I love invincible season 1. It was a great addition to the ever growing superhero genre. Season 2 is one of the worst follow-ups I’ve seen in a while. The characters that were once great and had plenty of potential are now simply unlikable, illogical, & insanely inconsistent. I don’t care about the comics. If what happens in season 2 is faithful to the comics then the comics must suck as well.
Mark is haunted by his father’s actions, so he doesn’t want to engage threats that could potentially level a city. Makes sense. It doesn’t make sense then that he would attack a wizard dog without at the very least hearing it out. He beats the piss out of it and says “So you ready to talk?” 🙄 Hugging Omniman is a terrible decision to make for his character. This man murdered thousands of people and beat Mark nearly to death. The idea that Mark wouldn’t throw a punch is insane. Theres a better way to do this scene. Have Mark beat up omniman and show omniman just taking it. Then invincible stops because he sees the look of horror on the bug peoples faces. To be clear, I’m not saying Mark would beat omniman, I’m saying omniman would allow Mark to take is rage out on him for multiple reasons: 1. As a way of saying sorry. 2. To assess how capable Mark is due to the incoming threat. Narratively it also gives Mark a reason to help Nolan because he cares more about innocent lives than about killing his father. It makes this plot point more believable. Omniman gives Mark a pep talk to let go and fight the female viltrumite without restrictions. Then Mark is able to legitimately beat her. My problem here is that if this is Mark not holding back, why didnt he tap into this when fighting his father? His father grabbed him by the back of the neck and used him as a battering ram against 100s of innocent people. If that’s not enough to stop holding back then idk what is. I was under the impression that we had seen marks current max abilities and he needs to train to get stronger. Not that mark has been holding back this whole time. This, again, breaks his character.
Nolan lived his entire life consumed by the Viltrumite philosophy. He believes in it enough to kill thousands of innocence and nearly kill his son. So why then would he write about a way to kill Viltrumites in his books? If he just wrote about a weapon that could kill his own people, why wouldn’t he destroy the weapon or send word to the empire of its existence? Again, Nolan is neck deep in his Empires goal at this point. Idk how much time has passed between season one finale & season 2 episode 4, but it’s not enough time to justify Nolan turning against his people and becoming Emperor of Thraxia. Bugs move fast, Nolan does not. If anything, living with creatures that have a year long lifespan should prove Viltrums point. Why not have him dive into the black hole, hoping for death only for it to age him 50 years before spitting him out near Thraxia. That’s not how black holes work? Well Omniman is a character who can survive in space, I’m sure the creators can take some liberties with black holes…
Atom Eve is stressed, she wants to express her rage by beating on a random supervillain. That’s actually fine. It makes sense and it’s not a problem. It is a problem, however, when YOU TAKE THE VILLAIN TO A PUBLIC AREA!!! She is a superhero who can put the villain in a ball and fly anywhere with him, why would she possibly think a bridge of all places was the best place to have a fight?! At this point her dad might actually be right. Once again, there’s a way to fix this. Keep the fight in the warehouse or whatever that it started in. Have Eve disarm the villain. Then they can fight just with their fists. Eve can repeatedly keep knocking him down and say “Cmon, get up and try again” until the villain is beaten bloody and Eve needs to learn that she can’t be so bullheaded and ignorant to what her abilities can do.
Debbie Grayson feels the weight of her husband’s atrocious acts of violence and is struggling to stay strong for her son. Going to super therapy and having long depressing walks makes sense. Having rageful outbursts makes sense. You know what doesn’t make sense? Screaming at Cecil and being completely delusional about his character. Cecil in this show is a surprisingly genuine person. To tell him that his money is a manipulation tactic to keep Mark under his control is asinine and insane. Mark went to Cecil and begged him to use him. Mark is a walking weapon of mass destruction. And Cecil said no. He said go grieve and be a kid. If Cecil was as bad as Debbie makes him out to be, that wouldn’t have happened. He’d have employed Mark on the spot. Making Debbie scream at him like that hurt her character. Once again, there’s a better way to do this. Debbie can just say “I feel uncomfortable receiving checks because of what my husband did. That money should go to Chicago relief efforts. I want to support myself and stand on my own two feet.” That’s it. You can’t have her yell at Cecil like he’s a grade A scumbag when the show has not portrayed his character that way.
This episode, this whole season so far, has assassinated all of its core characters. You can tell me I’m wrong and that it’s just being faithful the comics, to which I will say that if you’re adapting garbage then the adaptation will be garbage. If you’re enjoying this show, great, I’m happy for you. I am of the mindset that if something isn’t good then it needs to be addressed in the hopes that it can be better. We shouldn’t be grateful that something exists when the quality is poor. It needs to be held to the standard previously set by season 1.
