mark was getting clobbered by fucking maulers 3 episodes ago now he’s able to beat a full grown soldier viltrumite that’s been conquering worlds for millennia just because he “stopped holding back”. Even Nolan who got hospitalized by the guardians while soloing them, only suffered a cut on his head fighting THREE viltrumites!!! Just makes them look weak in comparison. I feel like they shouldn’t even have any chance winning that battle at all, not alone surviving in better condition than against way weaker foes
Except mark has shown to be way stronger than just 2/3x maulers and could’ve easily got them off him without killing them, idk why peoples excuse is just “he’s holding back” holding back doesn’t mean you sit there and take a beating when you’re clearly taking damage. He could’ve just gotten them off him if he’s suppose to be strong enough to take a viltrumite in 3 episodes into the future
Okay, there are two types of holding back. There is,
Conscious holding back. This is, for example, with say Superman or Spider-Man against normal thugs. They have to consciously pull their punches or else they are going to cave someone’s skull in. Then there’s,
Unconscious holding back. This is when someone calls on way more strength than they believed originally had in a moment of crisis. This is like in Spider-Man Homecoming when Peter gets trapped by the rubble and is calling for help. He’s not choosing not to lift it. He just believes that he’s at his limit and genuienly can’t lift it. This holding back generally leads to a rush of insane strength when they finally stop holding back since he didn’t know he was that strong before.
Mark’s is the second type. He didn’t know he was that strong against the Maulers. He thought he was genuinely outgunned. But if it took three Viltrumites to go after Nolan, then it’s safe to assume he’s stronger than the others. So it stands to reason that Mark, even an inexperienced one, can call on immense strength. We also see him and Mark switching off, so Nolan was beating on her too. On top of that, he still lost. Whether he had her beat or not, he still needed Nolan’s help at the end to not die.