought that being dumped sucked, but now he also finds out that his dad is a supervillain. 

Robot, your plan is nuts, but I appreciate the comic book weirdness. 

[mac123x]

On 4/23/2021 at 1:50 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Turns out that Robot was actually some disfigured being in a tank, and was controlling the actual robots remotely.  But now thanks to the Mauler Twins' tech, he's now transferred himself into a body of a teenage boy, because of his feelings for Monster Girl.  Oh, and the teenage boy is actually a teenage Rex, because that was what he was using his DNA for.  Yeah, that's not awkward or creepy at all!

That whole thing was such an anticlimax.  I thought the set-up for his mysterious activities was done really well, but the resolution was very "that's it?"

[DigitalCount]

I'm not about the Amber slander.

It feels as if everyone treats the question as "Should Mark tell Amber the truth, or should he keep his secret?" The choice is really "Should Mark tell Amber the truth, or should he break up with her?"

It's true that Amber isn't necessarily entitled to Mark's secret (though it would at least allow her to make an informed decision) but continually putting yourself in a situation where you honestly believe you have no choice but to lie is simply fatal to a relationship. In this circumstance, Mark isn't even just lying about his identity or whereabouts, he is also lying about his ability to be a good boyfriend (meeting her family for dinner, going to the community center, being continually late and missing dates, etc) every time he reassures her that it'll be different next time. It may be that his secret identity is a good reason to lie, but that is why he needed to stop being in the relationship; he doesn't have time to date. He can keep his identity secret or he can be Amber's boyfriend, but he can't do both. And his continued insistence that he'll change, he'll be with her, he'll hold up his end of the bargain doesn't really get rehabilitated by the (arguably good) reasons why none of those things are true; it's still all lies.

Years ago on Smallville, the biggest issue I had with certain people in Clark's life (Lex, early seasons Chloe and Lana) was that he never really had made any sort of binding commitment to them, so there was no reason for them to expect to know details of his life. He walked away from Lana in S5 when he realized he couldn't be with her if he was going to lie to her all the time, because he recognized that his good reasons didn't change the basic fact of her being alone, left behind, left in the dark. Mark seems to have yet to realize this

Spoiler

and it seems unlikely to be addressed now that it's been spackled over by plot

but he's still young, and a lot of young people lack emotional maturity.

On a slightly related note, I read somewhere that the original Amber in the comics was not a WoC, and this plot point makes me sad because it's really easy to demonize Amber (which of course the internet has readily and resoundingly done). But then it always seems a bit easier for people to break with black female characters when they do something less moral or positive (years ago I also watched The Vampire Diaries, Doctor Who, and True Blood, and I read about Sleepy Hollow; whew lad). Hopefully here's a different perspective on Amber's actions that might be able to save her from the Scrappy Heap in people's eyes.

ETA: I don't think that Amber not knowing protects her either, because all that means is that she's still at risk of becoming a target and wouldn't understand why. In the event that she was to become a target, she also wouldn't know what the easiest course of action would be to get out of the crosshairs--that is to say, breaking up with her superhero boyfriend. It also opens Mark up to some potential difficulties (spoilers for the book that invented the masked vigilante hero genre)

Spoiler

as in The Scarlet Pimpernel, where Marguerite Blakeney trades her brother's life for that of the titular Scarlet Pimpernel because her family means more to her than some stranger, not realizing that she's throwing her husband to the wolves.

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by DigitalCount