ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Invincible Season 3 ENDING EXPLAINED! - Finale Breakdown

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

Invincible Season 3 Finale Breakdown!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Make them hide! Hey, welcome back everybody. I'm Ryan Erie, and let's talk about the finale of Invincible Season 3, here on... So we're going to explain everything from the Invincible War arc, the Conquest fight, the comic Easter eggs, and what it all means for season 4. So season 3 was the darkest season yet. It pushed Mark to his absolute breaking point. He tries to stay on the straight and narrow path after accidentally killing Angstrom, last season, but he learns quickly that it's not that simple. What are you mean? Well, right out of the gate, Mark finds out that Cecil rehabilitated murderers from seasons

one and two. He put Sinclair and Darkwing to work at the GDA, and Mark is pissed that Cecil is working with the same villains that he turned in. But later in the season, he talks to Oliver like they're trying to forgive his father's mistakes. Invincible is kind of a hypocrite. Cecil's morals revolve around achieving a greater good. In his eyes, we're still the good guys.

It's not that Mark is wrong, though. He just hasn't learned this lesson yet. We see in Cecil's backstory that he used to be exactly like Mark. He initially didn't want to work with the villains that gave him his scars. So the whole season is Invincible's journey of learning this lesson. All of it culminates in the last episode starting with the Invincible War arc. Is that like Civil War? No, not exactly. The Invincible War arc is Invincible's take on a big multiversal event.

Angstrom Levy brings a bunch of evil marks to decimate our Mark's Earth, tarnishing the name Invincible for everyone. The episode starts from Anxtram's perspective in the season 2 finale. He teleports himself to the technicians, three alien scientists who will do anything to further their experiments. And the design of the technicians look like references to the three wise monkeys. The three, do you say why monkeys? The three wise monkeys are a Buddhist maxim. They're more commonly known as the principle of see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

Each of the technicians have some sort of covering on them that makes them look like those monkeys. In the west, the monkeys represent turning a blind eye to problems, which fits how the technicians save Angstrom and then witness him gather all of the evil invincibles. Fast forward a few months and the evil marks are sent to our Invincibles Earth. Their entrance is just like this comic panel, so let's go through them. On the bottom left, there's Flaxen Mark with black goggles. Now, the Flaxons are the aliens from season one who couldn't survive in Mark's reality for long. Are they like the Purple Boy and the Thraxans?

No, actually. The Thraxins have short lifespans, but the Flaxons are from a different dimension where time moves way faster for them. A single Earth Day is months for the Flaxons. No spoilers, but the Flaxons are really important to a story in the comics after the Invincible War. We could see that adapted in season four, although the Flaxons are more of a recurring threat in the books compared to their single episode in season one. Now, like I was saying, I... Doug, what are all of these boxes doing up here? Oh, that's all of our old merch.

We ran out of room in the basement, so now it's got to be up here. Okay, well, we have a basement. I didn't know that. And also, we can't make videos with all of this stuff in the way. All right, then? Let's set it on fire! No, but I got an idea. Let's have a fire sale.

Guys, we have to get rid of all of our old designs and our merch. store. So, for a limited time, we are selling these items and then they will be gone forever. So this is the last chance to buy, the top five, the hello there, the who I'm about to make a name for myself, and many, many more. We are also slashing prices on these shirts and merch, so smash the link below to get your discount today. Now, back to what I was saying. Now, this mark has a full Villtermite robe on and a mustache like his dad's. Right above him is masked invincible with the same black and blue color scheme. The mask with the white goggles makes him look more like Spider-Man, which could be a reference to the symbiant suit.

Robert Kirkman, co-creator of Invincible and The Walking Dead, mentioned that Mark's black and blue suit represents the darkest era, similar to the black suit for Spider-Man. The Invincible with a yellow cape is known as Sinister Invincible. He was teased in the season two finale, where he killed Engstrom's kid right in front of him. Right under him is a hooded Invincible. Robert Otley, artist for Invincible,

confirmed that this variant is a reference to the DC character, Grifter. Now, there's a long-haired Mark who might be a reference to the 90s comics, where everything was hardcore and dramatic, like when Batman wore armor or Superman had a mullet. Below him is a normal Invincible costume, but he has a viltramite symbol on his shoulder. So maybe this mark had a similar origin to ours, but he decided to join Omneman and taking over the Earth. We'll see this Omni Mark act much more mature than the other, so it's possible that this variant came to Earth instead of Nolan. Swearing doesn't make you cool.

