S01.E08: Where I Really Come From

[AnimeMania]

Mark must prove he’s become the hero he’s always wanted to be by stopping an unstoppable force.

Release Date: April 30, 2021

[AnimeMania]

I would think the Viltrumites would want to keep everyone on Earth alive since they can successfully breed with the Viltrumites to produce offspring with at least (80%?) of a Viltrumite's powers. The  Viltrumites need soldiers to keep expanding their empire and there is probably about a billion breeding age women on Earth. The Viltrumites have probably spread themselves a little too thin and the universe might start to take them out one Viltrumite at a time.

Mark kick Amber to the curb, she is a flake.

[Zonk]

Fun show. Is there going to be a second season?

Minor nitpick: That subway train was driving into a station, not going 200km/h. They probably wouldn't have made it through the first cart before the train stoped.

8 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I would think the Viltrumites would want to keep everyone on Earth alive since they can successfully breed with the Viltrumites to produce offspring with at least (80%?) of a Viltrumite's powers. The  Viltrumites need soldiers to keep expanding their empire and there is probably about a billion breeding age women on Earth.

I was kinda thinking the opposite. A society where they culled like half of the population to find out who was "the strongest"? Would they accept somebody who is only "nearly a 100% Vultrumite" (and Mark looks way more like his mom, so how strong can that Viltrumite DNA really be)? Telling Mark everything really wasn't that much incentive for him to join up. If I was in his shoes I would have been pretty confident the other Viltrumites would kill me on the spot and probably whipe out the species with which that crossbreeding is possible....

Also I would assume a society that advanced would have cloning vats...

[thuganomics85]

Well, the Omni-Man/Invincible fight... wait, scratch that, it was a flat-out beatdown, was as brutal as expected and certainly had no issues showing all of the civilian loss that came with it.  And even looking past the physical trauma, there was all of the psychological/emotional ones for Mark, has he basically got a front row seat at seeing what kind of monster his father truly is (not to mention Debbie hearing it and; among other things; realizing her husband thinks of her less as a partner and more as a pet.)  Steven Yeun did a great job at showing Mark's turmoil all of that.  And, of course, J.K. Simmons dropped the hammer down as always and was truly scary throughout it all.  At least Nolan couldn't go through with killing his son and has left Earth, but he (and the Viltrumites) are clearly going to be a major threat going forward.

I generally like Amber still, but I feel like she really needs to actually apologize to Mark first before I can buy them as a couple again.  If nothing else, this episode highlighted why Mark isn't wrong to be cautious about hiding his identity, and I'd like her to be a bit more understanding about that.  But I guess I can see why Mark wouldn't need one to have another go at it.  I'm glad that everything is out in the open now with Mark, Amber, Eve, and William now, so hopefully they could be a good support system going forward.

Guardians of the Globe 2.0. are starting to act more like a team now!

Mauler Twins have been recaptured... for now!

A lot of hints towards to the future seasons.  Titan is still around, those alien parasites from Mars seem to be making themselves at home, whatever is going on underground, and it looks like Cecil is creating a robotic human army after-all.  Mark will have his work cut out for him!

Glad it's been renewed for two more seasons already!  Really have been enjoying it and curious to see where it all goes.  And, of course, I'm all for more of that amazing voice cast!

Edited May 1, 2021 by thuganomics85

[tennisgurl]

Holy shit, that was brutal as absolute fuck. Poor Mark, hopefully when the dust settles his mom will get him into all of the therapy, there has to be someone who specializes in superheroes. Not only did his dad basically use him as a weapon (literally throwing him into buildings) to slaughter countless people just to make a point, giving him a front row view in the guts and bones of innocent people, he found out that his dad isn't the hero he wanted to be but is actually a supervillain and part of a whole species of intergalactic conquerors who sees his mom as a pet and has been raising him to join him in subjugating the Earth and nearly kills him. That is a WHOLE lot for anyone, let alone a teenager to deal with. I would think that if Omni-Man wanted to get Mark on his side he would try to sell his people as being much more benevolent and killing the Guardians and enslaving the Earth was all for the greater good and that they could do so much good, and try to hold off on the mass slaughter, but I think some of that was Omni-Man trying to overcompensate. He really does love his family and he was happy on Earth, and his whole "humans are useless!" thing was him trying to convince himself as much as convince Mark. Then he couldn't go through with killing Mark and left Earth, which is something that Viltrumites apparently never do, which is something at least. I totally called it on Omni-Man and his people being conquerors and not super enlightened peace keepers, so good for my ability to figure out mysteries, and bad for Mark. 

