After a loaded three episode premiere, the third season of“Invincible” has reached a little past the halfway point after having its previous season end with less punch than expected. Season 3 currently has five episodes, and a lot has happened to the protagonist Mark, both as a hero and as a person.
Let’s start where we left off. The entirety of Season 2 saw Mark struggling to make up for the atrocities committed by his father, Omni-Man. The season ended with Mark pummeling the mad scientist Angstrom Levy, killing him in self-defense and in defense of his family. This sets the stage for Season 3 as the series explores what it means to be a hero. The show also explores what the terms of good and evil really mean, and how they are relative terms in the “Invincible” mythos.
Episode one starts off with Mark having to fight the villain Doc Seismic after he makes his comeback, now with some subterranean friends to help him capture all the heroes in North America. Mark and his ally Atom Eve show up to help only to struggle and get captured themselves. They get bailed out by the Global Defense Agency (GDA), but Mark is left bothered by the GDA making use of reformed criminals for their purposes.
This creates a rift between the GDA and Mark, which leads to the central questions of the season: can people be reformed and do good, and where does the line lie between good and evil? The show is exceptional at blurring the line between good and bad, bringing to mind the old train track thought experiment. Do you kill one person to save five?
The leader of the GDA, Cecil, thinks so. His philosophy is that minimal damage and loss of life is the best outcome in his line of work. Juxtapose that to Mark, who would try to save all five people. One philosophy is from young naivete while trying to uphold a moral code, and the other comes from years of hardship and experience.
The second episode explores the deteriorating relationship between the two even further when Cecil reveals he implanted a device that emits a sound frequency that debilitates Mark. What’s interesting about this is that they both see each other as hypocritical; Mark goes after Cecil and the GDA for taking advantage of people that society would deem irredeemable, and Cecil criticizes Mark for having a narrow worldview and only thinking in extremes. There’s also the question of whether Oliver, Mark’s younger brother, will turn out like his dad after he brutally kills two villains defending Mark, adding fuel to the fire.
This season also explores Mark as a person, as he and Eve finally get together and explore their feelings toward each other. Their time together on screen is refreshing after so much serious doom and gloom. In another facet of Mark’s life, we get to see him take on the role of an older brother to Oliver. He was pretty annoying at the start of the season, but it seemed pretty intentional since a lot of people can get annoyed with their siblings. As the episodes carry on, you can really get a feel for the brotherly bond they share. One example is when Oliver sneaks out of the house and his mom panics and sends Mark and Eve to go look for him. They find him in a park skating with other kids and instead of flying back home with him they hide in a bush and watch from afar. Mark ends up vouching for his brother and tells his mom to just let him have a normal life.
Recently, the show has seen some criticism over its animation quality falling off. One example is how during some scenes of characters flying, it looks like nothing more is happening than a JPEG being dragged across a background. Another example would be a villain in the first episode of Season 2 having a choppy animation when he falls to the ground. 2D animation has never been easy, and there are many reasons why the show has seen a decline in its animation quality.
One of the reasons might be due to how complex some scenes might be to animate. Members of the Cal State LA animation club shared some insight on current trends and practices in the animation industry.
“A personal opinion of mine is that Western animation right now, especially TV shows, is trying so hard to emulate anime when sometimes it feels like they don’t understand or know what they’re trying to emulate,” said Maya Garcia-Luis, president of the Gravitas Animation Society and senior animation major.
There is a kind of irony that as technology gets better and more accessible, 2D animation has gotten more expensive.
“I would think that animation is only getting more expensive as equipment, program licenses, and just general costs of work make it more expensive,” said club Vice President Jose Zamudio. “Rising costs, as we know, have been an ongoing thing, and that applies to the employees being paid to make the animation.”
There’s so much more to go over, as there is never a dull moment in this show. Overall, “Invincible” does a great job at storytelling, and it’s well worth the watch. The show does have problems with power scaling and animation, but those are pretty easy to overlook for a world filled with fun characters and questions that make you think deeply about morality.
