Because of the way it so deftly handles Omni-Man’s betrayal, I’m extremely interested in how future seasons of the show deal with his redemption arc, because (spoiler for the comics) he does eventually make another face turn.
What was never repaired (in part because he engaged in precisely the same sort of bad behavior, repeatedly, in the ensuing years) was my respect for him. The hurt from that sort of betrayal never really went away, and it was only later that I repaired my relationship with my father. How could he have done this? How could we have not known? What does life look like going forward? The scenes of Mark and Debbie loafing around their dark house, Nolan’s absence weighing on everything, felt to me precisely the same as those following my parents’ divorce. This is not remotely the same thing, morally, as having a father who is a murderous alien invader, but the aftershock weathered by Mark and his mother Debbie looks much the same. The revelation about his sexual orientation caused me to question a lot of stuff, but it was secondary to the revelation he’d been cheating basically constantly for years, and that now I would be expected to accept all of this, by court order. Eventually my brothers and I were having visitation with him on weekends while adjusting to a completely different truth about his whole being. Every typically shitty custody dispute and bitter divorce proceeding happened. By then I was maybe 12 or 13, and it was the beginning of a complete breakdown of our family. My father came out as a gay man shortly after his mother died.
The rawness of that betrayal, and how Mark must reckon with it in the face of an impending war, is one of the things that sets the story apart. It’s actually conquering the world for Viltrum, the planet his father hails from. It just so happens that the family business is not, as Mark Grayson thought, saving the world from supervillains, alien invasions, asteroid strikes, or kaiju. He’s a loving, nurturing man who is bringing his son up in the family business.
#Mk 11 omni man series
Omni-Man-Nolan Grayson, father of series lead Invincible-is not a stranger or absentee like so many others who turn out to be evil. Invincible, both the Amazon series that just had its gory, revelatory season finale and the comic on which it’s based, stands out from most father-child tales in one respect that’s always fascinated me: The father’s heel turn is complicated, deep, and a far truer betrayal than any of the examples above. It was a very short list, and neither of us were on it. A friend of mine-a fellow Millennial-once sat with me as the two of us listed out all of our common acquaintances, and tried to create a comprehensive list of who among them had something approaching a normal relationship with their biological fathers. You’re reminded of it every time a father fucks up, which is constantly.
Down here in the real world, though, I understand why these stories have always been with us.
0 kommentar(er)
