Mark Grayson/Invincible (Steven Yeun), the Viltrumites and Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown) all return in the third installment of Amazon Prime’s “Invincible.” Pushed to his limits by Cecil Stedman’s (Walton Goggins) deceptions, Invincible stops working for the government and causes fellow heroes such as Rex Splode (Jason Mantzoukas), among others, to split off. Meanwhile, in the Grayson household, Mark Grayson trains his kid brother, Oliver Grayson (Christian Convery), to control his powers. All the while, sinister extraterrestrial and multiversal threats return to once and for all break the hero known as – Invincible.
While season three features compelling character arcs, they get buried under rubble of poorly developed plotlines.
To open with a positive, the animation makes strides to return to the glory of season one. Last season, the style took a noticeable nosedive in terms of quality –movement was rigid, fight scenes lacked weight and the overall production looked cheaper when compared to its predecessor. Whether the showrunners outsourced to another studio or a higher budget allowed them to animate on twos instead of threes is unclear, but what is undoubtedly noticeable is the step up in animation.
This time around, instead of characters appearing as personae non gratae that have been dragged across the screen, they look as if they are moving. The action, both figuratively and literally, packs a punch – especially as the season reaches its penultimate and ultimate episodes. While these aesthetic changes can be quite minute at times, they do a lot to make the world look more alive.
Similarly to last season, a surprising standout is Splode. This character has evolved from a lovable jerk to a fully realized hero who now makes the sacrifices. Learning that there is no man behind the mask but that the man is the mask makes his choices all the more meaningful since it is the only life he has. To better explain this, Mark Grayson leads two lives – one as Mark Grayson, the other as Invincible. In episode four, Mark Grayson gets pulled away from a date with Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs) because he has to be Invincible. Likewise, in episode seven, Invincible refuses to go back to the battlefield because Mark Grayson wants to be with Eve. Splode lacks this divide, making it so he cannot escape into another persona – he lives with every choice he makes.
Building off of this, his relationship with Shrinking Rae (Grey Griffin) stands out as one of the show’s most engaging dynamics. While Rae wants to return to a normal life free of “superhero-ing,” Splode considers this as his normal life because being a hero is all he knows. Their philosophical differences make their relationship the most compelling in the entire show, since one of them would have to abandon their identity in order to be with the other.
Another shockingly well-executed piece of character work derives from Powerplex (Aaron Paul) and the impact he has on Mark Grayson. While this arc arrives a season too late, Mark Grayson facing off against a physical manifestation of his guilt over the lives he failed to save still carries emotional weight. Since Invincible cannot punch his way out of this conflict, it forces him to reconcile with the trauma he has built up since season one. The climax to episode six is Mark Grayson not confronting his opponent but giving Powerplex the space he needs to grieve. He hugs Powerplex and says he is sorry – moments like this harken back to the humanity that made season one so special. While these highs were beacons of heartfelt hope for the series, “Invincible” once again struggles to find its footing in the plot department.
To kick off the negative portion of this review, the writers had no clue what to do with Oliver Grayson. Episode three leads viewers to believe that he abides by Omni-Man’s beliefs – that killing is a necessary tool used for the greater good – and that this will be a recurring source of conflict between him and Mark Grayson. However, other than an offhanded comment about how to deal with Levy, this theme never comes up again. After Oliver Grayson brutally murders the Mauler Twins (Kevin Michael Richardson), he somehow reverts to wanting to be a normal kid who sneaks out with his friends at night to go skateboarding in the park. Then, Oliver Grayson essentially disappears, merely acting as a vessel for the writers to spout different points of view at Mark Grayson regarding their father’s actions. Oliver Grayson’s depiction is baffling and inconsistent, to say the least, and makes him feel more like a plot device rather than a real character with his own motives and emotions.
The greatest flaw of this season is how it does not build to one cohesive conclusion. Season one was focused on building out the eventual conflict between Mark Grayson and the Viltrum Empire. Season two, while poorly executed, set up a final confrontation with Levy. Season three does nothing until it reintroduces these two opposing plot lines in a rushed attempt to create a climactic season finale. Outside of the first episode, the threat of a Viltrumite attack is not presented as an issue until Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) shows up randomly at the end of episode seven. Likewise, Levy, who is supposed to be a major threat, continues to remain annoyingly absent from the show until he decides to show up out of nowhere. The Viltrumite plotline is effective. The multiverse plotline can work. However, cramming these two arcs into one conclusion does not do service to either.
To round off another season, while “Invincible” has some powerful character-driven moments that highlight the show’s unique humanity in a world of aliens and superheroes, these fragments are not strong enough to counteract the underdeveloped plotlines.
Final Rating: 3.5/5.
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Featured Image courtesy of Prime
