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** It's also mentioned by The Immortal that Mark had stopped visiting, which is part of what led to his madness as no other individuals were able to relate to him. Given that Atom Eve is as immortal as The Immortal, we can presume she also had stopped visiting. We also see that Mark refers to his peoples' galactic state as the Viltrumite Empire centuries into the future, and that it eventually supplants the Coalition of Planets after a war between them due to the COP becoming little more than a protection racket propping up powerful dying worlds. It's also unclear if Mark left The Immortal Robot's brain in a jar in this timeline. However, if it is a stable time loop, causality dictated that he never had a choice in these actions and that the future was always set in stone. If it's not a stable time loop, it's quite plausible that Earth is a part of the Viltrumite Empire. By the 2010s, Robot was able to construct a spacecraft that could reach the sun in a matter of hours at most and even withstand the temperatures for a short time on the surface of the Sun, meaning that by the 2500s Earth has had intergalactic travel ability and knowledge for over five hundred years. Earth's seemingly-secluded place in the galaxy in the future, given that the Viltrumite Empire would likely do something about a planetary genocidal tyrant, indicates that it is unlikely for the same galactic government systems to be in place. The COP were aware of Earth long before the plot began and would have likely integrated Earth into their government centuries prior to Mark's trip into the future if they were still around without Earth being marked for Viltrumite colonization, especially with Allen at the helm. All of this indicates that while Mark left Earth with his family and empire as stated, the galactic situation is far bleaker than it is in the main timeline. Also, the mad king Immortal says that he's attempted suicide numerous times and always failed, indicating that Earth under him lacks the ability to go to the Sun still, as this would be more than enough to finish off The Immortal. His healing powers require his pieces to be reassembled, and the Sun would literally atomize him. No amount of martyr hero worship or "we must bring back our king" could ever hope to undo that, as billions of specific atoms would have to be retrieved from the Sun in order to rebuild him. This suggests that the final battle with Thragg was extremely different, as otherwise "travel to the Sun" tech would be centuries old.
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** However, it is also shown repeatedly that his attempts to embrace his superhero side tend to backfire. Numerous times, D.A. Sinclair's Re-Animen manage to be the deciding factor in battles for the safety of Earth. While Mark is initially horrified by Cecil's recruitment of Sinclair, it ends up being the first in a long ongoing lesson in how supervillains are created by material conditions, particularly when scientists and engineers lack the funds and support for their projects and attempt to prove that their ideas are sound. Robot directly explains this concept during his takeover, and is proven to have been right on this matter from there on by the reformation of numerous former criminals, including the Maulers, who help save survivors of Marky's panic rampage. Mark himself comes to understand this when he stops an engineer who had invented a gravity gun without so much as a high school education while the man had just robbed a bank. Once Mark gives him a pass on that, and then explains he can't just sell his tech to any random buyer, the man is given an extremely well-paying position as a coworker and equal of Sinclair, although Mark at first overgeneralizes the lesson and fails to recognize exceptions born of atypical mental states. Additionally, his refusal to kill due to buying into traditional concepts of superheroics causes numerous deaths, as well as almost causing the extinction or enslavement of humanity, Viltrumites, or most sapient life in the galaxy occasionally. It's only once he views war as a soldier rather than a hero is he able to save both of his peoples, as well as the Coalition of Planets. Meanwhile, his father's embrace of a more heroic mindset due to his newfound humanity ultimately leads to both the death of Oliver, as well as Nolan's own death. The death of Oliver also is what finally firmly cements Mark's perspective on heroics, showing an implicit understanding of how he ended up in that situation. While Mark is a terrible superhero, a good superhero would have never been able to stop Thragg and would have led to the enslavement of the twin galaxies by the New Viltrumite Empire.
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** We can infer that it's not the same timeline, though. Immortal said that Mark took his family and left the planet. But Mark's son, Marky, is still on the planet in the final issue's timeline. Likewise, it's implied that the Earth has started to venture into the galactic community. Additionally, the Immortal's descent into madness happened several hundred years after a "great disaster." Exactly the sort of thing that Mark's new Viltrumite empire would intercede in. That said, the Immortal was also forgetting things and had gone insane, so he might have for example, confused Mark with Marky, and the whole bad timeline could be even further off in the future than we suspect.
