Inside Invincible season 2 part 1 and the "ramifications" of those surprises, according to co-showrunner Simon Racioppa

Being a superhero is tough – just ask Invincible protagonist Mark Grayson.

Mark’s life has turned upside down since he embarked on a crime-fighting career in the first season of the animated series, and things aren’t set to get any easier in the first half of Season 2, which premieres on Prime Video this month. Don’t take our word for it, either: Invincible co-showrunner Simon Racioppa said as much when Popverse chatted with him recently, confirming that – as in the original Image Comics series by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley – Mark still has plenty of harsh lessons left to learn.

In this interview, Racioppa breaks down Mark’s Invincible Season 2, Part 1 journey in detail, including how it will impact our hero’s character arc in future seasons. He also explains how new antagonist Angstrom Levy is like Batman’s nemesis the Joker, addresses the possibility of more Walking Dead veterans joining the show’s cast, and unpacks Season 2’s shocking opening scene.

Note: This interview contains major spoilers for Invincible Season 2, Episode 1, and has been edited for length and clarity.

Popverse: Invincible Season 2 opens with Mark Grayson still coming to terms with the revelation that Omni-Man, was not the superhero (or father) he thought he was. Is it fair to say that Mark's unresolved issues with his dad will drive his character arc in the second season?

Simon Racioppa: Absolutely. One of the things we promise you in Invincible that is different from a lot of other adaptations is that we never wipe the slate clean. Season 2 starts a month after the events of the end of Season 1, the last episode of the season, and everything is still 100% fresh in everyone's mind. All the trauma, all the lies, all the deceit, the death, the destruction, everything is still there. And we picked that right up in Mark's character, and Debbie and Eve and Amber and all of our other characters.

You don't get over that kind of betrayal in a month – you’re just barely scratching the surface of it. So, the ramifications of what Omni-Man does to Mark, to Debbie, to the world, really we're just at the start of it at the start of Season 2 and it's going to echo all the way through Season 2 and beyond Season 3. And I'm sure if we get to do a Season 4 or 5, we're going to still have bits of that echoing that far along because that was the scope of what Nolan did to Mark and to Debbie and his family and to everybody else.

While Mark is now at pains to point out he’s nothing like Omni-Man, Season 2 sees him take on a similar role to his dad