Invincible Season 2 Episode 3 Officially Brings Back SPOILER

(SPOILERS) Invincible Season 2 Episode 3 has officially brought back Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man – and his return came in a way that fans of the animated series never saw coming! 

In the end segment of “This Missive, This Machination!” Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) gets visited by a bug-like alien called a Thraxan, who calls on Invincible to help save his planet from calamity. After some internal debate and a good push from his friends, Mark takes the long journey to Thraxa. When he gets there and goes to meet the Emperor of the Thraxans, it turns out to be his father Nolan (J.K. Simmons), who is wearing a very different uniform and approaches Mark in a very different demeanor than when we last saw him. 

Is It The Real Omni-Man? 

Invincible Season 2 has already pulled a major Omni-Man fakeout with the season’s opening sequence, which showed us the alternate universe in which Mark joined forces with Nolan in the Season 1 finale, instead of fighting him. It stands to reason that we could be getting fooled again – especially after we already had the potential foreshadow of a Thraxan changing form to imitate Mark’s favorite childhood cartoon character/collectible, Seance Dog. Could this seemingly more serene version of Nolan just be the Thraxans’ misguided way of trying to bond with him? 

Then again, Episode 3 also featured a storyline about Allen the Alien being attacked and killed by a brutal trio of veteran Viltrumites, who were looking for information on Nolan and his son. That suggests that there are legitimate ripples of consequence showing up in Invincible Season 2’s storyline, that could warrant Nolan’s return. 

Obviously, as always, Invincible comic readers have at least some loose idea of how likely we are to see an Invincible vs. Omni-Man rematch in Episode 4; however, for fans of the animated TV series, the next week is going to be a very long wait, indeed! 

Who Is Omni-Man? 

In Invincible Season 1, we met Omni-Man, the series’ version of Superman. Omni-Man worked alongside the Guardians of the Globe and their controlling body, the Global Defense Agency (GDA). In his civilian guise, Omni-Man was Nolan Grayson, who had a mundane all-American life with his wife Debbie (Sandra Oh) and young son Mark. 

The turning point for Nolan comes when Mark’s superpowers finally kick in. It turned out that Nolan was actually from a planet called Viltrum, which is basically Krypton if it were run by General Zod. Nolan’s assignment was to prepare Earth for conquering, and Mark’s maturation became his deadline. Omni-Man slaughtered the Guardians of the Globe in secret and started training Mark in the ways of a Viltrumite warrior. 

However, when Nolan finally revealed the entire truth about the Viltrumite Empire and its conquest of the galaxy, Mark rebelled against his father and tried to stop him. That fight, “The Battle of Chicago” left the city of Chicago decimated, and thousands dead. In the end, Nolan beat Mark nearly to death on a mountainside but found he’d formed too deep a connection with his son and wife. Last seen, Omni-Man flew away from Earth in frustration and sadness, making his way out to the stars.