Invincible's Greatest Scene

 

    Hey! With the upcoming finale of Season 3 of Invincible coming up soon, I figured I'd write about one of the most impactful scenes from the show, all the way back in Season 1's brutal finale. Before I get into that though, I'm aware that some people may not be familiar with Invincible or its story, so I'll give a quick recap of the show's first season to contextualize what makes this scene so powerful. Spoilers ahead though!

    Invincible is an Amazon Prime animated superhero show that was based on a comic book of the same name, which was written by Robert Kirkman. It follows the story of Mark Grayson, son of Omni-Man (the most powerful hero in the world) as he gains his powers as a teenager and navigates the action-packed, brutal world of superhero-ing. However, in the background of Mark's story, a darker murder mystery is being solved by some of the other characters- the mass murder of the Guardians of The Globe, this show's replacement for superhero teams like the Avengers or Justice League. By the finale of the show, it is revealed to Mark that the person responsible for the murder of the Guardians is his own father, Omni-Man, who tells Mark it is time to fulfill their duty to their home planet of Viltrum: taking over the Earth.

    For further context, Mark has been told his whole life that Viltrum, the planet his dad came from, is a center for good-doers of the galaxy, sending out their best and strongest to protect planets. The truth, however, is revealed by Omni-Man: Viltrum is actually a brutal empire that conquers other planets and enslaves them, sending out their strongest to infiltrate a planet, and then conquering it for the empire when the time is right. Omni-Man hopes that explaining all of this to Mark will convince him to join him in conquering Earth, but Mark refuses to help his father, leading in a brutal, horrifically violent fight that results in hundreds of deaths as father attempts to beat his son into submission.

    However, in the middle of this brutal beatdown, we suddenly get hit with a flashback of Mark's days as a little boy, from Omni-Man's perspective. Here, we see Omni-Man, presumably still new to acting human, struggling to connect and care about his young son's baseball game. Debbie, his wife, then gives him a speech about how children are how older people are able to connect with their emotions, allowing them to feel what their kids feel, and sharing that joy with each other. As Mark starts to run around the baseball field, Omni-Man's expressions gradually softens, and he allows himself to forget his mission and simply connects with his son's experience, getting happy and invested in his game. Finally, when Mark runs up to his parents, he asks his dad, "Did you see Dad? Did you see?" To which Omni-Man picks up his son and says "Yes, I did," embracing his humanity and love for his son. This makes the end of the flashback all the more brutal, cutting from a smiling young Mark to a bloodied, beat-up Mark as Omni-Man stares down at him, remembering that this is still his son. No matter how many times I see this moment, that transition always makes me tear up.

    After this scene, we see Omni-Man struggle to justify what he's done to his son to himself, and he gets frustrated. Instead of continuing to beat the life out of Mark, he opts to do what any angry parent would do, and starts lecturing him. He can't bring himself to hurt his son anymore, and this frustration between his feelings for Mark conflict with his duty to the Viltrumite mission of conquering Earth, so he tries to angrily reason with Mark as a last ditch-effort to convince him. Watch this scene first.

    "I'd still have you, Dad." DAMN! This single line was such an emotional gut punch to both the viewers and Omni-Man that it remained as one of the few lines from any movie, show, or book that I've ever watched or read that I still remember no matter what, and it always keeps the same emotional impact. After everything that Omni-Man did to Mark, after all of the brutal beatings and horrible things he said during his fight, Mark still holds so much love for his father that he still calls him Dad after everything. The animation of Omni-Man's facial expressions changing after hearing that capture so much conflict, frustration, grief, and regret for what he's done, that he's overwhelmed to the point of just... running away. Instead of confronting his true feelings, the fact that he cares more for his life on Earth than he does the Viltrum mission, he flies away deep into space, unsure of how to tackle these newfound emotions. And that's such a powerful, bittersweet ending to me.

    

    Maybe I'm just on a nasty pattern of watching father-son relationship shows/movies recently, but this show and the characters' dynamic just hits very close to home for me. Obviously, my own dad wouldn't beat the crap out of me and conquer the world (at least... I hope) but seeing this sort of unconditional love between fathers and sons in media always tugs at my heartstrings because I acknowledge that yes, if I was in their place, I'd do the exact same thing- nothing could happen between us that would break the bond I feel for my dad, and it's such an important relationship to me that I get emotional every single time I watch this scene between Omni-Man and Mark. Unfortunately, the later seasons of this show, while still very good, haven't even come close to matching the quality and emotional investment I had in its first season. But if we're being fair, I think it's an impossible task to beat this scene for me. Just gut-wrenchingly emotional.