Written by contributor Inah Peralta
While Marvel and DC’s respective cinematic universes dominated both the big screen and small screen, Image Comics managed to expand their dedicated fanbase by bringing Invincible on screen. Invincible premiered on March 25th 2021 on Amazon Prime with Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson/Invincible, Sandra Oh as Debbie Grayson, and J.K. Simmons as Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man as the main characters. Mark is a half-human, half-Viltrumite superhero known as Invincible.
Season 1 comprised of eight action-packed episodes that kept everyone on the edge of their seats and generated positive reception and critical acclaim for the animation and action sequences. It was only fitting that right after the finale, Amazon announced the series renewal for seasons two and three.
Now before we get into the recap, we’d like to be upfront with the following content warnings, just in case you’d want to watch it yourself. Invincible has mature content and has depictions of blood, violence, and gore. This recap will contain spoilers for the series.
Episode 1: It’s About Time
The show opens in the White House with the Mauler Twins attacking the place with the intent to kill the President. The Guardians of the Globe, with the help of Omni-Man, manage to stop the attacks. Meanwhile, Mark who’s in high school still waits for his Viltrumite powers to manifest. He steps up and defends Amber from Todd in school, only to end up getting himself beaten by him. Mark discovers his powers emerge while at work as he was taking out the trash, accidentally throwing it to space.
The same night, Mark goes out flying and almost ends up flying through an airplane. The next morning, he goes into training with his Dad, but he gets caught off-guard as Nolan punches him too hard in an attempt to stress the importance of being a hero. To destress himself, Mark stops a robbery whilst donning his homemade suit, which Nolan witnesses. During their serious talk, Mark states that he just wants to be a hero like his Dad. As a making-up gift, Nolan takes Mark to Art Rosenbaum, a superhero suit maker, to make him a proper suit.
Mark accidentally destroys their backyard while practicing his landings. He and his mother, Debbie, engage in a heart-to-heart talk in which he expresses his concern about not being able to live up to his Dad. Mark goes back to meet Art and decides to call himself “Invincible”. He goes out for a test run with his new suit but discovers an attack nearby. Mark apprehends Killcannon and stops the attack.
Later, The Guardians of the Globe were alerted and meet at their headquarters. Omni-Man reveals himself and engages in a bloody fight with the Guardians. Omni-Man kills all the Guardians before falling unconscious.
Episode 2: Here Goes Nothing
Following Omni-Man’s attack, the Global Defense Agency finds the Guardians dead and Omni-Man unconscious, not knowing the real situation. Mark and Debbie were informed of Nolan’s comatose state by Director Cecil Stedman who also informs them of the Guardians’ death.
The Alien group called the Flaxans attack the city and Invincible helps the Teen Team (Atom Eve, Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate, and Robot) stop their attack. The Flaxans retreat due to time dilation difference which caused them to age rapidly.
Mark recognises Atom Eve as Eve Wilkins, his classmate from high school, and befriends her. Mark shares his identity with her and she invites him to meet the other members of the Teen Team after school. The Global Defense Agency continues their investigation of the Guardians’ death and encounters Damien Darkblood, a demon detective doing his own investigation.
The Flaxans find a way to reverse their aging and return to Earth. Teen Team and Invincible once again join forces to stop the Flaxans and destroy their anti-aging tech which forces them to retreat. Nolan recuperates and continues to train Mark. Cecil drops by the Graysons and reports that an alien is about to attack Earth. Mark volunteers to stop the alien, who turns out to be Allen the Alien testing the Earth’s defenses for the Coalition of Planets. Allen mistakes Earth for “Urath” and Mark corrects and explains it to him, the two bid a friendly goodbye.
In school, Todd unwillingly apologises to Mark and gives him Amber Bennett’s number. Mark receives a phone call that the Flaxans attack again. They almost succeed until Omni-Man shows up and forces the Flaxan army back to their planet. Omni-Man destroys their home planet as a payback.
Episode 3: Who You Calling Ugly?
