Your trusty oracle of truth is back in the house, ready to serve you a hearty dish of insights. With the release of Invincible Season 2 on Prime Video right around the corner, we’re diving headfirst into the heart-throbbing, face-punching world of Invincible Season 1. It’s time to unravel the cape and take to the skies as we break down the saga of Mark Grayson, one episode at a time.
It’s About Time
Ah, the tender tale of teenage superhero angst, seasoned with a dash of fatherly fisticuffs.
When hulking villainous scientists the Mauler Twins attack the White House, they’re repelled by the Guardians of the Globe, sort of like discount Avengers or possibly Justice League, and none other than Nolan Grayson, Omni-Man, or this universe’s Superman.
Nolan’s son Mark, who’s waiting for his powers to emerge, goes to school and defends classmate Amber Bennett from a bully by the name of Todd. Yes, he kind of looks like a Todd. But after Todd punches Mark to the ground, Amber ends up saving him and develops an interest in her dude in distress.
Later, Mark’s superpowers emerge, and he finishes work and tells his parents at dinner. “It’s about time.”
Initially uncertain, Nolan still begins to train Mark on how to use them. But wishing to emphasize the severity of being a superhero, Nolan catches Mark off guard by punching him just a little too hard. Feeling hurt emotionally and physically, Mark blows off steam by stopping a robbery in a homemade suit. “Meant to do that.”
After a heart-to-heart with his son, Nolan takes Mark to meet superhero suit tailor Art Rosenbaum, who creates a proper superhero suit for Mark after he chooses to call himself Invincible. The irony.
Later, Nolan secretly ambushes the Guardians at their headquarters and kills them. Like, all brutally. No, really, it’s a titanic-sized mountain of whoop-assery, before he falls unconscious from the damage sustained during the fight.
The Plot Thickens Like a Good Old Superhero Stew
In Episode 2, the mustachioed marvel Nolan takes a snooze in the secret snooze chambers of the Global Defense Agency, under the watchful eye of director Cecil Stedman, beneath the Pentagon. Because where else do you hide a secret government superhero hospital? Director Stedman informs Mark and his mother Debbie.
But trouble waits for no hero to recover, as extradimensional aliens called the Flaxans attack. Mark helps the Teen Team hold off their forces when the Flaxans suddenly begin rapidly aging and retreat. Teen Team leader Robot deduces this was due to a time dilation difference between the Flaxans’ dimension and Earth. As Mark recognizes Atom Eve as a classmate, Samantha Eve Wilkins, they share their identities and become friends.
The Flaxans return, this time armed with anti-aging technology. That’s right, I said anti-aging technology. But Mark and the Teen Team destroy it, forcing another retreat.
But wait, there’s more Flaxan tomfoolery, as the time-challenged alien invaders return once again, this time nearly succeeding until a recuperated Nolan forces them back to their dimension. “My turn.” You later find out he pretty much devastates their planet in retaliation before returning as news breaks of the Guardians’ deaths. “I’m at a loss for how to report this, but the Guardians of the Globe are dead.”
Meanwhile, Mark skirmishes with Allen the Alien, who wants to test Earth’s defenses for the Coalition of Planets. Calling a timeout to talk and learning of Allen’s mission, Mark corrects his mistaking Earth for another planet called Urath. Allen leaves, bidding a friendly farewell.
In the shadowed halls, the eerie Damien Darkblood, a demon detective with a flair for the dramatic, basically discount Hellboy, snoops around the Guardians’ cold case, hinting at a traitor amidst the caped crowd. Ooh, a little intrigue.
Who You Calling Ugly?
In Episode 3, the morning sun rises over the superhero community in a televised funeral spectacle, very much along the lines of the Death of Superman, followed by a more intimate send-off where our eerie sleuth Darkblood sneaks in a sidebar with Nolan, dropping hints of suspicion.
Meanwhile, Robot gets a shiny gold star from Cecil and the task of assembling a new Guardians roster after the Flaxan fiasco. Merge in the Teen Team with some new faces like Monster Girl, Black Samson and Shrinking Rae, spelled R-A-E, and we’ve got a fresh batch of Guardians.
But oh, the drama unfolds as Eve bids adieu to the team, nursing a heartache after her boyfriend Rex Splode was caught cheating on her with their teammate Dupli-Kate. Oh yeah, that’s her name.
Now our boy Mark plans a cozy study date with Amber, but duty calls, and he dashes off with Eve to shut down Doc Seismic’s rocky rampage at Mount Rushmore. Despite the delay, Amber’s still game for the date, her curiosity piqued. Rex tries to mend fences with Eve, but no dice. Eve, upon discovering Mark’s blossoming romance, exits stage left with a heavy heart but a respectful nod to Mark’s newfound joy.
In the shadows, Robot lends a clandestine hand in springing the Maulers from their GDA cage, with one Mauler biting the dust in the escape. Luckily, when it comes to the Maulers, all you need is one.
