Invincible Season 4's Premiere Episode Features Mark Grayson's Darkest Moment Yet

Spoilers for "Invincible" season 4 episodes 1-3 follow. 

Invincible/Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) has learned the lesson time and time again that, when you're a superhero, danger hits close to home. So back in season 3 finale "I Thought You'd Never Shut Up," after the Viltrumite Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) almost killed Mark's girlfriend Eve Wilkins (Gillian Jacobs), Mark made a vow: "If anyone else ever puts my family, or anyone I love, at risk, I won't hesitate to kill them." 

"Invincible" puts that vow to the test right in the season 4 premiere, "Making the World a Better Place." Global Defense Agency Director Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) calls in Superhero Brit (Jonathan Banks) and his new Guardians of the Globe team to deal with an invasion of Sequids — small, parasitic, and hive-minded aliens that mind control their host bodies and rapidly multiply. The infected city is quarantined and the Guardians are armed with disruptors to separate Sequids from their hosts and then teleport the hosts away. If even one Sequid escapes, the invasion spreads.

It comes down to Mark, who arrives at the battle late. The quarantine dome is failing, and Mark has the original Sequid host — astronaut Rus Livingston (Ben Schwartz), whose mission to Mars brought the Sequids to Earth — in his hands. Bulletproof (Jay Pharoah) is rushing to give Invincible a disruptor, but he may not make it before the dome falls and waves of Sequids burst out.

So, Mark makes a brutal judgment call: saying "I'm sorry," he punches through the possessed Livingston's head, killing the Sequid but also the innocent Rus. Without the center of the hive, the Sequids collapse and die. The invasion is thwarted, but Mark just crossed a line into calculated murder.

Technically this isn't the first time Mark has struck with killing intent, but the context is much different. In the season 2 finale, super-villain Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown) held Mark's mom Debbie (Sandra Oh) and his little brother Oliver (Lincoln Bodin) hostage. Mark eventually beat Angstrom to apparent death, but because he didn't know his own strength. The title of the episode, "I Thought You Were Stronger," is what Mark said in despair to Angstrom's body.

Likewise in "I Thought You'd Never Shut Up," Mark smashed Conquest's head to pulp, but that was in the heat of battle and Conquest had just maimed Eve. Only a quirk of Eve's atom-manipulating powers to repair mortal wounds saved her. Mark was in a state of rage fighting both Angstrom and Conquest. Plus, despite Mark's intention, neither one actually died; both barely survived and recovered. Mark currently thinks that he killed Conquest, though, which probably made his decision with Rus easier.

That's the part that makes this different from past fights, that it was a decision. The scene cuts between Mark's face, Bulletproof racing to him with the disruptor, and the Sequids swarming the dome. The scene wants you to understand that Mark is weighing his options with a clear head, and he decides that killing Rus is the best of the available bad choices.

While Mark chose the needs of the many, it wasn't pure Vulcan-like logic. Due to both Conquest and the preceding "Invincible War" (when Angstrom unleashed evil alternate universe variants of Mark on Earth), Mark has been feeling lately like he's brought more harm to Earth than good. Stopping the Sequids was Mark making a call to be a "better" hero but also embracing his dark side.

Remember, too, that back in season 1 episode "Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out," Mark was the one who rescued Livingston and the other astronauts stuck on Mars. As the Sequid-possessed Livingston reminded Mark in this episode, he is technically the one who brought the parasites to Earth. That  made Mark feel like it was his responsibility to stop the invasion, whatever the means, and that it was his fault if the containment failed. 

Earlier in "Making the World a Better Place," Mark fought Dinosaurus (Matthew Rhys), a super-villain with an innocent alter ego, David Anders. When Dinosaurus shifted back to his human form, Mark considered killing him to stop Dinosaurus, permanently. That foreshadows the decision Mark does make at the episode climax, to stop a dangerous villain but with an innocent casualty.

The next episode ("I'll Give You The Grand Tour") follows Nolan (J.K. Simmons) and Allen (Seth Rogen) in outer space, but the third episode "I Gotta Get Some Air" picks up with Mark and explores the fallout of his lethal decision. Surprisingly, Cecil — who has been quite paranoid about Invincible going bad — offers sympathy to Mark. Cecil says Mark made the right call with Livingston, but that he doesn't have to be the one who makes those life-or-death calls. 

Mark's answer? "Maybe it's who I should be." He now believes his mistake with Angstrom wasn't in losing control, but in not finishing the job. "The Invincible War" underlined that "our" Mark is an anomaly; in most universes, Invincible turns evil, and even the good ones have a darkness to keep at bay. It's this flawed hero that makes "Invincible" arguably the best "Spider-Man" cartoon out right now.

"Invincible" is streaming on Prime Video.