Invincible is BACK, with season 4 hitting Amazon Prime Video in late March! The show jumped right back into the action, with the three episodes taking us through Mark’s newfound fearlessness, a look into Omni-Man’s backstory and the broader lore of the Viltrumites, and the ongoing dynamics between Mark and Cecil as villains try to conquer Earth every episode. 

In season 3, Cecil Stedman, the director of the Global Defense Agency, uttered the famous line: “We can be the good guys, or we can be the guys that save the world. We can’t be both.” Right you were, Cecil! Now, in season 4, Mark is realizing it too. 

There’s no sugarcoating the fact that, for most of this show, Mark was a very lackluster protagonist. He simply lacked the guts to actually do what was necessary when fighting for victory, at least not on the same level of execution that Omni-Man or Cecil have demonstrated. The conflict within this show was always the way Mark would have to learn to go all-out, for instance, when fighting the Viltrumites on Thraxa or fighting Conquest to save Eve, without losing his humanity like his father. It was always when he was pushed to his breaking point—or when innocent people were put in danger—that he understood the stakes and unleashed his full power. 

Well, now…this dude just KILLS! The fourth season literally starts out with an invasive species called the Sequids attaching to human hosts and taking over the Earth. An astronaut who brought the alien species to Earth with him becomes the main brain of the hive-mind, and just seconds before the Earth’s defences fall short of collapsing, Mark punches through the man’s mind-controlled head and bursts his skull into a thousand pieces, defeating the entire infestation and saving the day before disaster. 

The whole scene is predicated on the Trolley Problem, and Mark has failed this test so many times throughout the series that it finally feels deserved here. As the audience, we understand that not killing that one man, who was unfortunately mind-controlled, would have collapsed the barrier and led to the deaths of countless other people, much like Mark’s inability to kill Angstrom Levy previously did. Ironically, the one time he has the guts to finish the job, he has to kill some innocent guy! 

In all seriousness, though, the persisting tonal inconsistency with this show was always how serious the tone was, especially in how it portrayed graphic violence and death, with how naive Mark was to the threats he faced. Don’t get me wrong, that was his character arc, and in some ways, his charm. He wasn’t like his father, and that’s what made him pure and unique. But we all have to admit, it got pretty ridiculous at times. 

Now that he’s at full force and we see what he can do, we’d all be lying if we said we didn’t at least somewhat enjoy seeing it! It’s just so much more satisfying to see Mark go all out and actually put a threat down permanently for once, even if it means breaking his ethics. It’s a bit like when Batman would throw a guy off a building and break his legs—as long as he technically didn’t kill him. The brutal vigilantism felt satisfying in some respects, because it recognized that the cruelty of the villain needed to be fought with at least some cruelty in return. Otherwise, it would be a police show or courtroom drama, rather than a complex superhero story. 

It’s the same here, I WANT a powerful protagonist, not a wimp! And I’m glad the show goes through the trouble of justifying his actions multiple times, especially by explaining how his inaction previously with Angstrom led to countless deaths that could have been prevented. We WANT to see Mark make traumatic decisions. That’s literally what made Spider-Man and, I don’t know… every single superhero to ever exist… COOL! Here, he doesn’t even have a secret identity to worry about, so at least unleash a bit more when defending your planet, Mark!

That’s another reason why I think we’re off to a great start, because we get a scene dedicated to this concept through his conversation with Cecil. In a beautifully serene conversation, Cecil pleads with Mark to ask him for his approval in times like these, just so Mark can sleep at night. Cecil reveals that he calls the shots with other superheroes for the same reason: to take the burden off them and ease their conscience. His character was always so well-written, and it’s exacerbated by his masterful voice performance by Walton Goggins. 

On top of Mark going through changes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in that respect. We get a really interesting look at Nolan’s origin story here, showing how he became who he was, and taking us on an entire episode focused on him and Allen floating through space together. After basically two entire seasons of treating Nolan as a two-minute cameo every four episodes, now he gets a whole fifty minutes dedicated to just him! We see a more gentle side to him here, as he genuinely defects spiritually, almost entirely, from the Viltrum mindset of conquest and brutality.

All the characters are undergoing the most change we’ve seen after two seasons of stagnation, and it’s really satisfying to witness in real time. After facepalming for seven out of the eight episodes last season when Mark didn’t have the guts to do anything, this is a great relief! I feel hopeful for season 4, and I think this will be the best season yet. I hold season 1, especially the final two episodes, as major pinnacles in animation, but I feel that this season could rival those episodes with the way things are starting off. Please don’t make me regret saying that, Invincible writers!