‘Stand ready for its arrival, worms’: ‘Invincible’ Returns For Season Four

Animated hero drama “Invincible” returned for season four with a mean punch, dropping three new episodes on Prime Video March 18 and raising the stakes in an already stressful fictional world.

After a gruesome ending to season three left righteous Mark Grayson, his girlfriend Atom Eve and his brother Oliver feeling like shells of their former selves, season four picks up immediately in the aftermath of the catastrophic events that left many dead and in mental distress. 

It wouldn’t be “Invincible” if Mark, masterfully portrayed by Steven Yeun, weren’t going through an internal dilemma, this time regarding whether he should continue to let foes live at the risk they return, or instead ensure they’re gone permanently at the hands of his Viltrum strength. 

Mark is an increasingly complicated character whose internal struggle shapes the narrative, making the audience sympathise with him through compelling writing while anticipating his methods of overcoming every dilemma.

The season opener gives a glimpse into Mark’s mindset, now dead-set on protecting his family no matter what — even if it goes against his previous refusal to kill — while also working tirelessly to restore his public image and get citizens to not feel fearful of him. 

All that — plus his post-traumatic stress disorder and tense familial transitions — is on Mark’s mind this season, pointing toward an even bigger release of frustration to come.

While Mark deals with these struggles internally, his girlfriend, Eve Wilkins (Gillian Jacobs), experiences an outer struggle regarding her powers. Eve, who was once able to rearrange matter into any object, shape or substance, is now pregnant, causing her powers to seemingly glitch.

The inclusion of the pregnancy trope in an already plot-heavy series seems a little much, given the show’s only scratched the surface of what occurs in the eponymous comics by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley. However, if executed faithfully to the spirit of the source material, viewers might not mind the added subplot. 

Instead of waiting mid-season for an episode centered around the dynamic duo of heroes Omni-Man and Allen the Alien, season four focuses on them early on, with episode two following their journey to recruit and build a team to fight against the Viltrum Empire. 

The episode also gave a much-needed backstory to reformed Viltrumite Nolan Grayson — aka Omni-Man — which unveiled revelations into why anti-hero Omni-Man behaved and functioned so callously.

The incomparable J.K. Simmons truly makes Omni-Man come to life with his vehement vocal delivery, conveying the necessary emotions needed for the back-and-forth Nolan goes through mentally. While Omni-Man does feel remorse for his past actions, he’s still hesitant to fully join Allen (Seth Rogen) and Thaedus, leader of the Coalition of Planets, on their mission to end the Viltrum Empire given that he’s devoted his whole life to the cause.

The three-episode premiere reuses old villains from previous seasons, making parts of the episodes feel like filler and lackluster, as there are bigger fish to fry.

Though the reuse of old characters is generally unwelcome, the resurrection and escape of Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) will seemingly make for gripping storytelling later on in the season, as a rematch between Conquest and Invincible seems inevitable.

Despite that, the episodes also introduce and tease new adversaries Invincible will inevitably face. Universa, an intergalactic warrior after the Earth’s energy, is voiced by Danai Gurira — adding to the “Walking Dead” to “Invincible” pipeline. 

Similarly, the episodes briefly introduce Dinosauraus (Matthew Rhys) and the all-mighty grand regent of the Viltrum Empire, Thragg (Lee Pace), who will no doubt be recurring characters later in the season.

There are slight improvements with animation, with aerial sequences that looked as if wind was actually blowing, and graphics that didn’t look just like stick figures and PNG backgrounds, but instead involved movement and flow. 

While it doesn’t compare to the animation involved in the season three finale — we likely won’t see that high-quality of animation until the cumulative episodes of the season, as the creators tend to use their whole animation budget in the series finales — it isn’t as bad as viewers are making it seem online. 

This season is being set up to be its most intense yet as new villains, the escape of Conquest, and looming Viltrum war seemingly all come to a head.

“Invincible” is available now on Prime Video, with new episodes of season four releasing every Wednesday.