Western Animation / Kid Cosmic

Have no fear, Kid Cosmic is here!^note From left to right: Papa G, Tuna Sandwich, Kid Cosmic, Jo, Rosa, Papa G and Papa G.

"Kid may be a good guy... but he's really bad at it."

— Jo

Kid Cosmic is the fourth animated series from the mind of Craig McCracken, co-developed with Lauren Faust and Francisco Angones, and features longtime collaborator Rob Renzetti serving as co-executive producer. Premiering on February 2nd, 2021 on Netflix, it is the first show by McCracken to fully utilize the Story Arc, a format he had previously toyed with in the second season of Wander over Yonder.

Set in a sleepy truckstop diner town in the middle of the desert, the titular Kid (Jack Fisher) is an imaginative young comic book fan who dreams of becoming a superhero. One evening, he gets his hands on five "cosmic stones of power" that have been scattered from across the galaxy, which inspires him to round up some locals to form his own superhero team. It appears Kid's wildest dreams have come true...

...except he soon comes to learn that having super powers isn't quite as simple as it's cut out to be, and he and his friends' lack of experience proves to be a bit of a problem when it comes to tackling actual intergalactic threats, who plot to use the stones for their own nefarious purposes.

Season 2 was released on September 7, 2021, and the third and final season was released on February 3, 2022, exactly one year after the series was first released.

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Have no fear, TV Tropes is here!:

