Season four of “Invincible” continues to develop its complex set of characters while pushing audiences’ comfort levels to their limits with the unsettling reality of superheroes, culminating in the series’ best saga so far.

The latest chapter in Mark Grayson’s tale of navigating his complex life as a superhero opens with rebuilding and recovering from last season’s global attack by alternate versions of himself and the Viltrumite Conquest. Meanwhile, his father, Nolan, a.k.a. Omni-Man, works with the Coalition of Planets to fight against his own race in an attempt to atone for his sins against his family on Earth.

Their two paths come to a head when Nolan recruits Mark for the war on the Viltrum empire, but things go awry as the Coalition destroys their home planet and awakens the rage of their most powerful threat yet: Grand Regent Thragg. All of this culminates into the season finale, where the Viltrumites reveal they intend to live on Earth, hidden away, in an attempt to breed and rebuild their civilization.

Mark’s moral dilemma

With the strongest opponents he’s faced yet coming to Earth, Mark makes good on his promise from the previous season where he vows to kill anyone who threatens his family, which ends up being a point of development throughout the beginning of the season. In the first episode, Mark almost kills a man who transforms into a highly intelligent dinosaur after he rambles on about the benefits of the massive death toll from the ending of season three. Almost immediately after the encounter, Mark is put into a situation where murder was the only way to save Earth against an alien parasite, finally committing the act against a human host. 

These two moments haunt Mark for the first half of the arc before a trip to Hell and meeting with Satan gives him the reassurance that he still is a good person at heart. The struggle within him this season continues to paint a realistic portrayal of superheroes, where being morally upright sometimes is not an option when it comes to saving the world from disaster. Mark is showing a natural progression of maturity from the viscera and carnage he has witnessed during his time as Invincible, which provides satisfying conflict and resolution before the main meat of the action begins.

The past is catching up

While Mark struggles with the possibility of losing his humanity and adopting more of his Viltrumite heritage, his father deals with the complete opposite. After his atrocities on Earth in season one and the massacre brought about by his presence on another planet in the next, Nolan finally begins to embrace his emotional side in the face of his past and begins to work towards atonement. 

With this new beginning, consequences arise from the bloodshed he caused as he works to make amends with the people he loves. In one of the most emotional confrontations in the series, he visits his ex-wife Debbie during his recruitment of Mark for the war to apologize for the suffering he caused to the family. Debbie unleashes the pent-up pain and anger from Nolan’s betrayal against him, dishing out trauma-fueled language from the reopened mental wound and punches that leave her hand broken. 

After his apology does not go the way he intended, his reconnection with his costume designer falls apart just as badly as he fears his ex-client now. When it comes to his son from another planet, a similar situation happens with Nolan, where he is dealt back the hurt he brought after he left Oliver with Mark and essentially abandoned him. 

The realistic consequences for Nolan’s actions create a well-written obstacle in the way of his character development. While the audience feels for him as he tries to change and become a better man, it is a realistic situation where his past has created an outer shell of his identity he needs to break out of before he can truly atone for his sins. It forms more of a connection to Nolan as his journey to reconciliation with his loved ones becomes a passionate and long fight against his past. 

The horrifying rematch

With all of the major character development happening during the first half of the season, the second half ups the ante in terms of conflict and action. As soon as Oliver, Nolan and Mark depart from Earth, they are ambushed by a group of Viltrumites led by Conquest, who was previously assumed dead by the three heroes. This leads to the most visceral fight sequence in the series so far, where Mark strangles Conquest to death while his entrails are ripped out by the Viltrumite.

In a show based around the brutality of its deathmatches, this is the one that has stood out from the rest. The visuals of the blood and guts spewing from Mark’s stomach, the noises of the intestines squelching as they’re ripped out, the groans and chokes of pain from both fighters and the eerie lack of background music that increases the impact of all of the other sensory details turns this scene into a horror that has trumped any other violence in the series. Even the creator of the show’s source material stated they may have gone too far with the gore and presentation, creating a testament of how impactful the scene is. 

It adds to the show’s theme with the uncomfortable reality of what the world of superheroes would look like beyond the coat of hope and happiness. It unnerves the audiences down to the most minute detail of the fight with the true extent of what superhuman abilities can do without restraint. 

While he recovers from the near-fatal wound, it gives an episode break in the action where there is development in the relationship between Oliver and Nolan along with advancement in the war against the Viltrumites. It provides a step forward for Nolan’s progression towards reparations for his crimes and serves as an example of the story’s amazing pace. One of the main ways the show has continued to keep viewers hooked is through these pauses and accelerations with the plot. 

