{🚨SEMI-SPOILERS🚨}: Helmed by Robert Kirkman, Invincible Season 3 follows Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), three months after his battle with Angstrom Levy, who has been training under Cecil’s supervision to gain enough strength to compete with and prepare for incoming Viltrumite threat. But everything changes as Mark is forced to face his past, and his future, while discovering how much further he’ll need to go to protect the people he loves.
This series started off with an amazing first season but I definitely felt the second season didn’t quite live up to its strong start despite having its fair share of awesome and well-crafted elements. So with this new season I was really hoping things would be improved and holy hell did things improve hugely. Invincible Season 3 is not only an incredible step up from the previous season but I consider it my favorite season of the series so far due to its phenomenal performances, strongly written arcs, and its outstanding animation and action that manages to top a lot of what we have been given before in series, including everything from the first season.
Robert Kirkman and his crew clearly listened to the criticisms of the last season when creating this new one, fixing most of the problems I had with the previous season while also delivering everything that they promised for this very bloody and bold follow-up that resulted in me having renewed faith in the series. It proves just how passionately made this series is by a team dedicated to delivering consistent quality with an adaptation of long-running source material rather than declining by every season as some shows based on adapted works have done in recent years.
I won’t dive deep into any major spoilers for the characters and story of this season for this review but I will discuss certain characters making their return in this season as well as new characters and their cast members that make their debut this season, so if you don’t want to know anything about them do not read beyond this point.
The voice cast is once again phenomenal across the board with not a single weak performance from anyone as everyone gives their all to their performances, especially when many of them have such important arcs this season compared to last season. Steven Yeun has fully embraced the role of Mark Grayson at this point so he was expected to be perfect but I love how we got to get a lot more emotional and rage-fueled moments executed beautifully through Yeun’s performance.
Certain events from the end of last season and during this season cause Mark to turn into a far more aggressive version of himself as the violence and the constant weight of responsibility to save the day continue to dial up and try to bring him down, forcing him to push back harder and reflect traits of his Viltrumite heritage. He tries desperately not to cross the line as he does not wish to become like his father and retain his humanity but thankfully his strong heart and support from his loved ones are what keep him going as a good person, preventing him from becoming the potential monster he could become like his other variants as seen in the other dimensions last season.
Speaking of Mark’s variants, they return in this season as they are pulled from their dimensions into our Mark’s dimension, creating a worldwide conflict known in comics as the “Invincible War”. Yeun gets the chance to voice all of these evil variants and showcase his incredible range, delivering such unhinged performances in unique ways for each of them, which deserves endless amounts of praise.
Debbie Grayson, reprised wonderfully by Sandra Oh, remains as Mark’s moral anchor in this season despite the hell she endured in the finale of season 2, which is a testament to how strong she is as a person despite having zero superpowers. You can’t help but constantly root for her as she does her best to support Mark and his half-brother Oliver while trying to live her own life.
Oliver, voiced incredibly well by Christian Convery, has grown up quickly since we last saw him in season 2 and he ends up having a significant coming-of-age arc as he is desperate to become a superhero much like his brother but learns the harsh reality of what it is like and why it’s important to have a moral code. Seeing Mark struggle to be an older brother to Oliver creates an interesting dynamic between them that I hope to see evolve in future seasons.
Atom Eve, reprised by Gillian Jacobs, finally gets pulled out of the sidelines and back into the main story as she and Mark finally become a couple after so much build-up and anticipation. This season explores their relationship beautifully, both in romantically intimate moments and thrilling action sequences that establish them as a truly powerful dynamic duo that can take on anything as long as they have each other. Jacobs absolutely rocks this season with her performance of Eve, managing to surpass her work in the previous seasons easily now that she had a lot more to do here.
We get a lot of great arcs and moments from the returning heroes and new heroes but it is Jason Mantzoukas as Rex Splode that steals the spotlight with his journey of redemption that began in season 2 and reaches an epic high point in this season. It’s honestly amazing to see such an asshole of a character from the start of the series end up becoming one of the most beloved characters of the series in this season, giving him a lot of human moments and showing actual growth for him despite his immature personality.
