Invincible\u2019s fourth season performs a much-needed reset, setting a definitive course for its character arcs right from the word go. In the first 6 of its 8 episodes, the show\u2019s signature gore is matched by its emotional brutality, as it confronts questions that have been hovering in the background by finally placing them front-and-center \u2013 namely, is Mark\/Invincible really like his father? Can Nolan, the former Omni-Man, ever be forgiven for his crimes? And is it truly possible for them to become better people?<\/p>\n
All of this drama unfolds against the backdrop of the looming Viltrumite War, an arc in Robert Kirkman\u2019s source comics (published by Image). In it, the Coalition of Planets \u2013 led by Viltrumite turncoat Thaedus \u2013 finally takes on the remains of the ruthless Empire, led by this season\u2019s villain, Grand Regent Thragg (voiced by Lee Pace with an icy chill). Before the conflict begins in earnest, and sooner than you might expect, we\u2019re re-introduced to Mark on Earth as he recovers from Conquest\u2019s beatdown at the end of Season 3. The swarthy, one-armed sadist is secretly being kept alive by Cecil and the GDA (Global Defense Agency), but as far as Mark is aware, he killed the invading warrior in a fit of rage for what he did to Eve, and he\u2019s since decided to do whatever is necessary to keep his loved ones safe\u2026even if it means taking a life.<\/p>\n
The Mark we meet in Season 4 has a much harder edge, and Steven Yeun plays him with a withdrawn quality as he begins to wonder whether this is who he is or who he wants to be. As always, the Grayson family drama is the series\u2019 strong suit, with a now-teenaged Oliver (Mark\u2019s half-brother) eager to take up a superhero mantle and reclaim the Omni-Man logo, while their mother Debbie just wants to live a normal life with her ordinary boyfriend, Paul. Mark\u2019s life is further complicated by his relationship with Eve, whose parents have some understandable concerns about their daughter nearly dying whenever she\u2019s around Mark. It certainly doesn\u2019t help that her own powers hit a bit of a snag for some very interesting reasons.<\/p>\n
This time around, existential threats are the name of the game, with Mark\u2019s new fatalistic worldview coming into immediate conflict with a number of major villains that force him into ethical dilemmas. There are super-smart dinosaurs who want to end the world, nuclear power-hungry goddesses, and yes, even more mind-controlling Martian Sequids and interdimensional Flaxans. But if anything in Season 4 ever feels like a retread, it usually has a purpose; if existing threats keep coming back, surely Mark and his comrades will eventually be forced into questioning their methods. In fact, the most interesting thing about all this is the idea that Mark, with his new \u201cshoot first, ask questions later\u201d credo, might actually be right\u2026though this ends up being challenged in some unexpected ways.<\/p>\n
If existing threats keep coming back, surely Mark and his comrades will eventually be forced into questioning their methods. \u201c<\/p>\n
For the most part, the show\u2019s repetitive elements are purposeful, save for a lore-heavy detour to a fiery, subterranean realm in Episode 4 alongside demon detective Damien Darkblood. This sounds much more exciting in theory, even if it does feature the great Bruce Campbell in a surprising role. If something doesn\u2019t fully click this season, it\u2019s usually because it isn\u2019t quite as strong as the central drama of Mark\u2019s shifting morality. <\/p>\n
For instance, the other Earthbound heroes \u2013 aka the Guardians of the Globe \u2013 and their street-level villains, the Order, don\u2019t have the most interesting things to do. But given how far their subplots meandered last season, this might be for the best. The show also still retains some flaws from previous years, like an over-reliance on celebrity names and traditional screen actors who don\u2019t quite have the right skill set for animation, resulting in some dramatic dead air. For what it\u2019s worth, the creators seem to rely far more on what already works about the show, and they find new ways to complicate Nolan\u2019s deep space self-reflections. <\/p>\n
Invincible Season 4 Images<\/p>\n
Far-flung from those he betrayed, Nolan gets to spend some much needed time with Allen, Seth Rogen\u2019s jovial and forgiving one-eyed alien hero, who makes for a fantastic foil to J.K. Simmons\u2019 gradually-reforming antihero. As established in prior episodes, the pulp novels Nolan wrote on Earth hold clues to real allies and weapons that could be used to defeat the Viltrumites, so his scenes with Allen take on a similarly pulpy, fetch-quest quality, as they\u2019re joined by characters inspired by everything from mecha anime to \u201950s American sci-fi to Greek and Hindu mythology. By the time the war kicks off and the show grows in scale, it feels like every possible subgenre has been roped into it.<\/p>\n
However, what works best about Nolan\u2019s arc is what we slowly learn about his people, especially in Episode 2, which makes for a series highlight. The Viltrumites are still cold and cult-like, but the losses they\u2019ve endured over the centuries can\u2019t help but bring to mind real-world stories like the COVID pandemic and even modern geopolitics, where nation states use the horrors of past genocides to justify carrying out atrocities in the present. The villains are by no means made likable, but their twisted outlook is in its own way empathetic. They end up reflecting key comic works like Art Spiegelman\u2019s graphic novel, Maus, a major theme of which is the idea that suffering doesn\u2019t necessarily make you a better person; it just makes you suffer.<\/p>\n
The show has carnage for days\u2026but more importantly, it backs it up with meaning.\u201c<\/p>\n
This feeds wonderfully into Nolan\u2019s character arc, which is rooted in the question of just how much of his Viltrumite self he\u2019s willing or even able to shed in search of absolution. But it isn\u2019t all doom and gloom despite these incredibly heavy themes. Invincible has always skirted the line of superhero parody, and while it\u2019s gotten far too serious on that front to start joking about the genre again, it does feature a delightful send-up of Star Trek: The Next Generation during Nolan\u2019s galactic pursuit.<\/p>\n
As usual, the montages set to popular needle drops help capture a melancholy mood while acting as connective tissue between major events. This especially applies to scenes of space travel, which the show remembers takes time, affording major characters like Nolan, Mark, and Oliver some much needed downtime in the process. Things come to a head this season, with inevitable meetings and reunions fans have long been waiting for, but the series earns each and every one of them and immerses viewers in some of the most rigorous drama Invincible has seen thus far. The show has carnage for days\u2026but more importantly, it backs it up with meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Invincible\u2019s fourth season performs a much-needed reset, setting a definitive course for its character arcs right from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-479012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}