Three seasons in, and Invincible is still consistently delivering great episode with no signs of the series slumping. This season seemed to explore the age old question of superhero morality on the ethics of killing after Mark killed Angstrom Levy in the ending of the last episode. This season delivered on the action, with the biggest setpiece in the whole series being the season finale, as well as the drama. There’s lots of interesting themes to talk about this season, and the following paragraphs will contain major spoilers. If you want to know if you should watch season 3, yes and it’s awesome. The following spoiler filled paragraphs will examine and explore in more detail why.

The first major conflict in the series is related to the heroics of superheroing as Mark finds out that Cecil is recruiting vile villains from previous seasons to help save the world. Mark is very displeased and this leads to an epic throwdown where the majority of the Guardians of the Globe lose trust in Cecil. This was a very compelling conflict about the ethics of as Cecil says, “Being a good person vs. being the person who saves the world.” Of course, Mark is an idealistic hero.

Oliver ends up becoming his own hero, Kid Omni Man, and he and Mark clash this season a lot over values. Oliver isn’t as adamant over the anti-killing rules as Mark. Still, Oliver is not a sadistic creep and he believes that sometimes killing is the only way to stop the bad guy. Oliver probably had the most development of this season and his story was a highlight.

The kill or not to kill question was central to the episode where Mark was sent to the future and was confronted with the Immortal, who became a suicidal and insane dictator of earth. He begs Invincible to kill him while beating Invincible nearly to death. Invincible ends up forced to kill him, although Mark takes solace in the fact that the future might be changeable.

Omni-Man and Allen the Alien have only one episode, but it was a pretty strong jailbreak episode. The jailbreak episode was more of a straightforward action episode rather than an examination of superhero ethics, but it was still a strong episode. We at least get some hints at things to come when we learn the Viltrumites are actually a dying race with very few members still around.

One interesting villain to come out of this series is a mourning civilian whose family was lost in the battle between Invincible and Omni-Man. This new villain, Powerplex, ends up endagering more lives in his vengeance quest against Invincible. Batman V Superman had a similar theme of superheroes being agents of death and destruction, but I feel this episode handled this theme much better as it didn’t ruin Batman as a character and acknowledges just how much good Invincible has done. To most people in the Invincible universe, Omni-Man is the sole person to blame for those deaths.

Well, about Invincible killing Angstrom Levi, surprise, actually Angstrom Levi actually survived and he sends an army of alternate universe Invincibles to try to ravage the world. One of the evil Invicibles kills Rex Splode, but this death was one that didn’t leave that much of an impression on me because that character is such an unpleasant person. Invincible goes from feeling shame and remorse for killing somebody to feeling shame and remorse for failing to kill somebody and allowing his enemy to cause even more death and destruction. Oliver brags to Mark about how he is right about killing being the morally higher choice and Mark attempts to kill his enemy. Angstrom Levi escapes and a Viltrumite named Conquest comes.

This leads to the big huge climactic battle that might be the signature battle of the whole series. Atom Eve arrives in this episode and finally overcomes the programmed mental block that prevents her powers from transmuting living matter, allowing her to survive the serious damage that was delt to her. Invincible kills Conquest and he asks that Cecil burn the body to ensure the Conquest is really dead. In a Cecil move, it turns out that the body actually isn’t burned and the Conquest is actually still alive and under interrogation. The season ends with morning the loss of everyone who died in the chaos of the last two episodes.

It seems like the show, at least up to this point, may be saying, “superheroes are idealistic fools for refusing the kill and this principle causes more death and destruction than doing the right thing and ending threats permanently,” but maybe maybe season 4 will go back and explore the benefits of superheroes “no killing” code.  Granted a great deal of why there’s such conversation around the superhero killing code is because prisons in superhero universes are super ineffectual compared to real life prisons and the ethics of superhero universes are so different from the real world because we don’t have people with the ability to fry others with laser vision. I’m hoping this series doesn’t end with a “Punisher is right and other other superheroes are wrong” conclusion, but the questions of superhero morality in this series are fascinating.

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