"Invincible Season 3" Clearly a Transitionary Season

     I have read all of Invincible, so I come into this review, not as someone with a fresh mind, but as someone who is rediscovering what they already know, retreading ground to once again ignite my enjoyment for a franchise and see how this adaptation fares. Leading up to this season practically all the buzz was about how bad the animation for this show has become, helping blunt a lot of the hype that this show had built up in its previous two seasons. I suppose the show isn't exactly helping every time they hire another celebrity voice actor, at that point the joke just writes itself. Even still, honestly the animation never bothered me, it's like that meme about enjoying pizza when you don't have someone in your ear complaining to you about how bad it is. So, how did this season fare?

    I am not here to tell people how their action/superhero pieces should play out. I am acutely aware of how pastiche Invincible is meant to be, and how it also enjoys providing commentary on very commonly used superhero tropes. However, that does not mean the show is does not fall into some of these traps on their own either. Particularly, I would say the power-scaling is quite egregious this season, especially when it comes to Viltrumites like Oliver, Mark, and pretty much everyone surrounding them. I thought it was actually interesting how they dealt with it in the beginning of the season, Mark is training with Cecil and they talk about how he's improved dramatically, the only issue is that for the rest of his season they proceed to have him be smacked around by everyone, whether they be random lava worms or the mauler twins. I understand needing to not make every fight easy for him, or trying to explain that Mark is always holding back in his strength because he's afraid to kill, but he simply felt way too weak until the very final episode. 

    I mean it was ridiculous even Oliver felt stronger. At the very least I think they should have explained his "strength" in a much clearer manner to at least give an explanation for why things are as they seem. That as the older Viltrumites grow the stronger they become, and that Mark has all this trauma from the death that he's really almost scared of himself and scared to let loose, that sort of thing. Thankfully, the impact of his blows are finally felt by the end of last two-ish episodes, but you have to wonder if it's too little too late. Other than that I must admit that the complaints about the animation are getting to me. I think it's worse when you watch the Invincible War scenes and the closeups of all the Invincibles seems more detailed than anything the animators have shown in the past 2 seasons, it's almost laughable to be honest. I suppose because I know what's happening next I'm a little more lenient. Like I understand that this is going to be a more of a "transitionary" season where there's not too much action like when the Viltrumite War happens.

    What this does allow the show to do is explore some of the interesting questions that arise when a superhero saves the world. I do think that while it's kind of hilarious listening to Aaron Paul over exaggerate his angry voice, that Powerplex is a character that does raise some interesting questions about all the damage and heartbreak left in the wake of these battles. On a side note it's comical how he sounds like that one Breaking Bad video that makes fun of dubs, and that his wife literally just looks like Jane from the Breaking Bad. I also think that while it was so obvious that Rex was going to die, his conversations with Rae about what they planned to do in the very end were great. Of course, a great source of tension this season was about Mark, how he feels about killing, and working for Cecil. This was a great subplot, and honestly I half expected Mark to come crawling back to him. Seeing Mark work for Cecil at the beginning of the season was a dynamic I enjoyed, and it was interesting seeing this push and pull between trying to prepare to stop a Viltrumite while also pushing away the only one who might stand a chance to even beat them.

    Ultimately though, I do not think I enjoyed this season of the show as much as I should have, and that largely has to do with the fact that the action feels very inconsequential, and the weird power-scaling making everything Mark fights feel underwhelming. Honestly, Invincible War was one of the better storylines this season, but even still I felt like perhaps it could have been an opportunity for Mark to flex this newfound strength he was developing better. Of course, the final episode helps taper over a lot of the flaws with this season, and I am writing this review right after that high which helps. Mark fighting Conquest felt significantly more satisfying than I had realized, it was basically the entire episode, but Conquest monologuing how much he enjoyed everything, and Mark headbutting him to "death" really felt like a great culmination of what I wanted to see. 

Final Score: 70/100

    Like I said, the final episode is good, but it is not good enough to cover up the fact that this entire season felt like stalling until Invincible War and Conquest. I am interested in seeing what they decide to do with the show though, and what small changes might happen. Are Nolan and Debby going to get back together? Is it bad that I wouldn't mind that? Like I understand that they're trying to make Paul a bigger part of this show but I really did not care about him that much. Also what do they plan to do with the whole Rex/Rudy/Robot takes over the whole world arc? Especially now that they had a version of Immortal who literally went insane after Mark gave him control of the world. Like I'm really just waiting for the Viltrumite War especially because the Nolan and Alan scenes were some of my favourites. They seem to hope to release a new season every year though so it seems I will not have to wait too long to see how these things play out.