“Invincible” might be my favorite superhero show. Whereas Marvel and DC have offered stale rehashes of the same, tired stories where almost nobody dies and there is almost no collateral, Amazon’s adaptation of the ultra-violent and introspective Image Comics story serves as a refreshing breeze in an otherwise stale and dying genre.
Episode 8 “I Thought You Where Stronger” sees Mark Grayson/Invincible (Steve Yeun) take on the insane inter-dimensional traveler Angstrom Levy (Sterling Brown), who is holding his family hostage. He forces Mark to hop to different dimensions in order to soften him up, after which he intends to kill him with his own two hands.
When Levy hurts Mark’s mother, he snaps and ends up killing him. This, in turn, breaks Mark, as this is the first time he has consciously taken a life, and he’s worried that he’ll end up just like his father, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), who killed thousands of people at the end of last season when he revealed to Mark that he was an alien whose sole reason for coming to Earth was to allow his people to invade it.
This leads him to the conclusion that he needs to drop out of college and focus on honing his powers full time, so he can control them. There’s a nugget of truth to that — he did lose his temper with Levy — but he was also pushed to his absolute breaking point and was left with no easy options to apprehend him. He feels guilty for Levy’s death, but nobody blames him — it was his family’s lives or Levy’s.
In truth, there was a lot more to his decision to drop out, chief of all being his romance with Amber Bennett (Zazie Beetz). Amber was just a normal girl with no powers, who was constantly neglected by Mark because he had to save the world and whose life was put in danger.
To be fair, other superheroes have been able to successfully date normal people by taking up a secret identity, but that hasn’t done him any good, as he’s gone toe to toe with members of an alien race (Viltrumites) who have the powers of Superman, as well as Levy, who found out his identity by going to a dimension where it is not secret. Even among the pantheon of superheroes across publishers, Mark stands alone in the challenges he faces as a young hero.
The fact that Mark is asking himself tough questions after he killed Levy is precisely why he’ll never be his father, who is also changing. We do briefly see Omni-Man and Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen) in Viltrumite lockup, as Allen is trying to recruit Omni-Man to join his cause. Omni-Man is struggling with newfound empathy towards all the so-called “lesser races” he’s done harm to, finally grappling with how horrific his actions were at the end of Season 1.
We also learnt that Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs) has feelings for Mark, which is the most character development she’s gotten since her standalone special. Eve is a much better fit than Amber, as she understands what Mark is going through and has even fought by his side. I guess we’ll see where Season 3 will bring their relationship.
This episode is a great ending to perhaps the best superhero show airing. “Invincible” builds off the base that other shows and films have established in this genre and uses them to defy our expectations, as well as further explore classic superhero tropes. Its violence can be gratuitous at times, but it also gives weight to each fight — this isn’t a show where everyone gets up after each punch, virtually unharmed. This is a world where some people were given horrific strength, which allows them to engage in unimaginable acts of violence.
If you’ve been burned out by this genre, this show is for you. This might be one of the last great works it has left.
“Invincible” Season 2: Episode 8 “I Thought You Where Stronger” gets a 9/10
“Invincible” Season 2 gets a 9/10
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