By Dan Golden, Staff Writer
Spoiler warning ahead for “Invincible” season three……
Are you still there? well, “stand ready for my arrival worm.” The action packed finale for season three of the hit superhero show “Invincible” was released on March 13 and boy was it gripping (not unlike the death grip of the Viltrimite named Conquest who is responsible for that exceptional quote you just read).
Season three of “Invincible” picks up a few months after the season two finale. Mark Grayson (Invincible) is training hard to combat an existential threat to Earth by his father’s people, the Viltrumites. They are a humanoid species with the powers of Superman that they use for evil and sport mediocre mustaches and a fascist government structure (okay so nothing like Superman). Hell-bent on conquering Earth, they demand Mark prepare the planet for their arrival and annexation into their empire. Determining that handing over control of Earth to emotionless fascists with god-like powers would be (to put it mildly) a bad idea, Mark works with Cecil to train and fight them off.
Cecil, the ultimate Suit (works for the government and head of the Global Defense Agency) is aligned with Mark as humanity’s only hope to protect the Earth not just from the Viltrumites, but from other threats to the planet as well such as monsters, supervillains of the week, civilians with powers turned bank robbers because they can’t afford rent, etc. Cecil’s ultimate goal is to keep humanity safe and save lives at any cost. Even at the cost of his own humanity and ethics.
A major theme of this season revolves around ethics. Specifically, how far are you willing to go, how many moral codes will you break, will you kill in order to save lives.
Towards the end of the episode, Mark is fighting and losing to an episode of the week style supervillain. So, Cecil bails him out and sends soldiers to save Mark’s life. These soldiers however are not your average teenager looking for free college, these soldiers are Reanamen (re-an-a-men). Human beings who were killed by a mad scientist and turned into half-human, half-cyborg killing machines. Notably, Mark caught this mad scientist and sent him to Cecil for a long stay in super-prison.
So Mark and Cecil argue, Mark destroys the Reanamen, and Cecil deploys a hidden sonic weapon he left in Mark after a stint in the hospital. Yes, Cecil hid a weapon in his greatest asset in Earth’s defense incase Mark betrayed humanity like his father (see season one). Mark as his alter ego Invincible has a no kill rule. He believes bad guys should go to prison and tries his best to save lives whenever he can. Cecil is willing to work with villains and murderers if in the long run, he saves lives. A Machiavelli type of view to be sure.
Throughout the show, fans were rewarded with excellent voice acting. Steven Yuen plays the title character, Walton Goggins plays Cecil, Sandra Oh plays Mark’s mom and is truly one of the hearts of the show. Gillian Jacobs plays fellow superhero Atom Eve and the J.K. Simmons plays Mark’s father Omni Man.
Guest stars were also plentiful this season. Most notably Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad” fame plays an exceptional antagonist named Power Plex and Jeffery Dean Morgan plays the ultimate Viltrimite villain named Conquest.
Steven Yuen’s performance stood out this season. The penultimate episode of the season saw our Invincible fight evil versions of himself from alternate dimensions (yes it is very cliché and yes it was still executed well) and Yuen voiced every variant. Much like Tatiana Maslany’s performance in Orphan Black, each variant was totally unique in diction, tone personality. The finale however, sees a better performance. After months of building up to a Viltrimite takeover and preparing for said takeover and at Mark’s lowest point in the season, he arrives. Who is he? Conquest. An old Viltrumite who didn’t earn his name for baking cookies or saving space cats from space trees.
Writer and creator Robert Kirkman knowingly cast Jeffery Dean Morgan as the villain not only because of his acting chops. Years ago, Jeffery Dean Morgan played another villain named Negan on zombie show “The Walking Dead”. His character kills Glenn, a fan-favorite played by none other than a young Steven Yuen. Kirkman described the casting as a “rematch, except this time Glenn gets to win”. In the end, Mark re-evaluates his morals, Cecil continues to practice questionable ethics in the name of “safety and security”, and we end the season on another major cliffhanger.
Amazon Prime’s eight-episode season of its animated superhero drama continues to be a hit and is absolutely worth your time and energy.
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