#-F

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:
  • Most of the vehicles present in the show are 3D models, such as spaceships and trucks. Some of the backgrounds and scenes are also rendered using computer graphics.
  • The floating pyramid in "Kid Cosmic and the Pyramid Puzzle of Pain" is a 3D model.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Tom Kenny once again plays a Butt-Monkey Hypercompetent Sidekick loyal to his alien overlord in a Craig McCracken show.
  • Michaela Dietz plays a Blood Knight superheroine who is a member of a superhero team, enjoys using her shapeshifting abilities, and likes being big, much like Amethyst.
  • April Winchell plays Krosh, a tough Blood Knight with a mohawk, much like her role as Sylvia in Wander Over Yonder.
• Advertised Extra: Season 3's Rogues Gallery, the merman and the Kid Cos-Mech are all featured prominently in the trailer for Season 3. They are of virtually no importance after Episode 2 because it's all just the illusions of a Lotus-Eater Machine.
• Alien Blood: One of the Papa G clones is covered in it (along with a saw), as they had to dispose of a giant alien body. As you can imagine from the implications, that clone has a Thousand-Yard Stare.
• Aliens Love Human Food: Downplayed; Flo's diner has become popular in Season 2, but they also serve alien cuisine along with human food. They're mostly known for their excellent service. The series finale has the aliens coming to a reopened Mo's Oasis, eating 100% Earth food.
• Aliens Speaking English:
  • Averted. All aliens seem to have a universal translator of sorts. Chuck starts speaking English on his own after he gave his translator to Tuna Sandwich, but from there on his speech is agrammatic and it is explicitly mentioned it hurts to talk that way, presumably because it's not a sound meant to be made with his vocal chords.
  • Season 2 starts to play it straight, as no such translation device is seen and many different species are present. The only ones who don't speak English can't form those words due to their biology.
• Alliterative Title: Kid Cosmic.
• And the Adventure Continues:
  • Although the day is saved with every plot in Season 1 resolved as Kid and the gang return the stones to their rightful owners, the final scene takes place six months later when a weakened Queen Xhan arrives with news of the defeat of her fellow survivors at the hands of the villain who destroyed their worlds. She returns the stones to Kid and his four friends and teleports them, along with Mo's Oasis and everyone inside, to space for a quest to find 8 more stones, 13 in all, for the second season, "Kid Cosmic and the Intergalactic Truckstop".
  • Season 2 ends on Kid and the Local Heroes being promoted to Global Heroes by the Planet Protection Group, who enlist their help in finding the other Stones of Power spread out across the world after Erodius's defeat.
• Arc Hero: Each season puts the spotlight on one of the Local Heroes.
  • The Kid for Season 1, focusing on him learning what it means to be a superhero.
  • Jo for Season 2, centering around learning how to lead other people and putting aside her doubts.
  • Season 3 focuses on Kid again and Papa G.
• Arc Words: A few phrases are repeated between several characters that have relevance to many of the series' themes.
  • "Stop right there, alien scum!" is said both by Kid as he tries to defend the Earth from alien invaders and by the Biker in Black who is planning to make Planet Earth into a galactic superpower by trouncing ANY and ALL aliens regardless of their motivations for coming to Earth.
  • "Heroes help, not hurt" is at first used to gently scold the four year-old Rosa for being too violent against enemies. Kid later uses this to give The Biker in Black a Shut Up, Hannibal! speech about how he's little more than a bully, and to denounce his own earlier, misunderstood idea of what heroism is.
  • "Freakin' out? Breathe it out," is used several times to teach characters to take a moment, think the situation over and either find a solution or accept your current problem instead of just barging in headfirst and causing even more trouble. More importantly, it's how Kid and Jo first are able to activate their stone's power.
  • Season 2's arc words are Grandma Mo's secret recipe, highlighting the value of empathy and kindness. This is in stark contrast to Queen Xhan's rather harsh rules for being a leader.
  A cup of compassion.
  A teaspoon of tenderness.
  An ounce of understanding.
  Mix with care and kindness.
• Artifact of Power: The cosmic stones of power are remnants of dead worlds that grant the wielder incredible powers. There isn't just one of each, either. The heroes' stones are just the only remnants that broke away from Erodius before he finished absorbing their worlds. When it's destroyed, Earth is littered with dozens if not hundreds of multiple versions of the various stones... Or so the illusion world made them believe, later on it does turn out to be the case on Erodius' surface but by then they remain entirely on its surface,
• Artistic Licence – Military: When an M4A1 is fired, not only does the entire case fly out, but the case isn't even bottlenecked like the 5.56 round the M4 fires.
• Bait-and-Switch: "Kid Cosmic and the Local Heroes" sees the gang going up against a villain called the Head Huntress, who has an intimidating look about her. The Local Heroes get into fighting positions, and the Head Huntress seemingly tries to go for her gun... and then she pulls out a bag of alien money and attempts to peacefully barter for the stones. She leaves when the price is too high.
