Invincible Season Two Review: A Season of Hard Decisions

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Invincible Season Two concluded last week, and as always, the Season finale was intense. 

Like everyone else, I would have preferred if the Season had a consistent release schedule. But given the quality of the second part of Season Two, I can’t complain. P.S. I love the bit in episode six where the showrunners flex their animation muscles and showed off their tricks while explaining why the second half took so long. It was amazing. 

As expected, Invincible Season Two kicks off with the fallout from the devastating destruction from Season One’s finale. But while we see everyone recovering, the series makes it clear that the Grayson family suffered the most damage. 

After receiving one of the worst beatings from his father, the first part of Invincible Season Two sees Mark shaken, traumatized, and trying to move past the incident. However, his mom, Debbie, was even worse. 

I love that the series shows how Debbie Grayson rebounds post-Season One. After discovering her marriage was all a lie, the poor woman goes through a deep depression. Even when she tries to find help, all her anger, guilt, and pain swell up again when she runs into the spouses of the heroes Nolan murdered Last Season. But despite all the pain, Debbie finds her second wind when she reflects on all the good things she accomplished while with Nolan. If it weren’t for her influence, Mark would have sided with his father, and the main Invincible continuity would be as messed up as the others.

But back to Mark.

For Mark, the general theme of Invincible Season Two was making tough decisions. And throughout the season, he finds himself at a crossroads, staring down at hard life-changing choices.

Hoping to get a grip on his life, our young hero throws himself into his superhero work and college. But this doesn’t help much, as Mark’s responsibilities as Invincible put an enormous strain on his personal life and on his relationship with his girlfriend Amber (more on that in a bit).

However, Mark’s first real decision comes when he is faced with forgiving his father.  

Just as we thought, Nolan experienced intense conflict as he beat down Mark Last Season. As a father and husband, his actions horrify him, and like Debbie in her deep depression, he considers ending it. But Nolan finds hope when he saves the Thraxans, and they welcome him into their culture and planet. But as a Viltrumite soldier, Nolan understood that abandoning his mission would attract severe consequences from the Viltrum Empire. And those consequences came hard and fast. 

While Nolan genuinely seeks forgiveness, his secondary goal for calling Mark is to ask him to help protect his new family from the incoming wrath of the Viltrum Empire. Mark is understandably all shades of confused, as on one hand, he has an emotionally painful reunion with his father, but on the other, he finds out he now has a half-brother, Oliver.

But then The Viltrumites arrive.

Now we all know that someday Mark will live up to his superhero name and become stronger, but Invincible Season Two emphasizes how much he is holding back. While facing Thula, Lucan, and Vidor alongside his father, Mark gets a rude awakening on how Viltrumites fight. As bad as Nolan beat Mark in Season One, that was a sneak peek into the world of pain awaiting the young hero in the future. Placed in a kill-or-be-killed situation, the thought of losing control still scares Mark from using his full strength, and that decision nearly costs him his life.

Mark’s refusal to kill is just one of the many ways he protects his moral compass and rejects the demands of his Viltrumite half. This decision also drives Mark’s defiance of the empire even after they assign him to conquer the earth. But as we all know, Viltrumites don’t take No for an answer. 

Honestly, both Mark and Amber did everything to make their relationship work. For most of Invincible Season Two, Amber plays the understanding and devoted girlfriend, while Mark uses all available resources to make up for his long absences. But the moment Anissa came in, everyone knew their relationship was over. 

I think we all forgot to breathe when Anissa arrived in the latter half of episode six. I loved how no one but Mark and Amber noticed her presence in the restaurant, and she effectively struck fear into the hearts of the former couple. 

To his credit, even as Anissa thoroughly beats the living hell out of him, Mark refuses to pretend to agree with the Viltrumite’s doctrine of total domination, and this proves his conviction to remain as himself. But while Anissa came to convince Mark to commit to the empire’s goals, she leaves an ominous warning about the next Viltrumite coming to check on Mark, and how he will except nothing but submission.

In summary, Conquest Is Coming. 

But Mark’s red line is why the Invincible Season Two’s finale was so good. After several episodes of sacrificing everything to preserve his morality, Angstrom Levy pushes Mark to the limit. Yes, I understand Levy’s trauma was a culmination of all the horrors he witnesses at the hands of the alternate Marks from across the multiverse (which the show depicts in all its gory details). But the second he put his hands on Debby and Oliver, he had it coming. 

The weight of all the painful choices Mark (who’s just eighteen by the way) has been forced to bear all season comes out while protecting his mom and half-brother from the multidimensional walker. “I Thought You Were Stronger,” was a perfect finale as it perfectly showed how Mark loses his inner battle to control himself and beats down Armstrong levy in a dark parallel of his father’s actions in Season One. 

And so, Mark ends Invincible Season Two where he started, with a strong desire to never end up like his father’s worst side. 

However, come Season 3, Mark might not have a choice.

Verdict

Invincible Season Two

Name: Invincible Season Two

Review

Invincible Season Two was a great season that continues Mark’s coming-of-age story. For most of Season One, our young hero wanted to become just like his father, but through Season Two, Mark sees the hard decisions, conflicts, and terrible responsibilities that come with being a Viltrumite and Earth’s strongest hero. Season two also does a fantastic job of developing our favorite side characters by throwing them into a hell of their own. The Guardians of the Globe especially hit a harrowing patch in the second half of the Season, but somehow, they all come out stronger.

With two seasons in, there’s no point telling anyone that the Invincible series had great animation and fantastic fight scenes because we have all seen what the show can do. All we can ask for now is, when is Invincible Season Three coming out? Because we all know it is going to be Epic.

Overall

4.5

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User Review

4 (1 vote)

Pros

• Amazing Character Arc and Development for The Main Cast.
• Awesome overall Story
• Fantastic Fighting Scenes
• Great Animation Style.
• Great Cameos

Cons

• There’s No Reason to Skip.

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