Invincible Season 4 Is Already Setting Up One Of The Comic's Biggest Twists

Spoilers ahead for "Invincible" season 4 episodes 1-3 and the "Invincible" comics by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley.

There's not much Invincible (Steven Yeun) in "Invincible" season 4 episode 2 "I'll Give You The Grand Tour." The episode instead focuses on Mark's father, Nolan/Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) and Allen the alien (Seth Rogen). We last saw this unlikely pair in "Invincible" season 3 episode 4 "You Were My Hero," when Nolan finally agreed to help Allen fight Nolan's own people, the Viltrum Empire. 

Nolan dropped the bombshell that there are only about 50 Viltrumites left alive, too, due to a devastating "Scourge Virus." "I'll Give You The Grand Tour" opens with a flashback to the day that the Scourge Virus came to Viltrum. In this flashback, a young Nolan (Talon Warburton) is instructing several school-aged Viltrumites about the late Viltrumite emperor Argall.

Argall forged the Viltrumites into an interstellar empire that reveres strength above all else. As Nolan makes his students recite, the Viltrumites revere Argall so much that the only statue on Viltrum is of him. However, Argall was assassinated by Thaedus (Peter Cullen), who grew disillusioned with the Viltrum Empire, founding the Coalition of Planets to oppose them and ultimately creating the Scourge Virus.

Back in "Invincible" season 1 finale "Where I Really Come From," Nolan told Mark how the Viltrumites led a "great purge" to wipe out weak bloodlines, and from that, Grand Regent Thragg (Lee Pace) rose as Argall's successor. But fans of the "Invincible" comics know Thragg is not the legitimate heir — Nolan is, because he is Argall's long-lost son. By detailing Argall's history, the show is setting up this twist, one of the most important twists in "Invincible" next to Omni-Man killing the Guardians of the Globe.

"I'll Give You The Grand Tour" goes a step further to hide the twist by featuring Nolan's parents, or at least the ones who raised him. (Argall's heirs were kept hidden to protect them from Viltrum's enemies; Nolan is the only one who survived the purge and virus.) In Viltrumite culture, it's customary that when a person comes of age, they have to survive a battle with their parents. When Nolan passes, his father tells him to "make Argall proud," as the scene cuts to an overhead shot of Argall's enormous statue looming over Nolan.

In the "Invincible" comics, Thragg is the one who discovers (in issue #89) that Mark is Argall's grandson, and by extension that Nolan is Argall's son and the true heir of the Viltrum Empire. Thragg tries to keep it to himself, unwilling to cede control of the empire to a traitor, but the truth comes out in "Invincible" #102. Once it does, the remaining Viltrumites all pledge themselves to Nolan, who exiles Thragg.

Nolan tries to reform the Viltrum Empire into a force for good, but Thragg refuses to accept exile meekly. In the final arc of "Invincible," Mark finally defeats and kills Thragg, but Nolan suffers a mortal injury during the battle. That leaves Mark heir to the empire, so he departs Earth and spends centuries continuing Nolan's mission to reform it into a benevolent force.

Given where "Invincible" is now compared to the source material, the twist of Nolan and Mark's relation to Argall will likely come around late season 5 or in season 6. But it never hurts to start foreshadowing early, and "Invincible" season 3 already teased Mark's endgame.

"Invincible" is streaming on Prime Video.