• Book Ends:
  • Season 1 begins with Kid waking up in his messy trailer; the last scene of the season finale has him waking up in a neat trailer.
    • The last episode also starts with Kid waking up in his trailer, although far more somber this time.
  • The first episode also establishes Jo by having her scroll through her phone to see postcards of places she'd rather be. The last episode has Flo scrolling through photos, reminiscing on the times the town had with The Sole Survivors.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Kid Cosmic wants powers and to be a hero and so he gains powers to become one... except that wishing to be a hero is not the same as actually being one.
• Big Ol' Unibrow:
  • Rosa and her father Carlos both have one.
  • Weirdly enough, Tuna Sandwich has one as well. His eyes are furrowed under it most of the time.
• Bittersweet Ending: Fantos is defeated, Erodius is healed, Earth is saved alongside the whole universe, and the Heroes are able to successfully reach out to their alien friends, but Papa G no longer has the healing stone and is now feeling his true age of 112. It's unlikely he has that much time left.
• Black Bead Eyes: The human characters all have these. Many of the aliens lack these, however.
• Black Comedy: There's a lot of it that comes from primarily using Death as Comedy.
  • In "Kid Cosmic and the Local Heroes", one of the first intergalactic foes the heroes face is a Pint-Sized Powerhouse who steals the rings from the heroes without breaking a sweat. Eventually, the alien tries to escape in their miniature UFO... only to be abruptly electrocuted by a powerline. This kills the alien instantly.
    • In the same episode, a fishlike alien comes to Earth and demands that the Local Heroes hand over the stones... only to suffocate and die because he is not capable of breathing Earth's atmosphere. His death and subsequent burial are used for dark comedy.
  • "Kid Cosmic and the Big Win" has Papa G using his clones to seal Flo's diner from the Demon dogs (of doom). The clones get mauled by the dogs while taking a really long time to finish barricading the place.
• Bloodless Carnage:
  • The clones created by the yellow power crystal disappear before anything real graphic pops up so a lot of them get dispatched in violent and brutal ways.
  • Chuck's death ray gun envelops its target in a red light before blinking out of existence, presumably dead. Only ever seen used on the demon dogs.
  • At least two characters get their legs chopped off, but again no blood is seen.
  • Queen Xhan's arm is torn off by Fantos, but the only thing that comes from it is purple lightning.
• Brick Joke: In "Kid Cosmic and the Rings of Power!", Jo tries to recommend going to different places to her mother, one of those being Boise, Idaho. When Erodius shows up to destroy Earth in "Kid Cosmic and the World is Saved", one of the places Erodius is shown looming over is Boise.
• Bus Crash: After the Time Skip, Queen Xhan mentions the other four survivors of the destroyed planets died trying to fight Erodius.
• Cartridges in Flight: When "Stuck" Chuck fires off one of the guards M4 carbines, the entire cartridge is fired off.
• Central Theme:
  • Season 1: What does it mean to be a hero?
  • Season 2: What does it mean to be a leader?
  • Season 3: Self-sacrifice in the name of what's right.
• Chekhov's Gag: During the final battle of season 2, Kid is seen looking for his stone, but always finding the goo stone instead. When they're thrown back into Earth without their usual stones, it turns out he'd been unconsciously guarding the stones he found in the pockets of his utility belt, giving the main characters a fighting chance.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Kid Cosmic and Rosa have one of these.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each of the heroes has a different colored ring: Green (Kid Cosmic), Purple (Jo), Blue (Rosa), Yellow (Papa G) and Tuna Sandwich (Red). This gets muddled as 5 stones becomes 13, and the dark green of goo contrasts with the bright green of telekinesis.
• Close on Title: The opening intro wraps up every episode. Some episodes only display the title card at the end of the episode.
• Cute Giant: Rosa when she uses her powers, given that she's also a four-year-old girl who loves to play.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Kid lost his parents in a road accident when he was younger.
• A Day in the Limelight: Each of the Local Heroes have their own short, featuring them using their powers.
• Death by Origin Story: Kid lost his parents in a freak car accident before the events of the series.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: After losing her championship in "Fight Hole", Krosh returns to the oasis to help train the Local Heroes with their power and later joins Jo's two-person team to defeat Erodius. But it's all subverted when Krosh turns out to never have reformed at all, she was simply looking to make Jo feel the same loss she herself did by betraying her in the middle of their fight against Erodius then leave her for death once she took the stones to become the Fight Hole champion again.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The Earth Force Enforcement Force. Not to mention their in-universe theme tune.

