Invincible: Season 4
23/04/2026
Epic. Only one aspect is slowly starting to show.
Photo by Courtesy of Prime - © Amazon Prime.
The feeling of eagerly and impatiently waiting each week for a new episode of a great show is one of the entertainment industry's best effects. But such is the beauty and outcome of good work. This about sums up what feeling Season 4 of Invincible gave me. It is a rare feeling these days sometimes, given the hit-and-miss ratio of TV shows. As mentioned in last week's article, Invincible, just like The Boys, has come out at a perfect time in the superhero overinflation and seeming fatigue. Both are comic book adaptations, and both share a more mature viewpoint on the genre, which came at the aforementioned time that allowed both of these shows to thrive. Yet Invincible does something different as opposed to the satirical nature of The Boys. Invincible serves as a slight reconstruction of the classical superhero storytelling. It's a story that takes superhero conventions completely seriously and then asks what the emotional consequences of those conventions actually are. Using superhero physics as the explicit, but human psychology as the implicit. The show operates in a more three-dimensional character space, and that is where it thrives.
Season 1 was phenomenal, and the show has only become more popular since then. The adaptation of the comic book is clearly working. Season 4, however, is the strongest season that the show has had since the first one. It is now that all of the intertwined character plots are starting to pay off, and the story goes off exponentially to edge-of-your-seat gripping moments. The Viltrumite War was something spectacular to behold. For one, I love how the internet switched from complaining that Thragg was shown weak to absolutely apologizing one episode later. Thragg is an absolute menace of a character to throw into the plot, and his payoff is amazing. Nolan's character redemption arc is treated perfectly, and he steals most of the season. Yet not even by far, perhaps a minuscule margin, as there are a lot of good performances and moments for most of the characters. Mark also has very mature development (and it's hard to top some of his coming-of-age moments). The use of his PTSD in the last episode, along with other consequences of his superhero life, really ups the emotional progression that he, as the protagonist, keeps going through. Overall, in fairness, the voice acting is great, and even though it does take most of the budget of the show, it really brings the impact that the show needs in order to pull off the emotions of the characters it is portraying in an animated format. However, this is where one aspect starts affecting another aspect of the show, which is starting to emerge as something that is beginning to hold back the full potential of the show.
Photo by Courtesy of Prime - © Amazon Prime.
The animation. When it's good, it really adds to the storytelling impact; that is a no-brainer. Yet the inconsistency in the quality of animation that Invincible is currently suffering from is starting to be hailed across the internet culture. The problem is that at some big moments, it is quite good, and then for the lower beats or filler scenes, you can clearly notice the drop in quality. A lot of people online are comparing it to anime quality that is being continuously delivered from Japan, along with the fact that Amazon Prime clearly has the money to spend on a project that is delivering as well as Invincible currently is. Since most of the budget goes to the high-profile voice actors, and also, since it has a yearly release schedule, the show must cut corners in order to meet the deadline. However, I cannot fathom why a better arrangement cannot be made. For a show of this level of popularity now, surely more budget can be allocated to increasing the quality of visuals. Comparing the show to anime quality is also not deserved as animators in Japan often work way overtime and crunch themselves in order to deliver on the timeline of production. Yet mostly no animator is ever to blame, I say, each artist always wants to give their best if they believe in their work, especially when making such a sublime show like Invincible.
Overall, the season is still very solid and spectacular in storytelling, hence why the animation does not bother me as much as it would if the first department were lacking. My hopes are that in the long run, the quality of animation does not impact the total potential of the show. Yet so far, even with that kink in its armour, the show really is...