This article contains spoilers for the television specialInvincible: Atom Eveand Season 1 ofInvincible.On July 21st 2023, more than two years since the release of the final episode ofInvincibleSeason 1,Invincible: Atom Evepremiered on Amazon Prime Video. Although it’s listed as a television special on IMDB, its nearly hour-long run time makes it feel like anInvinciblefeature-length film.
Invincible: Atom Eveaims to fill in the gaps in the backstory of one of the shows most beloved characters, Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs), so fans will definitely want to check it out beforeSeason 2 drops in November 2023. The special centers on Atom Eve’s (Aria Kane/Jazlyn Ione) life from her birth, to the discovery of her powers, to her first victories as a superhero at the age of twelve. It also features an epilogue that may reveal some intriguing information about the Grayson family.
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What happens in Invincible: Atom Eve?
The special begins with a characterfrom theInvinciblecomics, Dr. Elias Brandyworth (Stephen Root), saving Samantha (Atom Eve) at birth. After working under Steven Erickson (Lance Reddick) at the Global Defense Agency to create an organic super-weapon by artificially impregnating a destitute woman named Polly, Brandyworth deems his own experimentation unethical. He decides that he must save Polly and her unborn superhuman child from the rapacious Erickson. Brandyworth defies orders by taking Polly to a hospital for the delivery of her child, and when Erickson arrives to retrieve his “weapon,” Brandyworth lies and says both mother and child have died.
Of course, this isn’t true—for neither Samantha nor Polly, as is revealed at the end of the episode. It is now seven years later, and Samantha has been raised by a perfectly human couple without any knowledge of her supernatural origin. Samantha is aprecocious and exceptionally intelligent child, if a bit quiet. Her parents misinterpret her uncommon insight into the molecular structure of her surroundings as social ineptitude Only when a teenage babysitter tells them about Samantha’s expansive knowledge of chemistry do they realize her intelligence and elect to send her to a school for gifted children. Still, Samantha grows up feeling alienated from her intolerant parents and unimpressed by her peers. She finds friendship only with the girl across the street, Val (Madison Calderon).
Five years later, Samantha and Val remain best friends, though not for long. An epiphanicmoment of super-awakeningresults in Samantha transforming her chemistry textbook into solid glass, thus revealing her powers to herself. She tries to show Val the amazing things she now knows she can do, but her display of power frightens Val, who runs away and does not reappear for the rest of the special. In this time of total abandonment, Samantha takes up superhero work at the age of twelve, and with quite an aptitude for it to boot. After incapacitating a couple of criminals in an alley, Brandyworth approaches her and tells her about the circumstances of her birth (tweaking a couple of minor details). Brandyworth begs Samantha to stop using her powers, as he fears it may lead Erickson to discover her. The camera then pans to reveal that an aerial drone has indeed witnessed their entire encounter.
Eventually, Erickson tracks Samantha down and sends to attack her the various other children whom he has failed to properly weaponize in Brandyworth’s absence. Samantha defeats them one-by-one, several of them with great ease, though Brandyworth must save her at one point with his car. She ultimately does battle with the most powerful of her siblings, Phase Two (Jacob Tremblay), whose body simply gives out just before Samantha’s falls unconscious. She awakens to find that Erickson has captured her. He has also apparently kept Polly, her mother, alive for all this time in an attempt to recreate her power in the amorphous children thatnow lay dead and dismemberedby Samantha’s hands. Erickson kills both Polly and Brandyworth, but Samantha escapes, erases Erickson' memory, and returns home unscathed.
How does Invincible: Atom Eve end?
The special ends on a somber note, with Samantha’s would-be father and mother—Brandyworth and Polly—lost forever. Samantha’s has never felt overly connected to her adoptive parents, Adam and Betsy, and the special concludes by cementing that unfortunate relationship. The audience learns upon Samantha’s return home thatit is her birthday, and her parents have been waiting up for her. Her father gets angry with her and, not willing to share with them her true reason for being out, she opts to flee to her room.
The final image of the special is a fabricated family photograph Eve has manufactured to replace a real photo of her adoptive family that she has broken. The symbolism is obvious: Samantha’s sense of retrospective kinship with Brandyworth, Polly, and her siblings has superseded the already tenuous familial bond between her and her parents. This explains her absolute dedication to hero work displayed in Season 1 ofInvincible.Distanced from her adoptive parents, she seeks a sense of belonging in hero work, which she associates with Brandyworth and Polly’s “family.”
What happens in the epilogue of Invincible: Atom Eve?
Just as the special draws to a close, a title card reads: “Where was Mark Grayson during all this?” The ensuing epilogue depicts what might seem a typical evening in the lives of Debbie (Sandra Oh), Nolan (J. K. Simmons), and Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun). Nolan has just returned home, presumably from hero work. He greets Debbie, and the two share a kiss before Mark charges into the room covered head-to-toe in duct tape, claiming to be “Duct Tape Man.” Debbie tells Nolan to finish preparing dinner while she helps Mark take off his “costume,” and for a moment the tone of the scene feels light and cute.
The end of this epilogue, however, shifts modes quickly, clearly intended toevoke the chilling end of Season 1. Nolan remarks, “That boy is never getting his powers, is he?” Debbie walks off to tend to Mark, and the audience gets a close-up of Nolan’s face, contorted with violent intent. He looks as if he might kill them both at this very moment, but something gives him pause. He relaxes and relents, slumping his massive shoulders and covering his face in distress before the final cut to black.
What does this mean? To readers of theInvinciblecomics, it means that the Amazon series is likely to take Omniman’s character arc in a familiar direction. Season 1ends on a somewhat ambiguous note. Fans of the series who have not read the comics may not have known what to make of Omniman seeming to give up his assault on Mark just as definitive victory for him became apparent. This single concluding shot has the power to clear that confusion right up. The utter devastation and paralysis evident on Omniman’s face tels viewers that he has felt a tenderness toward humans for a lot longer than he lets on in Season 1. He doesn’t just allow Mark to live because of his Viltrumite powers—he feels a legitimate fondness for his earthling family, even as he already believes that Mark’s Viltrumite genes will never activate. Maybe viewers can expect Season 2 to explore that idea in-depth when it comes later this year.
InvincibleSeason 1 andInvincible: Atom Eveare available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video.
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