TV Review - Amazon's Invincible Season 4, Episode 4

Hurm indeed.

Invincible is a 2021-present animated superhero television series created by Robert Kirkman, produced by Skybound North, Wind Sun Sky Entertainment, Skybound Animation, Point Grey Pictures, and Amazon MGM Studios, and distributed by Amazon Prime Video. The series is based off of Image Comics's 2003-2018 comic book series of the same name. It stars Steven Yeun and J.K. Simmons. A fifth season has been confirmed.

"Satan, meet Invincible." - Damien Darkblood

Plot

When Hell is in a desperate state, Damien Darkblood exorcises Mark Grayson to the Underrealm and asks for his help to save their world.

The Sweet

So if you read my thoughts on the first three episodes of season four of Invincible, I was pretty disappointed and frustrated. I thought that episode two was great, but episodes one and three just felt like we were repeating the same beats and not focusing on the actual main, interesting plot line.

In a bottle, I think this episode was good. I really like Damien Darkblood as a character, and I'm glad that he got brought back. He's just a memorable, fun presence. Clancy Brown gives a great vocal performance. You remember how this character sounds and talks. I find him to be an interesting and unique character inside a show full of these crazy beings. A demon detective is a cool idea, and I think Darkblood is a good version of that.

This is also probably the funniest episode of Invincible that we've gotten. Darkblood's dynamic with Mark works well and makes for some truly laugh out loud moments. He's a sarcastic character, and his dry sense of humor is funny. The writers do a great job of making him seem like he's being serious and then reveal that he's making a joke, and it just provides some truly good laughs.

And, as far as the filler episodes of this season go, I actually think this is my favorite one. Episodes one and three were undeniably also filler, but they also felt like they were just repeating plot lines and conflicts that we've done before. This episode was something different. It was a new location and a new conflict with even some new characters. It felt somewhat refreshing, so I really appreciated it for that.

The Sour

Unfortunately, this episode continues my huge disappointment and frustration that was present during the first three episodes.

As soon as we realized that this episode was going to be fully centered on Darkblood, one of my roommates just sadly muttered "Anything but the Viltrumites..." and that feels like the truth. It doesn't feel like Invincible is properly building up its most exciting, most intriguing, and most compelling plot line. This show has teased the coming Viltrumite conflict for so long but consistetly feels the need to just move away from it and have these stupid filler episodes. This episode, while fun in a bottle, does not move the plot anywhere. It's just a side quest. And, if this were a one-time thing, that'd be fine, but it's not. There are more side quest and filler episodes in this season than there are episodes focused on the main plot. We are halfway through season four of Invincible and it feels like nothing has happened.

Likewise, it feels like Mark's character is just going in circles. Instead of actually having him develop, we just keep repeating these beats. He doesn't want to kill people because he's scared of turning into his father, but he keeps having these moments where he breaks. The amount of times that Mark has been upset about killing or nearly killing someone is just getting frustrating, because it happens so often. He talks about it with Eve. He talks about it with Cecil. He talks about it with Debbie. And in this episode, he talks about it twice: once with Art, once with Darkblood. Like, we get it! You don't need to keep hounding this idea! Give us something new with this character!

This episode is also the type of entertaining that feels disingenuine. Like, it's superficially fun because Darkblood is a fun character and it's in a different environment, but the conflict that we get and the lore-building that we get is...terrible. We get this whole exposition dump from Darkblood about Hell that is a little interesting, but does not advance the plot whatsoever. It's literally just Darkblood telling Mark all of this lore because we need to know it for this side quest subplot. That's horrible writing. Like, really, really bad. Having your characters sit down and discuss backstory for a subplot that was introduced halfway into a season that is moving at a snail-like pace is bad.

And, I will say, the last five-ish minutes of this episode do seem to get the main plot of the season going. But you will notice it's in the negatives because the moment was so abrupt and anticlimactic. The thing that happens at the end of this episode has been built up to for nearly two seasons at this point. It is a huge moment...and it just happens. Out of nowhere. There's no build up within the episode. There's no epic reveal. It feels like they just treated this moment as any other little cliffhanger to leave an episode off on. And that pisses me off

Final Thoughts and Score

Episode four of Invincible, while fun, confirmed all of my fears and frustrations that I had with the first three episodes. Season four is off to an incredibly disappointing start.

I am going Sour here. Age range is 17+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"Invincible"

"Hurm"

Fun Factor: 8/10

Story: 6/10

Acting: 7.5/10

Characters: 6.5/10

Quality: 6/10

Created by Robert Kirkman

Rated TV-MA for strong bloody violence, language, sexual content, frightening themes and images, thematic elements

Released on March 25, 2026

Episode runtime: 50 minutes

Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson / Invincible

J.K. Simmons as Nolan Grayson / Omni-Man

Sandra Oh as Debbie Grayson

Clancy Brown as Damien Darkblood, Ka-Hor

Mark Hamill as Art Rosenbaum

Gillian Jacobs as Samantha Eve Wilkins / Atom Eve

Brandon Scott Jones as William Clockwell

Bruce Campbell as Satan

Christian Convery as Oliver Grayson / Kid Omni-Man

Kate Mulgrew as Domina

Indira Varma as Volcanikka

Chloe Bennet as Riley