Invincible (comic)

Character biography and synopsis

edit] Family Matters (Issues 1-4)
Markus Sebastian "Mark" Grayson is a teenage superhero who calls himself Invincible. He was a normal high school senior with a normal part-time job and otherwise normal life, except his father Nolan is the superhero Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet. At the age of 17, Mark begins to display superpowers, which come from his father being a member of the Viltrumite race, who, according to Nolan, pioneer the galaxy on a mission of benevolence and enlightenment. As Invincible, Mark begins working as a superhero, with his father acting as his mentor, and meeting other heroes. Mark worked occasionally with a superhero team called the Teen Team (consisting of Robot, Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate, and Atom Eve), from there discovering that his physics teacher has been turning his students into human bombs. He stops his teacher with the help of the heroine, Atom Eve. He also foils a plan to make an army of robots, created by the Mauler Twins. Meanwhile, Omni-Man is kidnapped by aliens, taken to another dimension, but returns after what seems to be only a few days, but was actually eight months to him.

edit] Eight Is Enough (Issues 5-8)
Invincible goes into space to fight Allen the Alien. After an initially hostile encounter, Mark discovers that Allen has actually been employed to test the strength of superheroes. Allen realizes he is on the wrong planet and leaves. Mark goes to college with his friend William, where he is attacked by a mysterious robot zombie (later revealed to be one of DA Sinclair's 'Reanimen') and in the process, William learns of his secret identity. Mark begins dating his classmate, Amber Bennet, and Eve's boyfriend, Rex Splode, has an affair with Dupli-Kate. Meanwhile, Earth's premier superhero team, The Guardians Of The Globe, are brutally murdered by Omni-Man. Only the de-powered Black Samson survives. At the funeral, Samson's butler destroys the graves, jealous that somebody killed the Guardians before he did. Nobody knows that Omni-Man killed the heroes, but an investigation is launched. After the funeral, the Mauler Twins dig up the body of the Immortal.

edit] Perfect Strangers (Issues 9-13)
The Guardians Of The Globe hold auditions for a new team. All of the Teen Team, with the exception of Atom Eve, are hired into the new team (led by Robot) by Cecil Steadman, head of the Global Defence Agency. Monster Girl and Shrinking Ray are also hired. Mark and Eve stop a team of criminals called the Lizard League from poisoning the water supply. The Mauler Twins reanimate The Immortal, the leader of the old Guardians, who fights Omni-Man. Invincible arrives to see his father rip the Immortal in half. Omni-Man then explains that the Viltrumites are actually a race of alien invaders, and he was sent to initiate a hostile takeover of Earth. His father describes everyone on the planet as meaningless and insignificant. Mark fights his father and the ensuing battle results in thousands of deaths. Just as Omni-Man is about to kill his son, he flies off into space. After Mark recovers, he is hired by Cecil Steadman as a professional super hero. Eve and Mark's friend William embark on a relationship. Mark's mother is left in a state of shock. Invincible flies into space to find that Allen the Alien has returned, warning him that his father is a Viltrumite. Mark replies that Allen is too late and that he knows and he has turned against his father. Mark says that all that is left is to finish high school.

edit] Further
Angstrom Levy is introduced as a man who has the power to teleport between dimensions. He has a plan to assemble every version of himself from other dimensions in order to absorb all of their knowledge, seemingly to help benefit mankind. He is aided by the Mauler Twins to build the device. Just as the machine starts up, Invincible intervenes to arrest the Mauler Twins. During the ensuing fight, Angstrom, aware that Invincible's life is in peril, removes himself from the machine, which causes it to explode. Only one Mauler survives, along with Invincible and Angstrom Levy. Levy, now mad, claims that the process was a success, although it left him hideously disfigured. He escapes to another dimension to recuperate.

Later, when meeting his father on another world, Mark learns he has a little paternal half-brother. When a contingent of Viltrumites arrives on the planet, Mark and Nolan fight them. They lose, and Nolan is taken prisoner. As he is taken away Nolan tells Mark to read his books. The Viltrumites who take Nolan give Mark the assignment that his father had, albeit with a 100 year deadline, believing he will fulfill it due to his heritage. Mark brings his half-brother to Earth and Mark's mom agrees to raise him.

While on holiday in Africa with a smitten Eve and Amber, Mark receives a threatening phone call and rushes home to find his mother and half-brother in the clutches of Angstrom Levy. Levy uses his powers to plunge Mark through a series of dangerous alternate realities to try to kill him (it is at this point during the storyline where Invincible is teleported to the Marvel Universe and meets Spider-Man and the New Avengers in Marvel Team-Up #14). Mark is so angry that he brutally assaults Levy as they fall through various dimensions, ending with Levy in massive trauma and Mark distressed, believing himself a murderer.

