Even more INVINCIBLE than before! (Season 3)

 

Overview

If you have not watched Seasons 1 & 2 of Invincible, go catch up then come back here! If you're insistent on not doing that, though, there is a Season 1 & 2 review on this page as well, tune in to that to learn more about the plot. I'm not going over it again lol. This season threw me for a loop, however. I watched Season 3 with my girlfriend as I did with Season 1 & 2 and I must say that this time it feels like we're getting to the meat and potatoes of this story. This is the real Invincible, everything before was just a warmup. We had to pause through the episodes so much just to process what it was that we've seen, or just vent about how whatever character just made us mad. This season had a lot to unpack, but I love where the story is heading.

Human or Hero cont.

I'm sorry if you were expecting a different little rant, but I love Mark's progression through the Human vs Hero conflict that I had discussed in my Season 1 & 2 review and Season 3 ties perfectly into it. If you need a reminder, the basic idea is that Mark is fighting between holding on to what he believes to be his "humanity" through not killing, pulling punches as to not harm people, etc., and his need to be a hero which sometimes would involve making tough decisions that could end in killing people. Mark seems to reach a breaking point at the end of Season 2 when he kills Angstrom Levy out of rage and frustration for hurting his family, but also needed to to make sure that his family stayed safe. While this decision ultimately, saved lives, Mark feels conflict as he knows part of his killing of Levy, if not most of it, was due to that rage and frustration. He is still scared of being a Viltrumite and like his Father. To Mark, being a human means prioritizing action and being a hero means prioritizing outcome in a way. 

Now with that established, we need to look at three big conflicts to understand Mark's progression through the season when it comes to this inner conflict. The first conflict is against the the "hero" path taken to it's extreme, Cecil. Mark finds out that Cecil has been working with a mad scientist he took out that killed and experimented on people to create an army of zombie fighters. This, if looked at in a vacuum, is a good thing. He is going to use this maniac as an asset and build weapons to help people, he's prioritizing the outcome. Mark however, is still focused on the "human" path and is therefore more concerned with the action of allying with a murderer and ultimately bad guy. This conflict with Cecil causes for Mark to ultimately cut ties with him and stop working under him. Through this, we can make the assumption that Mark is locked in on the human path, but his strength in it is put to the test again when our second conflict arises. 

Levy comes back with an army of Marks, ironically enough, Levy himself represents the "Hero" path as well. It's a bit of a more janky way of looking at it, though. I won't get into it, however, as this post is already getting long. Levy's army of Marks from other dimensions wreck havoc on the world even and once they all get dealt with, Mark is left fighting Levy and he gets away once again before Mark can kill him. Mark has clean hands, as the man he thought he killed is still alive, but now he it's weighing on his mind how if he had killed Levy back when he thought he did, countless lives would be saved considering the Invincible War would never have happened. This shakes Mark's confidence in his "human" path as he witnessed now first hand how his morals can cause an outcome he would also be responsible for. This leads to our last conflict.

Invincible vs Conquest is Mark finally choosing Hero. He knows that he must kill Conquest after seeing just how much havoc he is willing to cause. Mark is finally choose outcome and does not hesitate in trying to kill Conquest. After their fight, he decides to finally begin killing. I'm interested to see where this path leads him. I'm guessing that the story will end with him finding some sort of balance between these two paths but we can only see. (Also, I know he kills Immortal in the future but I didn't include that because Immortal was asking him too so it's not exactly the same).

Final Thoughts

I skipped the why you should watch this because it would be the same as last season's. In terms of final thoughts, though, I love Mark's progression and how we've seen the stakes steadily rise. Oliver is a good addition as well, serving as Mark's sidekick in a way as well as a reminder for him to be a role model. Mark has nobody to fall back on and has been getting better and making more tough decisions. I really want to read the comics but we'll see if I start that. This show officially has me hooked and it gets crazier each season!

Season 3 rating

8.5/10