Who You Calling Ugly?
Episode 3 of Invincible begins with all our different superheroes gathering together to mourn the death of the Guardians. Omni-Man leads the press conference, promising to use the Guardians as inspiration to lead a new team of heroes forward. This ceremony is all for show though, as Nolan takes the others aside for a more intimate ceremony, one that shows where the heroes are really being buried. Among those in attendance is Darkblood, who’s determined to find out who killed the Guardians. Meanwhile, Cecil approaches Robot and tasks him with fronting the charge for a new Guardians of the Globe team. He’d be in charge of course and only have to answer to Cecil. Enthusiastically, Robot takes him up on this offer. As we soon find out, Cecil and the gang are actually bugging Omni-Man’s home, clearly sensing he’s hiding something. Inside the house, Nolan is completely nonchalant to the whole Guardians deal, which is interesting because Mark is actually the first person Robot approaches to join his team. Mark refuses, reminding him that Omni-Man wants to train him himself. Instead, Robot launches a series of trials to find his perfect team. With three members of the Teen Team chosen, Atom Eve turns her back on them and leaves. This is thanks to an earlier altercation where Rex cheated on her with Dupli-Kate. In her absence, Black Samson is brought in. Watching all of this drama transpire – including a big fight between Monster Girl and Rex – is Omni-Man. High above, he turns his nose up at them all, calling them pathetic. Amber heads over for her scheduled date with Mark but things immediately go awry. A ringing phone brings Cecil in to check up on Mark, confirming he has a big mission for the kid. A rogue villain called Doc Seismic is causing havoc over by Mount Rushmore and it’s up to him (and Atom Eve) to save the day. With no other heroes to call on, Invincible and Atom Eve show up and fight against Doc. The fight goes well, with both of them managing to thwart the threat and stop this foe before it’s too late. Mark races back home after an hour’s absence and apologizes to a very bored and very fed-up Amber. Thanks to some quick thinking, Mark manages to salvage the situation. However, Atom Eve shows up at Mark’s door and sees him and Amber kissing on the bed together. She’s initially upset but smiles, wishing Mark well in the future. Meanwhile, the Mauler Twins are helped out from their cells by an unknown benefactor. Whoever it is pulling the strings, they help the twins escape from their cells. Only, the original double-crosses his brother and sacrifices him, heading off to the big city alone in a bid to create a new copy of himself. As the camera pans out, we see Robot in the GDA control room. This seems to confirm he’s playing both sides, acting as that aforementioned benefactor and freeing the Mauler Twins from their cages. As the episode closes out, Damien Darkblood arrives at the Grayson household and speaks to Debbie about the massacre. He admits Omni-Man’s answers were unsatisfactory but leaves just as Nolan shows up. Nolan seems to realize what’s going on too, playing the shifty-eyes gig as he looks around the room.
The Episode Review
This third and final episode of this week’s Invincible bows out with more teen drama and romance whilst progressing the story nicely. We’ve got several different plot threads going on here and so far all of it is working nicely against this superhero story. First up we’ve got the love triangle between Atom Eve, Amber and Mark which looks like it could cause quite a bit of drama in the ensuing episodes to come. Meanwhile, the shades of grey among the superhero hierarchy is an interesting take, with both Robot and Omni-Man hiding secrets from those around them. It remains to be seen whether the former actually brainwashed the latter into killing the Guardians or not. It’s also still unknown what his motivations are – could he have released the Mauler Twins to test the new Guardians team and see if they’re worthy? On top of all that we’ve got Damien Darkblood who’s investigating what’s happening and lurking around the different characters. All of this actually works really well to give the show some depth and the story has, so far at least, worked really well to flesh out these various different players. There’s certainly a lot to like with this though and the hand-drawn animation feels quite nostalgic, playing on the same plot beats those old 90’s cartoons had in abundance. As a big fan of those back in the day, Invincible channels the best parts of this and blends it with more gritty superhero violence akin to The Boys. The result is a delightful blend of influences that make this one of the more exciting shows on TV right now. Roll on next week!
