Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Invincible’ Season 2.
The Big Picture
- Mark Grayson struggles with his Viltrumite nature, setting the stage for a darker path in Season 3.
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Invincible
Season 2 is entrenched in romantic turmoil as Mark breaks up with Amber and considers a future with Atom Eve. - Omni-Man shows a change of heart towards Debbie as relationships and superhero teams evolve.
Invincible recently wrapped up its second season, once again putting Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) through the mental and physical wringer. He came face to face with a new enemy, Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown), and ended up in a reality-spanning battle where he beat Levy to death for hurting his mother Debbie (Sandra Oh). Mark was rocked by the revelation that his father Nolan (J.K. Simmons), aka Omni-Man, was alive and had fathered another child — especially considering that Season 1 ended with a brutal battle between the pair. He’s also been forced to face warriors from the Viltrumite Empire, who are still hellbent on annexing Earth. Throughout Season 2, multiple threads were sewn for Season 3. Those threads lead to a series of life-changing events for Mark, his family, and his fellow superheroes.
Invincible
Invincible is an adult animated superhero series that revolves around 17-year-old Mark Grayson, who’s just like every other guy his age — except his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni-Man. But as Mark develops powers of his own, he discovers his father’s legacy may not be as heroic as it seems.
- Release Date
- March 25, 2021
- Creator
- Robert Kirkman
- Seasons
- 2
- Developer
- Simon Racioppa
- Streaming Service(s)
- Prime Video
Mark Grayson Embraces His Viltrumite Nature… or Part of It
Throughout Season 2, Mark was desperate to prove that he was nothing like Nolan. He was dealing with an immense amount of trauma — not just from the physical beating he took at Nolan’s hands but the revelation that everything he knew about his father was a lie. This is further complicated by his encounters with other Viltrumites; General Kregg (Clancy Brown) and Anissa (Shantel VanSanten) both tell him he needs to fulfill Nolan’s role of conquering Earth. Even Nolan tells Mark to stop holding back in a fight and use lethal force, but Mark resists…until Levy. Fans of the Invincible comics (especially those who paid attention to the shifting title cards) know that Season 3 will feature a Mark Grayson who isn’t opposed to using lethal force, which will send him on an even darker path.
Is Love in the Cards for Invincible and Atom Eve?
In addition to his family life, Mark’s romantic prospects underwent an upheaval. He breaks up with his girlfriend Amber Bennett (Zazie Beetz) after his fight with Anissa, when they both realized the perils of Mark’s double life were straining their relationship to a breaking point. As if that wasn’t enough, Mark recently encountered a future version of Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs) who confessed that she’d been in love with him for years. Eve was one of the few people outside of Mark’s family who he could talk to about his superheroic life and the pressures of living a normal life, while she was also struggling to find her own place in the world. Invincible co-creator Robert Kirkman confirmed that Season 3 will explore the fallout of future Eve’s revelation, which means that Mark and Eve could be spending more time together.
Omni-Man’s Change of Heart
Invincible Season 2 ends with Nolan being recaptured by the Viltrumite Empire, who plan to execute him for failing to complete his mission. He eventually finds an ally of sorts in Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen), who was captured on purpose so that he could free Nolan. During their telepathic conversation, Nolan drops a bombshell of a sentence: “I think I miss my wife.” He’s referring to Debbie, which is a complete 180 from how he referred to her as a “pet” in the Season 1 finale. The irony of Nolan embracing his son’s compassion while Mark embraces his father’s lethal approach to problem-solving is a mark of genius from the Invincible writers’ room. That’s not even mentioning the fact that Nolan and Allen have proven to be key to ending the Viltrumite Empire; Allen’s Unopan physiology makes him stronger than the Viltrumites, while Nolan left Mark a series of books containing their race’s weaknesses.
Who Is ‘Invincible’s Oliver Grayson in the Comics?
The half-Viltrumite, half-Thraxan might be the most important character on ‘Invincible.’
The Guardians of the Globe Go Through Another Upheaval
Even though Invincible tends to subvert or present a realistic version of many of the tropes that appear in superhero books, it’s played one fairly straight: the ever shifting roster of a superhero team. The Guardians of the Globe embodies this in full, as the team goes through another upheaval. When Shapesmith (Ben Schwartz) revealed that he was actually a Martian and that the mind-controlling Sequids were coming to Earth, a majority of the Guardians and Invincible headed to space to confront it. Meanwhile, Rex Splode (Jason Mantzoukas), Dupli-Kate (Malese Jow) and Shrinking Rae (Grey Griffin) battle the Lizard League. The outcome leaves Rex and Rae severely wounded and Kate seemingly killed, with the Immortal (Ross Marquand) departing the Guardians in grief.
However, Rex was rebuilt with new cybernetic enhancements and Kate turned out to be alive — she’d hidden her prime self away at the Immortal’s cabin. The Guardians are on track to gain new members, especially given that Mark encountered a future version of the team, and they’ll need all the help they can get. The Sequids are secretly on Earth, not to mention other threats are waiting in the wings. Though Invincible Season 3 doesn’t have a concrete release date, it’s safe to say that when the series returns it’ll pull out all the stops.
Invincible is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
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