Adaptation Displacement: Considering that the M. Rex comics only lasted two issues and never really took off, it's easy to see why most people might not be aware that the comic even exists.
Awesome Music: The show's theme song is a kick-ass song called "Revolution" by the British band known as Orange.
Base-Breaking Character: There is a great controversy about Bobo, where although the overwhelming majority consider him a wonderful and funny character, some believe his presence is irritating and irrational in addition to his bad influence on Rex.
Albeit not as bad as its sister show, the older fans that are outside of the target demographic have made numerous complaints about how the 2nd season wasn't as serious as the 1st. The younger fans within the demographic, on the other hand, are completely fine with the show's current state.
Van Kleiss is the ruthless dictator of Abysus, and the Arch-Enemy of Rex Salazar. Once a researcher who worked on the original nanite project with Rex's parents, Van Kleiss betrayed them and left them to die when the project went critical. After the nanite event, Van Kleiss resurfaces as a powerful EVO with the ability to drain the nanites of others and turn them into statues. Van Kleiss has his minions threaten Peter Meechum's young daughter in order to have her father start a Zombie Apocalypse across New York to create an army of minions for him to use. Van Kleiss later drains Rex of his powers to gain the ability to turn others into monstrous EVOs which he uses to target Rex's best friend. Van Kleiss also cares nothing for his subordinates and will sacrifice them if need be, or in the case of Breach painfully experiment on her to increase her abilities. Though he claims that he wishes to help create a better world for EVOs, Van Kleiss only truly cares for himself and his goal to become a god.
Quarry is a ruthless crime lord defined by greed and cruelty. Introduced as a gangster who uses manipulated EVO teenagers to commit crimes in his name, Quarry is quick to mistreat and even have those in service eaten alive if they fail or disobey him. After temporarily teaming up with Breach to steal a powerful disintegration weapon, Quarry turns on her and begins using the device to wreak devastation throughout Hong Kong, hoping to then sell the weapon to the highest bidder without a care to the mass death it will cause. In his final showdown against Rex, Quarry reaches his most depraved depths as he tricks many children into being the unwitting slavers of mind-controlled EVOs, convincing the kids they are just playing arcade games while using them to force the EVOs to do Quarry's bidding. Throughout it all, the controlled victims are fully aware they are being controlled, but unable to do anything to save themselves.
Dr. Fell is a ruthless scientist who wants to wholly expunge EVOs and their nanite infection from the planet. The former chief scientist of Providence, Fell disregarded his compatriots' desires to more benevolently study the EVOs, instead painfully experimenting on and dissecting the EVOs on a molecular level. Even when the young EVO boy Rex was discovered to have the capability of curing nanites in a natural, painless way, Fell refused to show mercy and chose to attempt vivisection on Rex. Returning years later in a tie-in comic where he has continued his EVO experiments as a rogue operative, Fell tries to dissect a captive Circe and nearly kills multiple Providence agents for stopping him. Fell's final appearance sees him wreaking havoc in a city with a giant robot.
Van Kleiss seems to get some of this, mainly from fans who view White Knight as much more villainous.
It's lessened as Van Kleiss has crossed the Moral Event Horizon more and more and White has gone Defrosting Ice Queen (not to mention his replacement, Black Knight, being even worse than him, and his being kicked out of Providence giving him further Character Development.
Breach gets this treatment also. She's sympathetic and gets a Heel–Face Turn, but that doesn't just change the fact that she's a psycho who has done some really messed-up things.
Now it seems that Gatlocke may be becoming one of these. This is likely due to Crazy Is Cool and his Foe Romance Subtext with Rex.
The Jungle Cat EVO, Nightshadow, had a decent following even though he was killed at the end of his debut. His return later on in the show was praised especially as he was fleshed out more.
"Sleevespace" seems to be the popular term for the sleeves in which Six keeps his fold-out katanas.
In the final episode Rex empowers himself with the Omega Nanite with the appearance of a blue-colored robotic giant, granting him the name "Omega Rex".
Faux Symbolism: The remains of Breach's restraints in "Breach" look suspiciously like a broken heart.
Growing the Beard: Many feel that the show has been getting better since the second half of season 1 started.
Harsher in Hindsight: At the end of "A Family Holiday," after Six nearly dies, he and Rex have a Heartwarming Moment in which Rex tells him, rather affectionately, never to do anything like that again. Seems like a throwaway line until "Six Minus Six," when we see what happens the next time Six jams his magnetized blades into a machine.
He's Just Hiding: This pops up every time Van Kleiss apparently dies, due to obvious reasons, but the best example is Breach. When you apparently kill off the Ensemble Dark Horse, you better believe this'll happen! Note that while Dr. Holiday is skeptical that she's dead, Van Kleiss seems to have moved on and is looking for a replacement.
Rex and Noah are extremely touchy-feely for two supposedly platonic best friends.
Gatlocke and Rex. Every other sentence in Gatlocke's fight with Rex was something among the lines of "Oh, I like that!" or "I've got a serious case of Evo-envy!"
Claire and Annie are two girls who enjoy being together all the time.