I am glad that Amber came to check in with Mark, but I would like her to apologize for lying to him and jerking him around before they get back together. If anything, this episode shows tons of reasons why keeping a secret identity a secret is important, even if it sucks. At least he has a bit more of a support system now, and he is going to need it with all of the threats coming up. I loved the ending montage with all of the lingering plot threads that are going to need dealing with, the starfish aliens on Mars, the feminist volcano supervillain with a lava army, Cecile building a robot army, lots of stuff coming up for future season, plus of course Omni-Man's people coming to Earth for their invasion and an alliance with the aliens trying to stop them, plus Mark still has to finish high school! 

Really happy that the show has already been renewed for two more seasons, this was a really good season and there is clearly a whole lot more on the horizon! The voice cast is amazing, its an interesting take on superheroes clearly made by people who really love the genre and are willing to deconstruct and parody those tropes while also embracing them, the animation is excellent, and the story and writing is really strong. I am really excited to see where the story goes. 

[cambridgeguy]

14 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

If anything, this episode shows tons of reasons why keeping a secret identity a secret is important, even if it sucks.

It's not that hard though, since the series takes the whole Clark Kent thing to hilarious levels.  Amber figured out Nolan was Omni-Man thanks to the story about the house blowing up, not because they look exactly the same.  Plus Amber/William had no idea Eve was Atom Eve (what an amazing coincidence about the name!) and William assumed she was Dupli-Kate even though they're different ethnicities.

The only downside about the finale is JK Simmons probably won't be around much for S2. 

[Morrigan2575]

I get that the showdown had to be father vs son but, I swear Atom Eve's powers should have really been a match for Omni Man. She can change things on an Atomic Level, I would think she could fuck up his DNA enough to weaken him or something (yes, probably not real science but, certainly comic book science 😀)

I'm not enthused with Mark/Amber getting back together. Their relationship never seemed solid to begin with, hell I'm pretty sure Mark was more into Eve at the start. 

I kinda of figured the reason Omniman killed the Guardians was because his planet were a bunch of tyrants. 

Good series, look forward to next season

[Rambler]

Invincible my ass. He should have called himself the Incredible Human Punching Bag.

[Racj82]

On 4/30/2021 at 12:29 AM, AnimeMania said:

I would think the Viltrumites would want to keep everyone on Earth alive since they can successfully breed with the Viltrumites to produce offspring with at least (80%?) of a Viltrumite's powers. The  Viltrumites need soldiers to keep expanding their empire and there is probably about a billion breeding age women on Earth. The Viltrumites have probably spread themselves a little too thin and the universe might start to take them out one Viltrumite at a time.

Mark kick Amber to the curb, she is a flake.

I was watching a episode reaction. When Amber came on screen at Mark's door, someone said, fuck her. I nodded in agreement. 

[Snapdragon]

On 5/1/2021 at 1:29 PM, Morrigan2575 said:

I get that the showdown had to be father vs son but, I swear Atom Eve's powers should have really been a match for Omni Man. She can change things on an Atomic Level, I would think she could fuck up his DNA enough to weaken him or something (yes, probably not real science but, certainly comic book science 😀)

 

Atom Eve's powers don't work on organic material (at least, that's how they worked in the comics, so I'm assuming it's the same in the show) so she wouldn't have been able to hang with Omni-Man.  

[Unclejosh]

Hasnt Atom Eve been shown to be able to make plants grow as well as make a treehouse out of living trees? Those are considered organic material unless she can only not affect sentient organic material?  Makes no sense but whatever.

