AS evidenced with The Boys (and its spinoff Gen V), Amazon’s Prime Video is the de facto home of mature storytelling involving superheroes. This vivid line, drawn in blood and brain matter, separates it from other streaming platforms, which offer the more family-friendly, sanitised, sterile projects in the world of superheroes.
That is why when Robert Kirkman’s Invincible was adapted from his comics into an animated series, there was already an in-built audience on Prime Video of casual viewers and fans of the comics that gobbled up the series’ first season back in 2021.
Though it proudly features graphic violence similar to The Boys franchise, there was something different about Kirkman’s animated series. It was building towards something far more epic in storytelling.
Like how the first season of the show laid the foundations to the future of Invincible, the second season has done the same, in a far better way.
Dramatic subplots
At the end of that season, an estimated 10,000 civilians were killed in the fight between Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) and his son Mark/Invincible (Steven Yuen).
As part of the alien Viltrumite empire, Nolan fails to recruit his half-human son into his mission of conquering the planet. After beating his son within an inch of his life, the alien has a sudden change of heart and flees Earth into deep space.
The second season begins with the Grayson family and various different groups picking up the pieces from Nolan’s actions.
Debbie (Sandra Oh), Mark’s mother and Nolan’s wife, is in shambles, as she struggles with whether her husband truly loved her, or if she was just a “pet” meant to breed Viltrumite offsprings.
On the other hand, Mark struggles with his father’s deception and betrayal of humanity, and in the second half of the season, he is forced to confront his violent, bloodthirsty half-Viltrumite identity as he tries not to follow in the patriach’s footsteps.
Early in the season, another Grayson is introduced, further complicating the family dynamics for the two Graysons on Earth. Nolan’s actions in space have resulted in Mark getting a half-brother, a baby by the name of Oliver.
The second half of the season has Mark bringing Oliver to Earth, with Debbie stepping in to raise the baby.
The strong, the weak and the ugly
Though the Viltrumites are the main focus of the series as a whole, the second season’s main antagonist is Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown) and he is quite the letdown, at least based on his presence.
The writers do their due diligence in developing Levy, who is malformed due to an accident involving Mark. Deforming him, the accident also gives him powers to open portals to other dimensions, but he still feels undercooked. Credit where it is due, Levy works as an instrument to emotionally break Mark and push him to the edge, because the latter needs to be broken before he comes back stronger.
That said, Levy is still a trashy main villain. His powers are generic and his character motivation is one-dimensional, childish nonsense that can be boiled down to: “Invincible made me ugly and now I’m going to hurt his family, including his baby brother, because I’m angry!”
Building a foundation
Other plot machinations involve the Global Defense Agency making small steps in preparing for the eventual Viltrumite invasion much later in the series and the Guardians of the Globe (Invincible’s version of DC Comics’ Justice League and Marvel’s Avengers) attempting to strengthen themselves for the same reason while defending Earth from other threats.
In space, Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen) works as an agent of The Coalition of Planets to recruit as many capable warriors and planets to form an alliance against the Viltrumite empire. A major character later in the series, Allen has two great scenes this season.
Looking at the writing behind all the major and minor characters, along with their various subplots being weaved into the overarching main story, it is definitely a lot, especially for a season with only eight episodes.
It is nothing short of masterful that Kirkman and his writers managed to pull off stuffing so much into this series without causing pacing issues or the claustrophobic feeling of being too bloated with characters and stories.
The actors and stage is now set for the story to expand further with Invincible’s third season, which could come as early as 2025 or as late as 2026.
