Who Is ‘Invincible’s Oliver Grayson in the Comics? 34v1x

Editor’s Note: The below contains spoilers for ‘Invincible’ Season 2 as well as the ‘Invincible’ Comics.

The Big Picture 2e4m3u

• The second season of
  Invincible
  focuses more on the Viltrumites and the introduction of Mark’s half-brother, Oliver Grayson.
• Nolan’s complex past on planet Thraxa and his new family dynamic set the stage for Oliver’s future impact on the series.
• Oliver’s idolization of Omni-Man and his conflicting beliefs with Mark will likely drive an intriguing storyline in future seasons.

The second season of Invincible was generous with its supply of Viltrumites. Up until then, the Viltrumites were mostly presented as an insurmountable, albeit vague, threat. Towards the halfway mark of Season 2, though, the Viltrumites became more concrete as the show excellently conveyed the true scale of their powers and their Saiyan-like personality. During the battle on planet Thraxa, we learned about their ruthless fighting philosophy — fight like you’re trying to kill your opponent. As the season progressed, we also got to learn more about their nature.

There was the decisive, authoritative figure of General Kregg (Clancy Brown) who ordered Mark (Steven Yeun) to conquer planet earth. There’s the icy cold Anissa (Shantel VanSanten) who arrived at Earth to check in on Mark’s progress. And there was even a brief fanboy moment where the soldiers guarding Nolan on Viltrum tell him how they looked up to him as kids. But the most unique Viltrumite introduced this season was none other than Mark’s half-brother, Oliver Grayson (Lincoln Bodin). While the show is yet to delve deeper into storylines dedicated to the purple Viltrumite, Oliver plays a significant role in the Invincible comics.

Nolan Fathered Another Son After Disappearing From Earth 5v262p

The battle between Mark and Nolan (J. K. Simmons) at the end of Season 1 was a watershed event for all the characters of the show. It forced humankind to acknowledge their helplessness in the face of cosmic threats that are beyond their comprehension. It shattered the illusion of a happy family that Debbie (Sandra Oh) and Mark had been carrying for years. And even though Nolan was the reason behind all the destruction, the consequences of his actions eventually caught up with his conscience. After leaving Earth, Nolan drifts aimlessly through empty space, regretting the things he did. He was just about to surrender himself to a black hole when he saw a spaceship being sucked inside. Without thinking, he rescues the ship and its alien inhabitants hailing from the planet Thraxa.

Planet Thraxa boasts a populace of fragile insectoid creatures with a drastically shortened life span of about a year. So, when they met a thousand-year-old, super strong Viltrumite, they saw him as a god-like figure and chose him to be their leader. Nolan, by this point, had grown to be kinder and accepted to lead them. In the meantime, he also married one of the Thraxans, Andressa (Rhea Seehorn) and fathered a child with her. But Nolan’s newfound peace was disrupted when Viltrumites planned to invade Thraxa and punish Nolan for abandoning his post. So, with a little deception, he invites Mark to his new planet and asks for help. Mark reluctantly agrees, but the two ultimately lose the battle. Nolan is taken prisoner by the Viltrumites, but Mark is spared and given Nolan’s incomplete task of conquering Earth.

But before Mark can leave for earth, Andressa pleads with him to take his half-brother with him, since she will likely die before the infant can complete his first sentence. It’s apparent that Mark feels a connection with Oliver and agrees to take him to earth. Back home, Debbie is initially taken aback by the news of Nolan’s other child, but she eventually accepts him as her own and names him Oliver. When Cecil learns of this, he tries to raise Oliver inside a government facility, but Debbie strongly opposes this and decides to raise him herself. She hires a nanny specialized in raising superpowered kids and after spending a few months with her, she comments that Oliver learns at an astonishing rate, which might be because of his part-Thraxan genes, causing him to age quicker.

Oliver Grayson Idolizes His Father Omni-Man in the ‘Invincible’ Comics 5e4244

We don’t get to see much of Oliver in Season 2 since he’s still an infant, but he will definitely have a big role to play in the seasons. And if the show follows closely with comics, as it has in the past, Oliver will be the most interesting character in the show with a complex relationship with his father. In the comics, Oliver’s combination of diverse DNA makeup gives him unique powers, one of which is his ability to everything. He even re the events that unfolded around him when he was just a baby. The version of Nolan that he grew up around was drastically different from the one witnessed by Mark. The Nolan that he knew was a savior of a planet, a loving husband, and a protective father.

Since Nolan wasn’t around when Oliver was growing up, he never saw the vindictive, wrathful nature of his father. The void left by Nolan essentially made him a silhouetted figure with mythic tales, making it easy for Oliver to idolize him. But Oliver keeps hearing of the horrific details pertaining to his father, especially through his older brother, Mark. And since this version of his father is so far removed from the one he knew and idolized, it creates a conflict within him. He takes it upon himself to restore his father’s name to its former glory and adopts the moniker of Kid Omni-Man when he debuts as a superhero. Oliver’s idolization of his father also has to do with the fact that, because of his utterly alien parentage, memories and appearance, Oliver always felt like an outsider on Earth, naturally considering his father as the only person who could truly understand him.

Mark and Oliver Have Differing Philosophies in the Comics c36

Oliver’s idolization of his father goes hand-in-hand with his subscription to a nihilistic philosophy. And this puts him at odds with his older brother, Mark, acting as a foil to Mark’s idealism and forgiving nature. Oliver begins as a strong side-kick to Mark, often helping him defeat powerful villains, but as he grows, he starts developing his own questionable ideas of justice. Unlike Mark, Oliver doesn’t believe that the villains should be rehabilitated. Instead, he argues that they should be killed lest they come back to cause further destruction. During his very first solo adventure, Oliver takes on the Mauler Twins. And since Oliver himself doesn’t realize the true scale of his strength, he ends up killing them both in a gruesome manner, even after they’ve surrendered. There’s a point in the comics when Mark asks Oliver if he agrees with their father’s philosophy, and Oliver reveals that sometimes he does.

Oliver doesn’t hold the same level of empathy towards humans as his older brother does. The two constantly argue over it, and Mark tries to teach Oliver that human lives are invaluable. But Oliver disagrees and reasons that human lives can’t be that significant since they give up so easily on their existence and constantly kill each other. There’s even a point when Oliver attempts to spread a virus that would kill all the Viltrumites, and possibly, even the humans. Circumstances don’t allow him to go through with the plan, but this shows us the darker shade of Oliver. Still, despite his twisted notions, Oliver never truly crosses into the dark side. What grounds him is his immense love for his family, and as he grows older, he starts to see the beauty of human life in the same way that his father did decades ago.

In the final episode of Season 2, after Angstrom takes Mark’s family hostage, he reveals that Oliver doesn’t exist in any other known dimension. This means that Oliver is an anomaly, a result of countless unlikely variables coming together, and will probably have far-reaching consequences for Invincible’s primary universe. We’re yet to see if Oliver’s story will play out the same way it did in the comic, but one thing’s for certain: Oliver Grayson is a wildcard who promises to shake up the world of Invincible.

Invincible Season 2 is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the US.

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