And as Darkblood digs deeper, questioning Debbie, the seeds of doubt are sown in the Grayson household regarding Nolan’s secretive stance. Nolan, sensing the lingering aura of Darkblood’s inquiry, knows the noose of truth is tightening.
Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out
In Episode 4, the winds of discontent rustle throughout as Red Rush’s widow Olga fires up the for sale sign with Debbie to bid adieu to her abode, eyeing a retreat to Moscow.
Meanwhile, Cecil tries to rope in Nolan for a Martian babysitting gig, but our mustached marvel passes the baton to Mark, citing earthly duties. As Mark chaperones the Mars mission, his spacey attention span costs them a close encounter of the Martian kind. The Martian Emperor, fearing the parasitic Sequids, slaps an execution order on the astronauts. “The humans are scheduled for immediate execution. We cannot risk them coming in contact with a Sequid.”
Mark, in a jiffy, shuttles the earthlings back home, oblivious to a Martian tagalong swapping places with one of them. The unsuspecting left-behind astronaut becomes the Sequids’ new host, unleashing a Martian nightmare.
Back on Earth, Nolan and Debbie are painting the town red in Rome, rekindling the old flame. Yet Nolan’s weaving a web of half-truths, keeping Debbie in the dark. Cecil, putting two and two together, fingers Nolan as the Guardians’ grim reaper, yet holds his cards close, awaiting the ace to unravel Nolan’s murderous motive.
Our chilly detective Darkblood finds himself exiled to hell courtesy of Cecil, though he leaves a parting gift in Debbie’s closet: a hidden notepad brimming with clues.
In the dark alleys of clandestine labs, the surviving Mauler kickstarts a clone fest, with Robot playing peeping Tom on his nefarious nursery. Swiping a DNA sample from Rex, Robot delivers the genetic gift to his real-world alter ego, the disfigured Rudy Connors.
That Actually Hurt
The plot thickens in Episode 5 as Debbie, with a nose for deceit, sniffs out Darkblood’s notepad and soon uncovers Nolan’s bloodstained super suit. Man, you always get rid of the super suit.
Meanwhile, Black Samson schools the gang on the ABCs of heroism amidst Robot’s clandestine rendezvous with the freshly minted Mauler Twins, dangling a job offer in their nefarious faces.
Over in Mark’s world, our boy’s juggling acts of heroism with a soup kitchen promise to Amber, mending fences over his heroic absenteeism. Yet duty calls as he aids the muscle-bound Titan in a takedown of the notorious Machine Head. But oh, the villain saw them coming from a mile away, rolling out a welcome mat of hired henchmen.
As fists fly and buildings crumble, the Guardians swoop in, extending a helping hand. But the ferocious Battle Beast sends Mark, Monster Girl and Black Samson to the knockdown lane, ringing the wake-up call for the Guardians to unite or bite the dust. Battle Beast, unimpressed by the hero and henchman smackdown, exits stage left, leaving the GDA to sweep up Machine Head and airlift our battered heroes to the med bay. Titan, seizing the throne of the fallen villain, steps into his new role as the big bad boss.
Amidst the chaos, Eve, dabbling in the soup kitchen goodwill beside Amber, finds herself summoned by Cecil as news of Mark’s bruising battle reaches her ears. In the lab of mysteries, GDA scientists play a game of try and destroy with Mark’s blood, only to find his cells laughing in the face of their lethal tests.
You Look Kinda Dead
In Episode 6, Mark limps back from a week-long pit stop in the recovery lane with a sprinkle of romance and reconciliation with Amber. The duo, along with Mark’s wingman William, sets off for a breezy visit to Upstate University to cheer on William’s heartthrob, Rick Sheridan.
But oh, what’s a superhero outing without a dash of mechanical mayhem? Enter D.A. Sinclair, the mad scientist with a knack for cyborg shenanigans. As William deduces Mark’s identity, Amber breaks up with Mark due to his absences (I mean, come on) during the whole cyborg rampage, and he pretty much sacrifices reconciliation to rescue William and Rick from Sinclair. A glimpse of cyborg Rick sends shivers down William’s spine, but hey, friendship triumphs as Rick shakes off the cyborg shackles to help Mark hand Sinclair a ticket to the slammer. Cecil, ever the opportunist, casts a keen eye on Sinclair’s tech, which gave Mark a run for his money.
On the home front, the truth rears its ugly head as Rosenbaum plays detective with Nolan’s bloodied suit for Debbie, painting Nolan as the Guardians’ grim reaper. The duo, trembling at the revelation, lock their lips on a pact of silence. Yet the truth drowns Debbie in a whirlpool of despair, with a bottle of booze as her only buoy.
