'Invincible' - How to Write a Great Villain [SPOILERS]

Amazon Prime’s ‘The Boys’ and ‘Invincible’ both start from a premise that if superheroes were real, things would be a lot more brutal and a lot more ugly than they're depictions in the marvel or DC Universe. Unlike 'The Boys' creator who hates superheroes, 'Invincible' author Robert Kirkman loves them. This show isn't about eviscerating the concept of superheroes, but more about playing with the tropes and expectations that come with the endless amounts of superhero stories and Omniman is one of the biggest examples of that. Omniman shows that while this show may look a bit similar to ‘Justice League Unlimited’ or a DC Animated Film, it's placed on a completely different level.

Where Homelander is a petty vindictive man who is driven almost purely by his own emotions, Omniman is the opposite. He sees himself as serving the noble cause far more important than him, a galaxy conquering empire that he's devoted his life to. The great JK Simmons is famous for playing loud abrasive characters, but for most of the show, Omniman isn't really like that. In many ways he's very cold and calculating: the first episode ends with the shocking murders of all the Guardians of the Globe, which is later explained as a means to the end of earth’s self governance. The gratuitous violence that surrounds Omniman is never unnecessary because it underlines just how disconnected he is from human life and how little it bothers him to just brutally kill the people he's called friends.

At first blush, Omniman seems like a straightforward inverse of Superman: a visitor from a different world coming to earth to conquer instead of being a loveable boy-scout. The show does a good job of fleshing out who Omniman is and what he believes in a way that adds more layers to the character. The first time training Mark, after they discovered his newfound powers, Omniman sucker punches Mark in the chest. It's one of the first times in the series where his true nature comes through around his family even though it's under the guise of tough love. In retrospect, it's really clear that he was just frustrated with mark because he was failing, he was doing poorly, and as we see later on there's no place for that on Viltrum: you either excel or you die, which is why his behavior towards mark changes so much after he gets his powers because he's not a human anymore. Omniman thinks that he solely believes in this mindset, but he doesn’t. If that was the case he would have killed Mark once and for all in the finale.

So the question is about Omniman's motivation. Did he spare mark because humanity had really rubbed off on him like a part of him has really become Nolan Grayson the loving family man, or is it actually that mark's potential as a Viltrumite is something that he doesn't want to lose? Maybe he's become so attached to this vision of conquering earth with his son by his side that he doesn't want to give up on that dream even though Mark makes it pretty clear that it probably won't happen. The ambiguity of his ambition is an inner conflict that really elevates the character above audience expectations. Omniman's answer is basically nothing. He talks about how great everything would be for humanity under Viltrumite rule but it's pretty clear that Viltrumite rule isn’t great: planets were entirely destroyed for not giving in to their rule, which is a testament to how much a Viltrumite actually cares in regards to the one’s they usurp.

One point that Omniman makes is that he's basically immortal and he tries to use that as a justification for why Mark can and should stop caring about every human he knows. This method of winning Mark over was doomed to failure and the fact that Omniman thought this would work shows that he really has learned nothing about humans or how they think. Despite living amongst humans and raising Mark as a human, he still sees Mark as expendable and his wife as a pet. In a big speech trying to bring him to his side, the words are not of someone who understands Mark or what he believes, but rather a justification that denies any form of Omniman’s humanity. He leaves his son in bloody shambles on the top of a mountain after subjecting him to some of the worst violence Mark has ever experienced. The sequence is brutal and one that perfectly makes sense for Omniman. Unsurprisingly, his way to win mark over to his side is to beat the life out of him because that's how he's always solved pretty much every problem he's ever had. There hasn’t been many issues in his life that he couldn't fix by simply existing as the most powerful being on the planet, but winning Mark over is something that all of his power and might can't do because every punch and brutal murder that he commits is just driving his son farther and farther away. When faced with that revelation, he is unable to put an end to Mark’s life so there was nothing left for him to do but fly away in tears.

Omniman started the season appearing to be the earth's greatest hero and ends it being who he really was all along: a brutal conqueror and the planet's greatest threat. What if Superman was evil is a concept I've seen done plenty of times including in the pages of DC Comics, but Omniman may be the most compelling version of it on screen. The character’s complexity combined with the stellar performance from JK Simmons is what makes him so impactful. As the viewer, you never feel at ease when Omniman is on screen and I don't see that comfort and trust ever returning to his character. Let me know what you thought of 'Invincible' in the comments below.