Earth Force Enforcement Force. Enforcing the force of the Earth Force.

(Earth force) Enforcement Force.

[Verse repeats 6 times]

• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • When Kid and the rest of the group tell the Biker in Black that the aliens aren't evil and are just trying to reclaim what's theirs, Mr. In Black doesn't care. His only concern is overthrowing any aliens that come to Earth, regardless of their intentions, and using the Stones to make Earth "the greatest superpower in the galaxy."
  • Fantos' disappointment regarding Erodius not destroying any planets is played out like someone's significant other complaining that the spark in their relationship has gone out.
  Fantos: What happened to that ultimate force of evil that I fell in love with?
• Easily Forgiven: The aliens and the Local Heroes don't really seem to hold a grudge against the Earth Force Enforcement Force or the Biker in Black after the final episode.
• Electricity Knocks You Out: In the first episode, Kid is trying to activate his "Rings of Power" and one of the methods he tries is charging it with electricity. He just ends up electrocuting himself, leaving him out cold for an extended period of time.
• Evolving Credits: During season 1, the closing credits were always accompanied by an old record player in Kid's trailer. In season 2, this switches to the jukebox in the diner, until the final episode of the season, where it's a boombox playing a mix tape.
• Expy: The "death dogs" from early season one are a dead ringer for the Rat Creatures from Bone.
• Eye Glasses: Both Kid and Papa G's glasses tend to change shape based on their expressions.
• Fake Band: One called "Dr. Fang And The Gang", whose record album can be seen during season one's end credits. It's implied most of the music heard throughout the show (including Kid's Leitmotif) is composed by them. The show's soundtrack album also shows multiple fake bands, such as "Capt. Budd and His Toasty Rollers", "Cephas Pond and The Muzzy Hill Boys", "The Surf Pfinks" and "The Soul Contributions".
• Failed a Spot Check: In "Kid Cosmic and the Invaders From Earth" the armed guards fail to spot a cat pulling a bright orange alien in the middle of an open desert.
• Fake Danger Gambit: Kid's fight with the robots in Episode 4 is revealed to have been set up by Papa G without Kid's knowledge. The reason he did this was because he saw Kid was depressed by everyone else having a win except him, so he tried to give him one. Unfortunately, Kid finds out in the next episode, and doesn't take this very well.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Averted. The Biker In Black points a real pistol towards the main characters in an attempt to shoot them, but Chuck shoots back with an M4, popping the bike tire with the bullet.
• Family Theme Naming: Jo's mother is named Flo, and Flo's mother is named Mo.
• Fat Cat: Tuna Sandwich, whenever he's not seeing into the future, mostly sleeps around the diner all day, eating tuna sandwiches given to him by Kid.
• Fish People: One of the alien seekers for the Stones is a colossal squid-like alien. Being a literal Fish out of Water, he asphyxiates almost instantly.
• Five-Man Band: Discussed in "Kid Cosmic and the Big Win", where the diner patrons point out the classic archetypes. The responsible Jo is The Leader, the pacifistic Papa G is The Heart, the ready-to-brawl Rosa is the muscle, and the psychic Tuna Sandwich is the brains. Everyone else is confused about where Kid traditionally fits in, to which Carl replies Kid is the comic relief. The gang doesn't quite fully fit into the "traditional" Five-Man Band archetypes.
• Flight: Kid Cosmic's power. Or so it seems.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Right from the start, there was one character who never was phased by any of the strangeness going on around him. This was the Biker In Black, who was revealed to have known about the stones since the very beginning, and was laying low so as to find out what the stones did.
  • Jo's initial reasoning for not getting involved with a possible alien invasion: "You know who swears to protect people all the time? The cops. The military. The government. Let them handle this!" The cops don't get involved, but the military and government get involved in the last four episodes.
  • The article about Kid's parents dying can be briefly seen in the first episode as Jo examines the cork board.
  • In "Kid Cosmic and the Precognitive Cat", a quick look at the Scroll of the Stones hints at the season-end reveal that there are thirteen stones, not just five.
  • The robot army Kid faced in "Kid Cosmic and the Local Heroes" got two. One was the fact they were made with obvious Earth tech. Two, they demanded for the Rings of Power... which were only Rings because Kid glued them to a nut. All aliens before and after this always called them the Stones of Power and one was explicitly confused when the heroes refer to them as Rings. The end of the episode revealed they were Papa G and his clones.
  • During the fight between the Earth Force and the aliens, when Kid noticed that the aliens all fight with abilities corresponding to the stones, the alien that corresponded to the green stone was flinging rocks with green auras and moving other objects, indicating that the stone's true power isn't flight.
  • When discussing matters with his military troops, they and the Biker in Black discuss "the Force". It's only until the end of "Kid Cosmic and the Invaders from Earth" that we find out they were talking about the Earth Force Enforcement Force.
  • Just before Fantos throws Jo into a portal with the rest of the Heroes, he mocks her for believing that she and the rest of the team could defeat him and says that she was "living in a fantasy world". Come Season 3, it turns out he meant that quite literally, as the portal sent the Heroes to a Lotus-Eater Machine realm designed to give them their greatest wishes to keep them distracted while he conquered the galaxy.
  • In the first few episodes of Season 3, Tuna's future sight powers do not work for some strange reason. The gang is in a Lotus-Eater Machine where they can never lose, so they were in never any real danger to begin with.
  • Season 3's first few episodes "reveal" there's a fourteenth Cosmic Stone. While it is fabricated due to the nature of where the Local Heroes are stuck, it's later revealed there is a fourteenth Stone, and the fake stone shown in the Lotus-Eater Machine has a silver coloration, exactly like the real fourteenth Stone.
  • Papa G’s childhood flashback shows him sustaining a lot of injuries that should have killed him, especially since he was out in the middle of nowhere and medicine wasn’t as advanced in the early 20th century. He believes his lucky stone was the reason he survived and as it turns out, he was right.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • In the first episode, there's a brief shot of a newspaper article about how Kid's parents died. It's shown for longer in Episode 6. Also, at one point if you look carefully you can see that Kid has a scar on his torso, which is seen for longer in Episode 4, and is implied to have been caused by the same accident.
  • The text inscribed on the Scroll of Power foreshadows the conflict of the final episode.
  • The diagram on the Scroll hints at there being thirteen Stones rather than just five.
  • In episode 5, there are some photos that were taken in the diner at the past, one of which shows that Papa G looked exactly the same when Flo was a small child as he does in the present day.
• Fun with Acronyms: While Planet Protection Group doesn't traditionally fit the pattern, it does reference the Powerpuff Girls. The agent at the end is also from a PPG, but that was just Pacific Power and Gas.