The government holds a televised funeral for the Guardians of the Globe, where Omni-Man speaks for a eulogy and holds a promise to the public that he will protect the world. In the Guardians’ private funeral, Damien questions Nolan with his suspicions. Meanwhile, Cecil asks Robot to work for the GDA and lead a new Guardians of the Globe team.
Mark finally calls Amber and invites her for a “study date”. In Pentagon, Robot holds a tryout to find new members for the Guardians of the Globe. Robot recruits Black Samson, Shrinking Rae, Dupli-Kate, Monster Girl, Rex Splode, and Atom Eve. Eve quits the team after previously discovering that Rex cheated on her with Dupli-Kate.
Mark and Amber go on their study date, but Mark bails out as he gets called by Cecil to stop Doc Seismic from attacking Mt. Rushmore. Invincible and Atom Eve successfully stop Doc Seismic and saves Mt. Rushmore. Mark rushes back home and finds Amber still waiting for him. Rex apologises to Eve but she walks out and seeks Mark only to find him making out with Amber.
The Mauler Twins escape prison through the help of a benefactor, who was revealed to be Robot, but one of them sacrifices the other. Damien pays a visit to Debbie for his investigation and feeds her his suspicions about Nolan.
Episode 4: Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out
The episode opens in an excavation site in a desert, where a man manages to awaken an evil spirit, Ka-Hor. Meanwhile, Omni-Man continues their father-son bonding trips as he continues to train Invincible, and explains more about his background as a Viltrumite. In the Grayson household, Olga rants to Debbie about her suspicions about his husband’s death and convinces Debbie to help sell her house.
Nolan confronts Damien and warns him to stay away from his family, but Damien tells him that Debbie is already suspicious of him. Cecil asks Nolan to shadow NASA’s first manned mission to Mars in an attempt to get him off the planet for the investigation. Nolan refuses, citing his responsibilities for his family, so Mark volunteers. Nolan and Debbie’s relationship are getting strained so Nolan invites her for a vacation in Rome, and tries to regain her trust.
In Mars, the Martians were able to capture the astronauts, thanks to Mark’s distracted thoughts. Mark attempts to rescue the astronauts but gets caught by the Martians. The Martian Emperor orders fo the astronauts’ execution to prevent the Sequids, a squid-like parasite, to infect the humans and reach Earth. Mark hastily rescues the team back to their ship, without realising that a Martian has replaced one of the astronauts and leaving the Sequids to attack Mars. In the GDA, Cecil banishes Damien in order to stop him from investigating the case until he figures out why Nolan killed the Guardians. However, Damien was able to hide his notebook in Debbie’s closet.
The surviving Mauler twin begins to replicate himself, as Robot watches his progress.
Episode 5: That Actually Hurt
The episode alternates between Invincible and Titan’s stark contrast in their operating ways. Invincible continues his street-level superhero fights, while Titan thugs his way out to collect money and pay his debt to his boss, Machine Head.
Mark struggles to balance his superhero life with his personal life but tells Amber that he will do better and promises to help in the soup kitchen. Amber extends the invitation to Eve, who quits her superhero life, and tells her about his problems with Mark but Eve reassures her that Mark is one of the good ones.
Titan asks Invincible for help on taking down Machine Head and also explains his situation to him. Invincible agrees to help Titan despite his father not agreeing to him. Titan and Invincible storm Machine Head’s office and a fight start between them and Machine Head’s people. The Guardians arrive to help the fight, but Battle Beast successfully incapacitates Invincible, Monster Girl, and Black Samson.
Debbie finds the notebook that Damien left and she regains her suspicions against Nolan.
Episode 6: You Look Kinda Dead
Mark regains consciousness in the hospital but Black Samson and Monster Girl remain unconscious. Robot leads the surgery for Monster Girl after having studied her physiology before. Mark reconciles with Amber after blowing her off in the soup kitchen. The two accompany William to Upstate University to meet with William’s crush, Rick Sheridan.
