Invincible review: Episode 203, “This Missive, This Machination”

It’s Invincible time again, folks! Season 2 is off to a rollicking start. Invincible is defending the Earth alone, and there’s dozens of villains all coming for him at once, from multiversal threats to enemies from outer space. It’s all about to go down!

In this week’s episode, Mark Grayson steps back from his superhero duties to go to college. Meanwhile, we are finally reunited with Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen)! If you don’t remember, he’s the cyclopean alien who visited Mark in season 1 after mistaking Earth for another planet, Urath.

Here’s your errant SPOILER warning!

The episode opens with Mark leaving his grieving mother behind to attend college. He rooms with his friend William Clockwell, who’s out looking for love; typical college student stuff. When he’s not saving the planet, Mark is still a kid at heart. He has a box of toys (sorry, collectables) that he keeps with him at all times. He has a particular affinity with his Science Dog action figure. It’s interesting to see this more innocent side to Mark.

His girlfriend Amber is there, too.  At night they have sex… but then the narrator steps in focuses on a different storyline.

Welcome back, Allen the Alien!

Fans of the comic will already be well aware of how important of a character Allen is. His brief appearance in season 1 was merely a taste of what’s to come. In this episode, the narrator gives us a full backstory for the character.

Let’s go over the key points of his history. Allen’s race comes from a planet called Unopa. The planet once thrived, however, when the Viltrumites found out about it, they demolished it without a second thought. Fortunately, some of the Unopians managed to survive, and were naturally bent on finding a way to get revenge.

Allen was born after the fall of Unopa at a breeding camp. He was raised to be a fearsome fighter, but even with all his preparation, he still wasn’t capable of beating a Viltrumite in battle.

Now, Allen works on the planet Talescria, the headquarters of the Coalition of Planets, all of whom are working to one day take down the oppressive Viltrumite Empire. He takes orders from the great Thaedus, the leader of the coalition. It’s Allen’s job to scour the universe for beings powerful enough to join an army capable of waging war against the Viltrumites.

After his travels to Earth, Allen informs the coalition of Mark Grayson and his Viltrumite abilities. They are all impressed by these stories, as the idea of Viltrumites fighting amongst themselves is unheard of. If they can get Mark on board, he will no doubt be an invaluable member of the resistance!

After Allen tells Thaedus about Mark, Thaedus tells him to watch his back. He is wary that there may be a mole within their ranks. The show seems to hint that the mole is Thaedus himself. When Allen is brutally attacked by a trio of Viltrumites and left on life support, Thaedus appears to turn the machine off. Is he a secret Viltrumite? What’s going on here?

The (New) Guardians of the Globe

This jam-packed episode also catches up with the Guardians of the Globe. The relationship between Rex and Kate continues to develop after he caught her cheating on him with The Immortal in the previous episode. Given that The Immortal is thousands of years old and Kate is pretty young, it seems quite weird.

And then you’ve got Rudy and Amanda. After Rudy’s sub-par performance battling the Giant, he works on tinkering with his brain to eliminate all fear, which Amanda doesn’t finds off-putting. But it’s not just the fear of battle he wants rid of; he also wants to build the confidence to ask Amanda on a date. Their date is so wholesome. It’s nice to see what these characters are like out of costume just being themselves. From Rudy experiencing the delights of his first burger to not being street smart enough to get into an R rated movie, it’s all so sweet.

These relationships are something I like about this show: every character has a struggle, they are all fully fleshed out.

Spouses of Superheroes Support Group

Dealing with the grief of losing her husband and now living alone, Debbie Grayson is not in a good place. To help get her life back on track, she attends a meeting for spouses of superheroes to vent alongside like-minded people.

Debbie’s story is something rarely covered in this kind of show. I’ve got to commend Invincible on giving a realistic account of what it might be like not to be a superhero, but to be close to one, in particular one who died.

Thraxa

Going back to Mark Grayson at college, he meets a strange visitor. His favorite childhood hero and inspiration, Science Dog, shows up at his door. However, rather than fanboying, Mark decides to fight back to find out who it really is. Turns out, the imposter is a shapeshifting alien from the planet Thraxa, and it’s travelled all the way to Earth to plead for Invincible’s help.

Despite having to go against Cecil’s word, Mark agrees to save the planet Thraxa from a storm of meteors and jumps in the alien’s spaceship. The Thraxans are a race of insect-like aliens who live super short lifetimes (around one human year), but reproduce significantly faster than humans, resulting in a population of billions.

While Mark thinks he’s merely going there to help save the planet, what he finds leaves him speechless: Omni-Man is in charge of Thraxa. He’s back!

Verdict

This series feels like it’s no longer about just Invincible. It’s a much larger story spanning the entire universe (and the multiverse). There’s so much going on that it can be almost overwhelming, but I can’t complain about anything. Mark Grayson is the busiest superhero in the world.

I particularly loved the Allen riff in the middle of the episode, he’s a super-fun character to follow. And Debbie’s storyline brings things back to earth, while the Guardians of the Globe have some very interesting character dynamics. What’s not to love?

Episode Grade: B+

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