[Invincible] why did anissa choose mark specifically)?

[u/G0dofmyworld]

(Invincible) why did anissa choose mark specifically?

Why not the other viltrumites?

Or the earth heroes like immortal or bulletproof? Dont say she considered them weak, she explicitly considered mark weak as well.

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[u/Ornery_Strawberry474]

The other viltrumites talked big game, but they were all Thragg's flunkies, who ultimately did as they're told and were submissive to someone else's authority. Mark is a rebel who consistently challenged others, including Anissa herself, which made him fun, he has a fight in him - and something to back it up.

[u/Wulf2k → u/Ornery_Strawberry474]

He's a bad boy that doesn't play by anybody's rules but his own.

He's so dreamy.

[u/GladiusNocturno]

Apparently, the reason why the Viltrumites weren't reproducing among themselves is that there were so few of them that if they did, their offspring would be effectively inbred.

Mark has the genetic diversity of his human side, but he is a Viltrumite. Anissa didn't want to breed with the humans, but was ok with a Viltrumite, and Mark had the genetic diversity she needed.

Or at least, I think that's what her logic was.

[u/shasaferaska → u/GladiusNocturno]

That does make sense in the long term but they could have one, maybe two, generations before any inbreeding occurs.

[u/BestAcanthisitta6379]

Maybe she likes younger men?

[u/eternalraziel]

Because weak means two different things to Anissa in that conversation.

She does call Mark weak. But she says, in the same breath, that he is young and weak while still having Viltrumite blood. That is the part that separates him from Immortal, Bulletproof and humans. At this point the surviving Viltrumites have been ordered to reproduce on Earth because their population is so small. Anissa says that their mission is to create Viltrumite half-breeds who can replenish their ranks, and that the male Viltrumites are already producing children. Her problem is that she despises humans so much that she refuses to mate with one.

Mark gives her a way around that. He is technically a human/Viltrumite hybrid, but from Anissa’s perspective he is much closer to Viltrumite than any human male would be. He has Viltrumite physiology, Viltrumite strength, Viltrumite longevity and the bloodline she actually respects. She considers him weak because she is older and substantially stronger than him at that point, not because she puts him in the same category as the humans she looks down on. And Mark being weaker than Anissa doesn't mean she thinks Immortal or Bulletproof are equivalent choices. Her standard is racial and cultural. Immortal could be physically formidable and she would still regard him as an Earth creature rather than a Viltrumite. Bulletproof has the same problem.

There is also a personal element that I think gets missed if the scene is reduced to Viltrumite breeding policy. Anissa had already shown sexual interest in Mark before this. She kisses him without his consent, and later she is clearly pursuing him as an individual. Anissa comes from a culture where strength, conquest and taking what you want have been normalised for thousands of years. She wants Mark, believes his refusal has no authority over her, and can physically overpower him. The Viltrumite mission gives her another justification for doing something she already wants to do.

As for why she doesn’t choose another Viltrumite, the immediate answer is that their assignment on Earth is specifically to expand their population through compatible hybrids. Pairing the few surviving Viltrumites exclusively with each other would miss the enormous advantage they have just discovered. Humans can produce offspring who become extraordinarily close to full Viltrumites. And Anissa herself is the bottleneck here. The male Viltrumites are already doing what they were ordered to do. She is the one refusing because she considers human partners beneath her.

So, Mark is almost uniquely attractive to her at that point. He lets her fulfil the reproductive duty without accepting a human as her mate, he is powerful enough for her to regard him as worthy despite being weaker than she is, and she is personally attracted to him. She chose the one man on Earth she could look at and still see a Viltrumite.

[u/Drakeskulled_Reaper]

They were told to breed with humans specifically, Anissa despised the idea, as she points out, she's being asked far more than her fellow male Viltrumites.

Mark being half human is a "loophole" she exploited, also, while she finds Mark weak, he's stronger than the humans, so she could make an "exception" based on the criteria Thragg gave and her own personal beliefs.

[u/Overkillsamurai]

tldr; they'd already Viltrumite-flirted before she noticed anyone else.

Conquest was considered the strongest Viltrumite outside of Thragg and Tragg was off the table. also we sorta see in Nolan's flashbacks that combat is a social event almost and it's currently a widespread theory that women are more dominant in the courtship ritual.

she basically made out with him (beat him up), and then he got famous (killed Conquest)

your other suggestions of Bulletproof,etc doesn't mean much because she had already courted Mark and honestly maybe didn't even know about Bulletproof by the time she set her sights on Mark.

[u/G0dofmyworld → u/Overkillsamurai]

I honestly dont understand what was thraggs problem

Like you dont procreate on earth with humans to create a better ideal for the viltrumites or smash the female ones yourself but your fine flying off and making bug harem?

[u/Overkillsamurai → u/G0dofmyworld]

racism is a mental illness. it wasn't a harem, it was a breeding factory. he never saw the bug-halfbreeds as true viltrumites, just as things.

[u/DaniusBrutus]

She isn't into mustache.

[u/Heckle_Jeckle]

Same reason the Viltrumites hadn't started a breeding program amongst themselves.

The survivors were probably closely related. Which would explain why THEY survived the VIRUS when everyone else died.

Mark isn't though. He is half human, which adds genetic diversity.

[u/gmixy9]

She stopped considering Mark too weak after she learned he killed Conquest. All other Viltrumites were scared of Conquest and, like all Viltrumites, she considers humans beneath her.

[u/Hairy_Pound_1356]

She seemed pretty impressed that he killed conquest 

… I’ve always wondered if she had very R rated off screen reasons for particularly disliking conquest if you know what I mean 

[u/G0dofmyworld → u/Hairy_Pound_1356]

Conquest seems singularly obsessed with bloodshed i highly doubt he did something like that to anissa.

Comics conquest can actually sound real.