WARNING: Spoilers for Invincible Season 1. Obviously.
With Invincible Season 2 fast approaching, let’s take a look back at the Season 1 finale and its wildly brutal twist that has left fans hankering to see what comes next in this hit adaptation of the Robert Kirkman comic.
After weaving back and forth between whether Nolan Grayson a.k.a. Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) is evil, Invincible finally lays its cards on the table as the man who was seen as Earth’s most powerful protector reveals the truth to Mark/Invincible (Steven Yeun). Despite Nolan’s claims to the contrary, the Viltrumites are not a benevolent society. Instead, they’re a ruthless empire conquering the universe through unrelenting force. Nolan’s mission is to rule Earth, not be its hero. Humans mean nothing to him, including his wife Debbie (Sandra Oh), and now, it’s time for Mark to fulfill his genetic destiny by helping dear old dad dominate the planet.
Mark is gonna take a hard pass. Unfortunately, he severely underestimates both his father’s genuine disdain for lower life forms and his severe propensity for violence. It’d be wrong to describe what happens next as a fight because what mostly happens is a beating of unparalleled proportions. Nolan not only bludgeons Mark with his fist, but he proceeds to use his son’s body to mete out wide scale carnage. He slams Mark into occupied buildings, crushes people right in front of his face, and at one point, holds him up to a speeding subway and forces Mark to watch as bodies are splattered across his own.
The beating only stops when Nolan has a frustrating (to him) moment of empathy where he remembers Mark’s first baseball game. Despite years of Viltrumite conditioning, he flies off into space, unable to continue pummeling his son. Of course, Mark is basically a bloody pulp, so there’s not a whole lot left to work with.
After physically healing from his father’s assault — mentally will be a whole other ball game — Mark slowly eases back into his life. However, he soon learns from Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen) that Mark has already given hope to a coalition of planets for being the first Viltrumite to go against the empire. An empire that will surely return to work and finish the job that Nolan could not.
Invincible Season 2 premieres November 3 on Amazon Prime Video.