So he'd be the Omni Man of his universe, or it could just be a universe where Mark chose to be called Kid Omneman instead of Invincible, like Oliver did earlier in Season 3. Kid Omni Man is here! There's an evil mark in a costume closer to Bulletproof. costume, which is a reference to how Bulletproof takes up the Invincible mantle for a while into comics. And finally, the bald and scarred mark reveals later that he was in a Viltermite prison similar to Nolan at the beginning of this season. We get the title screen which glitches between the different Invincible Collars. The title screen has done this all season to hint at this Invincible War arc all along. We check back with Armark in the con before the storm. He's feeling

guilty about PowerPlex. Now, he knows the events that killed PowerPlex's family weren't exactly his fault, but he still feels bad, which is a Stark kind of. Contrast to how he feels at the end of the season when he accepts that the Invincible War and Conquest fight were on him. We get a small montage of the pure chaos that these marks are wrecking on the world. One of the Villtermite Marks is fighting a character named Wolfman. He's a parody of Werewolf by Night, who relates to Mark a ton in the comics. He was framed for murdering his family when it was actually his mentor who betrayed him. Wolfman's story usually occurs right after Mark decides to stop working for Cecil, but that was cut from this season.

The Viltramite Mark says, Kill you again. Which is actually what he says to spawn in the comics. The Invincible War arc was an Image Comics crossover event for the books, but here they stick to invincible characters for the most part. We also see Best Tiger and Tech Jack Jacket in this montage, who are important for future storylines. Best Tiger is a parody of Daredevil and the Punisher,

except he's not actually blind. He just wears the blindfold for fun. Tech jacket is comparable to Blue Beetle, since his armor is alien tech that can be upgraded by the wearer. And then we check in on Shrinking Ray and Rex explode. All season, Rex was trying to redeem him, And it's been nice, but it was also really obvious the show was building up to his death. In this scene, he even has a life's going great speech that might as well be an equivalent of Gwen Stacy's graduation speech in The Amazing Spider-Man too.

I know we all think that we're immortal. We're supposed to feel that way. Regardless of how obvious they make it, Ray and Rex's relationship is genuinely very sweet. Rex's death happens in the comics, but they didn't really show how he was bettering himself. Him and Shrinking Ray did not have a relationship in the book, so this was a welcome change. Our mark confronts a mohawked mark in the prison. Now, he slams his fist into his ears, which is a big blow for Viltermites because their hearing is so sensitive. Three heroes attack Our Invincible.

They are Bolt, Kid Thor, and Knockout, who are all characters from the Capes Incorporated comics, a comic that also takes place in the Invincible Universe. Oliver and Debbie see the news, so Oliver tries to join the fight. Now, Debbie is hesitant for him to go join him because she still sees him as her little boy. Usually in these scenarios, the kid is in way over their head. But remember, Oliver is half-thraxin, so his age is already way older than his expected lifespan. This is also what Mark and Debbie have been trying to teach Oliver all season. He finally understands the value of helping humans.

When Oliver flies away, we see another shot of the exploded house across the street. Now, this is the house that Nolan destroyed back in season one. Here, it's another painful reminder to Debbie of the cost of living with her superhero family. Cecil calls in the cavalry, and we meet Britt and his group of Superhero. Now, this includes two Martian characters, a robot resembling machine head, and Throwbolt, who we saw try out for the Guardians team in season one. Despite Britt's name, he is an ex-US soldier with an extended lifespan similar to Captain America. In this case, Brit is actually short for Brittany. Oliver rescues a couple from Falling Rubble, and it's a really sweet scene.

It's a big step for a fledgling superhero, and Oliver already seems better at it than Mark was back in season one. Our Mark and Adam even countered the grifter-vincible and the Omni Mark, and I love the difference and maturity between the two. variants. Stephen Yun just absolutely kills it in all these different voiceover rules. He is displaying great vocal range in each variant. The grifter-vincible speaks like a classic over-the-top villain. Even together you're a fraction of my power. While Omni Mark is very serious, he says, swearing doesn't make you cool. Which feels like when Cap says this. Language. And then we cut to a Mark variant crashing into Kahar's tomb. Now this is part of the running gag from seasons one and two, so maybe in season four he'll finally

find a male host. Bail host to escape the curse of this tomb. That's sexist. Even Mark's fight looks hopeless until Cecil saves them. While Our Invincible flies Eve to a hospital, the Guardians of the Globe are fighting the variant who was almost possessed by Cahor. Now, this mark seems very immature, like he's playing with the Guardians. Help! I don't want to not be living!

So it's possible that this mark is pretty early in his superpowered villain career. This fight echoes Omni Man's fight with the Guardians from the first episode. Darkwing has to sacrifice himself by dragging this evil mark into his shadowverse. The Shatter do say right now? Right, so this Darkwing has access to a negative void called the Shadowverse. While his mentor was a clear Batman parody, Darkwing 2 operates much more like cloak from Marvel Comics. He tried to trap our mark in his dark dimension in season 2.

