User Reviews

The story is still very strong and compelling. The episode makes me want to keep watching in order to find out what is going on with Robot, Darkblood, Nolan, and all the other characters that are pulling the strings!

That said, the animation in this episode feels extremely stiff. I don't know if Amazon blew the the animation budget on the first three episodes or what, but there are a lot of freeze frame/flapping mouth scenes in episode 4. Animation in the first three episodes felt more dynamic.

Maybe the episode makes sense to those who have read the comic books. But shouldn't a series be about what it on screen, not what was on the pages 10+ years ago?

Why is the episode disjointed? It starts with... a cult? Excavating a tomb in Egypt. And the leader, who I guess is named Bryant, awakening his Master in the tomb. The rest of the cult outside doesn't seem to think this is a great thing. They run like bunnies, and Bryant shows up at the tomb door, apparently possessed by the Master... and then the tomb door slams down. This apparently has nothing to do with the rest of the episode, or season 1 of the series. Presumably it's world-building for season 2, but it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Then there's the whole thing on Mars, where we get introduced to the rest of Marian Man's people, and the Starro-like Seequids. Didn't Nolan imply at the funeral that Martian Man was the last of his kind? Not from what we see here.: the Martian people are alive and well. A Seequid rides an Earth astronaut back to Earth... but the guy is also on Mars, wiping out the last of the Martians. How can the astronaut be in two places in once?

Finally, there's the whole Debbie/Nolan spat. They go to Pisa (although Nolan implies it's Rome). And then he makes Debbie say she trusts him so he'll fight a dragon terrorizing the city. And then he ignores the dragon anyway when she does. And then he and Debbie go home and have makeup sex. Wait, wasn't she pissed at Nolan because he was being a big ole bag of dicks? The last we saw of the couple, they're on the outs. Then they're home having sex and Debbie is giggling. Tee hee.

There's a few minor subplots. Invincible accompanies the Earth mission to Mars and gets shown up as a novice hero. Again. A story beat that's already getting old, Mark and Amber go on a date, and Mark lies a lot about his two-week mission to Mars. Mark and Eve have a conversation about relationships with humans, and we learn a very little bit about Eve's home life.

The Mauler "original" makes another clone of himself. And Robot secretly steals some blood from Rex to put into a clone of sorts that he's brewing up.

Clancy Brown and the animators continue to shine with Damien the demon PI. Although granted, it's hard to take a demon with a potbelly seriously. Still, Damien creeping around the Grayson house Rorschach-style is effective. As is the near-final scene where Cecil banishes Damien to Hell because the demon is threatening to blow Cecil's undercover operation against Omni-Man. The animation with Damien going back to Hell is nicely done, and I'll miss the character.

Overall, the Egyptian tomb and the Seequids make this episode seem like a backdoor pilot for some other show. It all adds up to nothing so far, and just wastes time that we could be learning more about the setting. Ditto with Debbie and her 180 on her husband, from PO'd to giggling schoolgirl. Where the show shines is in the writing, from Mark and Amber (they make a cute couple), to Debbie and Nolan as happily married couple where the husband is hiding a dark secret, to even the minor bits like Rex hitting on Monster Girl.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?

Live Reaction / Review for Invincible Season 1 Episode 4: Wait what happened? Did Robot take a blood sample from Rex Splode? Why though? Does he have evil plans? Mark is a nerd so im always happy to see the nerd getting the girl. Mark going away for 2 weeks, I don't know if that's good. I hope they will simply fast-forward the whole thing. Here Omniman goes again with his fake tears pretending to be afraid that someone will kill Mark, what a hypocrite, cant wait for him to be exposed. If the demon detective keeps on investigating Omniman he will die, im pretty sure. The Martians remind me of Martian Manhunter based on the way they look. Damn, the situation on Mars got quickly out of control. One of the crew is infected? Now that is interesting. The demon detective is gone? No that sucks, I liked his character. I wonder what the Robot is planning. My rating is 7.5/10.