Season 4 of “Invincible” ended on April 22, and much like last year’s season, it was phenomenal.
The show has evolved so much since season 1, it almost doesn’t feel like the same show – which is a good thing. The character arcs have been wonderful up to this point. This season’s focus has been on Mark (obviously), Nolan (Omni Man), Oliver, Debbie and Eve’s characters.
I think the best arc of the season was Nolan’s. When the show began, he was framed as a caring and heroic person who defends Earth, but as everyone who watched the first episode knows, that doesn’t remain the case – in fact, it was never the case.
Nolan killed the Guardians of the Globe in the first episode, and it was a shocking twist that nobody saw coming. We eventually learn Nolan did it because the Guardians would have prevented him from conquering Earth with his people, the Viltrumites.
Nolan tried to convince his son Mark to join him in conquering Earth, but Mark refused. Since season 1, Nolan has been on something of a redemption arc; he is sorry for what he’s done and he feels tremendous guilt for the people he killed. Episode 5 of season 4 has my favorite scene in the entire series so far: Nolan reunites with Mark’s mother Debbie and attempts to apologize to her.
The scene is filled with brilliant dialogue. Nolan tries to break through to Debbie, but she doesn’t accept his apology, seeing that Nolan has caused so much damage that it is impossible for him to repair it.
Mark’s character arc is also brilliant. He joins his father along with his brother, Oliver, to defeat the Viltrumites. Mark reunites with Conquest from the previous season, and they have a brutal fight that ends with Mark strangling Conquest after Conquest ripped his guts out. His romance with Eve continues this season as he unknowingly got her pregnant, resulting in Eve getting an abortion. The show handles this extremely well. Mark feels guilty that he wasn’t there for Eve and he feels like it was all for nothing because the battle with the Viltrumites didn’t end with them being eradicated. Once again, Mark feels lost by the end of the season.
We also meet Thragg, the leader of the Viltrumites who is depicted as an ultra-strong, nearly unbeatable opponent. During the battle, he attempts to stop Nolan, Mark and Thaedus from destroying Viltrum, but fails. This results in a fight between him, Nolan and Mark, with the latter two trying to kill Thragg and getting brutally injured in the process.
Once it’s all over, Mark’s mental health deteriorates. He returns to Earth and sees visions of Thragg and the remaining Viltrumites killing everyone he loves.
I think season 4 has really etched a place for “Invincible” among the best shows of all time. It continues to impress. Some criticism I’ve seen of season 4 is that the animation isn’t all that good, and as someone who has no clue about how to animate anything, I don’t see any problem with the animation. The whole point is that it’s supposed to look like a comic book in motion, and I think it succeeds at that.
It seems that the show is at its halfway point. I could see maybe 4 more seasons of the show. I’m excited about the direction the show is heading in as it has remained consistently strong throughout its run on Amazon Prime Video.
Overall, this season provides some of the best scenes and episodes that Invincible has to offer, which is why I’m giving “Invincible” season 4 a 10/10.