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* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal has gone insane from his long leadership over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal has gone insane from his long leadership over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
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* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal has gone insane from his long leadership over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn
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* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal has gone insane from his long leadership over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
** This is discussed in the last issue's letter section - according to Kirkman, Mark assumed Robot's brain would keep the Immortal from going crazy, since when he does travel into the future, Robot's brain is nowhere to be found.
*** Fridge Horror with this above reply: What if the Robot's brain helped, and then sometime in the future, the Robot's brain ceased to function and leading to the Immortal to go insane as a result? Essentially, Mark may have inadvertently sustained a stable time loop and not know it.
** This is discussed in the last issue's letter section - according to Kirkman, Mark assumed Robot's brain would keep the Immortal from going crazy, since when he does travel into the future, Robot's brain is nowhere to be found.
*** Fridge Horror with this above reply: What if the Robot's brain helped, and then sometime in the future, the Robot's brain ceased to function and leading to the Immortal to go insane as a result? Essentially, Mark may have inadvertently sustained a stable time loop and not know it.
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* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal has gone insane from his long leadership over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
** This is discussed in the last issue's letter section - according to Kirkman, Mark assumed Robot's brain would keep the Immortal from going crazy, since when he does travel into the future, Robot's brain is nowhere to be found.
*** Fridge Horror with this above reply: What if the Robot's brain helped, and then sometime in the future, the Robot's brain ceased to function and leading to the Immortal to go insane as a result? Essentially, Mark may have inadvertently sustained a stable time loop and not know it.out?
** This is discussed in the last issue's letter section - according to Kirkman, Mark assumed Robot's brain would keep the Immortal from going crazy, since when he does travel into the future, Robot's brain is nowhere to be found.
*** Fridge Horror with this above reply: What if the Robot's brain helped, and then sometime in the future, the Robot's brain ceased to function and leading to the Immortal to go insane as a result? Essentially, Mark may have inadvertently sustained a stable time loop and not know it.
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** This is discussed in the last issue's letter section - according to Kirkman, Mark assumed Robot's brain would keep the Immortal from going crazy, since when he does travel into the future, Robot's brain is nowhere to be found.
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** This is discussed in the last issue's letter section - according to Kirkman, Mark assumed Robot's brain would keep the Immortal from going crazy, since when he does travel into the future, Robot's brain is nowhere to be found.found.
*** Fridge Horror with this above reply: What if the Robot's brain helped, and then sometime in the future, the Robot's brain ceased to function and leading to the Immortal to go insane as a result? Essentially, Mark may have inadvertently sustained a stable time loop and not know it.
*** Fridge Horror with this above reply: What if the Robot's brain helped, and then sometime in the future, the Robot's brain ceased to function and leading to the Immortal to go insane as a result? Essentially, Mark may have inadvertently sustained a stable time loop and not know it.
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Changed line(s) 13 (click to see context) from:
* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal has gone insane from his long leadership over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
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* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal has gone insane from his long leadership over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?out?
** This is discussed in the last issue's letter section - according to Kirkman, Mark assumed Robot's brain would keep the Immortal from going crazy, since when he does travel into the future, Robot's brain is nowhere to be found.
** This is discussed in the last issue's letter section - according to Kirkman, Mark assumed Robot's brain would keep the Immortal from going crazy, since when he does travel into the future, Robot's brain is nowhere to be found.
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Changed line(s) 13 (click to see context) from:
* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal as gone insane from his leadership and long life over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
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* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal as has gone insane from his long leadership and long life over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
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** Put simply, intentional or not, Kirkman shows Mark to be a decent person who grows up into a good leader, but is ultimately a terrible superhero. Since he slowly loses his connection to humanity as a whole, he focuses instead on people who matter to him personally, namely his family and the Viltrumites. Superheroes are generally meant to be altruistic individuals who put helping others above their personal happiness (though not to the exclusion of said happiness), and Mark just isn't cut out for that. Ultimately, he prioritizes the well-being of certain people over others, which is something a superhero cannot do.
