The War Against the Viltrumites

I delayed watching Invincible’s fourth season for a couple of reasons. The first is that, honestly, I was already feeling kind of burned out on the show. The last season didn’t exactly thrill me, consisting of a lot of violence followed by a lot of hand wringing from the characters over “oh my god, did I do the right thing?” Over and over we see scenes of gratuitous violence, followed by everyone saying, “wow, I can’t believe that happened!” Except the show feels like it’s practically revelling in all the gore and violence, glorifying it even as it tries to say, “you know, I think this might be bad, guys.”

I can’t deny that the comics had a similar vibe, with a lot of violence and gore on the pages just like they are on the screen during the episodes of the show. But the comic could get away with it a little better for a couple of reasons. First, the pages are still, not animated, so no matter how over the top the violence might have gotten (and it was), you didn’t have the linger on even splat, squelch, and splort as the violence played out. That also ties into the second thing the comics pages had over the show: if you didn’t want to linger on the gore, you didn’t have to. You were in control of your reading pace, so you could study the art as long as you liked, or not, all as you saw fit.

But having the show linger on the violence while having its characters debate with themselves endlessly over whether the violence, and their choices, were right or not left me, as a viewer, in this endless feedback loop. I’m told the violence and gore are bad, but then the show goes back and does it again, leading me to think the writers want us to feel like all the violence is bad, but the animators want to revel in it. It became really tiring and it wore me out. I wasn’t really in the mood for more of that, especially when the early reviews for the show said this was an uneven and far less interesting season of television than what came before.

Having now watched the fourth season, chewing through it once all the episodes were out (and I was looking for something to break up a long binge of NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. shows), I will say that I am glad I watched the season. While it still has the same flaws as the previous seasons, especially when it comes to violence and then the endless handwringing over it, the show picks up really solidly in the back half of the season, nearly papering over the problems from the front half. It almost redeems itself, making me want to give the series another chance after this, which isn’t something I expected going into the show this time around.

When we pick up with the series we find Mark still shaken after fights against Angstrom Levy and the Viltrumite, Conquest. Each time, he was driven to kill (or, at least in the case of Conquest, he thought he’d killed the Viltrumite, even if in reality he hadn’t), and this has left him scarred, not sure if he’s acting like a hero at all or not. When confronted by yet another foe, a human taken over by mind-controlling Sequid aliens, Mark has to choose whether to kill the man or not, lest the entire planet get overrun by the aliens. He chooses to kill the man, ending the threat, but this is just more blood on his hands.

Racked by guilt, Mark isn’t even sure if he should be a hero anymore. However, he’s forced into the greater fight when his father, Nolan, returns to Earth from space joined by Allen the Alien. The two are on the side of the Coalition of Planets, fighting the war against the Viltrumites for the fate of the whole galaxy. Mark has to suit up and join the war, shaking aside his doubts about killing, because the war could soon come to Earth and lead to the deaths of millions, maybe billions, of humans. Right or wrong, war is here and Mark has to decide what side he’s on: be a hero, or wallow in guilt forever.

The first half of the season, I won’t deny, is tedious. It’s more of the same, without a real sense of momentum. Threats show up, Mark and his brother, Oliver, go off to fight them, and then Mark seems to go too far and gets stuck in another loop of guilt over it… up until the next threat shows up and we do the cycle over again. There are other side plots, like Robot and Monster Girl throwing themselves into a portal to stop an alien invasion from another dimension, or Mark getting sucked down to Hell to help Satan fight an invading evil force, but these don’t really change the loop. Stuff happens, and then Mark feels guilty after.

It’s only at about the midway point, when Mark is pulled out into space to fight the galactic war, that things change. The story shifts from an endless loop of threats on Earth to more of a spacefaring adventure, with our group of Magnificent warriors – Mark, Oliver, Nolan, and Allen, joined by the likes of Space Racer, Tech Jacket, and Battle Beast – flying off to take on the Viltrumites. At this point the show finally feels like it has momentum, that it’s going somewhere, and that helps to actually make it interesting to watch.

It doesn’t fix everything, mind you. The show still feels flawed, like it doesn’t know how to have fun even as it presents a world of brightly colored characters and Neo-Silver Age aesthetics. I understand the issues that Mark is going through, and I think it’s fine if he’s allowed to work through his trauma in one part of the show. But the rest of the series doesn’t have to get down and wallow with him, and for much of this season that’s exactly what it feels like it’s doing. Mark never really gets out of his funk this season, either, so he never becomes a fun character to watch despite being the lead for most episodes. Following him around is really dower and sucks the fun out of the show.

The season also sidelines a lot of characters, in part due to plotting and in part just due to pacing. The worse hit is Atom Eve, who should be the secondary lead of this series due to her ongoing relationship with Mark, but between issues with her powers this season (which are eventually explained) and then being left behind on Earth without anything on her own to do, Eve feels like she got discarded by the show. Invincible could have found a way for her to do more this season, giving her a B- or C-plot on Earth while Mark and the bunch were off fighting the main war, but it didn’t.

And yes, I know this is similar to how it plays out in the comics, but the series has been willing to make other changes to the source material, like gender swapping Tech Jacket, so why not give Eve a little more to do instead of benching her for most of the season? Have her help out the Guardians of the Globe (who also effectively get benched early in the season) while Mark is off in space. That would have provided more context on Earth and let the characters we know and like continue to be parts of the show instead of just doing a time jump and saying, “oh well, back to Earth now…”

Struggles with pace are nothing new for Invincible, though. I’ve been bitching about that since the very first season came out, and it doesn’t feel like the show is going to change at this point. While I liked parts of this season, and would be willing to continue watching going forward (at least for now), that doesn’t change the fact that Invincible is flawed and, clearly, isn’t going to change. It still struggles with balance, in content, in tone, in pacing, and by now we just have to accept it. Either you can get on board with the way Invincible tells its stories, or you’re going to have to jump off. I nearly jumped off, and I might still at some point. For now, though, I’m still here, enjoying parts of why I get while wishing the whole enterprise could be just a little better overall.