The first season of Invincible, Amazon’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic booksaired two years ago to critical and fan acclaim. Much to the joy of comic fans, the show was pretty faithful. It gave us a gritty, gory glimpse at the life of Mark Greyson, who has to balance growing up as a human teenager with his new gig as a superhero. With fans clamoring for more, season 2 was recently confirmed to premiere on Amazon later this year:
Season 2 is finally on the horizon, calling for at least one re-watch of the masterful first season. Let’s look back at the five craziest moments from season 1 of Invincible. SPOILERSfollow below!
5. The Immortal’s resurrection
At the end of episode 6, Debbie finally confronts her husband Omni-Man about him killing the Guardians of the Globe (basically this story’s version of the Justice League), which she’d suspected him of doing for several episodes. Their number included the Immortal, a powerful superhero who is hard to kill; just look at his name.
When Omni-Man refuses to admit that he is a liar and an all-around terrible person, Debbie rejects Omni-Man and tells him to leave. Government agent Cecil Stedman then sends men to move Debbie to the Global Defense Agency and reveals that he knew who killed the Guardians for a while.
Cecil throws everything he has at Omni-Man, including a resurrected and more angry version of a kaiju monster we saw earlier. Mark, who is Omni-Man’s son, shows up with his superhero friend Atom Eve and he begins helping his father. While the pair are fighting the beast, the Immortal flies in and begins attacking Omni-Man. A pair of supervillains, the Mauler twins, had recently resurrected the Immortal intending to control him with a collar designed by another superhero known only as Robot. But it doesn’t work. When the Immortal wakes up, he is filled with blind rage, as the last thing he remembers is Omni-Man murdering the Guardians of the Globe and decapitating him.
After trading blows for a brief time, Omni-Man once again delivers a fatal blow to the Immortal by punching him through the gut. With news helicopters on site, everyone in the world watches in horror as the Immortal desperately tries to gouge out Omni-Man’s eyes before he is ripped in half by and killed once more.
When the Mauler twins are bringing him back, we get brief glimpses at the Immortal’s origins, which began with him finding a strange spiral of energy thousands of years ago. The energy fused with him, giving him the power of immortality. Over the next few millennia, the Immortal took on several different personas, first as a Celtic warrior, a knight in King Arthur’s court and even as U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Sometime in the early 20th century, the Immortal became a formal superhero. Because of the Immortal’s powers, we probably haven’t seen the last of him, and he will likely be resurrected again in season 2.
4. Omni Man destroys the Flaxan planet
The Flaxans are an advanced alien civilization that begins attacking New York City in the early episodes of Invincible. The new Guardians of the Globe are able to fend them off a couple times, as the aliens are only able to survive on Earth for a few minutes at a time. But they keep coming back, each time with more advanced weapons and tactics.
When it seems like the Guardians are overwhelmed, Omni-Man shows up to beat the Flaxans back into their portal. Instead of letting them retreat, Omni-Man flies into the portal right before it closes, much to Mark’s dismay.
On the other side of the portal, Omni-Man proceeds to destroy the entire planet, which is an advanced civilization with billions of people. He is able to fly so fast that he destroys entire Flaxan cities one after another within seconds, and the entire planet in minutes.
This scene clarifies just how powerful Omni-Man is. Before crushing the Flaxan leader’s head, he mutters “Earth is not yours to conquer.” We don’t fully know his intentions at this point, but if they’re bad, the Earth has no chance.
3. The Battle Beast fight
In Episode 5, Invincible is confronted by the criminal Titan about a situation with his boss, the crime lord Machine Head. Titan manipulates Invincible into thinking he robs banks and partakes in other illegal activities to provide for his wife and young daughter. Titan convinces Invincible to help him take down Machine Head. Invincible agrees, and the pair confront Machine Head in his penthouse suite. Unfortunately for Invincible, Machine Head paid big money to bring in some super-powered muscle.
When it looks like Invincible and Titan have Machine Head cornered, the crime boss teleports in hired muscle in the form of Furnace, Kursk, Tether Tyrant, Magmaniac and Battle Beast. The battle sees Mark get tested to the limit and brought to near defeat. He gets a second wind when Tether Tyrant has him constrained, but Battle Beast makes quick work of him and beats him into the ground.
Just when it looks like it’s going to get really bad, the New Guardians show up to help. However, they are also overwhelmed by the supervillains. I refer to this moment as the Battle Beast fight because he is truly the one who makes the difference. The gigantic lion-like creature uses his strength to wield a large mace and pummel his opponents. Even though Invincible is new to being a superhero, he is still the son Omni-Man and has incredible power, but Battle Beast defeats him fairly easily. (FYI, Battle Beast is voiced by Michael Dorn, who plays Worf in Star Trek.)
Invincible is still on the ground when Black Sampson makes one last effort to help, but his weapon malfunctions and Battle Beast proceeds to deliver a crushing blow to Mark with his mace. Battle Beast breaks Sampson’s wrist with ease and throw him into a wall. Seeing her allies nearly killed sends Monster Girl into a rage, but Battle Beast also pulverizes her in a one-on-one fight, crushing her head with two large rocks.