G-Z

• Genius Loci: Erodious was once a living planet with healing properties. It was later destroyed. The last shard of its power was lost to Earth. It used the power of other planets to try and heal itself, searching for the missing piece. It turns out that Papa G was in possession of the missing piece.
• Genre Savvy: While not all tropes are mentioned by name, both Jo and Kid read enough superhero media that they will occasionally call out when they've "gotten to the part where [X] happens". Such as Jo telling Kid that "This is the part of the story where everyone says they're sorry and they love each other" after the Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure (though in that particular scene, she's being Wrong Genre Savvy, as Kid refuses to listen), or Kid calling the Biker In Black out for trying to pull a We Can Rule Together in the season 1 finale.
• Genre Throwback: Craig McCracken made the series as a tribute to the Action/Adventure comics of his youth like Tintin as well as comedic strips like Dennis The Menace, also from his youth.
• Giant Woman: Rosa's main superpower, although in this case she's more like a "Giant Kid."
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: Rosa is the youngest member of the team, and is capable of transforming into a giant version of herself. She is often seen as the most powerful member of the five.
• Good All Along: The five aliens who come in search of the Stones of Power during Episode 8 aren't looking for the stones for their own nefarious purposes, but instead because the stones are the only relics of their destroyed home planets that they have left.
• Grand Finale: The third season's final two episodes "The Planet Killer" and "The Grand Opening of Planet Earth" bring the series to a definitive conclusion, as the former has a final confrontation with Fantos and Erodius that ends with the heroes' Cosmic Stones being permanently disabled, Fantos getting killed when he is absorbed into Erodius and Papa G sacrificing his healing stone to stop Erodius from destroying Earth, while the latter focuses on interplanetary relations improving now that the threats represented by Fantos and Erodius are no more and Flo is able to re-open her diner in time to attract scores of new customers from beyond the stars.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Chuck's translator cycles through badly butchered Spanish, French, German and Japanese before translating to English.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Rosa sometimes slips into this.
  • The title of episode 2 is in Spanish, to reinforce that Rosa is the main antagonist then.
• Greasy Spoon: Mo's Oasis Café is a run-down truck stop diner, but it doesn't really have all the negative stereotypes listed on the page. Funnily enough, the owner is a "Flo".
• Greater-Scope Villain: The first half of the season builds up to the arrival of Stuck Chuck's Great Leader. The Finale reveals the existence of a being named Erodius the Planet Killer, who destroyed the five planets that the stones originated from.
• Green Around the Gills:
  • Kid when he tries to restrain a giant Rosa by flying around her to tie her up with a chain.
  • Papa G when he sees one of his clones get mauled by a Demon Dog.
• Green Is Gross: The dark green "Goo Stone" turns its wielder into a goo-like substance. While useful to survive most attacks, and can immobilize opponents at times, it doesn't make it any less gross to anyone else.
• Got Me Doing It: Played With in that it isn't spelled out, but when Tuna Sandwich first saves the team from disaster, Jo briefly takes on Kid's cutesy-talk.
  Kid: "You saved us, didn't you boy? You knew it was a twap~!"
  Jo: "I knew it was a twap!"
• Happy Ending Override: Season 2 ends with everyone stopping Erodius, saving Earth, and becoming international heroes who travel the globe saving the day and gathering the stone shards… Except that Season 3 reveals that absolutely NONE of that actually happened. The portal that Fantos threw the team into actually teleported them to a realm designed to recreate your greatest wishes and fantasies, meaning that everything that happened after that point was completely fake and Erodius is still on the loose and on course to destroy the Earth.
• Harmless Liquefaction: One of the stones of power introduced in Season 2 is the Goo Stone, which allows for its user to turn into a pile of goo. Kid gets it after losing his Telekinesis Stone, much to his regret. A running gag is that a body part doesn't reform with the rest of it, requiring someone to hunt down the missing appendage or in the season finale, everyone trading body parts until they're back together.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In order to stop Erodius from crashing into Earth and destroying it, Papa G decides to return the fourteenth Stone of Power to Erodius’ core,even knowing that doing so would cause the stone’s rejuvenating powers that kept him youthful all these years to wear off. As soon as he does so, the once energetic old man crumples into a shaky mess that can barely walk. While Kid is able to save him before it costs him his life, the finale shows that he is now forced to get around in a wheelchair and looks much more subdued. And with the reveal that he is actually 112 years old, it’s unknown just how much time he really has left…
• How Do I Shot Web?: Having superpowers is one thing, actually knowing how to use them is the crux of the plot. Especially as it took most of the first episode to figure just how to activate the stones.
• Identically Named Group: Carl, Carla and Carlos, who are commonly seen having coffee in Mo's Oasis. The intergalactic delivery driver turns out to be named Carlax.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Nearly every episode is called "Kid Cosmic and the [X] ". "Kid Cosmic y la Niña Gigantica" seems an exception, but it's actually just "Kid Cosmic and the Gigantic Girl" in Spanish. The only one that doesn't is Episode 8, "Earth Force Enforcement Force".
• I'll Tell You When I've Had Enough!: In "Kid Cosmic and the Soul Kroshing Loss", Kid Cosmic drowns his sorrows in root beer floats and gets confrontational when Flo and Hamburg try to cut him off.
• Killed Offscreen: The final scene of Season 1 reveals that after the alien survivors left Earth, most of them were killed by Erodius except for Queen Xhan, who fled to Earth to warn Kid.
