Kid Cosmic

(written on 5/4/24)

Kid Cosmic has got to be my favorite interpretation of the superhero story ever. First off, it's VERY aware of all of the tropes and makes a point of parodying famous moves like tying a giant's legs together to instantly stop them and then having it not work at all. More importantly though, their powers come from the stones they have and aren't a part of them, meaning it can be taken away or transferred and the show uses this concept REALLY well.  Everyone has a stone they prefer, but as it goes on they switch or combine powers circumstantially and I don't think I've ever seen anything do that to this extent. The closest thing would be a power loss or power swap episode like in Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, but even then the change isn't intentional and those are about the struggles with their abilities changing or disappearing. It also turns into a funny bit where Kid Cosmic just occasionally removes his ring because he can't figure out how to stop flying.

Throughout the whole series, the characters were really enjoyable and had some great character growth. A few definitely felt a little one-note, but considering how many there actually were that's pretty reasonable.  The core characters always had really good back-and forth where they argued over their own philosophies and how to proceed, and no character was ever always in the right except for Flo maybe but that's ok she was a great character.  They were not the best people to receive the powers, but the show does such a good job of exploring how they stepped up to this despite their fears and inexperience and how even more experienced people might be better with the powers, but don't use them to do as much good.

I'm also really impressed by how continuously this show managed to subvert expectations. When it started, I thought they were going to settle into a status quo after establishing the team, but they just kept introducing new ideas that completely changed the direction of the plot without ever feeling random or unexpected thanks to some well-hidden foreshadowing. I think my favorite episode is the 4th episode, where they just decide to skim through a massive amount of absolutely insane events and violence and then just go back to the more typical episode format like that never happened.

[Spoilers start here.  The full series is on Netflix and I'd suggest watching it first]

What makes this an even better superhero story is that it shows how they try to go back to life as normal, but Kid's vision ends up pushing them to move for a better ending. A lot of media I've seen is either "and they did this for the rest of their lives" or "they now live with trauma" or "back to normal, but at least they'll always remember :)" and this was a much better idea of having them take their experience and use it to create something new.

And as no hero is complete without a villain, Fanatos was a perfect antagonist for Kid Cosmic.  They are amazing foils with a very fun bit of banter and common interest.  Fanatos's mother gives him everything and he still wants more and doesn't care for her, and Papa G gives Kid all he can but is afraid to let him lose any more.  Kid eventually adopts what Papa G believes to help others instead of living his own dream, while Fanatos achieves his dream with the help of his mother and immediately breaks his promise to her. Fanatos and Kid's shared love of comics, the stones of power, and collectors items is very cute and was the highlight of Season 2 for me. I almost wish they had a bit more of that interaction, like discussing comic tropes or power moves at the party while fighting, but Fanatos's final use of the Local Heroes as collectors items with their respective stones was such a cool moment that more than made up for it. Was that the only time I've said Local Heroes in this whole post?  I think it was.  That's weird.  Anyway!

One thing that bothered me a little bit was that they kind of forgot a few things.  Chuck says that speaking without his translator physically hurts him and they never get him a new one, even after he redeems himself and they get access to space tech.  I get that his natural voice was symbolic of him being good and fit his new direction better than the translated one, but the translated voice actor was really funny and I wish he came back. And again, it physically hurts him to talk. Also, it's never explained who found/hid the primary 13 stones and wrote the scrolls.  I assume it all happened within roughly 112 years because of when Papa G found the 14th stone (maybe it had been up there for longer, but we don't know), but the 5 survivors didn't seem quite that old- even if they aged slower, they didn't act like it had been a century.  More importantly, they kept getting additional stones, but at PPG and Rosa's secret mission they only stuck to one stone a person, which was a little weird.  I would have thought they'd at least all keep a pain absorption stone and that Chuck would get an arms stone to account for losing 2 limbs. At the end of Season 2 they made a point of combining powers to best suit each character, and I really wish they'd kept that. Telekinesis also got under-utilized, where most characters just used it as flight even after knowing its full potential. It also allowed them to gather every stone at once. I get that for balancing purposes they had to tone it down but that didn't make it less annoying.

That final Erodius struggle was incredible though.  The fake-out Papa G death triggering a flashback was a genius way of reminding the audience how much Kid had lost and what little he had left BEFORE the actual sacrifice so it wasn't interrupted. Having Kid trying and failing to give others telekinesis was such an interesting way to further drive in the impact of him being alone in trying to hold back both Erodius and Papa G at the same time. Papa G lived, but it felt like an earned fake out death because it had lasting consequence and Kid really had already lost enough. They also could not have reasonably done a happy ending without the full team.

Side note! Papa G's clones should have been unkillable because Kid Cosmic and the Epic Fail confirmed the clones can use the stones too and Papa G would have cloned the 14th. 

Backtracking slightly, Kid was stuck with the goo stone for most of Season 2 and initially it felt like it was being used to humble him, which I liked, but as they get the speed stone he finally masters goo by stopping himself from panic melting and even points out how awesome super speed is AND FLO CHANGES RINGS INSTEAD. Flo also eventually proves to be the best with the goo stone, so it was just frustrating to see Kid being punished for something he'd already grown past when it would have made the most sense for him to be geeking out over trying each new power. Even in terms of appearance, they emphasize making Goo Kid look a lot grosser than Goo Flo just so they can make him feel worse about his power.

Final thoughts: I have a lot of respect for how well they were able to keep a consistently changing show that eventually reached a very fulfilling conclusion while subverting a lot of common tropes.  I can't believe I made it through this whole thing without bringing up the animation but that was also really nice and I love the use of strong silhouettes, limited motion, texture, and color coordination to make it feel like a comic.

Also, WHAT CURRENCY DOES FLO ACCEPT?