The whole face squid thing makes less and less sense the more I think about it:
(1) How and where did these face squids evolve? And if, if they ever grab onto a creature with a complicated brain they become unstoppable, did they get to Mars without such a host in the first place?
(2) So you’re the Martians, a technologically advanced society living on Mars. You are obviously aware that Earth has a technologically advanced society as well, given that (a) we broadcast everything, and (b) the Martians weren’t shocked at earth astronauts showing up, and (c) there’s been at least some contact between the planets in the past. Also, you are infested with face squids (which, despite your being immune to them, you can’t get rid of). How about… sending a message to earth saying “hey, yo, hi there, there are these horrible face squids here, DO NOT SEND ANYONE HERE”. Do it in secret if necessary.
The entire setup just seems silly and far-fetched.
That’s because to us, in our world, superheroes are clearly different and other. In a society with superheroes, it seems far more likely that they’d be viewed as a part of society. A special part of society, a special part of humanity, but still a part. Trying to do things specifically without superhero help (when appropriate) would be as eccentric as trying to build a rocket but specifically not allowing trained rocket scientists to help, because that would just make it too easy.
Sure, you wouldn’t want to build a spaceship that literally couldn’t work without one precise superhero helping out. But it would just be utterly routine that, for big first experimental endeavors, you’d have a superhero hanging around to help out. Frankly, the astronauts should be outraged if there was NOT an attempt to provide them with superhero backup. Not having a superhero helper would be as reckless as free solo climbing just for the adrenaline.
It sounds like the brain squids spread via panspermia - they conquer and subvert a planet, then launch a bunch of brain squids into space, possibly at random, and assume at least some of them will hit inhabitable planets. As to how they evolved, there’s enough weirdness in this universe that maybe they didn’t - they could be anything from a genetically engineered bioweapon to literal demons. At any rate, th evolution of brain squids is no more inherently unlikely than the evolution of the Vitrumites.
Fair point about the Martians not warning Earth, though. I thought maybe they weren’t actually technologically advanced - they use spears, and chase the escaping astronauts while riding large animals, instead of vehicles. But, apparently, their spears shoot lasers? Maybe they developed laser technology before radios…
Except he was talking to Omniman, who is publicly known as a space alien, and not at all a part of humanity. I think that “we have to do it by ourselves” was more specific to Omniman’s participation, then superheroes in general. I don’t see the public turning sour on the Mars mission just because Rexplode was on board. And even then, the whole thing was a ruse on Cecil’s part to get Omniman off planet. The “do it in secret” thing might have been intended to keep him incommunicado, as well, and not really have had anything to do with public morale.
While it would probably be a good idea to have a superhero along with the astronauts anyway, the other issue is - how many superheroes are good candidates for this sort of thing in the first place? A guy whose super power is making things explode is maybe not the best choice for a space mission, nor is the woman whose power is doubling or tripling her oxygen requirements, or the one who needs a spacesuit that can accommodate both a 14 year old girl and an eight foot ogre. At any given time, humans are going to be involved in far more situations that would be made safer and easier with the presence of a superhero, then there are available superheroes with a useful powerset for that situation.
I think he left the notebook there when he was in the house earlier, before he was banished, and by leaving a personal belonging behind like that, it gives him some channel to the mortal world from hell.
I’m wondering where they’re going with that- in the comics he was literally a joke, a parody of Rorschach that triumphantly announced that Omniman was the killer after it was obvious and, as far as I can remember, was never seen again.
I thought the last one was getting a bit overly trope-y—I get that they use the superhero tropes mostly as a backdrop before which they want to tell their actual story, so you get lots of generic superhero beats (alien invasion, girlfriend the hero never has time for, naivety of the do-gooder, hubris of the powerful—one big thing missing, as of yet, loosing one’s powers to prove worthy of them) which aren’t really further relevant to the story, but they seem to have cropped into the foreground too much. Beyond Omniman’s wife finding Darkblood’s notebook and the costume, hence her suspicions deepening, we didn’t really get much development on the main plot, did we?
I’m enjoying it so far. I didn’t know anything about the story before watching the first episode, and was completely blindsided by the ending. I didn’t even notice it was an 18+ show in advance.
Is Damien Darkblood a parody of some other demon detective trying to save their soul from comics? Something about the character design and backstory seems very familiar, but I can’t quite place it.