When the action comes around in the season, it is instantaneous and short enough to keep attention through the flashy feats of strength with plenty of story and depth packed in. Following the burst of eye-candy animation, the show reels the viewer back in with some slower-paced resolution and commentary on the previous sequence for a moment to grasp all of the information presented. 

Nowhere is safe anymore

After the short breath between his recovery and return to action, Mark and the other revolting Viltrumites from Earth help fend off a sneak attack on the Coalition of Planets base. This brings the resistance leader Thaddeus, the original betrayer of the Viltrum empire, to the conclusion that this is the opportunity to strike them at home. 

However, the Viltrumites prepared for the ambush unbeknownst to the Coalition. The empire leader Thragg stood ready and offered Nolan amnesty before doling out punishment to the revolution. After realizing he’s too powerful to be defeated head-on, the powerhouses of the resistance work together and destroy the planet Viltrum by blasting through its core. In Thragg’s fit of rage following the destruction, Mark’s sense of safety completely shatters. The Viltrum empire’s leader easily kills Thaddeus before disposing of Nolan in one swift move. 

Throughout the series, Nolan acted as a powerful figure who was the pinnacle of power in the eyes of Mark. Watching how easily he was tossed aside in the fight causes something inside of Mark to snap as emphasized with his slow-mo reaction. The illusion of safety his father gave finally wears off after someone infinitely more powerful comes into the picture. After narrowly escaping Thragg after he spared the two, Mark and Nolan rush back to Earth realizing the planet is likely the empire’s next destination. 

When they arrive, Earth is thankfully untouched and Mark rushes to reconnect with his loved ones, but what happened in space impacts his interactions. While Mark has been traumatized through the events in previous seasons, the fight against Thragg broke him, causing him to see hallucinations of his loved ones being torn apart by the Viltrumites. 

The season finale slows down to focus on Mark’s psyche following the events of the season, putting an emphasis on the post-traumatic stress disorder he suffers from now. To cap off the saga, Thragg appears to Mark and gives him an offer that the Viltrumities will live on Earth to rebuild and in exchange, they will leave the planet unaffected. Despite his hesitation, Mark agrees only after his visions of the butchered bodies of his loved ones resurface. 

The final episode puts the theme of the season and show into perspective: the life of a superhero is not the story of hope that most depict it as. Even after the triumphant moment of destroying Viltrum and “winning” the war, the consequences of the act come back to haunt them in the way that they feared most.

Compared to most of the Marvel and DC productions for the big screen and television, “Invincible” keeps developing the idea of the ramifications of fighting evil, presenting a unique take on the superhero genre that intrigues viewers.

The good, the bad, and the occasional ugly animation

What sets this season apart from the others so far is the writing. Compared to the comics, there is so much more depth given to both the plot and characters. 

The show continues to tie back into itself and create conflict that spawns naturally from earlier events, producing a great flow in the story’s progression. Even the filler episode written outside of the comic’s canon has purpose in the grand scheme of the series. Interactions aren’t just written off or left in an abyss; rather, they all have a purpose in the overall narrative. They form effects on the characters and come back to shine light onto a character or haunt them. 

This build-up throughout the season pays off, leading to some of the most dramatic and anticipated conflicts in the series. From Nolan and Debbie’s heated reunion to Oliver confronting his father, the consequences and effects from previous seasons crash together here to create satisfying foreshadowed moments that have been a long time coming.

The only downside to the character writing within the season involves the power-scaling of the fighters in each battle. There is an unnecessary amount of fluctuation in the power of the heroes and villains without any explanation, being adjusted depending on how the writers want the battle to end and not on a specific pre-existing background. It doesn’t flow well with the plot and creates discrepancies in the power hierarchy developed throughout the show. 

While the blueprints of the show’s foundation stand sturdy, one of the running weaknesses of the series continues to haunt this season: animation quality. The beatdowns and brawls are still the highest quality, but outside of those scenes, the cut corners really show in segments lacking in action. Characters disappearing off-screen unnaturally, still images moving across a background without a single change and other animation errors are littered throughout, causing occasional breaks in focus from the main concentration of a scene. 

Overall, this season of “Invincible” pushes boundaries in its depictions of violence and the quality of writing while bringing more complexity to its theme of superhuman horrors and consequences. Characters reach new levels of depth as the plots perfectly intertwines with their development and hits its climax, resulting in the best stretch of the series to date.

Official Rating: 9/10

Categories: Arts & Entertainment