Tropes
- An Aesop: Just because something seems beneath you doesn't mean you should turn the other way. Nolan asserts that Mark should be protecting Earth from world-ending threats instead of dealing with low-level villains like Machine Head whom Nolan deems beneath him, while Debbie counsels Mark that helping others should never be beneath him.
- Bait-and-Switch: During the opening, Titan decimates a rival gang. He then relays a message for one of them to deliver to their boss to stay out of his own boss's turf... before killing him. What looks like a pointless Pre-Mortem One-Liner moment is revealed to not be the case, as he was talking to the Sole Survivor behind him while encouraging him to leave the gang life.
- Because I'm Good At It: Machine Head decides to strong arm Titan because he is "too good" of a hired thug to let go, even after he paid his debt.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Guardians appear to aid Mark and Titan after they're beat down by Machine Head's goons. It almost turns into a complete failure when Battle Beast proves far more than any of them can handle, and they only manage to carry the day because he gets bored and leaves voluntarily.
- Big "NO!": Robot delivers this when seeing Monster Girl devastated by Battle Beast.
- Bridal Carry: Titan shows Invincible around the corrupt city to convince him to help bring down Machine Head. Since Titan can't fly and need to shave some time traveling, Invincible has to carry him around mid-flight. Neither of them are happy about it.
- Bystander Syndrome: Nolan invokes this by watching Mark handle some dangerous situations by himself. A Freeze-Frame Bonus shows a speck in the sky through Machine Head's office roof, soon revealing that Nolan is still watching from above instead of helping his son in his time of need.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- The gang Titan faces in the opening has more than enough firepower to hold him back, but not enough to do real damage. Titan proceeds to kill all but one of them.
- Coinciding with Titan’s scenes, Invincible is shown delivering this to several villains on separate occasions.
- Invincible and Titan vs Machine Head’s hired guns. The duo lose. Badly. Mark actually manages to put up a fight against most of the villains, but then he attracts Battle Beast’s attention and gets beaten back into the ground.
- Battle Beast delivers a thorough beating to Mark, Black Samson, and Monster Girl, brutally maiming them and forcing them on life support. He swats the other Guardians too, but thankfully not enough to really get his attention.
- Didn't See That Coming: At first, the chip Machine Head had Titan steal allows him to anticipate every probability, starting with Titan and Invincible showing up to bring him him. He counters by having Isotope summon multiple villains to back him up. The only thing he didn't see coming is the new Guardians having the Heroic Second Wind to fight back and winning. That, and his ally Isotope bailing on him.
- Did Not Think This Through: Black Samson attempts to back up Invincible, already forgetting that Battle Beast nearly killed him. Battle Beast gives him a brutal reminder why he is outclassed, especially since he ditches his armor beforehand.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Isotope abandons Machine Head in favor of Titan near the end of the episode.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While not as evil as his boss, Titan is a hired man who is only working and borrowing money for his wife and daughter, and is Trapped in Villainy when Machine Head threatens them. When he replaces Machine Head as the new gang boss following the latter's arrest, he vows to make the city better for his family.
- Gorn: Battle Beast paints the floors and walls with the blood of Invincible, Black Samson and Monster Girl. Mark gets his stomach caved in, Samson gets his arm snapped like a twig before getting thrown like a ragdoll, and Monster Girl gets her face bashed in hard enough that her monster’s form’s skull is visible.
- Heroic Second Wind: Robot, Rex Splode, and Shrinking Rae beat Machine Head's crew to avenge Invincible, Black Samson, and Monster Girl. If only because Battle Beast chose to stand in the sidelines since it would be too easy to beat them all at once by himself.
- Irony:
- Nolan warns Mark that trying to help resolve small crimes instead of focusing on saving the world can lead to serious consequences. In a way, he's proven right be the end of the episode. While the crime boss Machine Head is defeated, Mark and half of the new Guardians are seriously injured because they weren't prepared for powerful backup.
- Black Samson warns his fellow Guardians that they were acting less of a team during their fight against the Lizard League, leading to a Pyrrhic Victory with serious collateral damage. This is especially true when they were beaten by Machine Head's crew. After seeing half of the team nearly decimated, their resolve allows the rest to become an actual team and turn the tables despite being outnumbered (and the crew's strongest member no longer interested in the fray).
