REVIEW: Invincible, Season 1 Episode Four 'Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out'

 REVIEW: Invincible, Season 1 Episode Four 'Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out'

With any story involving a murder, there's always one common factor and that's that the truth will come out eventually. in Invincible's case, we know who committed the murders of the Guardians of the Globe, but there are still a significant number of characters who are unaware. However, four episodes in and it's the halfway point, which is usually when things really start to develop.

As is the case here, for Nolan's (J.K. Simmons) wife Debbie (Sandra Oh) is suspicious, after her encounter with Damien Darkblood (Clancy Brown) at the end of the previous episode. The screenplay does a really good job at showing these doubts creep in, as she starts to wonder if she knows her husband as well as she thinks. it makes sense, given how weird some of his behaviour must be from her perspective. It can't seem normal for someone to randomly be under considerable stress out of the blue, and talking about their original home on a frequent basis.

Nolan and Damien get another great confrontation scene in this episode, as Damien makes no secret of the fact that he has worked out what Nolan did. There's so much tension in these scenes between Nolan and Damien that they make for strong pieces of drama. Damien feels like a proper match for Nolan, as he's the only one who seems to leave Nolan feeling genuinely threatened by his presence. 

Meanwhile, the remaining Mauler Twin (Kevin Michael Richardson) is making himself a new clone. After the previous episode showed Robot (Zachary Quinto) helping the Mauler Twins escape their prison facility, I was kind of expecting we'd get more of the currently sole remaining Mauler Twin in this episode, but surprisingly this is the only scene we get. It's a little disappointing, because it means the prison break-out from the previous episode doesn't really lead to much in this one, and it's bizarre that they didn't do more with it here. 

Speaking of Robot, we finally get to see him lead his new Guardians of the Globe team into their secret base here, and it just feels right seeing them in the base of operations where the Guardians should be. It leads to a very weird moment, however, where Robot takes a sample of Rex's (Jason Mantzoukas) blood, and I'm intrigued to see where this goes. It doesn't seem to have much rhyme or reason at the moment, so it will be interesting to learn what his ultimate goal is here. 

This is also the first episode we get to see Invincible/Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) visit another planet, and not just any other planet but the red planet itself, Mars. It creates for some stunning visuals, as we see an animated Mars in all of its fine glory. The detail of the planet's red surface looks beautiful on a 4K TV, and the underground martian world with the martian Emperor (Djimon Hounsou) is striking in the sense of power and conviction it portrays.

Whilst Mark is on Mars, Nolan decides to take his wife on holiday to Italy just as a green dragon creature starts terrorising the Italian city. This scene is excellent at portraying just how little Nolan really cares about his supposed 'duty' to 'protect humanity', as he ignores his wife's pleas and refuses to act because 'I'm on vacation'. Invincible is a show that's great at establishing how much Nolan really isn't a hero, and how he's only been doing the heroics in order to look good, and hide his real desire to conquer the Earth for himself. He cares very little about the human lives who die in these invasions, and only saves people out of necessity in order to advance his own plans.

Which only serves to make Cecil (Walton Goggins) seem even more stupid when he appears to protect Nolan by using Damien as a scapegoat for the Guardians' murders. This is an aspect that reminds me a lot of The Boys, as it shows there's this deep layer of corruption within the world of Invincible that helps to protect the heroes from dire consequences when they fall out of line. It's a morally ambiguous society which embodies the universe of Invincible, and those are always the most interesting stories to watch. Nobody is ever truly 'good' or 'evil' in real life after all, there's a lot of shades in-between.

Overall, 'Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart' out is a strong instalment in Invincible's first season. It gives us our first glimpse of characters starting to grow suspicious of Nolan, as well as Mark's first trip to an alien world. Invincible may bear some similarities to Amazon's other superhero series The Boys, but it's still a show full of its own twists and turns, that provides its own unique stamp on the superhero genre. It's a prime example of why there should be more animated superhero shows for adults, and I hope other companies look to Invincible for inspiration. 

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What are your thoughts on Invincible's fourth episode? Let me know in the comments section.