To Be Hero X

Episode 20

It's funny. Here we are at episode 20 with three arcs yet to go in the season, and this is undoubtedly the series's major action climax. After all, this single episode serves as the ending to Loli, Ghostblade, and the Johnnies' arcs—as well as an epilogue to Queen, Lucky Cyan, and E-Soul's. A lot happens—way too much to get into in a single review—so let's focus on the bigger picture: the major players' goals and who the real winners and losers of this conflict between superheroes are.

To start with, we have The Commission. They want a way to control superheroes—be they fear or trust-based—and the alien metal looked to be a way to do that. This is why the Commission exists after all, to make sure another superhero disaster like Zero's never happens again. However, with the growing strength of the various agencies, the Commission has grown more and more impotent as the years have gone by.

None of the agencies wants to lose its power, so they have a vested interest in the mission to the alien ship. They all want it to fail. Shand, the head of TREEMAN, has been producing fear and trust-based heroes and villains in secret. He sends a fear-based cloning villain and Nice to kill everyone on the alien ship, presumably to have Nice then “defeat” the villain. Meanwhile, Mighty Glory's Uncle Rock sends E-Soul to kill Ghostblade and Little Johnny (and presumably all the scientists as well) to tie up the loose ends surrounding Johnny's father's death while also stopping research into the alien metal. He's even okay with being the fall guy for the failed mission to the ship, as Ghostblade, one of his heroes, was supposed to be protecting everyone. Lastly, we have Mickey over at DOS. Rather than get his own hands dirty, he manipulates the other agency owners to take action—and then arranges for the recently recovered Queen to “coincidentally” show up, see the heroes fighting, and sort them all out.

Of course, nothing ever goes completely to plan. No one could have predicted the emergence of Loli—an unknown girl capable of fighting a top 50 hero to a stalemate (not to mention defeating a fear-based villain)—nor that Cyan would arrive with Queen to facilitate the rescue of the critically injured Ghostblade and Little Johnny. There are winners and losers of this battle in the desert to be sure, and sometimes they are one in the same.

The most obvious loser is the Commission itself. The agencies have effectively blocked the development of anti-Trust/Fear technology by killing nearly everyone knowledgeable about the subject. Thus, the Commission finds itself the weakest it's ever been, only able to punish the agencies by denying all of them the top-ranked hero slot by canceling the tournament and allowing the sole independent hero, X, to claim the title for the third time, making every other hero a loser at the end of the day.

That's not to say that some heroes didn't lose more than others. Loli comes out of everything the worst. Her dad and childhood friend are dead, and her best friend is in a coma. Worse still, she wasn't able to avenge them as Nice and E-Soul are left undefeated, and the media spins it to make them look like heroes. Meanwhile, Ghostblade and the Johnnies failed to protect the researchers, putting a stain on their record—and Nuonuo, Ghostblade's daughter, is left heavily injured.

However, Nice and E-Soul also come out of the whole situation worse off. At the very least, Loli, The Johnnies, Queen, Cyan, and Ghostblade all know their true nature now—meaning Nice and E-Soul have made an enemy of the majority of the top heroes. (In fact, I'm shocked Ghostblade hasn't killed them in the two years since this event for what they did to his daughter.)

And as far as the agency CEOs go, Uncle Rock is by far the biggest loser. Ghostblade was Uncle Rock's employee, so the buck stops with him as far as the scandal goes—and he also failed at his secret goal to kill off Ghostblade and the Johnnies. And on top of that, Queen made E-Soul look like a powerless chump.

With all that out of the way, the question becomes who “won” when all the dust settled. Well, the most obvious winners are everyone who wanted the alien metal development to cease. With two notable exceptions, everyone knowledgeable about the alien metal is dead. But while Mickey appears to be the CEO best off at first glance—as he accomplished all his goals—the real winner among the Agencies is the one who had the least to do with the alien ship expedition: Zack. In the aftermath, Loli joins FOMO as their newest hero (which makes sense as it is The Johnnies' agency and likely the only one she's not pissed at), leaving Zack in control of the one person capable of developing and using anti-Trust/Fear technology.

Loli herself is a winner (though she'd never agree, as the price was far too high) because she gets to finally live her dream and has the sway, thanks to her knowledge and suit, to do pretty much anything she wants. Meanwhile, the Johnnies get to reinvent their image, and Little Johnny has been inspired to get off his butt and work to become an actual hero instead of a merchandising mascot. Queen and Cyan come out smelling like roses by proving that they can control any situation—even clad only in civilian gear—and Queen asserts her dominance over Nice and E-Soul, which is certainly one hell of a mental blow to the two.

But in the end, the biggest winner here is the man completely uninvolved in all of this: X. He comes out of this as the one hero above the scandal—untouched and untainted. As the first hero to retain the title of X three times, he is unquestionably the greatest superhero in history—rivaled only by Zero before his fall. Yet, in two years, he will be faced with defending the title once more—and in a tournament far more focused on personal grudges than on simply standing on top as the hero among heroes.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Why are Big and Little Johnny angry with Mickey in their final scene? They have no way of knowing he was even involved in what went down.

• Poor entry-level Lin Ling, unknowingly helping to cover up Nice trying to kill the expedition by implying he took down the villain instead of Loli.

• If Uncle Rock wants to bring back Zero (or create a new Zero or whatever), it makes sense he'd want E-Soul—i.e., the person who defeated Zero—under his control (even if he had to make a new one).

• My interpretation is that Nice killed himself because, after failing this mission, he was abandoned by Shand and lost any hope of becoming a top hero. Moreover, he was powerless before Queen, worth only a disdainful look from her. Afterward, his life stagnated, leaving only the downsides of his heroic life and persona. Ironically, it only took Lin Ling a few months to reach the top 10—both as Nice and as himself. Who would have guessed it was what's on the inside that counted most?

• Here's my wild theory about X: He is Superman—that is to say, he is an alien whose ship crashed on Earth. He grew up as a normal man and got a normal job. But seeing the injustice in the world, he decided to use his alien powers—which are not Trust or Fear-based—for good and became the world's greatest hero. (Note: this also means that Big Johnny would be his Krypto the Superdog.)

To Be Hero X is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.