Invincible Dares to Redeem Its Most Heinous Villain

Summary:

• Omni-Man is Invincible ’s most overwhelmingly disgusting villain who has millions of civilian deaths on his hands.
• After his heinous crimes in Season 1, the second series tries to sell the audience the idea of Omni-Man’s redemption.
• It will definitely be hard to convince viewers that a mass-murdering sociopath can just change his ways and join the good guys.

Out of all the current animated TV shows, Invincible features some of the most believable and compelling characters — and also some of the most despicable ones. You know exactly who we’re talking about, don’t you? Omni-Man, the father of the protagonist, is the most devilish (non)human being in the series, but guess what — in Season 2, we’re now supposed to believe that he’s changed for the better.

Omni-Man Is a Mass-Murdering Sociopath

Nolan Grayson is not the type of father his sons should look up to. His alter-ego, Omni-Man, has long been pretending to be a superhero while in reality, he was the most heinous villain on Earth. His crimes are so numerous and disgusting it wouldn’t make sense to list them all: his murdering the Guardians of the Globe superhero team and then proceeding to wipe out millions of civilians speaks volumes already.

Omni-Man is a proud sociopath with no regard for human lives. “They were weak, short-lived, barely a species. They shouldn't matter to me,” is his official stance on humankind. But all of a sudden, after Nolan’s terrifying acts in Season 1, Invincible Season 2 tries to convince us that… Omni-Man is not so bad, after all. What?!

Is Omni-Man’s Redemption Arc Even Possible?

Season 2’s Nolan seemingly starts to regret his previous decisions. The crimes he committed begin weighing heavily on his psyche, and Omni-Man is not so sure about his righteousness anymore; at least, that’s what Invincible’s writers want us to think.

“We want to show you that [Nolan is] a complicated person. He's more than just a mass murderer. Even you know, though, he did some terrible things; he's feeling bad about that. I want to explore that. Can you rehabilitate someone from that kind of situation? I don't know; I think that will be a question for our audience. But we're going to get into that pretty deeply,” Invincible showrunner Simon Racioppa told The Direct.

Omni-Man is definitely essential to putting an end to the Viltrumites’ rule. But even though Nolan’s redemption is the ultimate comic canon, we can’t wrap our heads around it. The show will have to do the impossible to convince its audience that a person as unspeakably heinous as Omni-Man can change, because so far, we’re just not buying it.

Source: The Direct