[ursula]

Amber was set up to fail, which is frustrating because Mark/Eve endgame is too blatantly telegraphed. The only thing more frustrating than an unnecessary love triangle is an unnecessary love triangle without nuance.

[Morrigan2575]

5 hours ago, Unclejosh said:

Hasnt Atom Eve been shown to be able to make plants grow as well as make a treehouse out of living trees? Those are considered organic material unless she can only not affect sentient organic material?  Makes no sense but whatever.

That was how I viewed it. She was able to alter wood, grape vines, etc.

[Zonk]

On 5/4/2021 at 4:50 AM, Snapdragon said:

Atom Eve's powers don't work on organic material (at least, that's how they worked in the comics, so I'm assuming it's the same in the show) so she wouldn't have been able to hang with Omni-Man.  

Her tree-house is 99% oganic material.

That would be a really weird stipulation anyway.

[Snapdragon]

3 hours ago, Zonk said:

Her tree-house is 99% oganic material.

That would be a really weird stipulation anyway.

Yeah, realizing now that I shouldn't have said organic material.    I meant her powers don't work on people/animals.  So plants can be manipulated but she can't do anything to a person.  

Edited May 6, 2021 by Snapdragon

[Chicago Redshirt]

A propos of nothing: throughout this season, how many would you say Mark killed? 

Not including things like Nolan putting his face through a train and thereby killing a bunch of folks or by his inaction.

I'm talking about people he deliberately tried to kill and succeeded. 

I would imagine some number of the Flaxans (or however you spell the aliens from another dimension), some of the cyborg-zombie guys, and that may be about it?

[moonshine71]

On 5/6/2021 at 10:52 AM, Snapdragon said:

Yeah, realizing now that I shouldn't have said organic material.    I meant her powers don't work on people/animals.  So plants can be manipulated but she can't do anything to a person.  

Heard Kirkman on a podcast stipulate that for the series, she can't manipulate LIVING organic material(you appear to be a comic reader,so you know why). Thus, she could turn a handful of leaves into coffee.

Rewatching the creation of the treehouse , she doesn't actually use or alter the tree to build it, she builds around it, basically turning air/oxygen molecules into pieces  of (dead)wood or whatever other materials she uses in its construction. But the living tree remains under it unchanged. 

[moonshine71]

On 5/1/2021 at 2:29 PM, Morrigan2575 said:

I get that the showdown had to be father vs son but, I swear Atom Eve's powers should have really been a match for Omni Man. She can change things on an Atomic Level, I would think she could fuck up his DNA enough to weaken him or something (yes, probably not real science but, certainly comic book science 😀)

I'm not enthused with Mark/Amber getting back together. Their relationship never seemed solid to begin with, hell I'm pretty sure Mark was more into Eve at the start. 

I kinda of figured the reason Omniman killed the Guardians was because his planet were a bunch of tyrants. 

Good series, look forward to next season

One thing to keep in mind w/ Eve, in addition to the limits of her power(as stated in my post above),  she is still VERY human and vulnerable. She can make shields and whatever to protect herself(and those have been shown to be breachable), but if she were to ever receive an unprotected blow from a Viltrumite, she would almost certainly be killed instantly. Facing one head on would be unwise for her.

[AnimeMania]

7 hours ago, moonshine71 said:

On 5/6/2021 at 10:52 AM, Snapdragon said:

Yeah, realizing now that I shouldn't have said organic material.    I meant her powers don't work on people/animals.  So plants can be manipulated but she can't do anything to a person.  

Heard Kirkman on a podcast stipulate that for the series, she can't manipulate LIVING organic material(you appear to be a comic reader,so you know why). Thus, she could turn a handful of leaves into coffee.

Rewatching the creation of the treehouse , she doesn't actually use or alter the tree to build it, she builds around it, basically turning air/oxygen molecules into pieces  of (dead)wood or whatever other materials she uses in its construction. But the living tree remains under it unchanged. 

So Atom Eve can turn the empty space (air) in Omni Man's esophagus to steel, that might distract him long enough for Invincible to give him a beat down.