Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Invincible – Season 1!
It’s been a long wait, but we finally have a November 3 release date and a trailer for Invincible: Season 2. This new footage gives us an idea of how the series will move forward following the dramatic twist in Season 1’s finale. Suffice it to say, Mark Grayson has many challenges ahead, and he no longer has his father’s help to fall back upon.
But just who are the major villains of Invincible: Season 2? What challenges will Mark face as he resumes his superhero duties and fights to protect an increasingly dangerous world? Here’s what we know based on the Invincible comics and what’s been announced so far.
The Viltrumites
Mark Grayson faced the ultimate betrayal in the Season 1 finale, as he discovered his father is not the benevolent protector he seemed to be. Omni-Man (a.k.a. Nolan Grayson) isn’t a peacekeeper, but rather a conqueror sent to weaken Earth and prepare the planet to be assimilated into the Viltrumite Empire.
Omni-Man ultimately abandons his post rather than kill his own son in the finale. However, it’s heavily implied that it’s only a matter of time until the Viltrumites learn of Nolan’s failure and come to Earth to finish what he started. We’ll likely meet other members of the Viltrumite race in Season 2. The trailer features a character voiced by Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime himself in another life) who may be a Viltrumite himself, marveling that one Viltrumite has attacked another for the first time in many years.
Without giving too much away, the Viltrumites become major antagonists in the Invincible comic series, particularly in the latter half of the run. They’re arguably the strongest force in the galaxy, rivaled only by the much more peaceful Coalition of Planets (the organization Seth Rogen’s Allen the Alien represents). The only thing standing between them and total intergalactic domination is the fact that there aren’t many Viltrumites left, hence why one attacking another is so frowned upon.
Angstrom Levy: Invincible’s Arch-Enemy
Invincible co-creator Robert Kirkman has previously revealed that Angstrom Levy will be among the new characters introduced in Season 2. While Mark battles a great many villains in the comic, Levy is probably the closest thing he has to a true arch-nemesis, so we’re expecting him to play a major role in Season 2.
Levy is a villain with the power to travel between dimensions. He builds a machine to harness the memories of his alternate selves and boost his own intelligence. However, when Invincible destroys the machine, Levy is left horribly scarred and disfigured, sparking a hatred of our hero that persists throughout the series.
Levy will be voiced by Sterling K. Brown in Season 2.
Cecil Stedman: Friend or Foe?
Walton Goggins’ Cecil Stedman is essentially the Nick Fury of the Invincible universe – the shadowy government agent who works behind the scenes to keep the world safe. It’s a job that requires a great many moral compromises, as we saw in the final episodes of Season 1. Cecil has now struck a Faustian bargain with D.A. Sinclair (Ezra Miller) to build a new army of Reanimen. These zombie super-soldiers are meant to be Earth’s first and best line of defense against the Viltrumite Empire. Surely nothing could go wrong here, right?
Fans can expect the already tense relationship between Mark and Cecil to deteriorate in Season 2. Cecil is no longer convinced he can trust Invincible, given what happened with Omni-Man. Will the son finish the work the father started, or will Mark’s human side win out? Cecil isn’t the type to take any chances. So while he may not qualify as an outright villain in the series, he’s definitely developing into more of an antagonistic figure.
The Return of Omni-Man
Easily the biggest question surrounding the series heading into Season 2 is what comes next for J.K. Simmons’ Omni-Man. What happens now that his lies have been exposed and Nolan was forced to battle his own son nearly to the death? Does he retreat home to the Viltrumites? Does he run away and try to start a new life elsewhere in the galaxy? Or does he return to Earth and try to salvage the ruins of his old life?
We don’t want to spoil too much about what happens with Nolan in the comics. Suffice it to say, he’s a character with an especially complex and evolving character arc, though he doesn’t necessarily play a major role in the series in the immediate aftermath of his battle with Mark. Kirkman and artist Ryan Ottley played a very long game with Omni-Man.
In that sense, the animated series may be diverging from the source material a bit. The trailer makes it clear Simmons is back to voice Omni-Man in Season 2. We hear exactly one line from the character in the trailer, “You should have died at birth.” Is he talking to Mark in this scene? Is he feeling less remorseful about his actions than it seemed in the finale? Whatever happens, expect the inevitable reunion between father and son to be one of the most dramatic moments in the series. Just know that there are no guarantees said reunion will happen in Season 2.
We had great things to say about Invinicible Season 1, giving it an 8/10 and calling it “the year’s most surprising superhero series.” You can watch Season 1 now on Prime Video if you want to catch up before the second season debuts in November, or check out the exclusive poster reveal that we debuted earlier this week.
You can catch up on all the other news coming out of SDCC in our roundup of everything announced at Comic-Con so far.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
