The Second Half of Invincible Season 2 Packs a Hefty Punch

We might be tired of short seasons of television, but it is nice to see that there are still teams of writers who can pull them off.

The biggest hindrance to the first half of Invincible’s second season was that it was only half of the story we knew we would be getting from this installment of the series. Now that the latter four episodes are in play, it is clear that Invincible’s sophomore outing is a fantastic continuation of this already great comic book adaptation.

When the season left off, Mark had been beaten down by Viltrumite agents and Nolan had been imprisoned, leaving Mark to deal with the fallout of the destruction on Thraxa and the existence of his new half-brother. Upon his eventual return to Earth in the midseason premiere, Mark is dropped back into the everyday challenges of his life as a college student, boyfriend, and son, while also having to deal with the constant demands of Cecil and the government that come with his heroic responsibilities. It is almost immediately apparent that Mark has too much going on in his life to keep himself together. 

The emotional arcs that were started in the front half of the season are not hastily resolved; Mark is constantly suffering in order to grow as a person, and while he could certainly use a break, his pain does not make the show drag. He is never suffering needlessly. Every brutal fight he is in takes a physical and mental toll on him, and his time away on Thraxa creates rifts between him and everyone he loves. Mark’s inability to create healthy boundaries between his civilian and superhero personas isolates him from everyone in his life. Cecil has a firm grip on him due to the persistent guilt over the destruction his father caused, something that continues to result in Mark going on missions instead of being able to make up for lost time in college and with Amber. Despite the limited number of episodes and the overflowing bucket of different storylines that need to be addressed, the intricacies of the development they went through in the first half of the season are still a major strength of this second outing. Mark wants nothing more than to prove to himself that he is nothing like his father, and while his relationship and his ability to save the world are two key aspects of his life that he wants to perfect, they are constantly at odds with each other, and eventually, something has to give.

These episodes are also a wonderful reminder that Invincible’s secondary and tertiary characters are not just props that appear every once in a while to bring forward an old plot point we may have forgotten about. There are dozens of important players that have varying levels of impact, but all of them serve a purpose in the wider plot of the series. Donald continues to deal with the reality-altering information that he is cybernetic underneath his seemingly human skin, all of the Guardians of the Globe are dealing with some level of personal drama while trying to keep things together as a team (something they still don’t have a handle on), and even though the heavier parts of Debbie’s emotional arc played out at the beginning of the season, the challenges she faces in this half of the season are still holding strong.

Of course, this would not be a complete review of the show without mentioning how great the animation continues to be. The idea that animation holds the key to the future of television—especially when it comes to superhero and fantasy media—is one that I will continue to push, and Invincible is a core exhibit in favor of the argument. Blood and guts are a staple of this series, and the presentation of the hyperrealistic body horror that comes with intense, super-powered violence and destruction only gets more detailed and brutal as the series progresses.

Though these final four episodes are certainly a shining example of what Invincible is capable of as a series—particularly when it comes to the action and the very real emotional development of the characters—no TV show is without flaws. The way Angstrom Levy was introduced at the beginning of the season pointed to him being the main villain, and while his final battle with Mark is character-defining for both of them, he does not get a lot of screen time. Angstrom is a menacing force to be reckoned with and Sterling K. Brown does some incredible voice-acting work with him, but his villainy is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. It’s undeniable that he forces a major turning point in Mark’s life and deeply messes with his mental state, but a character that causes that much damage deserves to have a more lasting impact in more episodes of the series, and we are left to wonder what the writers would have done with him if they had more time.

This final piece of criticism is something that I made a point of when reviewing the first half of this season, but I think that it is important to state again that Invincible Season 2 should not have been split into two halves. This set of episodes is sturdier than the episodes that were released in October of last year, but the entire season would be stronger if it were released weekly over the course of two months instead of in four-episode sections with a five-month gap between them. Whatever the true reason for splitting up the season was, Prime Video should have seriously considered delaying the premiere until all eight episodes of the season were ready to go. It would have been minorly irritating for fans of the series, but the viewing experience would have been better, and that alone would have made up for the wait. 

Either way, Invincible continues to earn its well-deserved flowers this season, it has easily made its mark as one of the only shows that can make a minuscule episode order work. Every episode has a runtime that is well under an hour, and it’s nice to know that, even under the limits that streaming seems to be imposing across TV everywhere, the classic 45-minute-long drama is far from dead.

The second half of Invincible Season 2 premieres March 14th on Prime Video.

Kathryn Porter is a freelance writer who will talk endlessly about anything entertainment given the chance. You can find her @kaechops on Twitter.

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