Invincible (Amazon Series)

Cecil's interesting becaue he's the kind of guy who would commit genocide and the most you could say is that he'd feel really shitty about it. The problem with Cecil is that we don't know what his limits are. We don't know what lines he wouldn't cross if push came to shove. He seems to be the type who could rationalize away literally anything.

Edited by GNinja on Mar 24th 2024 at 5:30:52 PM

Cecil's honestly fascinating as a result. He seems to genuinely care about people, but be kinda shitty about it because he also is hyper focused on saving the world and will make horrible calls for it. He seems to genuinely care about Debbie, but he also cares about having a Viltrumite kid not be a threat to Earth. In terms of gray morality he's really well done.

And in the comics at least, it's made increasingly clear that Cecil's approach isn't really the right one. He's not an all knowing Big Good who knows what's best all the time. He's just another flawed person trying his best.

This adaptation's take on Cecil does seem to be a bit more self-aware of this than the comics' Cecil at any rate.

Edited by M84 on Mar 24th 2024 at 11:24:16 PM

I was thinking if just any one of the new Guardians Heavy hitters had been there to counter Komodo Dragon how differently it would have gone.

Then I rewatched the original Guardians fight against the Lizard league in Atom Eve's episode. They had The Immortal, War Woman, Aquarius, Black Samson and the original Green Ghost in the fight and they were still hard pressed enough to call in Omni-Man

Komodo Dragon and similarly built female mook were going toe to toe with The Immortal and War Woman.

Not sure how the Lizard League got a rep as such a joke.

Probably all the infighting and squabbling. They might pack an arsenal, but their motivation is largely junk.

Though that's true of a lot of super villains in this setting.

Could be the theme too. Reptile villains are seen as silly, at least out of universe.

It could also be that they (unfortunately for them) only fought against heavy hitters in the past. That means that the amount of damage they did was probably way smaller than it could have been.

It's like a villain who for a while only fought Superman. In every fight, as soon as Superman stopped holding back, they would go down in three or four punches. So, they get a reputation of having a glass jaw compared to some other Superman villains. Then, the first time they fight any other hero, people realize that someone who can even survive a few punches for an unfettered Superman is basically an unstoppable monster to everyone else.

Edited by Freshwater on Mar 26th 2024 at 8:10:41 AM

Or like how Batroc the Leaper got a rep for being weak because he kept losing to Captain America. Only to prove that someone who can last for a while against Captain America — a bonafide supersoldier boosted to peak human ability who has decades of combat experience — is actually pretty damn formidable.

Or like how The Shocker was considered a joke because he kept losing to Spider-Man but proved to be quite dangerous to anyone not as skilled or strong as Spidey.

Edited by M84 on Mar 26th 2024 at 11:33:23 PM

Exactly.

I feel like the fight also shows why superhero teams need people in different weight classes and with different abilities. No matter how much she trains, Rae will never be able to fight Komodo or deflect a meteor. But on the flipside, no matter how much Mark trains his powers there will still be villains and problems he can't overcome. Like he'll never be able to disarm an implanted heart bomb or fix microscopic electronic the way Shrinking Rae might be able to.

Edited by Freshwater on Mar 26th 2024 at 10:45:03 AM

Part of it might be that they're led by Lizard King, a character whose superpower seems to be "has a gun." Not even particularly good with it. Just has one.

He managed to fatally shoot Supreme Lizard from a pretty far distance. Maybe he's just farsighted.

Rex's survival seems more to do with him being Made of Iron than King Lizard being especially incompetent. (Beyond not double-tapping/shooting again when Rex got up)

The bullet must have chunked up the whole right lobe of Rex's brain, didn't look like he just grazed him or something, there's a hole right though.

Edited by dcutter2 on Mar 27th 2024 at 2:55:11 PM

Rex actually has low level Super-Strength in the comics, doesn’t he?

It’s not elaborated on in the show, but he did take that beating from Monster-Girl so he’s gotta have some physical buffing going on.

He was augmented when his family sold him for money, yeah.

Huh, that does partially answer sonething I've been wondering does Rudy have splode powers? Any augmentations may or may not pass genetically during cloning.

It'd be interesting if some countered all Robots usual things and then get blindsided by explosive pocket change or whatever.

To add insult to injury when he found his way back to his family he saw that his parents had already had new kids and forgotten about him.

The comics narration of his origin even points out that it's no wonder he's kind of a jerk.

Edited by M84 on Mar 27th 2024 at 11:06:56 PM

Pretty straightforward episode. Rex has his new cyborg arm, Anissa shows up, Mark and Amber break up, and Angstrom is menacing Debbie and Oliver in the cliffhanger as a set-up for the season finale.

Also there's a cute little Doctor Who nod with One of the students dressed up as the 13th Doctor

The way they adapted the "reusing art" gag from the comics was fucking brilliant.

Also holy fuck Anissa is terrifying. I can already see a bunch of people making dommy mommy memes about her that they'll regret later .

In regards to the Lizard League, I think a big part of why they're considered a joke is a mixture of A.) them usually being up against super-teams with heavy hitters who can easily counter them and B.) Komodo Dragon being pretty much the only especially powerful one. King Lizard, Salamander, and Iguana are only especially dangerous to normals. Komodo hard carried the fight with the Guardian skeleton crew; Salamander died before he could even do anything, Rex blew Iguana in half pretty easily once he stopped holding back, and King Lizard is blatantly a Non-Action Big Bad. Komodo was obviously the Hyper-Competent Sidekick of the group.

Does seem kinda weird that the villain teams are so... Intact? In a verse without a very hard no killing rule.

Anissa's here.

Much, much fear.

Her VA is killing it though. Props and I feel bad she had to play this character.

And catching up, man I forgot Allen had the Saiyan thing going for him. For a universe that feels bleak and Lovecraftian (Viltrumites > every other little problem on Earth), I freaking can't wait to see Allen genuinely tune up people like Kregg.

Once Thragg and Conquest show up though oh boy

Okay so viltrumite power levels are just all over the place. So Anissa is much more powerful than Nolan and Thula? The latter of which who Mark held is own with once he got his head in the game.

They got Rex back on his feet from his brains shot out really quickly and heh. His armblaster uses spidey's webshooter trigger.

Did Mark and Amber just break up?

Mark and Amber are donezo.

Annisa isn't stronger than Nolan. She's faster, but not stronger.

Anissa has shown up.

Oooooooh no. Oh nonononononono NO.

What scares me about her (for now, until we get that scene) is that she is a genuine believer in the empire’s propaganda. She really thinks imposing a tyrannical dictatorship on the world will make it better.