★★★★★
Throughout its first three seasons, Invincible broke new ground for comic book adaptations in animation with its thematic depth and characterizations. Season 4 continues that trend as it explores what exactly makes a person a hero.
Season 3 ended with Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) saving the world from a coalition of evil Marks with the help of Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs). While they wound up saving the day, humanity hasn’t quite forgiven them for the damage they caused in the process.
Season 4 opens up with a montage of heroes across the world stopping day-to-day supervillains. Despite their epic, triumphant fight scenes, the expressions on their faces tell a different story. As they fight crime, heroes wear relatively blank, melancholic expressions, while civilian bystanders look on at the scene with disdain, rather than gratitude.
The chaos of the “Invincible War” has left the world in an unstable state, where the public is distrusting of its heroes, and the result is weighing heavily on heroes like Mark and his brother, Oliver (Christian Convery).
Both brothers are experiencing burnout from being a hero, but Oliver, who is just a teenager, is coping with it differently from his brother. While Mark feels like he can never stop fighting to make it up to the world, Oliver wishes that other heroes would step up so he can catch a break. Neither can fault the other’s response, though, because the right thing to do is ambiguous.
If anyone should be hopeful and excited for the future, it’s Mark. He has taken on the honorable responsibility of undoing all of the damage that his father caused, cheered on by a great support system—Atom Eve and his mom (Sandra Oh). Still, Mark’s fighting feels futile and dispiriting, as it seems that the more he uses his energy for good, the more the public disapproves of him.
This season, Mark continues to develop his moral compass in pursuit of doing what is truly “right.” The Invincible of the past would have immediately risked planet Earth to save a few lives, but Season 4 Mark is hardened. The audience witnesses Mark repeatedly make morally gray decisions as he walks the line between heroism and reality.
On the other side of the universe, Mark’s father, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), is grappling with a very different outlook on being a hero. Despite his villainous turn earlier in Invincible, Omni-Man wants to join the cause against the Viltrumites and right his wrongs.
As Omni-Man travels through galaxies, looking for potential leads on how to defeat his own people, he realizes the countless lives he has ruined. For Omni-Man, being a hero in the present means confronting the wrongs of his past.
Omni-Man and Mark are foils of each other. Omni-Man has no family or supporters, leaving him truly alone in the universe. His motivation to make amends has given him a kernel of hope that defeating the Viltrumites is possible and made him a devoted hero for the cause.
There’s a line that Omni-Man won’t cross, though. While he’ll gather useful weapons and information, he refuses to be a player in the actual war. By not fully choosing a side, Omni-Man clings to the hope that he can still be a part of Earth and the Viltrum Empire. While this flawed approach to the war currently motivates Omni-Man to work harder, it will likely be problematic as the season progresses.
For the majority of Invincible, the writers have drawn clear parallels between Invincible and Omni-Man, and Season 4 has only reinforced this idea. As Omni-Man is on the steady path to redemption, and Invincible strays further from the path of heroism, the rest of the Viltrumite War is certain to be unpredictable and exciting for audiences.
