With superhero fatigue at an all-time high, fans had been yearning for something new. Enter Invincible, the animated series adapted from the critically acclaimed comic by Robert Kirkman.
Though the show follows high school student Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) as he learns to control his superpowers, this is far from a heroic journey. Mark learns that his father is actually a colonizer of worlds who believes humans should be subjugated. Season 1 ends in a knock-down drag-out fight between father and son as Nolan (J.K. Simmons) brutalizes Mark. Audiences were chomping at the bit to see the next chapter in the story, but they had to wait a long time.
The first season aired in 2021, and it took two years for the follow-up of the Image Comics adaptation to hit screens. But even when season 2 finally did air, it came with a caveat. Only the first four episodes were available. Season 2 was split into two parts, with the rest of the season airing in March 2024.
Why does season 2 of Invincible have two parts?
Kirkman has some experience with leaving the audience wanting more. The comic book writer created the source material for one of AMC’s greatest achievements. The Walking Dead demonstrates the danger of humanity at the end of the world, all while leaving fans on devastating cliffhangers. Kirkman acknowledged this when speaking to Collider about the decision to separate season 2 of Invincible into two parts.
“This is something that we’ve done with every season of The Walking Dead, and I think narratively, it’s kind of cool to have that pause to digest what you’ve just experienced.”
But putting a division after only four episodes of content isn’t exactly the type of cliffhanger that fans were hoping for. While viewers had to wait to find out who was the victim of Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) baseball bat, this trauma didn’t happen in the middle of the season. The cliffhanger was a cap on a season that had been building to a boiling point.
Narrative decisions aside, Kirkman admits there were other considerations to splitting a season fans had been waiting years to see. The primary reason why Invincible has had such a drawn-out hiatus had to do with elements behind the scenes.
“It’s a little bit of the production process just because ramping things up has taken a lot longer than we thought.”
While that seems like a significant understatement, viewers have to understand the work that goes into making an animated series. Many different creative mediums have to come together to create something of value. And Invincible is valuable. Fans keep coming back episode after episode to see the ramifications of the havoc that superpowered people wreak. The time between episodes may be long, but the series has quality to show for it.
