Invincible creator doesn't think Omni-Man's story should be considered a "redemption arc"

The second season of Invincible is, to our great sorrow, over. We don't know when we'll get to see new episodes of this charming, violent, and charmingly violent superhero drama, but at least we know that season 3 is well on its way. Sooner would be better.

In the meantime, we have to sit with the season 2 finale, which sees teenage superhero Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) go up against his nemesis Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown). The finale, "I Thought You Were Stronger," also checks in with Mark's father Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) aka Nolan Grayson, who has been out of the picture for a while but still commands the fascination of fans. In season 1, Omni-Man revealed to Mark that he was sent to Earth by his superiors in the Viltrumite empire in order to prepare it for eventual takeover. In unsuccessfully trying to convince his son to join him in his cause, he beat Mark nearly to death, killed a great many people, and then flew away.

Since then, Omni-Man has expressed regret over his actions, turning against the Viltrumites in the episode "It's Been A While." He's now a Viltrumite prisoner being primed for execution, although it looks like he may escape. Where he goes after that is anyone's guess. But can there be any forgiveness for him after the horrible things he did in season 1?

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Invincible creator Robert Kirkman isn't sure that Omni-Man's story should be considered a "redemption arc," but he does think we'll come to understand the character as time goes on. “As viewers get to the end of season 2, they should be seeing different angles of Omni-Man, different traits in his personality that they may not have necessarily recognized in the first season,” he said. “This guy isn't just this bloodthirsty lunatic, and I hope that by the end of the season, you may get the sense that a lot of what you were seeing in the season 1 finale might've been him trying to overcompensate for the reluctance he was feeling about doing those things. He was pushing himself to go further to try and convince himself that he was still the Viltrumite he thought he should have been.”

"As we get a clearer picture of who the Viltrumites are and what they're actually about, we'll understand infinitely more about Nolan."

But again, understanding isn't necessarily redemption. Whether we understand why he did it or not, Nolan still slaughtered a whole lot of people. So far, Invincible hasn't let characters get away with things, and I'm looking forward to seeing how or whether Nolan reckons directly with his past.

Mark will continue to bounce between the human and superhero worlds in Invincible season 3

Meanwhile, his son Mark is having a tricky time balancing his life as a college student with the difficulties of being a world-saving superhero. He and his girlfriend Amber (Zazie Beetz) broke up after a Viltrumite visitor nearly killed her, and now Anstrom Levy attacked Mark's mom Debbie (Sandra Oh), who is raising his super-powered half-brother Oliver. Mark's life is very complicated and is only getting moreso.

“The series as a whole exists in two worlds, and the core aspect of the story is watching Mark bounce back and forth between the two different worlds,” Kirkman said. “More than anything, we're just trying to show how dangerous that could be. That elevates who Debbie is as a person, that she's been able to straddle both worlds for so long, even though we are finding her at a real low point in season 2 because of everything she's experienced. But the prospect of having to raise another potentially superpowered kid is something that gives her a spark, something to be happy about again. It’s almost like being adjacent to that world is something that's really important to her, whether she necessarily realizes it or not. But yeah, I think that we are really trying to show the realism of just how absolutely dangerous it would be to interact with these people.”

I've really enjoyed how Invincible has dealt frankly with these emotional complexities while also being a nutso superhero show where characters fight in outer space and fall through the multiverse. It might be pulling off the most difficult balacning act in TV right now. Season 3 can't come soon enough.

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