‘Invincible’ Has Reached Its Peak

The complex, compelling third season of the adult animated superhero drama “Invincible” came to a close March 13. The finale — which aired on Prime Video — upped the ante with breathtaking, animated action and gripping melodrama, making it the show’s most innovative installment yet.

Based on the “Invincible” comics by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, the series follows Mark Grayson, a teenage superhero named Invincible, who’s the son of the world’s greatest hero, Omni-Man. 

The coming-of-age story is violently derailed when Omni-Man attempts to conquer Earth for his native Viltrumite, a highly advanced race of extremely powerful aliens. With the planet’s greatest superhero gone rogue, it falls on Mark’s shoulders to keep the planet safe from an interplanetary invasion.

Voiced by Steven Yeun, Mark remains dogmatic in the face of adversity through season three, combating reanimated corpses, crazed rivals and even alternate versions of himself. When not battling lava monsters, Mark maintains a new romance with fellow superhero Atom Eve and re-examines his relationship with Cecil Stedman, director for the U.S. government’s Global Defense Agency and its rehabilitation of murderers.

Mark’s vow to never kill his enemies rears its head in season three with old enemies returning in even greater force. Villains such as dimension-hopping Angstrom Levy challenge Mark’s altruism when a cataclysmic war wages between Earth’s heroes and Levy’s thralls of evil, alternate world Invincibles.

When bad guys of the week aren’t coming back in meaner force, they turn into heroes instead. Cecil’s way of handling villains is by reforming them and using them to their fullest potential as heroes, regardless of them cruelly torturing and killing others. 

Mark’s moral conflict with Cecil, deciding what’s right and wrong, becomes a point of contention all season, with each character and storyline upending the black-and-white, good versus evil archetype.

Atom Eve, voiced by Gillian Jacobs, provides emotional support while being her own powerhouse superheroine. Using her powers of matter manipulation to build shelter for those in need, her relationship with Mark grows quickly, as if to make up for lost time given the previous seasons’ hinting at their mutual connection.

While Mark fears becoming as brutal as his father, that’s all his younger brother Oliver strives for. Growing from a 1-year-old to a 12-year-old due to his hybrid, alien DNA, Oliver’s eagerness to fight alongside Mark makes him like a bat out of hell with little resolve.

Season three adds new foes to the fray like Powerplex, who can absorb energy from kinetic force. Voiced by Aaron Paul, Powerplex’s stellar voice acting encapsulates the character’s sorrow and rage, having lost his sister and niece to the destruction of Invincible’s previous fight with his father.

The finale also saw the long-awaited arrival of the powerful Viltrumite Conquest, voiced by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who delivered the most menacing voice acting of the season.

This isn’t the first time Steven Yeun and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s characters have faced off, with both starring in “The Walking Dead,” where Morgan’s overarching villain Negan brutally kills Yeun’s character Glenn.

Morgan’s tone and delivery helps bring this barbaric character to life. As Conquest arrives at the end of episode seven he says “Stand ready for my arrival worm,” a famously imposing line the original series made more iconic with Morgan’s voice attached to it. 

Creator Robert Kirkman even added an additional monologue for Conquest that wasn’t featured in the comics, easily adding so many layers to the character.

Despite the strong character work, the animations throughout the season were unoriginal, utilizing PNGs as background. However, the final two episodes stand out, not just for their climatic action but their sheer detail — as if the animation budget was poured into the finale and naught else. 

The lack of progression in animation is overridden by the season’s gripping plotlines, character development and voice acting, making it the show’s best season yet. 

“Invincible” is available now on Amazon Prime Video.