After almost a year of waiting, Prime Video’s high-demand series, Invincible, returns for season three. Last season built up Angstrom Levy’s goal to stop a corrupted Invincible from inflicting pain and suffering on Earth. Even so, in this current universe, Mark is the only Invincible in the multiple dimensions that doesn’t enslave Earth. Angstrom kidnaps Debbie and Oliver to threaten and capture Mark to prevent catastrophe. While Mark vowed never to kill, the fight between him and Angstrom leaves him with no other choice once Debbie is tortured. The season concludes with Mark acting like a Viltumite while his father, Nolan, develops human-like feelings.
This new season starts by revealing Mark’s new advanced training program, which Cecil supports. As Mark nearly dies from fighting Viltrumite, Anissa, and Angstrom, he is pressured to become even stronger and live up to his name.
During his training session, he and Rex are notified that the Declaration of Independence has been stolen. Two new characters are revealed during this mission, that being Fightmaster and Drop Kick. Despite being normal humans, they escape through a futuristic portal with the Declaration of Independence. Soon after, the United States began to experience unexplained phenomena: sulfuric water and seismic activity. While these events are unexplainable and unpredictable, Cecil takes note until there is more information on the investigation.
Mark begins to take control of his personal life as he mentors Oliver, who is growing at a rapid rate. While enjoying his life at home, he also frets about the Eve he met from the future and how she urged him to address their feelings for each other. As Mark struggles with discussing this revelation with Eve, each hero mysteriously disappears.
Cecil finds that the earthquakes are linked to Dr. Seismic, who had escaped prison. Not only was Seismic gone, but Cecil could not contact any hero except Eve and Mark.
Eve and Mark follow the tunnels in the Earth to find the other heroes trapped in egg-like cocoons. While Seismic is not a major villain, he can control enormous cryptid creatures from beneath the Earth to fight on his side. Numerous earthworms overpower Mark, leaving both him and Eve to be captured.
With every hero captured, the future looks dim. The tunnel walls begin to cave in, and Seismic plans to bury them all alive. In this hopeless situation, Cecil sends in his new, secret backup team. This new team shuts down Doc Seismic’s operation within moments. While effective, Mark finds that Cecil is recruiting questionable superhumans to fight along his side.
Episode one, season three of Invincible, has set the tone for Mark’s journey as an independent while he prepares to fight returning Vilrumites in the future. Despite struggling with his strength and the realization that he committed murder, Mark finds grounding in being a big brother to Oliver. He also begins to pursue a possible romance like a typical teenager. Overall, this first episode shows Mark as a maturing character who finds his way despite Cecil wanting him only as a controllable weapon. These inner conflicts intertwining with the series’ beloved action made this an engaging, fresh start to a new season of Invincible.
Rating: 8.5/10