Robot, nursing a tender spot for Monster Girl, weaves a magical concoction to mend her wounds, while the Maulers, knee-deep in grave digging, exhume the Immortal’s corpse for a sinister resurrection. Elsewhere, Eve, catching the humanitarian bug from Amber, bids adieu to college dreams, pledging her powers to the cause of the common good.
We Need to Talk
In the penultimate episode of Season 1, secrets get murkier and the stakes skyrocket. Debbie takes refuge with the GDA, and along with Cecil she witnesses the wrath of Nolan as he lays waste to Donald Ferguson and a slew of GDA agents. It’s not a pretty sight.
In a chamber of cold, hard decisions, the Rudy clone pulls the plug on his original self after a neural link upgrade, stepping into a fresh yet complex existence. He then pulls a fast one on the Maulers, skips out on his payment, and heads for a Guardian huddle. Spilling the beans about his new lease on life leaves the team reeling, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as they get a hefty dose of the grim truth about Omni-Man and the fate of their predecessors.
Cecil engages in a tense tango of words with Nolan, only to fall back, rolling out Sinclair’s ReAnimen and a juiced-up Kaiju with a single mission: bring down Nolan.
Now Mark faces his own whirlwind as Amber, unfazed by his superhero reveal, calls it quits, citing (come on, guys, really, like I even have to say it) trust issues. A heart-to-heart with Eve only lands Mark a reality check on his self-centered antics. The duo, later crashing into Nolan’s brawl with the Kaiju, find themselves in the thick of it. Cecil directs Eve to join the Guardians, leaving Mark to grapple with the chaos.
It’s the resurrection show as the Maulers breathe life back into the Immortal, who bolts into the skies thirsting for vengeance against Nolan. Mark, wrestling down the Kaiju, watches in horror as the world bears witness to Nolan slaying the Immortal on live TV. And as the dust settles, Nolan, with cold eyes, seeks a heart-to-heart with a bewildered Mark. “We need to talk.”
Where I Really Come From
In the finale of Invincible Season 1, the high-voltage face-off between father and son unfolds as Nolan unmasks himself as a harbinger of doom from the Viltrum Empire. Turns out Viltrumites are this universe’s discount Saiyans, and Earth is his conquest target.
Despite Mark’s pleas falling on deaf ears, Nolan unleashes a fury on Mark, painting Chicago red, literally, leaving thousands breathless. Mark, beaten to a pulp but not broken, triggers a ripple of memories in Nolan, who, torn between duty and love, takes an emotional exit from Earth, leaving a trail of tears and destruction.
As the smoke clears, the Guardians, along with Eve, roll up their sleeves, diving into the relief efforts to mend a shattered Chicago. The world grapples with the shock wave of Nolan’s betrayal, while Cecil, ever resourceful, crafts a cover story to shield Debbie and Mark from the storm, painting Nolan as a casualty. Debbie, nursing a broken heart, shares a somber toast with Rosenbaum, both mourning the friend they thought they knew.
Amidst the healing, Mark and Amber rekindle the embers of their romance, mending fences after Mark’s recovery. The superhero circle widens as Amber and William step into the secret world of capes and crusaders, learning about Eve’s double life.
A cosmic rendezvous sees Mark bumping into Allen, the two updating each other on the roller coaster of events. Allen drops a dire warning: the Viltrumites are coming, with Earth on their radar. Yet a glimmer of hope shines, as Allen sees Mark as a potential ally to halt the Viltrumite onslaught.
As Mark flips the page to finish his high school chapter, the world behind the scenes buzzes with activity. The Maulers find themselves behind bars, the Immortal wakes up under the GDA’s watchful eye, and the shadows whisper of villainous comebacks. Cecil, with an eye on the stormy horizon, ropes in Sinclair to churn out an army of ReAnimen, prepping for the battles that loom.
Kind of Epic
Invincible Season 1, realistically, was kind of epic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that so literally and accurately brought the story from the comics into the world of animation, and this really hit home. This had vibes of the Justice League, the movie, the one they did with Darkseid and whatnot, and it was really well done.
There’s no discounting the fact that this is definitely discount Justice League or discount Avengers, but at the same time I think they’re doing it really well. It’s a deconstruction that I’m actually enjoying.
And yes, there’s vibes of the Super Saiyans, or the Saiyans from Dragon Ball. For those of you playing at home, if you don’t watch Dragon Ball Z or any anime like that, every time they fight, they get stronger. So Goku, being one of the main protagonists, when he fights someone who’s more powerful than him, he goes nearly to death’s door, and then poof, when he recovers he’s twice as strong. That’s kind of how this works too.
I went on and I read the comic books, and the comic books were excellent. If you can get your hands on them, I think they’d be worth a read for you.
I can’t wait for the new season to drop. Would you like to see some character descriptions, a few pieces focusing a little more on the actual characters you’re going to run into in the show? I’d be more than happy to do that. Let me know your thoughts. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
