Let no one say that nothing ever happens in Invincible. The Prime Video series, based on Richard Kirkman’s graphic novels, is famous for its notoriously gory and unabashedly adult events. Even when he focuses on the “quieter” aspects of his superhero world, like the trauma people experience every day after a villain attack or an alien invasion, it’s all in service of a larger goal. It only makes their characters feel more real and watchable; It is easier to identify with your circumstances.
That said, I’ve been waiting for a long time for something very specific to happen in Invincible. For years, the series has been preparing for a major event, the Viltrumite War, in which the titular superhero, aka Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), will team up with his father to free the galaxy from the planet Viltrum. Of course, it’s the kind of thing that can’t be rushed, since JK Simmons’ Omni-Man is a Viltrumite and until very recently was working to colonize Earth to bring glory to that fascist, war-mongering empire. He beat his son bloody when he refused to help him on that quest, and compared his human wife (a pristine Sandra Oh) to… a pet. He was completely irredeemable… until he wasn’t. In Invincible’In the second season, after much introspection, Omni-Man utters the words that sound like Viltrumite’s signature finishing move: “I think… I miss my wife.”
That’s crazy to say, since Omni-Man also dumped Debbie pretty quickly and fathered another child with an insect-like Thraxan just months after revealing his true nature. Still, any The remorse of that interspatial colonizer is a fantastic sign, even if Invincible has taken its time to prove its legitimacy. Season 3 may have withheld the redemption we were all waiting for and opted to focus more on Mark’s efforts to rebuild his life, but its follow-up delivers on the promise of Nolan’s repentance and more. Season 4 finally brings the war to Viltrum, turning the superhero pastiche into something much more cosmic, urgent and devastating.
Mark’s arc is hijacked by Omni-Man’s redemption tour, and it’s not a moment too soon.
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As in past seasons of InvincibleHowever, it takes a little time to get to that conflict. Season 4 spends much of its first half tying up some loose ends, and the first few episodes feel more like one-off adventures (another alien invasion here, a side mission with Oliver (Christian Convery) and a small-time crime lord there) than a space series. Invincible makes it clear that Earth has much more to worry about beyond a Viltrumite conquest, presenting more threats than Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins), the director of the Global Defense Agency, can reasonably handle. That’s also what gives the early episodes their strength: There’s little time to worry about the nitty-gritty of a new relationship when a power-hungry Amazon (Danai Gurira, in a brief cameo) is draining the nation’s power grid, or when starfish-shaped aliens known as Sequids are mounting a horrific attack.
But Invincible he still squeezes out a lot of the interpersonal excess he’s known for. Debbie contemplates truly committing to her relationship with the nice, normal Paul (Cliff Curtis), and there’s some movement in Mark’s bond with Atom Eve (Gillian Anderson), who’s dealing with the loss of her powers plus more unwanted drama. Their dynamic has long felt like mutual trauma, and that doesn’t change when Eve leans on Mark and he repeats his fears of becoming a superhero who kills. Giving in to that impulse might make him more like his father than he’d like, but that internal monologue grew stale last season, and after surviving a joint assault by a small army of Invincible variants and the Viltrumite known as Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Mark might need to suck it up and make peace with his reality. (When you’re Earth’s last defense against an unstoppable race of Übermenschen, you gotta crack some eggs, sorry!)
Dawn of the Viltrumite War takes up half of season 4, but the rest is meandering and confusing.
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Mark’s anguished navel-gazing is no less tedious in Season 4; Fortunately, he is no longer the center of attention. Although he gets a big boost with impromptu mentorship from Damien Darkblood (Clancy Brown) and what might be the most spoilery and twisted battle he’s ever faced, some of the season’s best episodes barely feature Invincible at all. Their ongoing fight is thankfully hijacked by Nolan Grayson’s apology tour, and the repentant villain finally begins to reckon with the pain he caused as Omni-Man. He joins forces with Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen) to recover the only weapons that could weaken a Viltrumite, allowing him Invincible to alleviate all the superhero deconstruction and instead remix the imagery of sci-fi franchises like Star Trek and Flash Gordon.
This journey across the galaxy forces Nolan to face more tangible evidence of his cruelty, setting the stage for a confrontation with the family he destroyed. The hope of reconciliation with Mark, Oliver (whose Thraxan DNA has quickly turned him into an angsty teenager), and even Debbie becomes real in these moments, and it’s a welcome change from the Earthbound focus of seasons past. Sure, they all sprinkled in pulpy space adventures here and there, but season 4 thrives on that reality. Plus, it’s nice to get more from Simmons, whose work as Omni-Man has always been a highlight of Invincible.
Oh also delivers another devastating performance as Debbie struggles to hold her newly put together life together. Nolan’s return could be the compelling drama this show has been teasing for years, but Invincible he doesn’t hesitate to describe how this could break Debbie again, or question whether her drive to “make things right” (if she can do it) is completely altruistic. The series has always opted for small moments that make us long for these characters, and this season could give us some of the best. But if it had a flaw, it would be its attempt to balance those interpersonal rhythms with its expanding world.
The interpersonal clashes more than ever with high-concept world-building in Season 4.
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Invincible It’s always been the type of superhero show that feels more like a prestige drama, which shows how much can be explored within the genre. With the Viltrumite war so close However, until it finally develops, you might need to refine your approach. The first few episodes are packed with plot and most of them can be really fascinating, but that doesn’t stop them from muddying the thesis of the season.
Too much history is not necessarily a bad problem, but it has remained. Invincible back from the beginning. Maybe it’s that Kirkman is struggling to kill his loved ones while adapting the material he helped create; maybe eight episodes aren’t enough to make each installment feel like a fully realized arc. Critics screened all but two of the new season’s episodes, but even if that two-part finale deals with the confrontation between the Coalition of Planets and Viltrum’s final boss, Grand Regent Thragg (an underused Lee Pace), its faltering focus still kept the season from achieving greatness.
It’s a quibble, but it also speaks to one of the only truly frustrating parts of the series, Mark’s petulance aside. Invincible He’s so close to leveling up, if only he’d pick a title and stick with it.