Eve visits Mark and tells him about her plans of helping people on her own, after getting inspired by Amber’s humanitarian advocacy. She leaves home afterward, despite her parents’ pleas, and builds herself a treehouse in the middle of the woods.
In the University, a cyborg experiment attacks, which led Mark to leave Amber and the others and fight as Invincible. William recognises Mark as Invincible, and Amber was upset that Mark left and breaks up with him. Rick gets kidnapped by D.A. Sinclair, the mad scientist behind the cyborg experiments. Mark compromises his relationship with Amber to help William find Rick. Sinclair turns Rick into a mindless cyborg but William was able to successfully break him. Cecil and the GDA arrest Sinclair but takes interest in his technology.
Debbie brings Nolan’s costume to Art Rosenbaum and examines it, which confirms her suspicions that Nolan was behind the Guardians’ death. Debbie and Art agree to keep quiet about the situation, but she confronts Nolan after a drunken rage.
Concurrently, the Mauler successfully clones himself with the aid of Robot.
Episode 7: We Need To Talk
Debbie continues to confront Nolan regarding the truth, but Nolan only asks her to trust her. Debbie gets summoned to the GDA, where she learns that Cecil already knows the truth about Nolan.
Robot manipulates the Maulers to add the neural link upgrade to the clone he was building his “Rudy” clone, which looks like a younger version of Rex as Robot uses Rex’s DNA. After successfully linking their minds, Robot pays and betrays the Maulers. He summons the rest of the Guardians and explains himself, before revealing the truth about Omni-Man and the former Guardians’ death.
Mark tells Amber his identity as Invincible, only for Amber to tell him that she already figured it out but was still upset that he didn’t trust her. Mark seeks Eve for advice and she tells him that he was being selfish.
Back at the house, Omni-Man seeks Debbie and Mark, only to find GDA soldiers and Donald, Cecil’s assistant, spying on him and his family. Cecil and Debbie witness Omni-Man kill the GDA soldiers and Donald. Cecil deploys “Reanimen”, which he adapted from Sinclair’s tech, and a kaiju to kill Omni-Man. Omni-Man fights them, which Mark and Eve intercept. Cecil orders Eve to leave Mark and meet with the Guardians.
The Maulers revive Immortal with the help of Robot. Filled with rage, Immortal flies off to fight Omni-Man to avenge his teammates. In a live televised footage, the news catches Omni-Man kill Immortal for everyone to see.
Omni-Man finally asks his son for a talk.
Episode 8: Where I Really Come From
Nolan explains to Mark his Viltrumite origins and reveals that he infiltrated Earth for the Viltrumites to conquer Earth. Nolan convinces Mark to join him conquer Earth but fails. The two fight as Omni-Man and Invincible, but Omni-Man easily overpowers Invincible, destroying Chicago in the process. Once Nolan realises his love for Mark, he proceeds to fly off to space guilty, leaving an injured Mark alone.
The Guardians, with the help of Eve, initiates to save the civilians and provide relief efforts for the people, as the public finally learns the truth about Omni-Man. Cecil helps Debbie and Mark falsify Nolan’s public death. Mark and Amber rekindle their relationship after the former’s recovery. Eve informs Amber and William of her superhero identity.
Cecil informs Mark of an object flying towards Earth’s atmosphere, which turns out to be Allen the Alien. Invincible updates Allen with the current events and Allen convinces Mark that he can be of advantage for the Coalition to stop the Viltrumites.
The episode ends with the Maulers getting arrested, while other villainous forces conspire. Immortal recuperates under GDA’s custody. Cecil employs Sinclair for more Reanimen troops, while Mark plans to finish high school.
What’s Next?
With Omni-Man gone, it’s expected that Invincible will step up to protect the Earth, and for real this time. We definitely need to see more team up fight scenes with the Guardian of the Globe. So far we have nothing confirmed for Season 2 but we’re expecting the actors to reprise their roles. Besides, based from the buzz this show has generated, it’s only going to get better!
