Invincible Season 4 Mirrors One Of Batman's Most Controversial Storylines

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

Back in "Invincible" season 3, Global Defense Agency (GDA) Director Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) lost Mark's (Steven Yeun) trust. Mark learned that Cecil had recruited former super-villains as assets and, even worse, implanted a sonic device in Mark's ear in case he ever needed to bring him down. The greatest twist of "Invincible" is that Mark's father, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) was evil, and Cecil's actions underlined the risk that Mark might turn out like his dad.

But Cecil's paranoia doesn't end there. His actions against Mark turned many Guardians of the Globe against him. So, in "Invincible" season 4, episode 1, "Making The World A Better Place," he has to convince the team to work with him. Rex/Robot (Ross Marquand) suggests that the trigger planted in Mark's ear was the tip of the iceberg; Cecil must have secret plans to defeat all of the Guardians, Robot says. Cecil doesn't deny it.

A superhero's ally having a secret plan to defeat them is a trope in superhero comics that goes back to the famous Justice League storyline "Tower of Babel" (published in 2000 across "JLA" #43-46). Written by Mark Waid and Howard Porter, the story revealed that Batman maintained secret contingency plans on how to defeat each and every one of his teammates on the Justice League, should they turn evil, be brainwashed, possessed, etc.

Many villains have tried to defeat the Justice League, but Batman's plans have the advantage of inside knowledge; he's worked and fought alongside the League as a comrade, learning all their weaknesses inside and out. Unfortunately, for the whole League, Ra's al Ghul steals Batman's plans and implements them, bringing the Justice League and the world to its knees.

Power scalers often claim that Batman just needs "prep time" to win. "Tower of Babel," which in essence is about Batman defeating the whole Justice League, is what cemented that idea. The story is actually quite critical of Batman, though.

In a 2020 foreword to a "Tower of Babel" deluxe edition, Mark Waid said the story came to him from previous "JLA" writer Grant Morrison's thesis that Batman's "superpower" is his ability to plan ahead for every conceivable outcome. "If that were true, I reasoned, [Batman] wouldn't have a locked strategy just against his enemies; he'd have it against his allies, too," Waid wrote. "If I had half a brain as a writer, some villain really needed to get their hands on [the plans]."

In the comic, the plans coming from Batman is a twist. Note the cover of "JLA" issue #43 (excerpted above) shows Ra's al Ghul standing triumphant around the Justice League's tattered costumes, suggesting the evil plan is his alone. Then, the following issue #44 shows Batman controlling his JLA teammates with puppet strings. The last page of #44 shows the Justice League all lying defeated as Batman tries to contact Superman, yelling, "I did this to you!"

Ra's al Ghul's plot in the comic is to broadcast a radio wave destroying people's ability to decipher written and spoken language. Hence, the title referencing the biblical Tower of Babel, the mythical source of all language. But the failure of communication happens in the Justice League too. As Waid writes in his foreword, and is evident in the story, the League don't get angry with Batman for creating the contingencies; they're upset he did it in secret while taking advantage of their trust and friendship.

Though "Invincible" pulls mostly from Superman and Spider-Man, you can't write a superhero comic or cartoon without some Batman influence. Invincible actually met Batman himself back in the "Invincible" season 2 finale, "I Thought You Were Stronger," when Mark was flung through many different dimensions. (Granted, the show couldn't admit this was Batman due to copyright, but Mark noted the silent, unseen hero dressed like a bat and he had a familiar black, pointed-edge cape.)

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Besides that, the character of Darkwing on "Invincible" is a Batman parody. Darkwing was part of the original Guardians of the Globe, who were all stand-ins for the classic members of the Justice League. Of course, Darkwing was killed by Omni-Man in "Invincible" episode 1 along with the rest of the Guardians.

In fact, Omni-Man's rampage — where the man who appeared to be the world's greatest superhero turned out to be an evil alien invader — is exactly the sort of situation for which Batman made his contingency plans. It certainly made Cecil paranoid enough to craft a plan for if Mark turned out to be like his dad. Like Batman's JLA teammates, the thing that most ticked off Mark about that was Cecil keeping secrets from him. If there's an overlapping lesson in Batman and Cecil Stedman's stories, it's that withholding any uncomfortable truths from your friends will never end well.

"Invincible" is streaming on Prime Video.