If you’re offended by this post, I’m not attacking you. I’m talking about a show. If you take opinions of a TV show personally then that’s your problem.
Only have some comic spoilers, so I can’t speak to all of these points yet
Mark isn’t dumb, and could tell he was being manipulated. For someone to both know who he is, and to know what he loves to try and trick him with, would be terrifying. He’s also not fighting to kill, but to restrain and control the situation. He flies him out of the form, away from the campus, and then throws him into the woods below. All that does it hide Seance dog, and allow Mark to intimidate him into answering the question honestly.
Mark has fought some terrifying folks by this point, he should react a bit prickly to strange beings addressing his secret identity.
So which is it? You just said Mark shouldn’t be the type to just go and start fighting for the sake of fighting. But now his reaction should be to go berserk and fight Omniman? That would be incredibly dumb of Mark to do, considering what happened last time. Considering what happened in the first episode; Mark attacking the Mauler’s before understanding the situation, and the guilt he felt over watching the Levys die.
Mark was feeling a flood of conflicting emotions. His father is there, he tensed up and was ready to fight, but no fight came. There is a moment where he hopes maybe things can be simple, he wants things to be simple, so he tries to hug his dad. And then that wishful thinking breaks apart as he actually keeps talking, and remembering what happened, what this all means in a greater context.
The idea that Mark would pick a fight with Omniman is the insane thing. Mark very much remembers what happened last time, he doesn’t want innocents to die, he wouldn’t want to risk his father using them to prove a point. Mark wanted to understand why his father brought him all the way here, and hoped there was a good answer, an actual apology in there and a chance to return to “normal”, picking a fight wouldn’t do him any good.
My problem here is that if this is Mark not holding back, why didnt he tap into this when fighting his father? His father grabbed him by the back of the neck and used him as a battering ram against 100s of innocent people. If that’s not enough to stop holding back then idk what is. I was under the impression that we had seen marks current max abilities and he needs to train to get stronger. Not that mark has been holding back this whole time. This, again, breaks his character.
Because he was being actively traumatized from being used as a weapon, Omniman was effectively demoralizing Mark, making him feel powerless and hopeless. And despite the awful things his father was doing, Mark was still grappling with the realization of who his father was; he can’t erase the years of love he has for his father and attack to kill him, or even want to hurt him.
The time between seasons is irrelevant; Nolan was radicalized due to his relationship with Debbie over the course of two decades, from his love of Mark, from his friendship with the Guardians. He was ready to live as a human, and enjoy earth for as long as he could. He saw the value in their life, their weakness, but was struggling to accept it. He was trying to convince hkmself as much as Mark in the end fight, and he failed to convince himself and murder Mark for showing weakness.
Thraxia’s entire point is to prove to Nolan that length of life and weakness doe not matter; his time on earth has changed him, and he does not believed the Viltrumite ways after humanizing and connecting to these “lesser” creatures. They are literal insects, should be literal pets by his logic, yet he has a wife and child still. The fact that he finds purpose and love with them is a major blow against the propaganda he was raised on.
How is diving into the blackhole and landing on a random planet better than him showing that he does value “insignificant” life.
I don’t think the intent is that she led him there, but was careless as he ran away and the fight got mobile. Still, the choice of Eve on the bridge was odd, since we don’t see the how they got there. Would have been nice to see him rocket jump off and force the fight there. But also feel like it would have been easy enough o just have the fight be on the streets outside the tower and still be life threatening. I think it was mostly a reference to comics though, in that super heroes having to save a car from falling off a bridge is a pretty iconic situation.
Is he? I’ve heard people say he is nicer than the comics, but I have never gotten that read off him, esp with who they cast to play him. Walton Goggins is not the man you cast for honesty. Like he doesn’t want Mark to go insane and kill folks, but is very ready to send him off on missions that a kid should not be on immediately after. It is a better tactic to make it seem like Mark’s choice. If Cecil was genuine he would have figured out a way to have Mark feel useful without sending him out on missions.
Cecil’s guilt might be genuine, but Debbie makes a good point about how his resources are spent. The teleport gag is fun, but also really dark considering how expensive that shit is. Dude’s time is important, but is it really that important? Video calls can’t cut it? He mostly tells people to do things for him anyway. Dude could be doing a lot more direct good for people.
He is a scumbag, he might be a charismatic one, but he is, esp from Debbie’s point of view. He is using her son, and she has every right to be mad at him. Even if she didn’t, her character does not need to act rationally considering she is a grieving wreck. It is not better writing to have her act like a perfect, polite robot to a man who can take some harsh words.