‘Invincible’: Why Omni-Man Really Came to Earth is Finally Revealed — Showrunners Explain the Importance

In Season 4, Episode 2 of Invincible, longtime fans of the Prime Video animated series get the Omni-Man backstory they didn’t know they needed. The episode not only breaks down why he murdered the Guardians of the Globe and turned against Earth after years of posing as its protector, but also provides a deeper understanding of the full weight of the crisis facing the Viltrumites. In doing so, it finally reveals the true reason Omni-Man was sent to conquer Earth in the first place. Warning: Spoilers again for Invincible Season 4 Episode 2, “I’ll Give You the Grand Tour.”

The episode begins with young Viltrumites learning about the history of their people from a teacher (Talon Warbarton) who recounts “The Great Purge,” when the Viltrumites slaughtered anyone deemed weak to forge a stronger empire. He also tells them about Emperor Argall, the ruler whose assassination by the mysterious figure known only as “The Betrayer” threw the empire into turmoil. Stoic and solemn, the children absorb the lesson as part of their brutal upbringing, being molded from an early age into perfect killing machines and future Viltrumite warriors.

When the class is dismissed, the teacher remains behind with two older Viltrumites, revealed to be his parents. In keeping with Viltrumite tradition, they subject him to a savage beating as part of a brutal rite of passage meant to test his strength and resolve. Beaten to a pulp and barely surviving the ordeal, he passes what is known as the “Day of Adulthood,” earning the right to serve the empire and receive his first assignment.

However, on the first day of his dispatchment, disaster strikes the Viltrumites. A mysterious virus begins spreading among his crew, and within days it rips through Viltrum itself. The disease is highly contagious, fast-acting, and nearly 100 percent lethal, threatening to wipe out even the galaxy’s most ruthless warrior race.

Known as the Scourge Virus, the outbreak kills billions upon billions of Viltrumites, nearly wiping out the once unstoppable empire. The virus was so efficient that the trail of corpses left a ring around the Viltrumite planet similar to Saturn. (It is later revealed to have been released by “The Betrayer,” Thaedus (Peter Cullen), who created the Scourge Virus to wipe out the Viltrumite race because he became disillusioned with their cruel, imperialistic practices.)

With only around 50 Viltrumites left alive, the race stands on the brink of extinction. With so few survivors, any future offspring would face severe genetic limitations, making any offspring “inbred and deficient.”

To prevent the rest of the galaxy from sensing weakness, the remaining Viltrumites keep the catastrophe a closely guarded secret. Rather than abandoning their imperial ambitions, they quietly change their strategy. Instead of simply conquering planets for the Viltrumite Empire, they begin sending agents across the universe to breed with compatible species in hopes of rebuilding their numbers. Earth becomes one of those targets.

The young man whose story the episode has been following is revealed to be Nolan Grayson (J.K. Simmons), better known as Omni-Man, who was sent to Earth not just as a conqueror, but as part of a desperate plan to help repopulate the Viltrumite race. As Nolan recounts the truth behind his quest to Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen), he reveals that he was originally sent to Earth with a dual purpose: to find out if Viltrumites can breed with humans, and if humans are genetically compatible to help rebuild the nearly extinct Viltrumite race, then to conquer Earth and any other planet that can retain Viltrumite DNA for the empire. (“Your real mission is to bang your way across the galaxy?” asks an incredulous Allen.)

This mission is the real reason Nolan eventually tried to take over Earth once his son Mark (Steven Yeun) began developing his powers, believing that humans could serve as the foundation for restoring the future of the Viltrumite species. It also explains why Nolan murdered the Guardians of the Globe in the first season, eliminating the only team powerful enough to stop him as he quietly prepared Earth for eventual conquest by the Viltrumite Empire.

Prime Video

Although Mark has not learned the truth yet, the audience’s discovery of it dramatically reframes how we view his identity and his future, as well as Omni-Man and the Viltrumites. From Mark’s perspective, he is still trying to reconcile being half alien while rejecting the violent ideology his father tried to force on him. But the audience now knows something he doesn’t: Mark may actually be one of the most important figures in the survival of the entire Viltrumite race. And that Earth, as well as his brother Oliver’s (Christian Convery) home planet of Thraxa, is in very real danger.

The backstory not only explains Nolan’s sudden turn from hero to antagonist, but also offers deeper insight into the forces that shaped who he is.

“Mark has a really difficult and complex relationship with his Viltrumite heritage,” said showrunner and exec producer Simon Racioppa. “His father is a Viltrum. Whether he likes it or not, he is half Viltramite. Can he paint all Viltramites with the same brush? Obviously, it’s an alien culture. Nolan was brought up in a very different world than Earth, with different values, different consequences. We show a little bit of that and why Nolan is the way he is.”

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“If you don’t shed a little bit of a tear for the Viltrumites, then maybe we haven’t done our job properly. They’re complex people, but they’re not just evil, terrible space boogeymen,” explained Racioppa. “They have a history. Things have happened to them that have made them the way they are, and hopefully that comes across in the show and makes them, you know, complex, layered, and relatable in a very specific way. They’re not one-dimensional space boogeymen, and that’s important to us.”

Coshowrunner and exec producer Robert Kirkman agrees. “Going into the Viltramite War, you don’t want to have these beloved characters that we’ve gotten to know over three and a half seasons or so, fighting these unknowable, evil space tyrants. That’s not going to be compelling. So humanizing them, showing what was, you know, behind them, what makes them tick, very important, as we got into the Viltramite War.”

Invincible, Season 4, Wednesdays, Prime Video