• Killer Rabbit: When the white spider-like alien arrives, Earth Force Enforcement Force laughs at the tiny creature. Meanwhile, the other aliens back off as if in fear. Turns out that creature has the size-changing abilities like the blue stone.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: In Season 3, Kid traps everyone in his ideal fantasy world based on his favorite comics. Jo eventually realizes this, while Papa G tries to break the truth gently to Kid. Later, the world tries to give everyone their greatest wish.
• Masquerade: After defeating Chuck in the first episode, Kid and Jo decide to keep their powers and the incoming alien threat a secret, convincing Jo's mom and everyone else that they are making a movie. After Rosa, Papa G, and Tuna Sandwich take ownership of their rings, they join in on this trope. Episode 5 breaks this trope once everyone sees the Death Dogs attack, and Kid's team showing off their powers for one reason or another.
  • After defeating Erodius, for real, the government gives the Local Heroes a big thank you, but then refuses to acknowledge any of this ever happened.
• Meaningful Background Event: Before the Biker in Black reveals himself to be a government agent, he can be seen in the background of several scenes in Mo's Oasis, slowly sipping his coffee. Unlike the other customers when the Demon Dogs attack, he shows zero surprise and doesn't get out of his seat to hide from them.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Stones of Power, of course. The second season is centered around hunting down eight other stones and the third season sets up the plot of hunting down the stones that scattered onto Earth after Erodius exploded.
• Mind over Matter: The true power of the green stone. It only manifested as flight due to Kid using it to make himself fly.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: One of the Stones of Power gives its user an extra set of arms.
• My Eyes Are Up Here: In "Kid Cosmic and the Heist of Fire and Ice", Boss Fiosa admonishes Fantos when he appears to be staring at her cleavage, not knowing that his gaze is actually focused on the fire and ice stones she's wearing around her necks.
• Never Found the Body: A meta-example. When Kid Cosmic finds the power stones, the delivery alien from the opening minutes is never seen, even after going back to the ship. He had been picked up by the government already and probed... with questions.
• No Endor Holocaust: In the Season 2 finale, Kid and the Local Heroes destroy Erodius by exploding it from the inside. Erodius is a planet several times the size of Earth, enough so that its mere presence should be causing massive tidal disruptions, let alone its detonation. The only effect this seemingly has on Earth is that the surface is showered with many stones of power.
• No Name Given:
  • Kid Cosmic is a name he gave himself, and the other characters often refer to him as "the kid", implying no one may know his name.
  • The Biker in Black is never given a real name, only referred to as such.
  • Subverted with Chuck. Jo nicknames him Chuck because he's "Stuck Chuck", and when he calls his Supreme Leader, he calls himself Chuck through the translator.
  • Initially played straight with the space delivery driver. In Season 1, he was never named, but eventually revealed his name to be Carlax.
• No Theme Tune: The episode has no title sequence whatsoever, instead having the title freeze-frame along with the episode title, the same vein as Dan Vs.. Even this timing is irregular, with some episodes only revealing the episode name near the end of the run time.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Part of Jo's Small Town Boredom comes from her believing that everything stays the same in her town. Once the stones come to Earth, however, that quickly changes.
• Nuclear Family: Rosa is the only team member to have a nuclear family, being it only her and her mother and father. Meanwhile, Papa G is Kid's legal guardian, and Jo is raised only by her mother.
• Older and Wiser: Using the yellow Cosmic Stone, Kid's grandfather Papa G is able to self-replicate an unlimited number of times and accomplish the toughest tasks with little effort with the help of his duplicates. He doesn't say he has "a million hands" for nothing.
• Phlebotinum Overdose: Episode 6 of season 1 shows that it's not safe to use all five stones at the same time. Kid is alright when he keeps switching between each ring to fight the Great Leader's forces, but when he tries to use all of them at once to attack the Great Leader himself, the stones' powers painfully overwhelmed him and he has to take them off.
  • This is downplayed in season 2 with characters being able to make workarounds and using as much as twelve or thirteen stones at once - Fantos by using a Powered Armor designed for this very purpose and Krosh by using multiplication stone to share the stones between three bodies. However, they rarely have more than 2 different powers active at any one time.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: After Kid learns that the whole alien fight from Episode 4 was fake, Jo, Rosa, and Papa G try to apologize but Kid declines to accept. They eventually reconcile in Episode 9.
  • Happens again in season 2 once Jo decides that Kid and the others "suck", and that Krosh could be the team.
• Portal Cut: Happens to anyone caught in one of Jo's closing portals.
  • Chuck, in the third episode, after he falls through one of Jo's portals as it closes, losing his lower half. Because of his species, it's harmless for him, but he can't move around properly without legs.
  • Kid's reckless use of the portal stone cuts up many of Chuck's army in "And the Epic Fail".
  • Jo uses this on Hamburger to cut off his four arms. He was able to use his disembodied hands to remove the ring, which returned him to normal.
• The Power of Friendship: In the season 2 climax, all the clients that Flo took good care of in the Truck Stop come back to fight Erodius.
• Power Misidentification: Kid misidentifies his own power. He spends the majority of the first season using the green stone to fly, until the alien from the world that became the stone explains that it actually grants telekinesis, and Kid had just been using it on himself without considering that its effects weren't limited to the user.
• Precision F-Strike: When Tuna Sandwich gains the ability to speak, his first two sentences are, "Wait, is that me? Hot damn, I've been dreaming that something like this would happen." He curses again at the end of Season 1.
• Production Throwback: There are more than a few nods to Craig's previous projects.
