Invincible Makes Its “Mark” with Third Season Premiere ([MAJOR] SPOILERS)

The new season of Invincible has fans raving. Emery and Drew give their opinions on this action-packed, three-episode release. 
by Emery Brown and Drew Caraway

Emery
After the heights of season two, it was hard for me to imagine how season three would be able to compete but as per usual, Invincible exceeded my expectations. The season two finale had dire consequences on the story, taking a hefty toll on Mark’s health and relationships. Season three picks right back up as we watch Mark struggle with regret after he brutally killed Angstrom Levy. The first episode of the three released was moderately okay. We saw Doc Seismic kidnap every superhero except Mark and Atom Eve, which didn’t make much sense to me, but I just rolled with it. The climax and fight were more similar to a typical superhero TV show with quips, a goofy recurring villain, and exciting action. 

The real meat of the episode is at the end where, in typical Invincible style, the episode takes a dark turn when GDA Director Cecil Stedman deploys criminals and their technology against Doc Seismic, something that tips Mark over the edge. Tensions between Mark and Cecil had been rising throughout the seasons, but I was shocked to see Mark directly physically threaten him, especially knowing what technology he has access to. 

​Episode two goes more into Cecil’s backstory, making him a more understandable and honestly cooler character. He’s a cold tactician who isn’t afraid to be dirty and rough, while still having a heart and emotions. We see that he doesn’t like the sacrifices in morality he has to make to save the world but understands what he has to do. The battle between Mark and Cecil continues and you feel Mark’s physical presence. He feels very similar to how his father Omni-Man felt in the first season, especially after he enters the headquarters of the Guardians of the Globe, who watch as he brutalizes Cecil’s Reanimen in ways very similar to Omni-Man’s massacre of the former Guardians in the very first episode, seeing just how far Mark has come and making us fear for the path he’s taking.

Episode three has a larger focus on Mark’s family, particularly his half-brother Oliver. He has aged significantly since the last season, appearing to be around ten years old. He has big dreams of being a superhero just like Mark, an eerie reflection of Mark’s admiration of his father in the first season. Mark does his best to keep Oliver under control but struggles as he simply doesn’t listen, showing the contrast between his physical power and childish mind. This comes to a head when Oliver coldly murders the Mauler twins. He doesn’t understand why what he did was wrong, idolizing Omni-Man and proclaiming that maybe he was right all along, something that shocks Mark and Debbie, who do their best to explain why you can’t simply murder bad guys.
​
The highlights of these episodes for me were definitely the multiple parallels drawn between various characters, whether it be Mark and Omni-Man, Mark and Cecil, Mark and Oliver, Oliver and Omni-Man, etc. It makes nearly every important character feel well-rounded and that while they all may share a want for justice and stopping crime and violence, they all struggle with both their own methods and how their beliefs clash with others. Honestly, I can see any one of the previously mentioned combinations having to clash in the coming episodes and making for a great seasonal climax. This season is promising and I’m very excited for the remaining episodes to see where this goes.

Drew’s
After a long wait, we finally got season three and I think it lived up to all the hype it was supposed to be. We waited for almost a year for the premiere of season three and it was amazing.
​
In the first episode when we get to see Mark and all the other superheroes be kidnapped by Doc Seismic. I was on the edge of my seat seeing every single superhero kidnapped. Seeing Seismic communicate with the ground to capture every hero and escape prison didn’t really make sense until I talked it over with Emery. At the end of the episode when we see Mark, Cecil and D.A. Sinclair’s creations, it was kind of the start of lots of Omni-Man similarities with Mark. When he shredded all those creations, it felt like watching Omni-Man shred the aliens and Guardians in early season one. In episode two, I like how we get to see a Cecil episode and how he got started in his career. Then when we see Cecil assassinate the two former villains in the attempt to save his former boss, it was just like the situation with Mark and him not liking Darkwing’s sidekick on the new team. We really get to see how similar Mark and Cecil are. Then, we get to see that Mark has a chip in his head that Cecil planted, just in case he turned into the second coming Omni-Man. Seeing Mark get so angry and slaughtering all the creations in Guardians HQ was just like seeing Omni-Man kill the Guardians in the opening episode. 

In episode three, I feel like the season got real after seeing Kid Omni-Man kill the Mauler Twins. Then we get to see him acting just like Omni-Man, it felt like a full family reunion. We see both Invincible and Kid Omni-Man acting like their father in the way they were killing at will. Seeing Mark almost kill Cecil felt good in a way. Not the fact that Cecil almost died, but the fact that he almost died because not only did he put a chip in Mark’s head to make sure he doesn’t end up like Omni-Man, but he also completely went against what Mark told him not to do, and Cecil nearly faced the consequences against one of the strongest heroes, if not the strongest, on the planet. I do feel like Cecil will try to brainwash the Mauler Twins and put them on their side, if he can make them again.

To end off, I think that Kid Omni-Man and Invincible will fight at some point in season three. I think the way Kid Omni-Man grows and how fast he got his powers, I think he will be a second coming of Omni-Man. But, I think they will team up and kill the version of Angstrom Levy we saw at the end of episode three.

After seeing Angstrom Levy get beat to a pulp in the season two finale, seeing him at the end of episode three blew my mind. I did not expect him to return, but I could also see it, since there are an infinite number of him. 

Watch Invincible on Amazon Prime Video with new episodes released every Thursday.

---