Things have taken a dark turn since My Superhero University, and signs show it's only gonna get worse.
Character Specific
General/Episode specific
- Season 2 Episode 2 has the terrifying underground installation of Pinewatch. Marked with a pinewood emblem and seeming to consist of a charming upper level, Pinewatch does not seem like much of a threat at first glance. But the hero Tempest had been chucked out in downright horrible condition, so there had to be something...
- It turns out the charming upper level is little more than a decoy. Moving a bookshelf opened a dark underground hallway with a pronounced bloodstain (possibly from throwing out Tempest's body). Rebecca near instantly has an attack from how incredibly sterile the place is, while we are treated to horrifying images of mutation, implantation, mutilation, dissection / vivisection, and other nightmares. Squad 3 is then attacked by the deadly Eviscerator, which seems to be the exact creature responsible for Tempest's state...going by how it vomited up his gauntlet. It attempted to eat him alive.
- The Squad then engage the Scientists, who deploy blue-skinned, mutated obese women heavily pregnant with things squirming around inside of them. Killing the monstrous women unleashes the Unborn lurking inside of them, and some All There in the Manual reveals the women have had their tongues replaced with mosquito proboscis to feed the Unborn and themselves.
- While Mikael handily slays the Unborn going after him, Mari-Mira is subjected to the creature's teeth and claws, and even as she kicks out its eyes and wounds it, it keeps on slashing, gnashing its teeth on her, chewing and ripping at her, until her legs are evidently eviscerated, bleeding profusely, and its lucky for her that it didn't get her femoral artery, in which case she would most likely have messily bled to death in front of her friends.
- Crowning off the horror is Dr. Veronica Wesker, Dissonant Serenity incarnate. Even while being threatened, she never loses her cool, and evidently has so thoroughly amplified herself that she can see various facts about Mari-Mira, voicing curiosity about her state and outright wanting to vivisect her to sate that curiosity. What's more, going by the symbolism at the end, she gets Paperclipped by the government, while one of her surviving experiments escapes into the ocean.
- Is it any wonder why most of original Squad 3 quit out following this mission?
- The Savior Arc opens with a brutal murder and only proceeds further from there.
- Cole's story about what Alpha-Leunis did to one particular village. Not for having anyone heroic there. Not for any particular advantage. The village was there. Alpha-Leunis simply went ahead and subjected it to brutal Social Darwinist "games", then forced the "winners" to bury the losers in a mass grave. Small wonder Cole is so jumpy about totalitarians and the possibility of the Saint wanting to take over.
- Scary part about this being that Cole was actually right.
- The Savior World itself, with the unsettling ambiance provided by the army of Thopters that patrol the city and report any and every activity to the Darksteel Obelisk, command center of Surveillance, helmed by Savior Liam. A lack of Regalia in Savior World made him go ahead and replace most of his body with cybernetics, by the time of the current arc, he's comprised of shapeshifting metal except for his head, neck and some of his torso.
- On the note of Savior Liam, Barnett, his lab assistant, has an odd demeanor, a mechanical stutter like he's malfunctioning, and a skeleton-like appearance. What's his story? Barnett is a case study in Pay Evil unto Evil - he used to be a Jerk Jock named Adrian Barnett who raped a girl at a party and then bragged about it to her face when justice failed. Savior Liam then stepped in and turned Barnett from a normal looking young adult into a hideous little skeleton-like cyborg servitor. What's more, Barnett The Assistant seems to be a completely new personality with no hints of the old one, being more of a joyous example of The Igor, helping Liam out in the labs and even being almost his Only Friend.
- How bad have things gotten? Ignis himself, mastermind of the Human-Machine Front, has decided the Saviors pose enough of a threat to his own worlds with the implications down the line that he needs to join forces with the heroes.
- The world outside has gotten chaotic and destructive. With the Saint's legacy and method fully and irreversibly discredited due to Anti-Saint, there is chaotic rioting in the street and a rise in both Guardian and Terran / Gaean groups aiming to take advantage of the chaos. The supervillains have more or less gone full radio silence except for Ignis. It's not hard to read it as them trying to dive into bunkers and outlast one hell of a horrific storm.