  • One of Kid's comics is titled "Hate: Lord of Space".
  • On a couple of occasions aliens use the word "Grop" in place of "God", something characters often did on Wander over Yonder. The humans later adopt this habit.
  • One of the decorations on Papa G's hatband is a star very similar to Wander's. Papa G is also a pacifist who believes in showing kindness to everyone, and his orange T-shirt is coloured similarly to Wander.
  • The end of "Kid Cosmic and the World Is Saved" is one extended reference to The Powerpuff Girls. The "Planet Protection Group" shares the same initial as the Powerpuff Girls. The hairstyles of the PPG agents resemble Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup's hairstyles, and they are voiced by Catherine Cavadini, Tara Strong and Elizabeth Daily, the original voices of the girls. Their lines are also references to the opening of the original show.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The heroes of this show consist of: a flying (actually telekinetic) boy who wishes to be a superhero, a teen who works at a local diner with teleportation powers, a little girl who turns into a giant, a multiplying old man and a cat who sees the future. Tuna Sandwich outright name-drops the trope in Episode 7. Season 2 sees the rest of the Oasis residents join the team one by one.
• Red Is Heroic: For Earth Force Enforcement Force, the red stone is given to the leader who uses it for Combat Clairvoyance.
• Repetitive Name: The Earth Force Enforcement Force. Their theme song contains multiple usages of the word "force", to drive the gag home.
• The Reveal: The end of the season 2 finale never happened. The main heroes were stuck in a fantasy realm that Fantos sent them to instead of actually being sent back to Earth during the end of that season and the first half of season 3.
• Rich Kids: Rosa comes from a rich family. Her parents, Carlos and Ramona, both run a successful floral business. They have a villa filled with acres of exotic flowers that they grow themselves.
• Ring of Power: Invoked. They're actually Stones of Power, but Kid makeshifts them into rings by gluing them onto hex nuts because "rings are cooler".
• Rubber Man: One Stone of Power grants its owner the power to stretch their body to great lengths.
• Running Gag: Kid mispronouncing "telekinesis" throughout season 2, and others correcting him. He finally gets it right in "Kid Cosmic and the World Is Saved".
• Seers: The red stone allows one to see into the future.
• Self-Duplication: This is the power that the yellow stone gives.
• Shout-Out:
  • Throughout the show there are animation references to Peanuts, such as a moment in "Kid Cosmic and the Big Win" when Kid slips, does a spinning fall to land on his back, and mopes away with his head down in a posture very familiar to Peanuts fans, or in the series finale, when the silhouette of Kid's head and messy hair have the exact same outline as Woodstock's head.
  • Kid's power of flight via a glowing green power ring (Actually a power stone he glued onto a ring) from outer space sounds a bit like Green Lantern.
  • Kid's catchphrase, "Have no fear, Kid Cosmic is here!" is a nod to Underdog's own catchphrase.
  • The "Demon Dogs" have same black fur and blue neon-colored fangs and claws as the aliens of Attack the Block.
  • The communication device Stuck Chuck builds is very similar to E.T's device. He IS an alien trying to phone home, after all.
  • Chuck's Hannibal Lecture in Episode 6 has him show pages from few comics that are homages to various classic Marvel and DC superhero stories, combined with tiny-veiled versions of the characters, especially when he's bringing up the Dark and Troubled Past trope
  Chuck: All your heroes have them. Exploded planet, lost love, dead uncle ^note through the picture Chuck shows is a homage to a famous Daredevil cover. Or maybe a car accident on Route 70. You're like that bat guy, only without the talent, brain, strength, money or success.
  • Kid has a Nintendo Entertainment System in his room.
  • At one point, one of the aliens the group runs into is an entire ship full of Xenomorph-looking aliens. Even their ship looks straight out of Alien.
  • The Earth Force Enforcement Squad is an obvious reference to Tokusatsu, specifically Super Sentai and Power Rangers. Meanwhile, their color scheme and suits seem closer to Voltron, with purple in place of black.
  • When Kid is learning to control his telekinesis, Papa G tells him, "Let go of your conscious self and act on instinct," an exact quote from Star Wars.
  • In "Kid Cosmic and the Precognitive Cat" Jo shouts that a scroll of alien text is "Probably just a cookbook or something."
  • Zarkon's intro card states they're a "Mean Green Being From Outer Space".
  • The name of Rosa's mother is Ramona Flores, whose name is a possible reference to Ramona Flowers.
  • The two voices used for the hosts of "Fight Hole" sound a lot like those for DEATH BATTLE!.
• Silent Credits: Episode 6 has vinyl static playing during the credits instead of music.
  • Episode 7 of Season 2 does it again, after it looks like Flo and Xhan were just killed.
  • Season 3, Episode 5 has silent credits following its Downer Ending.
• Skewed Priorities: After getting back the green stone, Kid proceeds to glue the stone back onto a hex nut rather than try to escape, insisting he has to do it because rings are cooler.
• Something Only They Would Say: Played with. It's a case of "Something They Would Never Say". "Kid Cosmic And The Global Conspiracy" has Kid finding the fantasy version of his parents. When asking them why he had to seek them out instead of he opposite, they say that Kid had to prove himself worthy. papa G explodes at this, claiming that Kid didn't need to prove that he was worthy of parents and his real parents would never say this. This seems to contribute to Kid's realization that the world is fake.
• Spoiled Sweet: Rosa tends to be stubborn and spoiled at times because her parents pamper her. But she is a major sweetheart who is a valued asset to the team, and is willing to help her friends out.
• Spoiler Cover: One of Season 2's thumbnails on Netflix ends up spoiling that there are more stones than just the five the heroes have, Kid's goo stone power after he loses his telekinesis stone, and the expanded membership of the team, primarily from Flo's Diner, but also includes Chuck, who switches sides only near the end of Season 1. The backdrop is also in space, which shows that Season 2 is (largely) off of Earth.