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** Put simply, intentional or not, Kirkman shows Mark to be a decent person who grows up into a good leader, but is ultimately a terrible superhero. Since he slowly loses his connection to humanity as a whole, he focuses instead on people who matter to him personally, namely his family and the Viltrumites. Superheroes are generally meant to be altruistic individuals who put helping others above their personal happiness (though not to the exclusion of said happiness), and Mark just isn't cut out for that. Ultimately, he prioritizes the well-being of certain people over others, which is something a superhero cannot do.do.
[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal as gone insane from his leadership and long life over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* At the end of the series, Mark decides to destroy Robot's body and gives the Immortal effective rulership of the world with Robot's brain to act as advisor. However Mark already went to the future at an earlier point to discover the Immortal as gone insane from his leadership and long life over Earth after Mark left and has become a suicidal tyrant launching ritual genocides in the hopes that someone will kill him at last, which Mark finally does. This is essentially a time loop. Why on Earth would Mark choose to make the Immortal the Earth's ruler knowing how badly it would turn out?
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[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
* Intentional or not, Robert Kirkman's Invincible series shows why a secret identity is vital to being a superhero. Mark starts out as a typical superhero, having a day job, a normal human girlfriend, normal friends, going to school, etc. But over the course of the series:
** Rather than juggle college and being a superhero, Mark simply quits school. He also quits his day job and starts working directly for his universe's equivalent of SHIELD. He later gets a job essentially working as a Hero For Hire. As a result, Mark has no real interactions with normal human co-workers, never develops a non-superhero supporting cast, and his only interactions become other superheroes and aliens.
** As a result of not maintaining any ties to normal people, Mark eventually breaks up with his normal girlfriend and dates Atom Eve exclusively. His also gradually stops interacting with his only normal friend William. The two get phased out of his life, and he never makes any real effort to reintegrate them into his life.
** As a result of losing his connection with normal people, Mark loses the perspective of a normal man. This allows him to go down some fairly dark paths and to make some incredibly poor decisions, such as a willing to murder as a quick solution, deciding to help Dinosaurus, being okay with simply abandoning Earth several times, etc. Mark finds it easy to lose a human perspective because he loses anything to ground him in a normal human life.
** As a result of his job under Cecil, Mark gets used to taking orders from people in authority, and gets used to following other people's directions, including Dinosaurus, which leads to disaster. And when that trust gets betrayed, Mark tends to react badly, lashing out angrily at those in authority and making the situation worse. He never really figures out how to be a solo hero, but also never really figures out how to work well with others. He winds up becoming an okay follower, a sub-par team-player and poor solo operator. It takes him years of effort during a time-skip to eventually become a decent leader.
** Because he never really learns to work on his own, Mark never really developed the kind of cleverness most heroes develop over a similar career. He tends to rely on brute force to win most of his fights, with the occasional attempts at diplomacy. He never really develops any brick tricks or how to make use of his powers beyond simply punching the thing in front of him to death.
** Thanks to his over-reliance on brute force, Mark never really learns to plan ahead, consider the consequences of his actions, and continually makes very poor decisions. He constantly does things that end with him stranded in other places for months or years, and never really matures as a person. It takes becoming the leader of his people to really make him grow up.
** Because of his lack of human connection, Mark eventually becomes disenchanted with the whole superhero life-style, frequently decrying it as pointless. While never malicious towards normal people and not wanting people to get hurt, he becomes far more focused on things that matter to him personally, such as his family, threats to them, and the Viltrumite people. That doesn't make him a bad person, as families should be a priority, but he makes no effort to try and balance being a hero and being a family man. He just essentially stops caring about trying to use his powers to actively help others.