Cecil, reprised by Walton Goggins, gets significant development this season as we get to see his origins explored and then see him be at odds with Mark as their opposing views on how to protect the world come to a tense clash that lasts all season. We always knew Cecil was someone we could never really trust but at the same time, we can completely understand his point of view on things based on his experiences in the past and the absolute horrors he’s witnessed first hand, making for a fascinating complex character you can always find yourself engaged in.
J.K. Simmons and Seth Rogen do return as Omni-Man and Allen the Alien respectively but they only have one episode dedicated to their storyline this season and while that may sound bad at first their arcs and the Viltrumite empire storyline progresses significantly within this episode. We see the two working together despite their differences, leading to a truly awesome team-up as well as an important turning point for both of them with Allen learning an important secret about the Viltrumite empire that could turn the tides of the war against them, while Omni-Man begins a path of redemption that can go in very interesting directions.
We get a number of returning villains and their voice actors from both of the previous seasons who all play a major part in the arcs of our heroes but the only returning villain I feel made a significant impact was Angstrom Levy, reprised by Sterling K. Brown. After his brutal defeat at the hands of Mark, he comes back in this season with a vengeance with a far more insane plot that changes the course of everyone’s lives including Mark’s proving himself to be a truly great villain that thankfully wasn’t wasted this time.
Alongside the returning villains, we get a few new ones that make outstanding debuts this season with the first among them being Scott Duvall aka Power Plex voiced by Breaking Bad alumni Aaron Paul. This incredibly unstable villain has a personal vendetta against Invincible for something traumatic that happened to him in the past that was inadvertently caused by Invincible resulting in him donning a powerful suit capable of absorbing attacks and unleashing powerful electrical energy. He is given a truly phenomenal voice performance by Aaron Paul in what I can honestly say is his best role since his days in the Breaking Bad universe. He makes you feel the bottled-up hatred explode on screen with this character making you feel both sympathetic and horrified by his tragic transformation into a villain that affects Mark on a deep level.
The second new villain to make his impact this season with a big bang is the very powerful Viltrumite warrior Conquest, voiced surprisingly and phenomenally by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Within one episode this murderous and conflict-obsessed Viltrumite gives Mark the fight of his life, leading to a climatic battle that I honestly feel completely tops Mark’s fight with his father in season 1. Jeffrey Dean Morgan goes all in with this performance making for a villain you feel actually terrified of due to his power and unhinged personality. Truly one of the best villains the series has given us so far.
The narrative of this season is far stronger, bolder, bloodier and more intimate with its tighter pacing and insane stakes, while simultaneously evolving the characters with perfectly written arcs that you feel emotionally invested in from start to end. Despite the series having to juggle multiple characters and storylines I feel this season was able to nail down the balance way more compared to the previous season, and I was able to love everything this season had to offer.
Even the filler episodes of this season progressed the character arcs and overarching narrative threads beautifully, offering plenty of excellent themes, shocking moments, emotional drama, and thrilling action in the process. There were only a couple of characters here and there that I didn’t particularly care for but they didn’t drag down the season for me. The finale ends the season on a super high note while also creating some interesting setups for season 4 to follow up on that are guaranteed to affect our characters even further.
The animation also felt hugely upgraded compared to the last season, feeling more fluid, detailed, and vicious, especially when it comes to the inventive higher stakes action that gets put on full cinematic display. Every frame oozes with vibrant colors and stellar 2D visuals that feel far more refined and pleasing to watch even when things get hyper gory. There were far more memorable shots in this season compared to the previous season as well as far more memorable action sequences that didn’t hold back in the slightest.
Once again we get a solid score from composer John Paesano and a fun soundtrack that gets paired with it but mainly it is Paesano’s work that dominates this season with how epic it is.
I’m so glad that this series was able to significantly improve itself in its third season after a less-than-stellar second season, proving that the creators not only learned from their mistakes but are fully willing to improve as they continue to adapt the rest of the story. My hope is that they can continue going up from here and continue to surprise audiences with this awesome story that promises even more greatness on the horizon. If you were disappointed by the previous season then I think you’ll be very happy with this new and improved season that will renew your interest going forward. I’m going to give Invincible Season 3 an A = 97.
You can find more of my writing on instagram, and check out my channel on YouTube!