Omni-Man Transitions From Villain to Hero on 'Invincible'
Invincible's fourth season has brought the series back to its central conflict: the father-son dynamic between Nolan and Mark Grayson. After Omni-Man betrayed his son at the end of the first season, there have been over two seasons of episodes showing the all-powerful Viltrumite warrior taking time in isolation to evaluate his life and the mistakes he made with Invincible.
Now that the two have reunited and joined forces to stop the Viltrum Empire from further destroying the galaxy, viewers get to see all of the progress Omni-Man has made since the first episodes of the show, and the Prime Video series is peaking because of this development.
Season 4, Episode 6, "You Look Horrible", was Omni-Man's finest hour yet in terms of resuscitating his image with his family and the viewers watching at home. With Mark recovering from a near-fatal conflict with Conquest, Nolan and his younger son, Oliver, train on a barren planet and forge a bond that is much more authentic than the one Nolan faked with Mark early in the series.
Nolan now understands that fatherhood is what makes him human and separates him from the immorality displayed by the rest of his people. He gets to use Oliver as a do-over for the sins he committed with Mark, and this will also let Mark see the changes in his dad's personality.
Invincible's redemption arc is awesome because it subverts the anti-hero genre that has become so prevalent in TV over the last two decades. Walter White, Tony Soprano, and so many other bad men just kept declining as their series went on. They started with a gray area and gradually broke bad until there was nothing left in their souls.
Omni-Man was already in the depths of immorality at the start of this series; he just didn't show it to his loved ones right away. He then moves in the opposite direction of his anti-hero forefathers. With every good deed and genuine sign of fatherhood that Nolan displays, he erases some part of his evil past and reveals to himself and those around him that he possessed more good in his destiny than he may have originally imagined.