** Ironically, while being with humanity teaches the Viltrumites how to connect to other people, to care about others and grow emotionally attached to non-Viltrumites, Mark slowly loses his connection to people outside of his family and his species. The Viltrumites grow closer to humanity while Mark grows more distant from them.
** Put simply, intentional or not, Kirkman shows Mark to be a decent person who grows up into a good leader, but is ultimately a terrible superhero. Since he slowly loses his connection to humanity as a whole, he focuses instead on people who matter to him personally, namely his family and the Viltrumites. Superheroes are generally meant to be altruistic individuals who put helping others above their personal happiness (though not to the exclusion of said happiness), and Mark just isn't cut out for that. Ultimately, he prioritizes the well-being of certain people over others, which is something a superhero cannot do.
* Intentional or not, Robert Kirkman's Invincible series shows why a secret identity is vital to being a superhero. Mark starts out as a typical superhero, having a day job, a normal human girlfriend, normal friends, going to school, etc. But over the course of the series:
** Rather than juggle college and being a superhero, Mark simply quits school. He also quits his day job and starts working directly for his universe's equivalent of SHIELD. He later gets a job essentially working as a Hero For Hire. As a result, Mark has no real interactions with normal human co-workers, never develops a non-superhero supporting cast, and his only interactions become other superheroes and aliens.
** As a result of not maintaining any ties to normal people, Mark eventually breaks up with his normal girlfriend and dates Atom Eve exclusively. His also gradually stops interacting with his only normal friend William. The two get phased out of his life, and he never makes any real effort to reintegrate them into his life.
** As a result of losing his connection with normal people, Mark loses the perspective of a normal man. This allows him to go down some fairly dark paths and to make some incredibly poor decisions, such as a willing to murder as a quick solution, deciding to help Dinosaurus, being okay with simply abandoning Earth several times, etc. Mark finds it easy to lose a human perspective because he loses anything to ground him in a normal human life.
** As a result of his job under Cecil, Mark gets used to taking orders from people in authority, and gets used to following other people's directions, including Dinosaurus, which leads to disaster. And when that trust gets betrayed, Mark tends to react badly, lashing out angrily at those in authority and making the situation worse. He never really figures out how to be a solo hero, but also never really figures out how to work well with others. He winds up becoming an okay follower, a sub-par team-player and poor solo operator. It takes him years of effort during a time-skip to eventually become a decent leader.
** Because he never really learns to work on his own, Mark never really developed the kind of cleverness most heroes develop over a similar career. He tends to rely on brute force to win most of his fights, with the occasional attempts at diplomacy. He never really develops any brick tricks or how to make use of his powers beyond simply punching the thing in front of him to death.
** Thanks to his over-reliance on brute force, Mark never really learns to plan ahead, consider the consequences of his actions, and continually makes very poor decisions. He constantly does things that end with him stranded in other places for months or years, and never really matures as a person. It takes becoming the leader of his people to really make him grow up.
** Because of his lack of human connection, Mark eventually becomes disenchanted with the whole superhero life-style, frequently decrying it as pointless. While never malicious towards normal people and not wanting people to get hurt, he becomes far more focused on things that matter to him personally, such as his family, threats to them, and the Viltrumite people. That doesn't make him a bad person, as families should be a priority, but he makes no effort to try and balance being a hero and being a family man. He just essentially stops caring about trying to use his powers to actively help others.
** Ironically, while being with humanity teaches the Viltrumites how to connect to other people, to care about others and grow emotionally attached to non-Viltrumites, Mark slowly loses his connection to people outside of his family and his species. The Viltrumites grow closer to humanity while Mark grows more distant from them.
** Put simply, intentional or not, Kirkman shows Mark to be a decent person who grows up into a good leader, but is ultimately a terrible superhero. Since he slowly loses his connection to humanity as a whole, he focuses instead on people who matter to him personally, namely his family and the Viltrumites. Superheroes are generally meant to be altruistic individuals who put helping others above their personal happiness (though not to the exclusion of said happiness), and Mark just isn't cut out for that. Ultimately, he prioritizes the well-being of certain people over others, which is something a superhero cannot do.