• Stumbled Into the Plot: Kid manages to spot the glowing stones out in the desert, kick-starting the events of the series.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • This show really goes above itself to emphasize the fact that being a superhero is no walk in the park. Despite Kid being granted with amazing powers, and boasting an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books, he and his team have next to no idea how to utilize them properly, which leads to a lot of great difficulties.
  • Kid initially thinks that Talking Is a Free Action, so he tries to deliver a heroic speech while Stuck Chuck is shooting at him. If Jo hadn't pulled him away, he'd have been shot and vaporized by the lasers.
  • In the first episode, Kid tries to charge his stone with an electrical device, thinking it'll power it up. While he's wearing it. It ends up electrocuting him and knocking him out. Toon Physics don't apply, as this knocks out Kid for several hours.
  • The local heroes have their own weakness and setbacks that make them human (or at least Earthly). Kid and Rosa (without her blue stone) are physically weak, though Rosa can sometimes hold her own against creatures close to her size. Papa G is an old man and, while not feeble, must count on strength in numbers. Jo can hold the team together, but she also has a job to help her mom at the diner. Tuna Sandwich can see into the future but is still a cat and, without a translator, the others can only assume and guess his warnings.
  • In Episode 4’s segment "Kid Cosmic and the Colossal Corpse of Corgor the Conqueror" we subvert No Biochemical Barriers and All Atmospheres Are Equal. When Corgor comes to Earth for the stones? He immediately dies due to being unable to breathe Earth's atmosphere. It's played straight in every other instance though.
    • Coupled with that Disposing of a Body when it’s as large as a barn isn’t an easy task without dismembering it; as Papa G can attest to...
• Talking Animal: Tuna Sandwich, after he is given Chuck's translator device.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Averted. In Episode 1, Kid nearly gets shot by Chuck because he thinks that the enemy is supposed to let him finish his speech before attacking.
• Thememobile: The KidCosmicMobile, a BMW with a gigantic speaker on it.
• Thinking Up Portals: Jo's main superpower. Without concentrating, the portals appear to a random location.
• Third Eye: Tuna Sandwich has one whenever his powers activate. Later shown that anyone using the red stone has a glowing red eye while that power is active.
• This Is the Part Where...: No one, especially Kid, is oblivious to the kind of tropes their circumstances resemble. Tropes like Talking Is a Free Action, Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure and We Can Rule Together are brought up or pointed out; most of them get disproven if not dismissed to show that they're not how things will work out.
• This Page Will Self-Destruct: In the series finale, the government tells Flo that the giant check will self-destruct in 10 seconds, as the money is already deposited in her account. Sure enough, it does.
• Together We Are X: "Kid Cosmic and the Best Day Ever" ends with Kid presenting the Global Heroes one by one, with him at the end. At the end, they all invoke this trope.
  Kid: Together we are...
  Global Heroes (Kid included): The Global Heroes!
• Token Adult: Papa G is one for the team, being an old man with Kid and Rosa being children, Jo a teenager, and Tuna Sandwich a cat. In season 2, the rest of the adults eventually join the team.
• Toku: The Earth Force Enforcement Force is a hilarious take on this.
• To Serve Man: One alien race that kidnapped the Local Heroes wasn't even interested in the Stones, they just wanted to eat them.
• Trash the Set: In the season 2 finale, Mo's Oasis and the surrounding land teleported into space at the end of season 1 is destroyed by Erodius.
• True Blue Femininity: Rosa wears a blue dress and her colored ring is blue.
• Two Girls to a Team: Jo and Rosa are the only females on the team in season 1.
• Unwitting Pawn: The Biker in Black and his cronies were aware of Kid and the other Local Heroes having the Stones the entire time. He let them keep them to use the group as "guinea pigs" to test how safe they were to use, and how to use them, before the Earth Force Enforcement Force was ready, viewing the aliens they were fighting as no real threat.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: It takes a few tries for Kid Cosmic to get used to using his flying powers without barfing.
• Visual Pun: When Rosa uses her powers, it makes her a big baby.
• Wham Episode:
  • "Kid Cosmic and the Epic Fail" has some whammies. Kid's parents are revealed to have died in a car accident. Chuck's Great Leader finally comes to Earth to fight Kid, and we discover that he's not all he's made out to be. The Biker in Black is with the government, he controls the demon dogs, and the government has been spying on the Local Heroes all along.
  • "Earth Force Enforcement Force" reveals that the five aliens approaching Earth are looking for their respective Cosmic Stone, and that they aren't evil after all.
  • "Kid Cosmic and the Day is Saved!" reveals that the true power of the green stone isn't flight, it's telekinesis. The alien survivors were only looking for their stones because they're all that's left of their home planet after it was destroyed by an alien entity named Erodius the Planet Killer. The survivors go to fight him during the Time Skip... only for all of them except Queen Xhan to have died in the battle. Queen Xhan then states that they need the thirteen stones to defeat Erodius. To obtain them, she teleports the truck stop (and everyone inside) into space.
  • "Kid Cosmic and the World Is Saved" ends with Erodius destroyed, but as a result stones of power have been scattered all over the Earth, with the heroes recruited to help deal with it.
• Wham Line:
  • In "Kid Cosmic and the Epic Fail", Chuck begins to monologue the Dark and Troubled Past trope to Kid and bring up the numerous origins... and then it becomes personal:
  Chuck: ...Or maybe a car accident on Route 70.
  • "BECAUSE YOU SUCK!" in Season 2.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: During the final battle of Season 2, Carl receives the invisibility stone. All he's able to do is stand around, being invisible.

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"Hot Damn!"

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