After he and his friends graduate high school, Mark tries to balance his work and social life.
Tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: Not only do they sound utterly bored when "cheering" for Supreme Lizard, but no one in the Lizard League seems to really care when King Lizard shows back up and puts a bullet right between his eyes.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: In one universe, humanity got the best of Omni-Man and Invincible by ambushing the former with quantum bombs (at the cost of most of Europe) and wearing the latter down until they could trap him in the Pentagon.
- Arranged Marriage: As punishment for Omni-Man murdering Aquarius, Mark apparently has to marry the king's widow. Subverted, as it turns out that they abolished that custom, much to Mark’s relief. Instead, he has to battle the Depth-Dweller in a Trial by Combat.
- Asshole Victim:
- The Depth-Dweller goes on a rampage killing many Atlanteans in the process. As Cecil points out, they were the ones that chained the Depth-Dweller in the first place and were cheering when it was beating up Mark. Mark still tries to rescue them to show he's a hero.
- The alternate universe Mark who got imprisoned in the Pentagon after him and that universe's Omni-Man unsuccessfully tried to take over Earth, causing probably millions of deaths and untold destruction. That Mark shows absolutely no remorse for the lives lost because of him and his father and even seems amused that humanity lost huge parts of Europe stopping Omni-Man. He gets used for information by Angstorm, then left to rot after Angstrom tells that universe's Cecil and Donald to make their Invincible suffer for what he's done. Mark can do nothing but indignantly demand for Angstrom to come back and free him like he promised.
- Boom, Headshot!: Supreme Lizard is unceremoniously shot through the head by King Lizard to retake command of the Lizard League.
- Burger Fool: Adam has taken a minimum-wage job at a Burger Mart after losing his job at the furniture store, a result of the corporate office in Chicago being leveled last season.
- Call-Back: Rex is quick to catch on to Dupli-Kate and the Immortal going at it when the copy he's talking to feels what her clones are currently feeling. After all, he was on the other side of that equation back in "Who You Calling Ugly?".
- Caught Monologuing: After successfully trapping Mark in the Shadowverse, Night Boy starts taunting him by poking in and out quickly. When Mark makes a crack about liking the old Darkwing better, Night Boy fully enters the Shadowverse to rant at him. Mark immediately capitalizes on his mistake to grab Night Boy before he can leave again, then forces him to open a portal out before the monsters in there with them get hungry.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Mark initially ditches the Trial by Combat when Cecil provides a distraction, but when the Depth-Dweller is set free by an errant torpedo and starts killing civilians, he goes back to defeat it because he has to be better than his father.
- Destructive Saviour: Not only does Mark fail to stop Doc Seismic from making quite a mess of the Washington Monument and the surrounding area, he does it no favors by flying through the structure for a surprise attack. Cecil lightly criticizes Mark for his performance.
- Distaff Counterpart: Levy drops by a universe where Cecil and Donald are women.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: During the celebratory hat toss at graduation, Mark accidentally throws his into low orbit.
- Eco-Terrorist: Doc Seismic returns to sink the Washington Monument because it's made out of granite and other materials taken from the Earth. Zig-zagged, as he doesn't seem to care about the surface environment all that much, telling Invincible that humanity can keep all the buildings made of wood.
- Everyone Has Standards: Cecil is ok with forcing Mark into an Arranged Marriage because he assumes it's mostly ceremonial and at worst Mark might have to kiss the bride. Learning that the tradition has been abolished in favor of Trial by Combat has him angrily state that the deal's off, despite previously acknowledging that the Atlanteans were willing to wipe out the eastern seaboard over the issue, and he sends a torpedo barrage to help Mark escape.
- Fed to the Beast: Night Boy attempts to trap Invincible in the Shadowverse, reasoning that if the locals don't eat him, he'll never be able to escape on his own. He makes the mistake of getting too close for a rant, however, and Invincible grabs his wrist so he can't escape. Faced with the prospect of being eaten himself, he reluctantly opens a portal so they can both escape.
