Invincible Season Two (Part One) Review

The first season of Invincible, Prime Video’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman (who also created the animated series), Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley’s comic series of the same name, was a surprising success for the streaming service. Telling the tale of Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), a high school senior with a superhero for a dad (that would be Omni-Man, voiced by the great J.K. Simmons), as he discovers that he has superpowers himself – and that his father is actually a Viltrumite tasked with taking over Earth so that the Viltrumites can come and enslave the human race and use our resources – the series was shockingly violent (seriously, some of those bloodbath sequences could give The Boys a run for their money), but still had a great heart at the center with Mark’s struggles to find his place in the superhero game and within his own social life providing significant balance to the rest of the story. The series is now back for its second season (split into two halves, with the second half set to premiere in early 2024) with Mark and his mother, Debbie (a sensational Sandra Oh), trying to rebound from Omni-Man’s betrayal.

I’ll be honest, it’s really hard to write a review of the second season of Invincible without spoiling elements of the season arc, but I’m going to try my best. Because, you see, much like every other superhero story out there these days, season two of Invincible includes a journey into the multi-verse. And that makes things a bit more chaotic (ok, a lot more chaotic, as I’m someone who would love to never again see a superhero in the multiverse for as long as I live because jumping timelines always leads to things getting infinitely more confusing) this time around. Yes, we absolutely get more with our Prime Timeline story – Mark and Debbie working through their anger and sense of betrayal from Omni-Man’s actions in the season one finale, Mark finally heading off to college and trying to continue being a superhero on the side (which allows us a bit of the Spiderman situation, where he has to juggle his school and friends with the potentially devastating consequences of not saving the day), and several of the series’ supporting characters trying to find their way in the aftermath of the end of season one (of particular note is Atom Eve’s (voiced by Gillian Jacobs) mini-arc, which means a bit more following her TV movie that dropped over the summer).

And then there’s the multi-versal storyline, which is much less successful than the Prime Timeline story – a view I suspect may change once we see the second half of season two and the threads of that story ultimately begin to merge with those of the Prime Timeline. As of now, it’s a bit confused, a bit unfocused, outside of the basic “villain wants to get something, so he is jumping through timelines until he finds it” shape of things. Invincible is at its best when it’s asking us to watch the conflict between its three central characters – that would be Mark, Debbie, and Omni-Man/Nolan – and see how they push and pull each other en route to creating both conflict and resolution. And season two follows much of this same pattern. The show works best when we are following one of these three – although there are a couple of interludes with supporting characters that are pretty great – and until the multi-versal hopping villain connects with the Prime Timeline, the story will continue to feel disjointed. Again, this is only a temporary issue, but it’s one that threads through the four episodes that comprise Part One of season two.

So, if you were a fan of season one of Invincible, you’re going to enjoy going for the ride season two offers. However, you might find that this first half of the season feels a bit void of connective tissue, as the connection between our season villain and the Prime Timeline doesn’t manifest during this initial set of episodes (which means Part Two will probably feel a bit more like a completed story, which is what makes reviewing half of a season a hard ask – looking at you all networks that only provide critics with part of a season arc when they could give us more . . .). But there’s a lot to enjoy here, some interesting character beats, some fun asides, and an overall arc that is centered on the role Mark will be asked to play in not only saving Earth but also in potentially saving other timelines as well. Some heavy stuff to ask of a college freshman, but definitely interesting storytelling.

Part One of Invincible’s second season premieres on November 3 on Prime Video. All four episodes of Part One were provided for review.