Prime Video’s adult-animated superhero series Invincible finally returns on November 3 for its second season, two and a half years after its season-one conclusion. That’s a long time to wait in general, but it felt particularly agonizing after the first outing’s brutal ending. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
The series is based on Robert Kirkman’s (The Walking Dead) Image Comics series of the same name, about a 17-year-old named Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) whose superpowers have finally manifested. His mom, Debbie (Sandra Oh), is human, but his dad, Nolan (J.K. Simmons), is the superhero Omni-Man, an alien from the planet Viltrum. The Viltrumites are a benevolent race, and Omni-Man has been sent to Earth as its protector. Or, at least, that’s what he tells everyone. And how are the silly little humans supposed to know that he’s lying about the Viltrumites’ intentions and his purpose on Earth?
Invincible debuted in 2021 to strong reviews, though it perhaps didn’t explode in popularity as much as you’d think, given its all-star cast. (In addition to Yeun, Oh, and Simmons, the series boasts voice work from Clancy Brown, Mark Hamill, Gillian Jacobs, Walton Goggins, and Zachary Quinto in the main and recurring categories. Guest stars include Jon Hamm, Seth Rogen, and Mahershala Ali.) It also arrived at a weird time, mid-pandemic, and its surface-level similarities to Prime Video’s other Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg-produced superhero series, The Boys, probably didn’t help, either. To be clear, Invincible and The Boys are very, very different despite both being adult superhero shows, and both are well worth a watch. So if you’re new to the show, or just want a quick refresh before the upcoming episodes, we’ve put together a quick guide to Invincible seasons one and two.
Give me the spoiler-free version of season one
Mark’s a senior in high school, and he’s been antsy about when his powers will manifest for a while now. He’s known about his dad’s identity as Omni-Man for years, and he’s grown up watching him save the world. So when he accidentally flings a trash bag high into the air at his part-time job while trying to throw it into a dumpster, he’s stoked. And he expects his dad to be pumped, too, so it’s weird when his dad gets way too aggressive during their training session and seems to hurt Mark on purpose. That’s one of the key things that makes Invincible different from other superhero stories, especially The Boys: It’s ostensibly a dramedy, but it’s not a blend of comedy and drama. Instead, it’s funny until it really, really isn’t, a punch to the gut when you thought when you thought you were in for some father-son bonding time.
Throughout the season, there’s a nagging sense that something is up with Omni-Man, as he tries to steer Mark (who takes on the superhero name Invincible) away from smaller acts of heroism and only help with the most catastrophic incidents. It’s a typical adolescent story of maturing and the choice between embracing or defying your parents’ expectations with a superpowered twist until it really, really isn’t.
Okay, now give me all the spoilers: What was that about a brutal ending?
At the end of episode one, Omni-Man murders an entire superhero team called the Guardians Of The Globe before passing out from injuries he sustained in the fight. When he comes to, he claims he doesn’t know who attacked the Guardians, doesn’t know why, doesn’t know anything except that he tried to fight the attackers off with the Guardians but was ultimately unsuccessful. And the audience knows he’s lying, but we don’t learn why until the final episode of the season.
As Omni-Man eventually tells Mark, the Viltrumites aren’t the benevolent protectors he claimed them to be. They’re brutal conquerors, and Omni-Man has been sent to take over the Earth. Mark is horrified by the revelation and refuses to help his dad; he says he’s going to protect the humans instead. So Omni-Man shows Mark just how foolish a goal that is by killing thousands and forcing Mark to witness it. It’s a gruesome, devastating fight, and it’s particularly hard to forget Omni-Man using Mark as an instrument of destruction to cut a subway train, and all its passengers, in half. Still, after their fight, Omni-Man finds that he cares about Mark too much to kill him. He takes off into outer space, flying beyond the reaches of our solar system.
And what’s going on in season two?
Okay, did you see that trailer? It looks like Mark is going to cave and either help his dad take over the Earth or try to conquer it for some other reason. But that’s almost certainly a misdirect, thanks to this season’s villain: Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown). Levy can access different dimensions, which means he can see different versions of events. So that broadcast of Mark saying, “People of Earth: the more you resist, the worse this gets” could just be from a different dimension. It’s hard to tell with multiverses. What Levy wants, and where he’s even come from, is as yet unknown, though you can dive into the comics if you’re interested in his backstory there. (Levy first appears in Invincible Vol. 1 #16.)
The Mauler Twins (Kevin Michael Richardson) are back, and it looks like they’re serving as Levy’s henchmen this time around. There’s a whole bunch of new guest stars, too, including Calista Flockhart, Rhea Seehorn, Tim Robinson, Tatiana Maslany, and Rob Delaney. And yes, Reginald VelJohnson returns as Principal Winslow.
Throughout season two, Mark’s main struggle is his fear of becoming just like his father. Kirkman told Variety, “The first season was a matter of putting those two big Nolan beats of him fighting the Guardians of the Globe, and him fighting Mark, as the bookends, and filling out the middle. This season was about making it definitively Mark’s story, and Angstrom Levy is definitively a Mark villain that he had to face on his own.” Plus, Mark is under scrutiny from the Coalition Of Planets, an organization dedicated to the destruction of the Viltrum Empire. It’s a lot for one teenager to handle, but luckily, Mark’s not just a regular teenager. He’s Invincible.
Invincible season 2 begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video November 3rd.