Invincible S2 Ep 1 Review
While some people might be getting tired of Marvel and DC hogging the spotlight, they’re not getting tired of superheroes. Case in point, Amazon Prime started killing it four years ago with their adaptation of the deconstructive comic-book series The Boys. Then, in 2021, they brought superheroes to adult animation with their acclaimed adaptation of Image Comic’s Invincible. Serving as a darker, bloodier, and more nuanced take on the superhero genre, Invincible won the Internet overnight. That, and it gave us the “Think, Mark” meme. Now, after two years of waiting and a lone special to tide fans over, Invincible is back. And bloodier than ever.
A Taste Of What’s To Come
In a major surprise, the first few minutes of the season premiere don’t even take place in the main universe of the show. Instead, they take place in an alternate universe where Mark sided with his father, and the two conquered Earth. Before the audience has time to process this, they’re treated to the sight of Invincible and Omni-Man slaughtering the Earth’s remaining heroes and the resistance in one fell swoop. However, what makes this so terrifying isn’t Omni-Man and his ruthless mentality. It’s Mark.
This version of Mark looks, talks, and behaves like the Mark Grayson the show follows to a tee. The major difference is that he’s decided that his Dad’s right about the Viltrum Empire being best for Earth. The end result is him helping his father kill millions, all while thinking it’s best for everyone. It’s a terrifying reminder of what Earth would be in for if the equivalent of Superman broke bad. No one would be able to stop him, and as the episode reveals, that nightmare’s playing out over multiple realities. In almost every universe, Mark decides to side with his Dad and conquer everything. Thankfully, viewers are spared from seeing the Viltrumites killing everyone, with the POV character getting portaled away.
Which brings us to the next big player of the episode.
Angstrom Levy: If Rick Sanchez Had Superpowers.
Enter Angstrom Levy, the man serving as the driving force behind the episode’s conflict and a significant person in the story’s future. Possessing the ability to create portals to alternate versions of the exact location, Angstrom’s a superpowered version of Rick Sanchez. Unlike the misanthropic mad scientist, though, Angstrom wants to use his power to help others. To this end, he plans to copy and paste the knowledge of each universe from his counterpart’s brains into his. That way, he’ll be able to find the good things like cures for diseases and ending climate change and bring them to the prime universe.
As well-intentioned as Angstrom’s plans are, there are a few glaring flaws with it:
- He relies on the Maulers, who are less than morally upstanding, to help him do this.
- As the Mauler Twins point out, he could simply tell his counterparts everything he wants to know. He says it’s because he needs someone to see the bigger picture, but that comes off as a bit arrogant.
- One of the counterparts he pulled was the same one about to be killed by Evil Mark and Omni-Man.
When things do go wrong, thanks to the intervention of Invincible, the Angstrom that remains is one corrupted by his counterpart’s hatred of the young hero. As a result, rather than gaining an altruistic, interdimensional helper, we get an insane supervillain.
Mark’s Afraid He’ll turn out Like his Father
Amidst all of this, Mark Grayson is trying to get his life back together. As the world recovers from Omni-Man’s rampage, it’s evident that Mark is suffering from PTSD. In addition, he’s also harboring a great deal of guilt over his father’s actions. Worse still, he’s afraid that he’ll turn out like Omni-Man. Given what’s shown about the multiverse, those fears are well-founded.
Because of this, Mark makes the decision to get back out there and act as Ceil and the GDA’s agent. This leads directly to his interference with Angstrom’s experiment, and the fallout only makes him feel even worse. It’s only thanks to words of encouragement from the other heroes that he avoids a complete breakdown and goes home thinking he did good.
The bitter irony of this situation is that the show goes out of its way to demonstrate that Invincible made things worse. It points out that Ceil made things worse for everyone by letting Mark interfere with Angstrom’s well-intentioned experiment. This will come back to bite everyone down the line, and the fallout will be nothing short of catastrophic.
A Solid Start to a Second Season
Overall, Invincible remains one of the best adult animated series of the decade, and this new season started with an absolute banger. Besides setting us up for this new status quo, the episode also had a pretty hilarious running gag. Every time someone goes to say Invincible, they pause as though the title card’s about to drop, like in the first season. It never happens until the very end of the episode. That’s a fun payoff!
After starting to feel the fatigue of the MCU, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in Invincible. The comic book is fantastic, and I look forward to seeing how things go from here.