In "The Swarm", the population of Beijing is said to be around 15 million. As a quick reference, the population of Beijing at the time the show was made was around 19 million... yikes! It puts into perspective just how bad the world there actually is...
To make it worse, in "The Plague", a plague puts everyone in the world into a coma (except the E.V.Os). Rex outright acknowledges that a lot of people must have died when no one is around to pilot anything/control any disasters/etc. Rex can't cover the entire world, after all.
Kiev, Ukraine, aka the Bug Jar, all the E.V.O.s had been absorbed by Alpha, which could effectively mean that they're dead permanently seeing as any on-screen absorption had KILLED the victims. This also occurred during the Ben 10 crossover.
Jerkass Woobie: Breach gets this status in her title episode. Sure, she's an evil, possessive kidnapper, but when her pocket dimension is being trashed by Rex and the Creepy Girl, they're essentially tearing her mind apart. Regardless of the situation, you had to feel sorry for Breach there.
Van Kleiss is the ruthless yet briliant man responsible for the nanite disaster worldwide. Ruling his home nation of Abyssus, Van Kleiss wastes little time in becoming Rex's arch-nemesis by scheming to use Rex as his pawn. When he brings the young Circe into his circle, Van Kleiss plays on her feelings for Rex to use the both of them while constantly outwitting Rex and his organization, even almost taking over the United Nations. Even after losing his abilities to Rex, Van Kleiss simply responds by using a spy to infiltrate Providence and absorb Rex's nanites to not only restore his lost abilities but gain new ones. When sent back through time, Van Kleiss time and time again bends history to his will by manipulating each great human civilisation all across time into doing his biding. Van Kleiss even manipulates Roman Emperor Septimus Severus into allowing him free scientific reign after impressing him. Returning to the present, Van Kleiss feigns insanity to trick Black Knight and the others into lowering their guards, while he secretly helps set up a plan to absorb the powers of the meta-nanites. Eventually betraying everyone, Van Kleiss reveals that after he absorbs the powers of Meta-nanites that he will become a god, and ends the series implied to one day return to power once more.
Black Knight is one of the first Evos in existence and the Big Bad of season 3. A cool collected woman, Black Knight acts as main enforcer for the Consortium and helps them in their quests to gather all the Meta-nanites and become gods. Preferring affable manipulation to violence, Black Knight almost convinces Rex to join her. Black Knight is a master at playing people against each other to get what she wants, and is even able to break the trust of the heroes using shapeshifter John Scarecrow. When Black Knight discovers that a member of the Consortium plans to replace her, she instead kills him and pins the blame on the heroes to become a Consortium member. Disabling Rex's powers using a power damping Evo, Black Knight ultimately succeeds in upgrading herself and the rest of the Consortium into godlike biomechanical Evos who very nearly end up in control of the entire world before Rex defeats them. Black Knight is ultimately able to escape while plotting to return to her former glory once more.
Jungle Cat was once a member of the Pack who Van Kleiss betrayed and turned into a statue. Through sheer force of will, Jungle Cat is able to break free and sets about revenge on Van Kleiss. A charming master of spying and covert operations, Jungle Cat uses voice mimicking to either play Providence against each other or lure the heroes into traps. Jungle Cat even finds a way to disable the base's defenses and later nearly defeats both Rex and White Knight in battle. Deciding to join forces with Rex, Jungle Cat later helps devise a plan to break into Providence and acquires the information needed to find and help capture the Consortium's Meta-nanite, holding his own against the Mooks of the Consortium and helping ensure his allies safe retreat.
"Divide By Six": Dos is the second most dangerous man in the world and charismatic de facto leader of the assassins known as the Six. After his mentor One is turned into an Evo, Dos and the others test and capture Rex to see if he's potentially of use in curing his mentor. When it's discovered his mentor One is incurable, Dos plans to Mercy Kill him so he doesn't need to live like this and clashes with Rex and Six, who plan to stop him. Dos is able to hold his own against them despite not not having powers of his own through cunning tricks like sleep powder. A Master Swordsman, Dos is so good that it requires both Rex and Six to work together in order to defeat them and is even able to still hold them off.
Providence under Black Knight crosses it in "Back in Black" when they employ Mind Control technology to deal with EVOs, even sapient ones.
Van Kleiss' treatment of Breach is definitely this for him.
Nightmare Retardant: The series is pretty on-and-off on how seriously it treats its premise (which honestly sounds like something from a post-apocalyptic horror movie), but it definitely butts heads when the hero is fighting Lovecraftian horrors to a rock theme and stock sound effects.
The Nanites. In the show's universe, they're everywhere, in everyone, and at any second you or someone you know could end up an EVO. Even worse, nanites infested every living thing. Meaning anything from algae colonies on up to trees and animals (this actually happens!) could turn into an Eldritch Abomination out to waste you. Suddenly your backyard looks a little more worrying...
It makes one wonder what would happen if something like a tardigrade or a mantisshrimp ended up becoming an EVO.