Shapesmith mentions that he can regenerate himself since the evil invincible didn't break his core. So now we know how Martian Man was killed by Nolan way back when. It adds another sad layer to that moment since Omneman had to know that weakness about his friend in order to kill him. At the Teen Team HQ, the invincible variant is hunting for the real robot. And this is where we see Rex's death. Throughout the show, he's really only used his powers on coins and batons. But in this episode, we see Rex finally use his powers to the fullest. He throws his goggles, rubble, and even explodes the floor. It barely scratches this evil mark so Rex is forced to blow up his own skeleton, sacrificing himself just to stop one of the Mark

Marians. Afterward, a montage plays with the song When the Party's Over by Billy I. Its meaning is twofold. One, Rex loved a party. He did so as much as possible. And two, the party's over for all the evil marks. They're called to their childhood home to meet with Angstrom. Only eight Invincibles remain. And when the Mohawk guy makes fun of Mast Invincible, he says, We're all the same person.

Now, the differences between each variant are an interesting commentary on nature versus nurture, which is a common theme in multiverse stories. Some of them are straight up crazy, but some of them miss the peaceful life. One of the marks says, I miss William. And this is a reference to when Nolan said, I think I miss my wife. A storyboarder for the episode, Catron Snodgrass, confirmed that this Mark had a romantic relationship with his William.

It's a nice nod to the comics where, years into the future, William confessed that he had a huge crush on Mark in high school, which gives all those times they were flying together a romantic undertone for William. When they refuse orders, Angstrom pushes the evil Invincibles into the same apocalypse dimension that he almost died in. All right, finally, you can stop saying Mark over and over again. Another one. Another one. Another one. I know, right? So Cecil tells Invincible that they've located Anxtram and we get this awesome rematch. Now in the comics, it's actually Oliver, Bulletproof, and Invincible all working together to fight Angstrom. But here we get a great one-on-one.

The fight is so much shorter in the book, so here they extend it with Angstrom using the drones to fight. I love how Invincible is stopping his flight pattern and pushing off of nothing to counter Engstrom's portals. It reminded me of this scene in season one where Omneman teaches Mark, how they fly and the advantages of being able to pivot on thin air. Now with us, we can freely move ourselves through physical space. That's how we fly. So we don't have to pivot on our feet and push off the ground. As Mark pushes through the swarm of drones,

a darker version of the Invincible theme plays. Foreshadowing the decision that he made at the end of the season. Once Invincible catches Angstrom, Oliver lands nearby and tells Mark to kill him. He shouts about the pain and destruction that Engstrom has caused. So Invincible decides that it's finally time to cross that line, but Engstrom escapes losing an arm. He tries to scramble back, but the technicians have other plans for them that we might see in a later season. Now that the war is over, we see a montage of previous locations the variants trashed. There's the burger mark that Mark used to work at, his high school, his college, where we saw Rick Save

William, and the Teen Team Tower where Rexploads imprint is on the wall. When Mark goes to New York to help with the cleanup, Powerplex is there to remind him that this is all. his fault. Mark and Oliver have to hold PowerPlex down so he uses up all of his energy. He shocks them, but they bear the pain, symbolically showing how Mark is going to carry this weight and guilt for a long time. Now, in the comics, a ground-based hero holds PowerPlex down, so the change represents how Mark is now punishing himself. Power plaques is apprehended, but his words finally hit Mark deep inside. Compared to the beginning of the episode, he knows this happened because Anstrom wanted him dead, but this time he does believe that it's all his fault. The guilt is

amplified even more when Mark meets Eve's parents at the hospital. Eve's mom tells a morbid story to Mark that a childhood friend of Eve's, Valerie, died in the attack. We actually met Val in the Adam Eve special, but she stopped being Eve's friend when they discovered her power. So it goes to show how little Eve's parents knew about the real her. Immortal is revived with a neck brace similar to the one that the Mahler twins used on him in season one. He's had enough, so he decides to quit and start a family with Kate in a scene ripped straight from the comics. Cecil wants Mark to lead the guardians. In his office, framed photo of his former commanding officer. Mark declines the offer. He has no faith in his abilities after what he's been through. While helping the rebuilding process, he takes a quiet

second to really take in all the damage caused in his name. Unfortunately, Conquest arrives at the worst possible time. Her? So Conquest is an absolute monster in the Invincible Comics. He is voiced by Negan himself, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And like I said earlier, Robert Kirkman also helped create The Walking Dead. During an interview, Kirkman said that he had Morgan in mind to play Conquest, basically since the start of the show. It's also a great rematch for Walking Dead fans who know what Negan did to Stephen June's character, Glenn. Back to it.

