Vol 2

By Mark Mathen Victor A s evidenced by “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, sanitized, and sterileprojects in theworld of superheroes. That is why when Robert Kirkman’s “Invincible” was adapted fromhis comics into an animated series, there was already an in-built audience on Prime Video of casual viewers and fans of the comics that gobbledup theseries’ 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 farmore epic in storytelling. Like how the first season of the show laid the foundations for the future of “Invincible”, the second season has done the same, in a far better way. Anempire of drama Split into two parts, “Invincible’s” first four episodes aired last November, and the remaining four episodes aired throughoutMarch. Both parts continue and expand in the aftermath of the first season’s conclusion. At the end of that season, an estimated 10,000 civilians were killed in the fight between Nolan Grayson/ Omni-Man (JK 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(SandraOh),Mark’smother 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 offspring. On the other hand, Mark struggles with his father’s deception and betrayal of humanity, and in the secondhalf of the season, he is forced to confront his violent, bloodthirsty half-Viltrumite identity as he tries not to become his father. 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 inMark getting a half- brother, a baby by the name of Oliver. Conceived between Nolan and Andressa, the queen of Thraxa, Oliver is half-Viltrumite and half- Thraxan. Due to Andressa’s race beinganinsect-humanhybrid, the baby has purple skin and ages fast. The second half of the season has Mark bringing Oliver to Earth, with Debbie stepping in to raise the baby. The strong, theweak, and the ugly Speaking of the Viltrumites, they now have an actual presence in the series. In the first season, viewers only heard of them by name and only witnessed a fraction of their power throughNolan. For the second season, a few of them appear throughout the episodes, leaving corpses and mass destruction in their wake. Several Viltrumites nearly kill anothermajor character. Nolan and Mark then face those same Viltrumites while defending Thraxa. Later, a Viltrumite named Anissa threatens Mark’s human girlfriend, fights, and beats himsenseless. Though the Viltrumites are the main antagonist of the series as a whole, the second season’s main antagonist is AngstromLevy (Sterling KBrown), andhe isquite the letdown, 15 MARCH 2024 Nerds & Geeks Power, Betrayal, and at least based on his presence. The writers do their due diligence in developing Levy, who is malformed due to an accident involvingMark. 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 breakMarkandpushhimto 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, c h i l d i s h nonsense thatcanbeboileddownto:“Invincible made me ugly, and now I’m going to hurt his family, including his baby brother, because I’mangry.” Building a foundation Other plot machinations involve the Global Defense Agencymaking small steps in preparing for the eventual Viltrumite invasion much later in the series and theGuardians of theGlobe (“Invincible’s” version of DC Comics’ “Justice League” and Marvel’s “Avengers”) attempting to strengthen themselves for the same reasonwhile defending Earth fromother 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 as possible to formanalliance against the Viltrumite empire. A major character later in the series, Allen, has two great scenes this season. Early in the season, Allen is ambushed by three Viltrumites seeking information on Nolan, Mark, and Earth. Choosing not to divulge the information, he is beaten into a literal bloodymess. Allen can barely put up a fight against a singleViltrumite, andherehe is attacked by three of themat once. It is hard not to feel sad once this sequence ends, as Allen’s limp body floats in space with his single eye popping out of the socket. Later, Allen, brought back to life and now as strong as a Viltrumite, is confronted by Anissa. He shrugs off her powerful attacks, similar to us in the real world feeling a slight prickwhen amosquito bites us. The scene is right after Anissa effortlesslybeats upMark, whichhelps to show the different power levels of these major characters at this point in the story. Theseasonisnotallaboutpunching, kicking, and superpowers. Kirkman, more thanmost writers in this particular field of fiction, cares as much about his human characters as hedoes about the superpoweredones. There are quite a few tender moments in the season, and the highlight is Mark and his girlfriend Amber (Zazie Beetz) breaking up. Theway the individualbigandsmall moments built up to the scene, the music, and the voice acting by Yuen and Beetz, along with the animation, culminate in one of the most realistic break-ups in a cartoon. Looking at the writing behind all themajor andminor characters, along with their various subplots being weaved into the overarching main story, it is definitely a lot, especially for a seasonwith only eight episodes. It is nothing short of masterful that Kirkman and his writers room managed to pull off stuffing so much into this turkeywithout causingpacing issues or the claustrophobic feeling of being too bloated with characters and stories. The actors and stage are 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. Inside the Thrilling Universe of ‘Invincible’