Or if the symbiotic bacteria that live in someone's gut suddenly went EVO without the person going EVO... considering how EVOs tend to get big and go on destructive rampages... *shudder*
Eggs are a reproductive cell, so there's the horror of the implication of reproductive cells going EVO. But then this is taken a step further. It's common practice for some egg farms to incubate all their eggs for 3 days after Laying, those that show any kind of development get sent to hatcheries, those that don't get sent to market. it's not uncommon for a developing egg to slip into the market batch (it's not unheard of to find half-developed chicks in grocery store eggs). So think of the implications if this practice is still in play in the Generator Rex universe. Those eggs seen in "Moonlighting" could have been EMBRYOS. Think of a world where embryos could go EVO at any point in their development.
Then consider the implications of a pregnant mother going EVO. What happens to the fetus?
What happens when the fetus goes EVO and the mother doesn't?
Despite Circe and the rest of the Hong Kong gang denying it, they do seem to get awfully close to each other WHILE they're proclaiming themselves as 'just friends.' It helped that the boys decided to make their move after it, though.
Certainly intentional, as the Running Gag in that episode was basically them confusing the hell out of Rex.
Then Played Straight, because in that episode, Circe was trying to get over her troubled past life, changing her appearance, and flirting with Skwydd, when Rex brought up their past, she got a little upset, and by the end of the episode, it appears She and Skwydd are going to become an item, and she seems to end her relationship with Rex. In later episodes, her appearance is back to normal, and she still likes Rex, her relationship to Skwydd is never brought up, outside of a throwaway line where he tells her to escape and leave them.
Questionable Casting: Fans were confused at first about John Cena getting a voice acting role, although he actually did a pretty good job. Sadly a case of voice-actor We Hardly Knew Ye, as Cena was replaced by John DiMaggio in subsequent episodes.
White Knight was somewhat divisive among some of the fanbase until "Plague", when he helps Rex and gives out some relatively justifiable reasons for being so distant and bitter, while also accumulating some cool moments.
Recent events have just made things better for him, seeing as he receives further Character Development and Pet the Dog moments.
Between the "contain or kill to protect humanity" mentality of Providence and the fact that several of its members are morally grey, one could argue that this is the closest thing we have to an Animated Adaptation of the SCP Foundation. Adding to the similarities is the detail that many of the EVOs are basically treated like SCPs in the Generator Rex setting in that they are either contained, neutralized (Rex's curing serving as the EVO equivalent of an SCP losing its anomalous properties within the storyline) or, only as a last resort, killed.
The show has also been compared it as Lighter and Softer version of [PROTOTYPE], which was published a year before and included a main character with similar powers.
Squick: Rex's reaction after he cures the first monster, and the old guy hugs him. The naked old guy.
Circe's face when she's using her powers. Borders on Nightmare Fuel.
Rex's nanite overload and the nanite monster in "Frostbite".
A bit of unintentional squick that, hopefully, the creators only did by accident. ZAG-RS is programmed with the voice of Rex's late mother. He also has the hots for Doctor Holiday. Both are voiced by Grey DeLisle. So, when you think about it Rex has the hots for a chick who sounds exactly like his mother.
In Heroes United, Ben uses Upgrade to merge with Rex, becoming a full-body suit inside and out. One hopes his tactile sensation as Upgrade is rather low.
In the episode "Plague," Rex realizes White Knight's mech was designed to fight him specifically, and White Knight answers in resignation at the realize he's alone:
White Knight: "I don't trust anything with nanites."
Rex: EVERYTHING HAS NANITES!
White Knight: ... Everything but me.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: After being cured, Beverly, Doc Holiday's little sister, ceased to be important until the filler episode "Rock My World" and even then it wasn't a big role. Considering that Rex got over his crush on Doctor Holiday because Beverly was closer to his age, she could've served as a non-EVO love interest for Rex or even become a trio with him and Noah.
In "Six Minus Six", Agent Six loses six years worth of memories, causing him revert back to the brash and irresponsible mercenary he was before the Nanite Event and the episode ends without his memories being restored. Despite this, Six reverts back to his normal, stoic personality in the next episode and continues to act almost no differently then he did before his amnesia for the rest of the series.
"Operation: Wingman": Who else thought that Annie was the EVO-Bunny, and all of her "accidents" during the date were genuine attempts to kill Rex? Jossed since it was stated that she's like that with every date, but still...
Rex's two giant robot builds. The first form is obscured in shadows and is only alluded to about twice in the series outside of flashbacks. He never uses it. It would have been nice to have a few episodes showing Rex being forced to use it in a desperate situation, and fully considering the ramifications of it, rather than seemingly rushing it in the final episode. His second giant build seems to be less a full use of all builds than a generic giant robot, which doesn't use any of his Omega-Nanite builds.
Trapped by Mountain Lions: In "Breach", while Rex is trapped in Breach's personal pocket dimension and Holiday is desperately trying to get him out, Six and Bobo spend the episode fighting EVO scorpions in the desert, which only really intersects with the main plot for a quick Deus ex Machina on their end.
The Woobie: Given what kind of world the series takes place in, expect a few of these.
Holiday after we find out what happened to her sister, especially in "A Family Holiday."
"Lions and Lambs" turns Breach (formerly a Jerkass Woobie) into a full-on Woobie. Oh so very much.
