TV Review - Amazon's Invincible Season 4, Episodes 1-3

Almost there.

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.

"Some orders aren't meant to be followed." - Brit

Plot

After defeating Conquest in an earth-shattering battle, Mark Grayson once again teams up with the Guardians of the Globe to stop the ever-present threat of the Viltrumites. Meanwhile, in deep space, Omni-Man and Allen the Alien search for a way to end the Viltrumite war once and for all.

The Sweet

Over the past few months, I have binged Invincible in preparation for the release of the fourth season. As a huge superhero fan, I was, of course, very aware of this show and how popular it was. I had friends and family telling me non-stop to watch it, so I finally decided to sit down and run through it. And, of course, I loved it. This show and The Boys seem like the primary alternatives to Marvel and DC in the superhero genre. Naturally, after finishing season three a few weeks ago, I was getting very excited for season four.

And I have to say...I did not love these first three episodes. I'm also not going to overtly spoil anything, but I'm also not going to avoid it necessarily, so I'd recommend not reading if you haven't watched the episodes.

But let's start with the positives. I think episode two is absolutely fantastic. My two favorite characters in the show are probably Omni-Man and Allen, so an episode focused entirely on them is fantastic. I love the flashbacks to Viltrum and the mystery that comes along with that. They go on a sort of Horcrux hunt across the galaxy trying to find Viltrumite weaknesses, and I found that to be tons of fun. They are one of these classic unlikely duos that really complement each other well. Allen is obviously much more comedic than Omni-Man, so their interactions are really funny but also serve both of their characters really well.

The action in this season has also been stellar thus far. I actually feel like the animation as a whole has taken a significant step up, but you can tell that the majority of the budget did still go to the action. These first three episodes almost feel like non-stop action, and I can appreciate that. We see the Guardians of the Globe fighting a lot, so there's tons of creativithy in how they work together and fight whatever threat they are facing.

I also think these episodes point this season in a very exciting direction. I have not read the comics, but I do know that Grand Regent Thragg is essentially the main villain of the show, and you can already feel how imposing of a presence he is. With barely any screentime, he has an impact, and I cannot wait to see how explosive things get when he shows up. I also cannot wait for Omni-Man's return to earth. So, while this season may be off to a slow start, I am excited to see where we are going.

It's tough to really give more positives, because I found these episodes so frustrating...but I also haven't seen the rest of the season. My thoughts on these episodes could very much improve once I get a sense of the overarching plot.

The Sour

What I found so frustrating about these episodes is the pacing. Invincible has always felt like a very direct translation of the comic to the screen, and, while I think that has benefitted the show more often than it's hurt it, it does work to its detriment from time to time. Comic books are able to have these filler subplots and action sequences that don't build on the story because it's an art form. The action sequences don't need to progress the plot because they are cool to look at. A TV show needs to be constantly building towards a culminative finale, and it sometimes feels like Invincible isn't doing that.

Honestly, I think episode three may be my least favorite episode of the entire show. How many times have we seen the Guardians or Mark or Eve fight the blue dragon or the Flaxons? Well, we get it some more in this episode, and it just feels repetitive. It feels like we've seen all of this before and there's no stakes because the heroes beat these guys in some way shape or form every single time. It's gotten past the point of being mindlessly entertaining and has begun to be just annoying.

I am also curious as to why the Mark plotline is not running parallel with Nolan's story. In most TV shows, both of these plots would appear in the same episode. We would cut back and forth between them. But instead, Invincible decides to switch off episodes. For some reason, they are absolutely averse to any episode that features both Mark and Nolan but doesn't have them on screen together.

There are also some storylines that are simply uninteresting to me. I am tired of Eve's parents. It feels like we're repeating the same beats over and over with them. There's no character development on either side. Eve isn't learning and changing, and neither are her parents. They've never given us a reason to like her dad, so it's just annoying when they keep treating him like a character that we should be giving second chances to.

But my biggest frustration of the season (and my biggest worry) is Mark himself. Season three gave us this new cynical version of Mark that is more violent and more aggressive. Season four has leaned into that even more, and he feels even more angsty and aggressive than usual. It's becoming hard to root for Mark because of how arrogant and off-putting he can be to everyone around him. Whether it's Oliver or Cecil or even Debbie, Mark always acts like he knows better than everyone around him, and it's frustrating.

So we will see. These first few episodes have tested my patience, but I do expect the story to pick back up once Omni-Man returns to Earth and we start getting more of a sense of Thragg's role in the story. This was an undeniably slow start to a season, but we've got five more episodes to make this season incredible, and those who have seen the next few episodes have said great things.

Final Thoughts and Score

I have decided not to give these three episodes a score, because I am just withholding judgment on them for now. There were things I loved, but there were a lot of frustrations, so I don't know exactly where I land on them.

"Invincible"

"Making the World a Better Place"

"I'll Give You the Grand Tour"

"I Gotta Get Some Air"

Fun Factor: 7/10

Acting: 8.5/10

Story: 6.5/10

Characters: 8/10

Quality: 7/10

Created by Robert Kirkman

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

Premiered on March 18, 2026

Episode runtime: 50 minutes

Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson / Invincible

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

Gillian Jacobs as Samantha Eve Wilkins / Atom Eve

Sandra Oh as Debbie Grayson

Christian Convery as Oliver Grayson / Kid Omni-Man

Seth Rogen as Allen the Alien

Walton Goggins as Cecil Stedman

Chris DIamantopoulos as Donald Ferguson

Ross Marquand as Rex / Rudy Conners / Robot

Zachary Quinto as Robot

Mark Hamill as Art Rosenbaum

Danai Gurira as Universa

Jay Pharoah as Bulletproof

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Conquest

Clancy Brown as General Kregg

Lee Pace as Grand Regent Thragg

Matthew Rhys as David / Dinosaurus

Cliff Curtis as Paul

Tatiana Maslany as Telia

Grey Delisle as Amanda / Monster Girl

Kevin Michael Richardson as Monster Girl

Khary Payton as Black Samson

Jonathan Banks as Brit

Tzi Ma as Mr. Liu

Todd Williams as Titan

Jeffrey Donovan as Machine Head