Invincible Season 3 Introduced One Of The Comic’s Strongest Villains

Spoilers for “Invincible” to follow.

“Invincible” has wrapped up its third and best season yet. The season 3 finale, “I Thought You’d Never Shut Up,” was a high note to bow out on, adapting a story every fan of the original “Invincible” comic has been waiting for.

Back in season 2, the Viltrumite Anissa (Shantel VanSanten) warned Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) if he didn’t start conquering Earth, then someone much worse would come to test Invincible’s name. Episode 7, “What Have I Done?” concludes with that someone else arriving — Conquest, the oldest of the Viltrumites and their second strongest warrior. That may not sound that impressive when there’s less than 50 Viltrumites leftbut Conquest lives up to Cecil’s nickname for him: “Mr. 10 Times Worse.”

Conquest debuted in “Invincible” issues #61-64; he’s got the signature Viltrumite mustachebut he shows his age with a scar, a bad eye, crooked teeth, and a golden cybernetic arm.

Image Comics

Conquest’s design takes obvious inspiration from Marvel Comics’ Thanos; for example, his artificial arm resembles the Infinity Gauntlet, minus the glowing rainbow gems. (For what it’s worth, “Invincible” writer Robert Kirkman was 13 years old when Thanos’ signature story, 1991’s “The Infinity Gauntlet,” was published — he definitely wasn’t the only young comic fan the story impacted.)

The show’s simple art style doesn’t capture how puggish and wrinkled Ryan Ottley drew Conquest, but the rest of the episode does the comic justice.

Based on pacing alone, I’d been expecting Conquest to appear in the “Invincible” season 3 finale. This was all but confirmed back during episode 6’s set up for the “Invincible War,” when Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown) lets loose several evil versions of Mark on Earth. As in the comic, Conquest shows up at exactly the worst time; when the Earth is already recovering from a previous Viltrumite invasion.

But it’s not just a matter of pacing the show based on the comic. Conquest’s arrival ties the season together well. “Invincible” season 3 kicked off with Mark and Cecil (Walton Goggins) falling out, the latter revealing just how scared he is that Mark can’t be contained. The season has now wrapped up first with literally evil versions of Mark, and then another unrestrained Viltrumite. “Conquest” is a name that has a similar ring as “Invincible,” yet represents its opposite: one is about grinding others under heel, while the other is about withstanding any attack. Hence, the season 3 finale tests whether Invincible can withstand the might of Conquest.