- Foreshadowing: The construction foreman complains about Eve's work not being up to code, only to be cut off by the tenants just being grateful their home is repaired. When she transforms the nearby empty lot into a small park, which the city had neglected for years, it ends up collapsing into a sinkhole.
- Forgot to Feed the Monster: Those criminals Darkwing tied up all the way back in the pilot? Yeah, he forgot to tell anyone they were there before he was murdered, and their corpses are still hanging there.
- Hearing Voices: Night Boy hears voices, either because he's had a psychotic break or from exposure to the Shadowverse, possibly both.
- Homefield Advantage: Night Boy fighting Mark inside Midnight City allows him to duck inside the Shadowverse easily, since shadows are cast from virtually every object.
- Honor Before Reason: Adam refuses to accept Eve's charity because he insists on providing for his family, despite his crappy burger job barely paying the bills.
- Hugh Mann: The Martian constantly refers to himself as human and knows practically nothing about human anatomy or customs, but everyone just thinks Livingston/Shapesmith is either suffering from PTSD or is just a weirdo. It's not clear if the Guardians buy it, as the scene immediately cuts away, but one hopes for the sake of Earth they aren't that gullible.
- Is It Always Like This?: Bulletproof asks if things are always this weird with the Guardians:Shrinking Rae: You have no idea.
- Jerkass Has a Point: The construction foreman who chews out Eve for fixing an apartment building with her powers (since they cannot make sure everything is up to code) is dismissed as an Obstructive Bureaucrat by a bystander, which prompts Eve to do the exact same thing by turning a nearby lot into a public park. She is proven right to be angry when the park collapses into a sinkhole, which is why the city didn't do anything with the lot.
- Karmic Jackpot: Mark saving the Atlanteans when he didn't have to settles things with them.
- Kick the Dog: Adam not only stubbornly refuses any aid Eve offers to provide with her powers, he takes the opportunity provided by the news of the unstable playground she built to dress her down for trying to be helpful, stating that her powers make her dangerous and shouldn't recklessly use them. Whilst a half-decent point about how Eve can't solve all the problems as easily as she thinks she can, it's clearly nothing more than a way for him to demoralise her after she started becoming more successful and independent.
- Luring in Prey: The Depth-Dweller appears to be a cute, seahorse-like creature which Mark half-heartly puts in a headlock as part of the trial. Then the giant beast it's connected to emerges.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Dupli-Kate starts a relationship with the Immortal, which is about as extreme an age difference as one can get. In his defence, he's so old that any relationship he starts would become this anyway.
- Monumental Damage: Doc Seismic manages to partially sink the Washington Monument, and Mark doesn't help things by flying through the structure and breaking through the roof to ambush Doc Seismic. Mark even lampshades that Doc Seismic seems to have a thing for attacking monuments.
- Motive Decay: While Doc Seismic had previously struggled with maintaining social consciousness while trying to Take Over the World, his time underground has caused his beliefs to turn bizarre; he still espouses almost identical progressive rhetoric, but now does so in opposition to humanity stealing stone and metal from the Earth itself, and doesn't care nearly as much about human welfare.
- Mundane Utility: Eve uses her powers to make drinks for her friends for their graduation party.
- Mythology Gag: The episode title is taken directly from a line in the comics, as with the previous episode.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Eve creates a community park out of an empty lot after hearing a tenant complain about the city leaving it vacant for years. Unfortunately, Eve didn't know that the ground isn't stable, and the park ends up collapsing into a sinkhole sometime later. Although nobody got killed, Eve is utterly horrified when she finds out what happened and that her actions ended up inadvertently hospitalizing people, and Adam ends up rubbing salt in the wound by telling her that her powers make her dangerous.
- The Night That Never Ends: Midnight City was cursed by the Midnight Magician with a dome of perpetual darkness. Everything within its area of effect is cloaked in a dark red hue, and the sky is always starry regardless of how it appears outside.
