Episode 4 - It’s Been a While!
Mark answers the call to save an alien species, but the mission has unexpected personal consequences.
Full cast, crew and characters
Join the r/Invincible Discord server!
Please act appropriately and follow our rules. We ask you to report any comments that are uncivil/malicious or don’t belong in the non-comic spoiler thread.
DO NOT post comic book spoilers in this thread - use [the comic spoiler discussion thread](LINK HERE) for discussion using comic book context
Please report comments discussing comic book spoilers in this thread.
so telling that my man was able to fight and beat an experienced viltrumite too. can’t wait to see how much stronger he gets
Him looking fucked at the end of it was worthwhile
That stood out to me as well and I have to assume it was intentional, Mark looked bruised and battered to fuck while the Viltrumite barely had a scratch on her even after he got a decent number of hits in.
I’m not convinced she was actually “beaten” or just taking it easy to sus him out a bit, cause she also recovered immediately as soon as he showed even a hint of weakness. Considering it was seemingly the Viltrumite plan all along to threaten Mark into replacing Nolan as their man on the inside on Earth, it would make sense if they were trying to test rather than kill him with this fight…
when he was like read my books mark it made me kinda mad i’m ngl so i didn’t feel bad he got beat up 💀
The books are obviously going to have important information in them, it would be really weird for him to say it otherwise
That seemed a little dumb to me. No way he’d magically know how to fight just because he realises he might die.
Even if he were stronger than her? (Doubt) he’s a million times more inexperienced and would still get his ass kicked.
I take it as he was using more force, and taking shots he otherwise wouldn’t have taken, because they would have fucked up any opponents he faced before. He started taking those shots because 1) she is a Viltrumite and 2) fucking her up was, in fact, the goal.
that moment of hesitation is what cost him but he was winning the engagement.
kind of? he looked way more fucked up
It suddenly clicked I’m that moment why Mark keeps getting his ass kicked. He wasn’t fighting like a Viltrumite. He wasn’t fighting to kill.
It carries over to all of his previous fights too - against the cyborgs, the flaxans, the twins. Despite the fact he should logically be able to steamroll them he’s always just trying to make them submit while they’re out for blood.
Definitely feels like they’re sort of deconstructing superhero fights in that regard.
The whole story is about deconstructing power fantasies.
True. Reminds me of Spider-Man, where becoming a superhero just made Peter’s like far worse and far harder than it already was.
Or (for all those anime fans out there), like one of those isekai stories where the protagonist endures brutal trauma in a grim fantasy world (ReZero), instead of becoming an OP self-insert fantasy hero.
GET BACK HERE KILLCANNON!
KILLCANNNOOOOOON!
YOU CAN’T ESCAPE ME! I’LL CHASE YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH!
Yeah I enjoyed Nolan spelling that out for him
“They are fighting to kill you, you need to fight to kill them or they WILL kill you”
Is there a non-spoiler reason on how Mark was so much stronger than her? She has to have so much more experience and I also thought Viltrumites get stronger with age?
All 3 soldiers regarded Nolan pretty highly. He probably passed on his genes to Mark in the same way that some people are naturally bigger and stronger than others
yeah I found that interesting… he’s not even full viltrumite, but he is def holding back… and his dad is right… you have to kill or be killed…
Well, I bet Mark, uh, finds a way.
He hesitated and lost though. Should’ve tried to incapacitate or restrain her.
Yeah, he should learn how to paralyze people via their necks at the very least
A surprisingly difficult technique to master, without protester to practice on.
Hesitation is defeat
He’ll learn from it, he’s starting to understand viltrumite culture a little better with these fights. Nolan really screwed the pooch by being just sentimental enough to not murder his wife and child but not teach him any important context that would help him.
Tell me Nolan didn’t teach mark how to screw the pooch.
Viltrumites must not care about anyone; A loveless apathetic culture.
At least do something with her hair