- MacGuffin: Debbie finds Damien Darkblood's notebook (stashed there in the previous episode, albeit off-screen) containing clues that would connect Nolan with his murder of the original Guardians, and takes it upon herself to investigate.
- Make Up or Break Up:
- Mark wants to hold on to his relationship with Amber without revealing his hero side, but his frequent tardiness and excuses are making things difficult, leading her to consider breaking things off. Amber gives Mark one last chance by helping her do volunteer work at a community center, but he is unfortunately preoccupied with his fight with Machine Head. When Eve, who joins Amber, receives news of the fight’s aftermath, she assures Amber that Mark still loves her, leaving their relationship in the air.
- When Eve tells her parents about what happened between her and Rex, they try to convince her to make things up with him because they thought she would be with the team for her own safety. Otherwise, they would tell her to give up on being a superhero. While Eve had already considered hanging up her costume, she doesn't take the ultimatum well and storms out, planning to permanently move out later.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Battle Beast ends up the last man on his side standing, but he leaves after dumping the strongest heroes there on the floor, claiming there’s "there is no honor in killing insects."
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: While Invincible and the other heroes at least stand a chance and overpower Machine Head's crew, the same can't be said when they all face Battle Beast, with Invincible, Black Samson, and Monster Girl gravely injured.
- No-Sell:
- Mark is busy texting Amber while a villain throws numerous objects at him. All it does is annoy him.
- Battle Beast suffers nothing more than a scratch when Invincible and the rest of the Guardians fight him. Monster Girl managed to get a few hits in and stagger him, but it immediately gets her a much more vicious beating with Battle Beast no worst for wear.
- Offhand Backhand: Battle Beast incapacitates Shrinking Rae with this.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: When the Guardians take a good look at their downed comrades, Rex delivers this line before they turn things around.Rex: You guys just messed up.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Machine Head agrees that he lacks the personal strength to fight Titan and Invincible. Which is why he pays other villains to do the work for him.
- Stalker Shot: When Battle Beast sends Mark flying up through Machine Head's office roof, the scene cuts outside to Machine Head's building and as the camera zooms out we get a partial view of Nolan watching Mark's fight.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: When Mark asks Nolan for advice in taking out a crime-lord for the good of the impoverished and middle-class, Nolan thinks that it would be "beneath" his powers to bother about street-level problems, more concerned with macro-scale problems like aliens, monsters and other world-ending threats. Debbie convinces him to help because he would still be doing the right thing regardless on the number of lives it saves and how it saves them.
- The Stinger: After recovering Mark, Cecil has scientists get some of his Viltrumite blood for "insurance". His assistant Donald visits and learns that the blood is resistant to many conventional means. Donald says to keep trying as the blood may hold something they can use.
- Too Dumb to Live: All of the members of a rival gang Titan targeted are this. Some are killed by him directly, while another dies by his own bullet that was shot at him, only to be deflected. The only one left standing besides Titan is a young boy with a shotgun. He plays this trope straight as well when told to leave before he gets hurt. Even after doing a bit of damage with a gunshot, Titan restrains himself and orders the boy to leave before he attacks him too.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Machine Head's right hand man, Isotope, disappears before he can invoke this himself to escape. He gets knocked out by Rex shortly after.
- Villains Never Lie: Titan asks for Invincible's help in bringing down Machine Head to clean up the city. When the dust settles, he takes over as the new boss. Isotope assumes Titan lied to get Invincible's attention, but Titan says that he simply told him the truth about the city's corruption. While it's not clear what his plan is, he really means that he will make the city better, especially since his family's well-being is his greatest priority.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- The New Guardians celebrate a job well done in beating the Lizard League, but Black Samson criticizes them for failing to minimize collateral damage. Monster Girl and Rex for not saving a bus full of people, Dupli-Kate for not multiplying herself enough to prevent the League from turning people into snakes, and Shrink Rae for not disabling the weapon used.
- Debbie lays it on Nolan about his thought that helping the little people is not worth the effort, especially since she taught her husband about Earth's value when they first met.
