WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 60 of Digimon Adventure 2020, "Vikemon Ventures the Glaciers," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The Digimon Adventure reboot knows its audience very well, which is why, though still very much targeted towards a younger demographic, the 20th anniversary-marking show has also taken many trips down memory lane for older fans. 'Older' but not that old. Alongside original villains like Ogremon and Devimon making early appearances in the series, newer characters and forms have also been coming thick and fast -- some existing only in the franchise's gaming media previously.
The tease for Episode 61 at the end of "Vikemon Ventures the Glaciers," wherein Joe's partner achieves Mega evolution for the first time in Adventure, hints that Digimon Fusion will be the next corner of the Digimon world to be tapped, with the arrival of a particularly sadistic war general.
In both the next episode preview and the end of Episode 60's "Digimon Encyclopedia" segment, Adventure 2020 reveals the unmistakable silhouette and back of Gravimon. The villain's only appearance -- until now -- has been in Digimon Fusion (also known as Digimon Xros Wars in Japan). Similarly proportioned to Devimon with creepily elongated arms and comically over-sized hands, Gravimon was deployed by Lord Bagra, the series' archvillain, to rule over one of his seven kingdoms. As one of these chosen Dark Generals, Gravimon took to its task with a little bit too much zeal, using its battles with the Fusion Fighters as a means to scientifically test its twisted theories on pain, such as "how many casualties can be produced easily, which tactic lets it listen to a multitude of screams, what creative scheme will surprise the enemy or ally as they die, which method will cause all of the opponents to die without shedding blood, and so on."
Gravimon is also extremely tricky to kill, proven by its greedy means of resurrection in Fusion after seemingly being defeated by Shoutmon X7. Fusing with its armed forces, it returned as Gravimon Darkness Mode, a form that hugely increases its special gravitational abilities. However, as always, that still wasn't enough to stop a DigiDestined -- Shoutmon X7 defeated it once again by striking its core. Though its hollow body made another appearance later on, that core, along with Gravimons's fellow Dark Generals, was eventually destroyed for good thanks to Shoutmon X7 and Olegmon's efforts.
Gravimon, as its name suggests, is capable of wielding enough power to collapse entire stars, and possesses impressive regenerative abilities to withstand any fallout from such an exertion of strength. At this point in Digimon Adventure 2020, with the gang having taken out NeoDevimon and Milleniumon -- two world-ending threats -- the Fusion villain presents a very decent challenge. Especially, as of Episode 60, with the Chosen Ones all capable of achieving at least one form of Mega evolution each. They won't be alone either: the preview for Episode 61 also signals the return of their longtime ally, Leomon. Given their difference in power, the freedom fighter may not be enough to weigh the scales any more in Tai and Co.'s favor, but if nothing else, he may well die trying in a fitting blaze of glory.
