Monday, March 17, 2025

Invincible Season 3 Review

Invincible (2021-)

Season 3 - 8 episodes (2025)
Watch Invincible on Amazon Video (paid link)
Created by: Robert Kirkman
Based on the comic by: Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker

Starring: Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Gillian Jacobs, Zazie Beetz, Walton Goggins, Zachary Quinto, Jason Mantzoukas, Clancy Brown
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer

Plot
Based on the comic of the same name, a teenager's father is the most powerful superhero on the planet.

With season three, an alien race poses a looming problem as Mark continues training under Cecil's supervision to gain enough strength to compete with Viltrumites.

Verdict
While this show is gory and brutal it explores the darker aspects of being a super hero. This season examines acceptable casualties, collateral damage, and the ramifications of both. With all of that, this still manages to be humorous, though less than previous seasons, and it's thoroughly entertaining but fights are absolutely brutal. This has a level of gore beyond almost everything else. Fights typically don't end until someone is dead. It's in those fights that super heroes cause a lot of damage. For all the people saved, many more face hardship.
Watch It.

Review
With Omni-Man out of the picture, that makes Mark aka Invincible the top super hero. He's training to be ready for when the aliens came back. He's also balancing family commitments and trying to train his brother Oliver how to be a super hero. It's similar to how Mark's dad trained him, though they're now distant. What will Mark do differently?

Mark's also at odds with Cecil and his policies. Cecil is trying to rehabilitate criminals to enhance their numbers, but Mark has a hard line against criminals that murdered. You don't kill people and not get a harsh punishment. We get a flashback about how Cecil used to feel the same way but obviously he's changed his mind along the way.

Steven Yeun plays Mark Grayson aka Invincible

Episode three opens with a montage of two criminals struggling to make a living and finally resorting to crime. That's when Invincible appears, but with the backstory it's a completely different spin. The question this season is when is killing murder and when is it acceptable. Mark has been responsible for collateral damage, but he wouldn't group himself in the same category as people that have intentionally killed. Then there's Oliver who doesn't see a problem with killing criminals and stopping them permanently.

Invincible is taken to the future to confront Immortal who is king of the future. The episode probes the moral question of when killing is justified. When it's a kid protecting his brother and ridding the world of two villains? When it's a young adult ending his friend's life because he was asked? When it stops the reign of a tyrant that enslaved the world?

Steven Yeun plays Mark Grayson aka Invincible

While Invincible has saved people, he's also killed people indirectly in his fight with Omni-man. The collateral damage creates a desire for revenge in a man that lost his family. Mark is at the root of both the deaths and the birth of a villain, and he feels responsible despite people telling him he's not.

Mark's still reeling from the repercussions of previous fights that caused damage and death when alternate universe Marks start wreaking havoc. Mark feels responsible for all of it. Mark has wrestled with his responsibility in the collateral damage his fights have caused. That comes to a point in episode eight when Conquest arrives to ready Earth for the Viltrumites. Nearly the entire episode is a fight as Conquest and Mark destroy the city due to their fight. It's a gruesome battle that pushes Mark to his breaking point. Conquest is a psychopath that enjoys destruction. By the end of the season and after his fight with Conquest, Mark's resolve to disarm foes without killing them is over. We also get a preview of next season with plenty of potential foes.

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