Stranded in an alternate dimension, Mark is discovered by a version of the Guardians of the Globe from 15 years in the future. Atom Eve reveals that she always loved him, and tells Mark to let her present-day self know how he feels about her. Mark, now returned to present time, kisses Eve before the Guardians. Eve and Mark embark on a mission to fight more alien lifeforms, this time Martians under Sequid leadership.

Returning from space, Atom Eve confronts Mark about their relationship. Mark is also assaulted by a female Viltrumite, who reminds him that he is to secure the planet. As the Viltrumite returns to her home, she "captures" a deliberately submissive Allen the Alien. His plan is to meet with Nolan. Allen soon crosses paths with Nolan and a bond is formed between them.

After a fight with Doc Seismic and his minions, Mark learns that Cecil Steadman offered D.A Sinclair a job working for the government to create reanimen soldiers. Mark confronts Cecil at the Pentagon, which predictably ends in a brawl. Mark has to engage the Guardians of the Globe for assistance, as a device planted by Cecil in Mark's ear has Mark at a disadvantage. At the end of the pow-wow, Cecil promises to leave Mark alone, and the Guardians of the Globe suffer some resignations.

Mark begins to train Oliver, whose powers grow at an accelerated rate, granting him power almost on par with Mark's. After Oliver kills the Mauler Twins in a brutal display, Cecil begins a conversation with Oliver. Invincible intervenes, and reminds Cecil not to bother his family. While Mark tries to convince Oliver of the inherent problems of murder, it is revealed that Mark also somewhat agrees with the violent philosophy of Oliver and their father, Nolan.

Multi-Paul, Dupli-Kate's brother, is freed from prison at this stage by his old boss. Further discussions between Mark and Oliver indicate that Oliver's acquiescence to Mark's requests for more peaceful actions may only be attempts to placate Mark. On Earth, Eve finally pushes Mark into consummating their relation, while in space Omni-Man is due for his execution. Allen the Alien initiates a jailbreak that empties the prison, freeing Nolan. Nolan reveals the secret that Viltrumites are near-extinct, with the pure-blooded population reduced to less than fifty individuals.

By now quite insane, Angstrom Levy plans revenge on Mark, the person he blames for his disfigurement. After having spied on Mark for a number of months, Levy initiates his plan to gather evil versions of Mark from other dimensions, and unleash them upon Mark's world. The plan fails, although Rex Splode dies, along with several of the evil Invincibles. Levy escapes to another dimension and is informed that he is now a prisoner by some of the populace of said dimension. Why he doesn't just teleport away isn't fully explained.

Mark then meets a Viltrumite called Conquest. The two end up fighting, with the longest battle of the series so far, spanning four issues. Eve is nearly killed and it is revealed that Cecil and D.A Sinclaire are attempting to extrapolate the reanimen concept to the dead Viltrumites from Levy's attack. Eve manages to regenerate herself and aids Mark in defeating Conquest.

It is then revealed that Eve's self-regeneration seems to have damaged her control of her powers - and that Conquest was not killed, but is held prisoner, to be interrogated by Cecil.

The Sequids that have been building their strength for some time have finally emerged, erupting into the streets. The Guardians of the Globe have their hands full, dealing with the flood of sequids. Invincible was called off to help a Nuclear Power Plant fend off a threat as part of his and Atom Eve's freelance security scheme, completely unaware of the sequid problem. Universa, the queen of a planet in need of power, has come to Earth to drain it of energy. Wielding a staff capable of storing and emitting energy, she proves to be a difficult opponent for Invincible and Atom Eve. Once separated from her staff, however, she goes down without much effort. Once the fight has finished, Cecil shows up to inform them that The Guardians of the Globe need their help with the sequid problem, as they've been completely overrun.

The Guardians of the Globe seem to be prepared for the battle but the sequids have planned ahead and are able to disrupt their strategy. The Guardians and Invincible are on the brink of losing the battle. Therefore, Invincible seeking an easy solution to the problem decides that lethal force is necessary. He then decapitates the sequid host former astronaut Rus Livingtson. The Guardians and Cecil are deeply disturbed by Invincible's actions. Cecil decides that he has to confront Mark on his change of demeanor and his willingness to kill to deal with his enemies. After much reflection, Mark concludes that killing is just the easy way out and resolves to return to his roots as a more traditional superhero.

Meanwhile, Allen takes Nolan to the Coalition of Planets, where they are both tasked with tracking down weapons and individuals capable of defeating Viltrumites. After retrieving a number of weapons and allies for the Coalition, both Allen and Nolan decide to return to Earth to recruit Mark for the upcoming war against the remaining Viltrumites.