This review contains spoilers for Invincible season 3, episode 4, “You Were My Hero”
After a propulsive three–part premiere, Invincible’s third season takes a small step back with “You Were My Hero.” It’s far from a bad episode, but it’s shackled by some of the series’ most irksome tendencies: its occasional inability to balance its dueling narratives, and its tongue-in-cheek approach to intimacy. By the time Nolan (nice to see you again, Omni-Man) drops a bombshell about the coming Viltrumite invasion, the plot has moved forward – but it comes at the expense of some emotional resonance.
“You Were My Hero” is divided into three distinct parts. While the third plays like an entirely different episode – more on that in a moment – the first leads neatly into the second. Rex and Ray’s grocery run allows them to reflect on their early adulthood, before a villainous interruption yanks us back to Guardians HQ, where Mark/Invincible is investigating the explosive drone that nearly killed his family. We know this to be the work of Angstrom Levy, but the paranoid hero still suspects Cecil and the GDA. So, he acts rashly and violently in response – a shot of him floating recalls his godlike father – and he attacks the GDA at the Pentagon before flying off for his second date with Eve. Or rather, it’s his “second first date” since the last one was interrupted when duty called, though he doesn’t have much better luck this time.
It all feels a little rushed. Mark is whisked away to an apocalyptic future by a returning Dropkick and Fight Master, who beg him to deal with their despot king, who’s quickly revealed to be a future Immortal. However, it turns out Immortal was placed in charge by none other than a future version of Mark, recalling last season’s alternate version of Invincible, who stood alongside Nolan and went full fascist dictator.
This confrontation ends up slightly limp, even if it recalls the way Nolan nearly killed the immortal in the series premiere. Mark and Immortal don’t have much of a relationship in the show’s main timeline, so being forced to dispense with the elderly hero doesn’t tug at the heart strings. It does, however, lead to the beginnings of an existential tailspin when he returns to the present and asks Eve if she believes he’s a good person. But “You Were My Hero” doesn’t let that sink in, either, quickly switching into date-montage mode instead. Even if Mark can stifle his crisis through his romance with Eve,it’s not something we’re allowed to see or feel – especially since the show brings back the juvenile running joke of cutting away from a sex scene. (Some awkward narration hangs a lantern on the gag, but that doesn’t make it any better.) Invincible is so brazen with its violence, but it can’t muster the same boldness with anything sexual.
This leads to a second half set entirely in space, where we finally get more Nolan this season. “You Were My Hero” pulls the trigger on Allen the Alien helping the reformed Viltrumite escape (with some surprise help from Battle Beast), though this extended action sequence is, once again, buoyed by excessive, verging on numbing, bloodshed. The show’s previous episode used its gore to highlight some major impending conundrums for Mark and his younger brother, Oliver/Kid Omni-Man, who’s taken to murdering his opponents, which factors into Mark’s Immortal dilemma this week. Unfortunately, Mark’s claim that he doesn’t kill people slams into another scene where the violent excess lacks meaning, and that’s a little deflating. (The image of Nolan and Allen punching the head of Viltrumite guard into pulp at the same time is cool as hell, though.)
The tag on which the episode ends is a fun one, with Nolan revealing that his kingdom’s obsession with blood quantum is because “pure blooded” Viltrumites are stronger, while those with mixed lineage are easier to defeat. And, with only 50 or so “pure” Vultrumites left, that gives them a fighting chance – especially with Nolan finally on board, and finally on his way to accepting Allen as his friend.