- No-Sell: Mark is momentarily caught off-guard when Night Boy hits him with enough force to actually stagger him, not expecting his costume to be hiding Powered Armor. When Mark knows the attack is coming, however, it does nothing.
- No Sympathy: Cecil doesn't care that the Atlanteans are being killed by the Depth-Dweller, reasoning that they should have been more careful and ordering Mark to leave them to their fate. Part of it is being pissed that they misled him (or at least didn't correct him) about the punishment Mark would face.
- Not Me This Time: Upon seeing another copy of himself, Rex is fed up and immediately turns to blame Rudy. Rudy denies any responsibility, at which point Shapesmith reveals himself.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Deconstructed. The foreman who chews out Atom Eve for fixing a building with her powers is accused of being this by a tenant, who encourages Eve to keep "cutting through the red tape". However, after Eve also creates a public park out of an empty lot (which the tenant complains the city refused to do anything with, making it an eyesore), it collapses because the area was too unstable to build on, which is why the city never built anything there. This proves the earlier foreman right for being worried about Eve not building to code, as those rules are there for a reason. As frustrating as it can be, construction has to be done slowly and carefully to avoid problems.
- Punch Catch: Mark easily catches Night Boy's fist after letting him take a few ineffectual swings.
- Shadow Walker: Night Boy is able to turn any shadow into a portal into the Shadowverse, which he uses for quick transportation. He tries to trap Mark inside, but makes the mistake of gloating about it, allowing Mark to grab him. As there are other things roaming around in there, Night Boy has to let them both out before they're attacked.
- Sins of the Father:
- Night Boy clearly thinks Invincible is cut from the same cloth as his father, calling him "the son of a psychopath" and being completely ok with leaving him in the Shadowverse at the non-existent mercy of whatever is in there. Mark ultimately has to lean into the image to intimidate him into letting him out.
- Atlantean law explicitly holds the next-of-kin liable for their relative's punishment if said relative isn't around to be held responsible (namely, Omni-Man flying off into deep space), and Cecil forces Mark to go along with it because he assumes it's a ceremonial Arranged Marriage as opposed to the Trial by Combat he's actually put into.
- Super-Scream: The Depth-Dweller lets out a piercing scream that briefly debilitates Mark. Cecil, noticing this, has the sound captured and sent to be analyzed as a potential weapon.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Darkwing didn't tell anybody about the two criminals he tied up in a dark corner of the city before he was killed. Without any way to break free themselves, and being in a Wretched Hive where nobody would help them, they're shown to have starved to death.
- The playground Eve created in Chicago collapsed due to the ground being unstable, which is why the city refused to develop at that location. Foreshadowed in an earlier scene where a construction worker gets on Eve's case for fixing a building with her powers, saying that it might not be up to code. The whole situation just shows that as fantastic as Eve's powers are, there are other factors that she has to account for and she can't fix everything with a wave of her hand.
- Tap on the Head: Once Mark is done playing around, a simple chop on the neck is all he needs to knock Night Boy unconscious.
- Terror Hero: Ironically, this is done to the Batman-expy Night Boy by Mark, who leans into Night Boy's perception of him as "Omni-Man's son" to convince him that he really is willing to let Night Boy get eaten if Night Boy doesn't allow him to leave the Shadowverse.
- Trial by Combat: Mark is sentenced to battle the Depth-Dweller for Omni-Man's crimes.
- Unexplained Recovery: Donald is back from the dead, and seemingly doesn't remember blowing himself up. Cecil isn't keen on telling him.
- Weak, but Skilled: Night Boy has Powered Armour on underneath his costume that Darkwing designed to enable him to somewhat challenge higher-tier powered individuals like Omni-Man and Immortal. Whilst it isn't enough to allow him to hurt Mark (and Mark somewhat holds back at first after realising he's in a fight with a mentally disturbed man), it's enough for him to throw Mark into the Shadowverse, with Night Boy being confident that whatever's in there will be more than enough to kill Invincible for him. However, he underestimates how fast Mark is, allowing himself be grabbed and consequently intimidated into letting them both out or be Fed to the Beast together.
