Invincible S3 Ep 7 Review
There have been plenty of moments in Invincible that comic book readers have been hyping up, and not without reason. Omni-Man revealing his true allegiance to his son and the world spawned one of the greatest memes ever. The reveal that Mark had a younger half-brother left people reeling. And more than a few people were excited when Mark and Atom Eve finally became a couple. However, not even the “THINK, MARK!” meme can compare to the hype surrounding one of the biggest events in Invincible history. An event that resulted from the return of Mark’s biggest hater so that he could ruin his life and reputation. This event will become known as the Invincible War, and it makes Omni-Man’s fight with his son look like a playground tantrum!
Invincible’s Biggest hater Returns
As was hinted at earlier in the season and confirmed at the end of the last episode, Angstrom Levy, Mark’s biggest hater, is alive! Despite beating his head until it was nothing but mush and broken bones (which this episode finally shows us), he survived Mark’s beatdown. With the last of his strength, he teleported to a dimension inhabited by beings called Technicians, who healed him in exchange for some kind of deal. The episode doesn’t reveal this deal, but judging by their reaction when things go south, it’s serious.
Now hating Invincible more than ever, Angstrom demonstrates how far he’s fallen in the biggest way possible. He gathers a group of eighteen evil variants of Invincible from across the Multiverse, and makes them an offer: go to Prime Invincible’s home, tear it to pieces, and ruin his good name. In return, he’ll use his powers to give them new dimensions for them to conquer.
The hypocrisy of Angstrom Levy is on full display here, as is his madness. It’s already been shown that many of Angstrom’s counterparts came from worlds where Invincible became evil. Several of them even killed Angstrom’s loved ones. Yet he’s willing to work with them to get revenge on the one version of Mark that isn’t a villain. Some of the Invincible’s he recruits were even shown to have killed some of his counterparts loved ones, but he still recruited them! Granted, he likely never intended to honor his deal with them, but that doesn’t change how far he’s fallen.
Regardless, after months of spying on Mark, he unleashes his army of evil Invincible’s, beginning the Invincible War.
The Invincible War=World War III
Calling the conflict of this episode the Invincible War is the only way to do it any justice. Each Evil Invincible is told to fly around the entire planet and destroy everything and everyone in sight. Throughout the episode, the full breadth of their impact is made plain for viewers. Entire cities are left burning, iconic landmarks are completely destroyed, and as reporters estimate by the end of things, the casualty count is anywhere from hundreds of thousands to potentially millions. The last time Earth likely experienced this much death from a war was back in World War II.
The upside to the Invincible War is that all the variants remain voiced by Steven Yeun, allowing him to showcase the full scope of his acting abilities. Through his voice and intonations alone, he provides the evil Marks so much personality to them. One version acts like a giddy manchild as he fights the Guardians of the Globe. Another swears a lot because he thinks it makes him looks cool. The one with the yellow cape even brags about how he killed his Omni-Man, highlighting how evil he truly is.
As exciting and horrifying as the three-day Invincible War is, though, there is one notable flaw to it. In the source material, Image Comics used the conflict to create a cavalcade of cameos. They showed off many of their characters taking part in the fight against the Evil Mark, including Spawn, the demonic, near-unstoppable antihero! Sadly, for legal reasons, Amazon Prime could only include two of those characters, one of whom will likely play a bigger role next season.
Mark (Almost) Decides to Stop Holding Back
By the third day of the War, Angstrom makes his move, banishing the surviving eight Invincibles to the dimension he and Mark’s fight ended in. He wanted to kill Invincible himself. However, despite getting access to new technology and using his portal powers, Mark still manages to best him. Just when Mark has him by the throat, dead to rights, Oliver comes up and yells at his brother to end his life. Put him down for good so this can never happen again.
What happens next marks a change in Mark’s views on morality.
For months now, Mark has beat himself up for thinking he killed Angstrom. He thought he proved himself no better than his father or other Viltrumites. Learning Angstrom was alive should have been a relief for him. Instead, by NOT killing him, he allowed Angstrom to start the Invincible War and kill potentially millions of people! Mark unintentionally showed Angstrom mercy and the man returned it with violence on a global scale.
And Mark is done with that. He knows that Angstrom can’t be held in any prison, so he decides to do the only thing he can do in his current situation. At least, he tries to, but Angstrom escapes again. Thankfully, he won’t be causing any trouble for a while.
And thus, the Invincible War comes to an end. But the world will never be the same.
So Much Loss…Due to a Hater
Besides the countless civilian deaths and destruction of cities, the Invincible War cost the lives of many superheroes. While most of them are heroes we don’t know, the ones we do know are in bad shape. Most of the Guardians narrowly escape death, with Darkwing MIA and Immortal dying again! The latter is left so shaken he decides to retire, again!
Atom Eve gets her shin destroyed and winds up in a coma.
However, the hardest loss from the Invincible War is, without a doubt, Rexsplode. And the show knows this.
Right before he goes off to fight, he’s helping Rae move into her new apartment, talking about how he’s changed for the better. He’s toned down the worst parts of himself, he’s more enjoyable to be around. He even looks set to find real love with Rae!
And the use of Billie Eilish over the montage of pain and loss finches everything. It’s enough to make people cry.
The worst part, though? In the aftermath, Powerplex, who escaped prison and helped fight the Invincibles, sees his Invincible and goes off on another tirade, saying everything was his fault.
And no one speaks up or says otherwise.
The Real Finale is about to Begin
One would think that something as cataclysmic as the Invincible War would take more than one episode to complete. One would think that it would serve as the season finale. However, the War only lasted a single issue in the comics, and it was not as detailed as the animated series. The fact that Amazon managed to add so much detail to this event is an impressive feat. As insane as this was, though, the War was only a warmup for the real finale. In the final moments of the episode, as Mark’s trying to help with cleanup, a Viltrumite shows up.
Meet Conquest, one of the oldest and strongest of the Viltrumites. He’s their people’s equivalent to Broly from the Dragon Ball franchise, meaning he’s beyond dangerous. He’s the worst-case scenario Earth could face at the worst possible time. Mark, on the other hand, is at the point where he’s too fed up to be scared. He just wants to hit something really, really hard.
The season finale will be focused on this epic clash of Viltrumites, one that fans have been waiting for. However, the excitement has reached thermonuclear levels due to who’s voicing Conquest. He is voiced by none other than Jeffrey Dean Morgan, AKA Negan Smith from The Walking Dead, of which Mark’s VA Steven Yeun is also an alumni. In that series, Negan killed Steven’s character, Glenn. Now the Internet is calling the fight to come the rematch of Glen and Negan. In other words, the hype is real!
Hope you Brought Popcorn!
Invincible has had its ups and downs throughout its run, but this episode covering the Invincible War is its best to date. The only one that can come closest is the Season One finale, and that fight is about to get overshadowed by what’s to come. By the time this goes up, the finale will be up. And when it is, hopefully the Internet will be left drooling over the carnage.
