Invincible Season 2 Part 2 made one big mistake

Invincible Season 2 was near-flawless, somehow topping itself to push superhero media to new heights. But it made one frustrating mistake that’s hard to forgive. 

The MCU is on a downward slope; a nascent DCU may have too much baggage to succeed — but Invincible, much like The Boys, hasn’t just carved out its own space in the genre: it may be its peak, packing a stronger emotional (and violent) punch than any of its contemporaries. 

It’s why the two-and-a-half-year wait for Season 2 was excruciatingly permissible; it couldn’t be half-assed, and quality television takes time. When the show eventually returned to our screens last year, it felt like the light at the end of the tunnel, wiping the floor with every other TV show (comic book adaptation or otherwise) in just four heart-thumping episodes. 

And then came the second season’s grave error: splitting it in half. This isn’t an argument against midseason finales in general. It worked for The Walking Dead’s super-sized seasons, Breaking Bad Season 5’s first batch ended with Hank discovering Walt’s true identity, a stonker of a plot development that justified the break, and Better Call Saul’s final midseason shocker felt like the natural stop for a breather. 

Invincible Season 2 Part 2 isn’t enough

Part 1 of Invincible Season 2, to its credit, felt like a mini-season of TV. It had a clear arc: Mark grappling with his villainous, conquering heritage and failing to recognize his own heroic traits, which is exactly what leads him back to his father on Thraxa. Episode 4 delivered the goods, showcasing a gnarly fight with other Viltrumites for the first time and leaving Mark battered and alone once more, only this time, he’d been given an impossible mission: continuing his dad’s mission to prepare Earth for the Viltrum Empirerule. 

The narrative logic of making it a midseason finale is there, but it’s as simple as this: four episodes just weren’t enough before making us wait again, and to make things worse, Part 2 had the same number of episodes and didn’t end with the same sense of open-ended finality that made Episode 4’s jaw-dropping climax so thrilling.

Season 2 Part 2’s main throughline wasn’t Angstrom Levy, who mostly loomed in the multiversal periphery until the bloody finale, nor was it the Viltrumite threat (despite Anissa’s season-stealing debut): it was Mark’s internal conflict and relationship with Amber. That in itself isn’t a criticism, considering how smart and maturely the show navigates their break-up — but there’s always been bigger fish to fry, and by the time the credits roll on the finale, it feels like we’ve only seen the first half of the next season, rather than the back half of the second.  

And here’s the crucial thing: it may not have felt so insubstantial without being forced to wait months to find out what happened next. It’s refreshing to feel this excited about a TV series again — I just hope Season 2’s little-by-little release won’t be repeated next year.

Invincible Seasons 1-2 are available to stream on Prime Video now. You can also find out more about the show’s voice cast and soundtrack.