So, they start wailing on each other. Their fight spans multiple cities and destroys countless buildings through the shockwaves alone. This is also similar to Mark and Nolan's fight in season one. When Oliver sees their fight, Debbie supports his decision to join in this time. She says,

Keep moving and keep your distance. Don't let him grab you. Which was really good advice that Oliver completely forgot, since he gets caught immediately. So I love how Mark's serious tone is juxtaposed by both Oliver and Conquest. Conquest sees all of this as a game. He wants the violence. You think I'm going to give you a chance to surrender? Oliver enters the fight with a lighter, more energetic soundtrack and quips just like a new hero would. Conquest uses Mark to fly through a ton of people on this

coastal city, echoing what Omneman did with the train in season one, but on a much larger scale. It's a crazy coincidence that this has happened to Mark twice. I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right? When Adam Eve shows up to help Invincible, he grabs Conquest away, saying, Get out of here, go! Now, we know Mark is scared about what Conquest could do to her,

but his pleas for Oliver and Eve to leave the fight illustrate how much of a burden Mark is carrying alone. We feel it again when Cecil says, I've got probably the most powerful superhuman I've ever seen beating the living shit out of what's definitely the strongest superhero on this planet. So Eve gets a much longer fight here than she does in the comics. During it, she creates armor around herself like we saw in the Adam Eve special,

and when she traveled to space to fight the sequins. We finally get to see just how powerful Eve can be when she isn't just putting up pink walls. Because of her leg injury, though, she overexerts herself and Conquest kills her. He pauses the fight as Mark cries over Eve's body. Now, even though this happens in the comics, it feels like a callback to when Negan killed Glenn in front of Maggie in the Walking Dead. There's another Walking Dead reference when Conquest says, You still think you can threaten me?

Just like Negan says to Carl. Did you just threaten me? As Conquest readies the killing blow, he leans in close to Mark and whispers a lengthy monologue that's new to the show. He talks about how lonely he feels, even amongst the Viltermites. He laments over not having an actual name compared to Craig or Anisa, who he met in season two. Mark has to use his head to come up with a way to comfort Conquest. Use your head. With Conquest down, everybody can finally rest and start the cleanup process all over again.

We see the characters at Rex's funeral where something interesting happens. Ray is there grieving his death. So like I said earlier, Ray and Rex's relationship is new to the show, so shrinking Ray will have some new importance to the series in the future. During his speech, Robot declares that he'll be changing his name to Rex instead of Rudy to honor his friend. Now, this is a cool callback to the season two finale, where the future Guardians of the Globe Rescue Mark and Future Eve calls Robot Rex. At the time, we believe that Rex explode would take up Robot's mantle,

but now we know that the opposite is true. When Mark and Eve return home, she takes off his clothes with her powers, but they malfunction a bit, causing Mark's supersuit to melt into a weird glowing puddle. It's pretty overpowered that Eve can rebuild her body every time she dies, so this is probably a weird side effect of it, a small consequence to her power that they might build on later. And last but not least, we get the teases for season four. The sequins are gathering bodies deep underground.

The battle beast is rescued by the coalition of planets, and Engstrom starts up a partnership with the technicians. We also see Cecil has kept Conquest alive to interrogate him. Now, this is in line with his character shown at the beginning of the season, but Messy with the Viltermite of Conquest power might be pushing it a little bit too far. With the addition of his lines about loneliness, maybe if Conquest returns, he could seek a new path forward. The season ends when Mark crosses that line.

He even admits to Oliver that he was right, and from now on, he'll kill anyone who hurts his family. So the events of the Invincible War and Conquest have pushed Mark down a darker path, completing his season arc. The show cuts to black with no music and no jokes. Just the credits as we and Mark sit with this big decision. Now there's one last tease in the form of a post-credit scene. We see Damien Darkblood attempting to summon invincible to hell. Now up until now, the show has stayed pretty faithful to the comics. The major differences are the order in which some of the events are happening, like Robots Human Body and the Flaxen invasion. This Darkblood story, though, is a completely new edition from the books. So hopefully season four and beyond are

shaking things up. And guys, that was all the Easter eggs references and themes that we saw in Invincible Season 3's finale. Huge shout out to Ethan, who wrote this video, we would not have made it without him. Great job, Ethan. You can find his social contacts below. And if you want to talk more about Invincible to me or Ethan, you can find us on our free to join Discord server. The links for that are below. And just a reminder, you can now listen to Screen Crush on every single podcast platform. So guys, let me know what you thought down in the comments or at me on Twitter. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.

Thank you.