What did Omni-Man mean when he told Mark to read his books? What books did he write?

The midseason finale of Invincible ended with our heroes well and truly trounced: Mark Grayson, aka Invincible, had helped his father Omni-Man fight off a trio of Viltrumite aliens intent on killing them both. Mark and Omni-Man survived, but Omni-Man had his back broken and Mark was beaten within an inch of his life. Moreover, Omni-Man was taken away by Vultrimite authorities while Mark was given his old outpost on Earth. Mark’s job is now to soften up the Earth so it will be vulnerable when the Viltrumites show up to take it over.

So that sucks. And on top of everything else, Omni-Man’s parting words to his son were weird and cryptic: “read my books.” What does Omni-Man mean?

It ends up that Omni-Man, who went by the name Nolan Grayson on Earth, did write several books, pulpy novels with titles like The Man With The Invincible Gun and Savage Planet, Savage Beasts. We get a couple of pointed shots of the books towards the end of the episode, when Nolan’s wife Debbie is refusing to take royalty money for them. She leaves a bunch of them in a box on the side of the road:

SPOILERS ahead: Why did Omni-Man tell Mark to read his books?

But Nolan didn’t just write these books for fun. In the Invincible comics by Robert Kirkman, we learn that they contain hidden information about how to defeat Viltrumites, information that be of great interest to people like Mark, Allen the Alien, and anyone else who is resisting the expansion of the Viltrumite empire.

So that’s why Omni-Man tells his son to read his books. We can expect to dive into Nolan’s literary career when Invincible returns for more episodes sometime in 2024.

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