First of all, I wasn’t a huge fan of the fight. As someone who hasn’t read the comics and knows next to nothing about where the show will go, I still thought the fight was a lot less brutal than it could’ve been, especially after all the hype from Kirkman saying it would be bigger than anything in Season 1. I still enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a very fitting mid-season finale.
I fully reject the argument that the Viltrumites were made to “look weak” by the show-runners. The main argument seems to be that Mark took one of them out after being fucked up by other less powerful creatures before he was brought to Omni-Man, like the Atlantis Beast and the Maulers. They then say that he only started “winning” when Omni-Man told him to stop holding back and that he was “fighting like he was still on Earth”.
By this logic, we can assume that Mark holds back on Earth, since he doesn’t want to be a killer like his father. It’s only when Mark truly wishes to kill someone that he really feels capable of beating a Viltrumite, and he still fails at this. But the one thing I hear NO ONE talking about is that the Viltrumites were actually the ones holding back. They were very interested in keeping both Nolan and Mark alive: Nolan to bring back and imprison for questioning, and Mark to task him with preparing Earth for the Viltrumite invasion since they seemingly can’t expend any other forces. Nolan fucks his Viltrumite opponent up out of pure seethe and rage, not to mention that he is clearly a stronger Viltrumite than most and has probably done this countless times. Mark fucks his Viltrumite up because she clearly has less of an invested interest in killing him. She seems far more interested in the fact that Nolan had a son that harboured similarly strong powers despite not being from Viltrum. Their goal was probably never to kill both Invincible and Omni-Man, whereas they were fighting to kill both Viltrumites.
If you need any more convincing on the superiority and overall brutality of the Viltrumites, look no further than Ep3 where Allen gets annihilated. He’s established as a powerful character, and is clearly the Coalition’s current best chance at beating the Viltrumites, and he gets absolutely steamrolled. That scene was insanely effective in communicating the power of the Viltrum empire, as they can just stroll up to their enemy’s gates, demolish their only hope, and leave unharmed.
Response to this post in particular.
Yep , how are they weak its just that Nolan is stronger than them individually and Mark is Nolan’s son , so it seems right and as for Mark’s fight with Thula , boy hit ragdolled for most of the fight and literally overwhelmed Thula for Seconds and then again got wrecked because he hesitated.
I think because viltrumites whole body is a weapon, it’s just that everyone uses it differently.
Like Thula uses her braid so I guess she never focused that much on increasing her strength.
Lucan was overpowering Mark with a finger , so I guess in terms of strength he’s stronger than Thula , for vidor can’t be said much because he looked Overall balanced.
All viltrumites aren’t on the same level, they develop themselves differently.
Yep , how are they weak its just that Nolan is stronger than them individually and Mark is Nolan’s son
the problem with this is that an important part of the latter part of the series only works if noland is of avg viltrimte strength.
Yeah the last thing on my fucking mind when i saw them not even attempt to land but just crash head first into the planets surface was weak. Then they slaughtered a CIVILIZATION before the dust of their impact settled. I didnt think viltrumites were weak i was proud mark was tanking hits that would have obliterated him in season one
Thula was definitely trying to murder him. Perhaps viltrumite females are just naturally weaker similar to humans
I would like to add that they swap opponents a few times during the single frame part of the fight. This implies Nolan was landing hits on both of them which, combined with the things you mentioned, makes it less weird for Mark to start landing more hits and things.
In the post you linked to, many folks did comment that Thula was toying with Mark. They also specifically referenced the fight with Allen as an example where Viltrumites mock their prey.
The Viltrumites could have sent a death squad to Earth the second they found out that Nolan abandoned his post. Sending Mark back as their Viltrumite probably has some significance too. I haven’t read the comics but it feels like clear foreshadowing. (No spoilers, please.) It stands to reason this is the outcome they wanted and they held back.
God that post was a trash fire
The viltrimites very much wanted Nolan and Mark as injured and incapacitated as possible. They were definitely trying to basically kill the two. Or at least Mark, the disgraced offspring. She said multiple times she’s gonna kill him and almost slits his throat.
Mark straight up won the fist fight. They were both trying to kill each other and Mark got the better of her. He ultimately lost because he wasn’t willing to do what it took to win, which is kill her ass. He had her hanging by her ponytail. He threw what omniman said out the window, which is “fight like a viltrimite!”.
And I like that this fight means every fight Mark had lost up to this point was because he was holding back. Well not EVERY fight. The one he had against Battle beast and the goons was him trying to win.
As someone who read the comics you’re 100 percent the viltrumites were holding back this was just a taste of what is coming
One thing I’ll say is that Thula was very much fighting to kill Mark. She nearly did until Nolan fed her his elbow. The fact that Kregg says he earned his Viltrumite heritage and then pressgangs him into taking up Nolan’s assignment tells us it wasn’t planned, it’s simply a pragmatic way of making use of Mark.
Everything else checks out, though. In no way did I think the Viltrumites came off as anything less than virtually unstoppable. Nolan for sure would’ve gotten his ass kicked handily if he hadn’t essentially kidnapped Mark.
I think people also forget that Viltumites have a similar issue to what we saw with Allen, they mostly fight jobbers and weaklings now so they probably underestimated Mark and can be caught off-guard. On the other hand, Mark has been going up against monsters >!fucking Battle Beast lmao!< almost from the start of his superhero career so I don’t think it’s that much of an asspull that he’s rapidly increasing in strength.
Machine Head be like: Fuck these new Guardians of the Globe in particular.
I’ve very happy that that super dumb hair dagger got used against her.
They did. lol. there power levels fluctuated wildly. That big guy could pin down Invincible with one finger yet Invincible almost beat the lady. Of course it could be differences in gender strength but her and her group were sent to bring in OmniMan so they should’ve been able to at least hold there own against him, but Invincible C’mon. But its a common trope to make the protagonist extremely capable despite being ‘new’ to there abilities relatively speaking. Peter Quill in GOTG defeated his million year old father almost as soon as he got his powers.
I don’t think they were holding back on them.
For one, the fact they sent THREE Viltrumites to Omni-man meant that he was enough of a threat that they believed someone like Lucan would need some backup to get him. Holding back on him would mean their deaths, and guess what happened in the show? He practically took down two of them himself and would’ve gotten Lucan as well if he wasn’t worried about Mark.
Secondly, I don’t think the three Viltrumites really cared if Mark died or not. Sure, they may be playing around with him, but be assured, they have no intentions of keeping him alive had they not been taken out by Omni-man previously. That’s their culture. The weak die and the strong survive. Mark living at the end of it was merely a coincidence and a convenience to the Viltrum Empire. It was never intentional. I mean, hell, they don’t even patch him up! They just left him on that rock all bloodied and beaten nearly to death!!
It’s weak to me because the Viltrumites were fighting the only other people as strong as them…other Viltrumites!
You want an even better explanation? Most Viltrumites have had more experience punching down and holding back since they have had their full power for much longer while Mark hs had multiple fights in the series where he had to punch upwards or was weaker so he needed to use more combat skill to win. So if you’re only opponents for the last 1000 years has been creatures you’re too strong for you’ll start struggling against a person on your level.