Invincible Season 2 Part 2 Review: Growing Pains

Invincible came into Season 2 with all the challenges of a breakout hit show entering its sophomore season – and then made the bold move of splitting Season 2 into two halves, separated by a long stretch of months. Now, Invincible Season 2 Part 2 is premiering on Prime Video, facing the even bigger challenge of making fans pick up their cares for Mark Grayson/Invincible (Steven Yeun) and his world where they dropped them, as well as making Invincible Season 2, overall, a strong followup to the epic run of Season 1. 

So does Invincible Season 2 Part 2 meet all the challenges facing it? For the most part, yes, it does, paving the way for an even more interesting and exciting Season 3 to follow. 

NOTE: The Review of Invincible Season 2 Episodes 5-8 is spoiler-free 

The second half of Invincible Season 2 turns out to be remarkably similar to the pace of Part 1. That boils down to Episodes 5 and 8 (the bookends) being faster-paced and more action-packed episodes, while Episodes 6 and 7 tend to be denser, and driven by the character dramas of the sprawling ensemble cast rather than major action set pieces. Invincible has fairly earned a reputation for having episodes that are denser than so many other shows (animated or live-action); each of these new episodes strikes a balance between action and drama, but the biggest fights are placed strategically at the beginning and end of this block of episodes.

There are also some ways that Invincible Season 2 Part 2 borrows from Season 1, in terms of throwing some pretty shocking twists and turns into the story. Viewers who haven't read the original comic series are definitely going to be taken back several times over by the time Episode 8 ends. 

A sophomore season tends to be challenging for a reason. Once the initial concept and principal story arc of a series are established, it's much harder to expand the scope of that focus and still retain the quality and excitement level. Because Invincible takes on such complex character arcs within a vast comic book universe, bringing all those characters and stories along and developing them is a massive undertaking. The biggest accomplishment of Invincible Season 2 Part 2 will likely be the most divisive amongst mainstream fans: namely, the deeper storytelling opened up. 

There will probably be backlash to where Invincible Season 2 leaves things (compared to the finales of Season 1 and Season 2 Part 1); however, this second season never loses the throughline of its thematic core: the ramifications of Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man's (J.K. Simmons) heel turn against Earth, and what it does (mentally and emotionally) to Nolan, Mark, and Debbie (Sandra Oh). Amid all the galactic and/or alt-dimension machinations that are unfolding across the second season, Invincible makes sure that Mark, Debbie, and Nolan's arcs go from a place of trauma and confusion to new resolutions or outlooks that already set Season 3 up with some surprising new context and exciting new stakes. 

That's not to say that Invincible Season 2 Part 2 doesn't have some big payoffs to deliver – because it most certainly does. Once again, Robert Kirkman and co. prove that even in an over-saturated market of superhero stories, Invincible will do things and go places (literally and figuratively) with familiar tropes and lore that virtually no other superhero series would think to. Season 2 Part 2 gets pretty wild and very gnarly, at times.  

Invincible Season 2 meets the challenge of a sophomore season – even if it doesn't do so without some flaws. The world of Invincible is successfully expanded, and most of the characters and storylines in that sprawling web feel important and necessary. It's always hard to predict where this unpredictable show will go next, but even the early hints will have most viewers hoping that promises of Invincible Season 3 arriving sooner before later are true. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 

Invincible Season 2 Part 2 will debut on Prime Video on Thursdays starting March 14th.