Invincible Season 2 Makes A Major Change To Omni-Man
This article contains spoilers for "Invincible."
The initial premise of "Invincible" is what it would be like to be Superman's son and follow in your dad's footsteps. Mark Grayson/Invincible (Steven Yeun) is the son of Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), Earth's greatest superhero and visitor from the planet Viltrum. Unfortunately, Viltrum is a fascist empire and Nolan isn't as benevolent as he appears.
"Invincible" season 1 ended with a clash between father and son. Nolan beat Mark to a pulp but flew off in grief after realizing how human he'd become. A question lingering at the season's end was when Omni-Man would return — pretty soon, it turned out.
"Invincible" season 2, episode 3, "This Missive, This Machination!" features Mark called to the alien planet Thraxa; the cliffhanger ending is him coming face to face with the planet's ruler, Nolan. Episode 4, "It's Been A While," opens with a flashback montage (scored to a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Avalanche") of a depressed Nolan drifting through the cosmos before he meets the Thraxans. Returning to the present, the scene builds to Mark punching his father — but instead, he hugs him. From there, though, Mark's anger reasserts itself and he spends the rest of the episode acting hostile to his dad.
This is a change from the source material and could hint at more changes to come.
Nolan's road to redemption
Mark and Nolan's reunion is adapted from the "Invincible" comic issue #26 (by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley). There, though, Mark was much more forgiving of his father ("I can't let [the evil things Omni-Man did and said] erase the 18 years I had with the father I loved"). Instead of keeping a stern face during the hug, he cries. He begs his father to come back to Earth and make things the way they were; Nolan refuses since no one else will pretend his crimes never happened.
Now, I don't think the comic scene needed to be changed. It's no less emotionally honest than the show's interpretation; the panel of Mark hugging Nolan bowled me over on the first read and continues to hit my heart when I revisit it. However, this reflects the show making Nolan a darker presence even in season 1. In the comics, he kills the Guardians of the Globe at the end of issue #7 and has his fight with Mark in #11-12. In the show, the Guardians massacre happens at the end of episode 1; the whole first season is about the dread of the characters slowly realizing what Nolan is and the audience preparing in terror for him to snap.
Omni-Man's violence is also worse in the show. The scene where Nolan forces Mark to crash through a subway car and watch dozens of people be torn apart? That didn't happen in the comics. Mark not forgiving his dad after that is understandable.
By the end of the comics, I'd compartmentalized away Nolan as a villain — a handful of issues as a villain, 100+ as a good guy is definitely lopsided. "Invincible" the show, though, seems like it won't be letting its audience forget. Going forward, we'll be watching Nolan earn back his son's trust, not be gifted it.
The question of Debbie
Nolan has already changed for the better; "It's Been A While" demonstrates this with his rage at invading Viltrumites murdering the Thraxans. For context; Thraxans only live for about one year in Earth time. Their lives are as short to humans as ours are to Viltrumites, yet Nolan still sees value in them. Previously, he'd dismissed human life as meaningless because it's so short (that's the crux of his question to Mark, "What will you have after 500 years?!").
That brings us to the third member of the Grayson family, Debbie (Sandra Oh), Mark's mother and Nolan's wife. The show added a subplot about her growing suspicious of her husband during season 1. Since the finale (when she overheard Omni-Man call her a "pet"), it's been highlighting her feelings of betrayal; she's repeated the "pet" remark more than once. She got ejected from a support group for grieving superhero widows when Theo, husband of the late Green Ghost, discovered who her husband was. In "It's Been a While," Debbie gets her own depression montage (scored to "Olympus" by Blondshell) paralleling Nolan's.
Even in the comics, Debbie took longer to forgive Nolan, but they finally get their reconciliation in issue #78. Debbie tears up and asks why things can't go back to how they were; Nolan says that's impossible because "I will never lie to you again," simultaneously acknowledging his mistake and promising to be better. With how Debbie's character has been adapted so far, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't accept that promise in the show.
"Invincible" is streaming on Prime Video.