At the beginning of this month, after over two years of waiting, part one of season two of Amazon Prime’s “Invincible” was released. As of Nov. 16, there are currently three episodes aired, with the final installment of the four-episode-long part one scheduled to be released on Nov. 24.
If you have not heard of “Invincible” before, it is about seventeen-year-old Mark Grayson who has Omni-Man, a well-loved and insanely powerful superhero, as a father. The first season is his journey through discovering his powers and battling with the inner turmoil that comes with being a first-time superhero, a teenage boy with a love life and a high school student all at once.
The show is graphic and violent yet charming and entertaining all at once. Mark is simply a great protagonist who draws in audience members with his empathy, boyishness and passion for what he does. The plotline is wonderful, as it keeps the audience entertained while also creating an edge-of-the-seat experience as you learn more and more about the characters and their insane lore.
I was a very big fan of the first season, it even became a month-long hyper-fixation of mine, and I have been ecstatic to watch the second. This is surely my attempt at giving a season two part one review without dropping an insane level of spoilers for this specific season.
Episode one, titled “A Lesson for Your Next Life,” started the season off strong. It begins with a scene of Invincible and Omni-Man, teaming up to save the world with their genocidal propaganda.
Odd, I know. This fifteen-minute segment had confused me too, as the last thing I would have expected from Mark after the end of the last season would have been him reuniting and teaming up with his villain of a father. Thankfully, it was simply just a glimpse into one of the many multiverses, a classic superhero trope that should not have shocked me but did anyway. This plot twist of a start immediately grabbed my attention and had me already hooked on what this season would bring.  As the show transitions away from this scene and into the reality of Invincible that we had become acquainted with, Karma Police by Radiohead begins to play. One of the most iconic parts of this show has been its amazing soundtrack. To kick off the season’s music with a Radiohead song was a bold yet fantastic choice, and I could not have thought of a better song to play.
Before I even watched the second episode, I knew I was going to love it based on the hilarious title, “In About Six Hours I Lose My Virginity to a Fish.” The episode begins with a scene that may seem eerily familiar to most first-year Hamline students — a high school graduation for the class of ‘23, here Mark (or should I say Markus Sebastian Grayson) seems to be running a little late to the event.
Comedy is the key trait in this episode. With quirky commentary from Mark’s best friend, a silly joke about retiring from the superhero world from a classmate and a joke about his usual tardiness from his beloved girlfriend. Even the first villain of the episode brings the audience rib-aching one-liners. My favorite is a line following a tangent about how most buildings are made out of earth’s materials: “You can keep the ones made out of wood.”
As one might assume by the title, virginity jokes have been consistently wiggling in through half of the scenes, such as the line “It’s leaving high school, not losing your virginity,” which brought me to tears with pure laughter. Despite the comedic beginnings, the angst is strong in this one like it has been, and will be throughout the rest of the season due to the topics the show is addressing.
Overall, this episode has been my favorite of this season and even one of my favorite of all time. The balance of comedy and heartbreaking angst was entertaining to the highest extremes. If you need a good show that breaks your heart and has you giggling within just a single scene.
After such a fantastic episode, going into the third episode and final section of the review is a little nerve-wracking. However, the show has yet to disappoint me and thankfully they still have not. With a several-month jump between this episode and the last, we are now seeing Mark off at college.
Mark’s mom preaches with a “college is a place for new beginnings” speech and a “do not do drugs” warning, an event I am sure most of you heard during your own move-in day. There is nothing better than being told to stay away from marijuana right outside of Drew Residence Hall for all to hear.
Out of all the topics I see the show addressing this season, the discussion around sex has been the most interesting and entertaining. It is nice to see a show present the true realities of an awkward teenage boy with a lot more on his plate than your common eighteen-year-old struggle with addressing his sexuality when the world around him seems to be pressing the topic.
Even his aforementioned best friend and now college roommate, William, is introducing the sock rule (i.e. putting a sock on the handle of the door to indicate that one is having sex in the room.) into the conversation just three minutes into the third episode. The mix of serious yet hilarious moments around this difficult topic makes it much more digestible for the audience and much more relatable to those who are not under the “sex god” umbrella.
Suddenly, a narrator appears and we switch from an almost sex scene to the lore of the beloved planet, Unopa, that was destroyed by Mark’s people, the Viltrumnites. This quick switch was unexpected, but not unwelcome. Through this, one of the most beloved characters from the first season, Allen gets a well-deserved backstory.
Instead of focusing on Invincible, this episode is all about Allen, a character that vaguely resembles a Michael Cera-type despite being voiced by Seth Rogen. This episode was a nice change of pace.
As much as I love Mark, the change of protagonists was much needed. Although as I wrote this I initially described it as light-hearted, that will change approximately twenty minutes into the episode. Not only does Allen get his well-deserved plotline, but we also learn more about the Viltrumnites.
Although, the tears this episode has brought me are quite worth it. Entertainment and good lore come with a price to pay, and if salty tears running down my cheeks are the cost, then I guess it is worth it. Be prepared to gasp, though, as the cliffhanger you are left on is the cliff-iest of hangers that could ever be in this show.
Overall, I highly recommend taking the time to binge-watch Invincible, especially as the second season is worth the binge. It is the perfect show for college students, as the characters are truly our age and have struggles outside of their superhero tendencies, along with the fact that the lore and world-building are insanely well done.