After more than two years since the end of the first season of “Invincible,” I have been patiently waiting for its anticipated return. It was most definitely worth the wait. 

“Invincible” season two released its premiere episode back in November of 2023. Its first season was one of the best starts to a series I’ve ever seen. The show follows new hero Mark Grayson, also known as Invincible (Steven Yeun), as he tries to live up to his dad’s legacy as one of the strongest heroes on Earth. That image is quickly tainted in one of the most jaw-dropping first episodes I’ve seen, as Mark’s dad was revealed to not be quite as heroic as he appeared. By the end of the first season, Mark’s whole world was flipped upside down and he has left him feeling a lot less invincible than he thought.

The second season picks up months after the first season’s finale, with Mark and everyone on Earth trying to recover and cope with the events that transpired. For Mark, his main struggle is not becoming who everyone sees him as — his father. No matter what actions he does to save people, there are still those who see him as nothing more than a ticking time bomb to becoming like his dad.

One of those people is the villain who is sitting in the background for most of the season, Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown). In the beginning, he’s a mostly normal man with the ability to make portals into any dimension he wants and has good intentions of helping the world. He planned to transfer the minds’ of other versions of himself from other dimensions all into his mind. That way, he could have the knowledge to save billions, until his plan ended up backfiring on him. The plan ended up messing with his mind and leaving him with one purpose: to destroy Invincible. He is the perfect villain to truly challenge Mark, as he isn’t strong enough to kill him, but he has the abilities to truly shake his way of living by the end of the season. 

This season truly surprised me with the character Rex (Jason Mantzoukas). He was one of the most annoying and easy-to-hate characters of the first season, as he treated everyone around him like garbage, especially his now-ex-girlfriend Eve (Gillian Jacobs) and Mark. Going into this season, I expected nothing less than him continuing to be a jerk, but from the first episode, I could tell he had changed. He had sympathy for Mark due to everything that happened with his dad. By the end of the season, while not the main focus, he became one of my favorite characters. 

With every great character arc comes another character being brought down; in this case, it’s Mark’s girlfriend, Amber (Zazie Beetz). Last season, she was the most hated character within the fan-base, even more than Mark’s dad, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). It is clear as day that the writers saw how much backlash she was getting, and, instead of giving up on her, they chose to leave her as just a shell of her old self. All the attitude and spunk that enveloped her character in the first season was taken away in favor of her being the always-supportive girlfriend. It ended up leaving me conflicted as to whether or not she was really better now. I still can’t make up my mind. She was overall way less annoying, but I don’t know if it was worth the cost of everything that she used to be.

Though the season ended spectacularly, it had one major problem — its extended break between the first and second half of the season. It killed a lot of the hype that it was building and just made us fans have to wait longer for only four more episodes. The wait between seasons was already bad enough, and the break did nothing but make it worse. Although the wait was worth it, as the second half of the season had me hooked every single minute, I hope this is a one time occurrence.

If I have taken away anything from this season, it’s that I need more of “Invincible.” Thankfully it may not take as long for the next season, as showrunner Robert Kirkman confirmed the next season is already in development. I cannot wait to see more of this story as the finale of season two sets up what could be either a dark road or a bright future for “Invincible.”