The remaining Guardians rally to take out Furnace, Kursk and Tether Tyrant, and luckily Battle Beast decides to leave thinking the fight is beneath him. Titan approaches Invincible, who is dying on the ground, and tells him he’s sorry things went so badly, but he has to leave to preserve his family’s safety. The Global Defense Agency then shows up to arrest Machine Head and begin medically treating the fatally wounded Invincible, Monster Girl and Black Sampson. The last thing Mark sees before passing out is his father Omni-Man, who was watching the entire battle from outside without stepping in to help his son.
The end of the episode reveals that Titan was working with Isotope the whole time in order to assume control of Machine Head’s syndicate. The Global Defense Agency also collected some of Mark’s blood hoping to find a weakness that could be used against his much more powerful father.
2. Omni Man tells Mark the truth
Right after killing the Immortal again, Omni-Man tells his son that they need to talk. In Episode 1, we get a flashback of Omni-Man telling a young Mark about his home planet of Viltrum, and how Viltrumites are sent to different planets to serve as protectors. Now, Omni-Man reveals that this was a lie, and that the Viltrum Empire sends one of their own to each planet in order to weaken its defenses for an eventual Viltrum takeover, hence why Omni-Man killed the Guardians of the Globe.
He goes on to reveal the Viltrum Empire consists of thousands of conquered planets, and that any planet that opposes them is dealt with by force. We’ve already seen Omni-Man destroy an entire planet single-handedly, meaning multiple Viltrumites would be nearly impossible to deal with.
Mark is devastated at this betrayal, as his father has been lying to him and Debbie their entire lives. Omni-Man contends Mark couldn’t know the truth until he was certain he had Viltrumite powers. Trying to justify his actions by saying the Viltrumite Empire can help humans, Omni-Man explains that Mark is going to be alive for thousands of years and that every human he knows will be dead before he even looks 30 years old. He says that Mark’s mother Debbie is more like a pet than a wife to him, which sends Mark into a rage.
Mark says he doesn’t care about Viltrum, and that he won’t let Omni-Man conquer this planet. Omni-Man says he can’t let Mark interfere, and push finally comes to shove. The fight is tough to watch as Omni-Man is immensely more powerful than his young son. Omni-Man throws Mark across the planet to the outskirts of Chicago. He grabs Mark and says that while it’s right to pity humans, valuing them over Viltrumites is silly. After his father takes out the fighter jets Cecil sends to distract him, Marks saves one of the pilots. Omni-Man lands and crushes the pilot’s head with ease to taunt Mark.
Omni-Man then punches his son so hard he is flung through several buildings, causing immense destruction and toppling over a skyscraper. After another abominable act of destruction involving a train, Omni-Man beats Mark into the side of a mountain and begs him to think about the bigger picture. Mark is able to force his father to remember a time when he was playing baseball as a child, and when Debbie taught him about the beauty and joy of humanity. All the while, Omni-Man continuing to beat his son both physically and emotionally.
But he looks into Mark’s eyes and can’t bring himself to continue. When he asks Mark what he will have after 500 years, a weak Mark is able to get out the words, “You dad, I’ll still have you.” Omni-Man looks at his bloody hands and back to his son, shedding tears, before ascending into space. Cecil and Debbie show up with a medical team to get Mark to safety.
This scene is the culmination of season 1. We finally get explanations about Omni-Man’s horrible behavior, and his goals. Hopefully we find out where he went in season 2, but if he returned to his homeworld of Viltrum to mobilize their forces, that could spell disaster for Earth.
1. Omni Man kills the Guardians of the Globe
You knew this would be the number 1 entry. This is far and away the most shocking scene in the show, and possibly on television in recent years. Episode 1 of Invincible sets up the story nicely. We are introduced to Mark Grayson, a normal teenage kid with a not-so-normal dad. Mark finally gets his long-awaited superpowers, which resemble classic Superman abilities like strength, flight, durability, etc. Mark’s dad Omni-Man shows him the ropes of being a superhero and sets him up with his tailor to get a super-suit.
We also get a glimpse of this universe’s version of the Justice League, the Guardians of the Globe, when they thwart the Mauler Twins’ attack on the White House. It is kind of hilarious how similar each of these characters are to their DC counterparts: Dark Wing (Batman), War Woman (Wonder Woman), Red Rush (The Flash), Aquarus (Aquaman), Martian Man (Martian Manhunter), Green Ghost and The Immortal. When Night Wing is in a bit of a jam, Omni-Man shows up to assist him. Although he is not a member of the Guardians, Omni-Man seems to be a frequent ally and friend.
At the end of what seems like a set-up episode, the Guardians are called to their headquarters on their wrist communicators. They all show up confused over who called them. Aware that they probably just walked into a trap, they prepare for battle. Suddenly, Red Rush pushes The Immortal out of the way before a punch from Omni-Man connects with him. The Guardians are shocked at what they are seeing, as Omni-Man is a close friend. The collective power of Earth’s strongest protectors is not enough to subdue the Viltrumite, who proceeds to kill each member of the Guardians in brutal fashion before passing out from exhaustion.
The end of this episode solidifies Invincible as an unpredictable roller coaster, and not just a rehash of your typical superhero story. It also sets up the season long mystery of why Omni-Man did what he did. Since Omni-Man is seemingly the most powerful being on Earth, the show has you yearning for answers as he lies about killing the Guardians and slips back into being a loving father and husband. For a time, at least.
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