Charlie 👽👻

One key difference between the show and the comic is that no one but Immortal knows about or even suspects Omni-Man of killing the Guardians, so the urgency to tell Mark the truth about Viltrum’s past isn’t there. The comic takes a much softer approach to the rising conflict.

Although the show does include this moment, the context surrounding it is different. Comic Nolan isn’t framed as a man on the run with a dwindling amount of time left the way his show counterpart is. Instead, the conflict is more internalized and contemplative.

Debbie pick up on Omni-Man’s strange behavior, but no one in the comics pieces together the full story. In a lot of ways, Debbie acts almost like a reader surrogate. Omni-Man’s behavior feels off yet we can’t explain why he did what he did. We’re both left in the dark.

The reader is left trying to reconcile these two halves of Nolan. How is the same man who killed the Guardians also the calm, gentle giant that is an amazing father to Mark? Are these two the same man?

Whereas the show peels back these layers more leading up to the fight with Mark, painting Omni-Man as a crazy psychopath on the run for his crimes, the comics portrays Omni-Man more as a father conflicted between two worlds: Earth and Viltrum.

The show and comic respectively share much of the same DNA, but the show took a different approach to fit the medium. With the gift of hindsight and the need to build up to a strong season finale, it makes sense the animated series chose to make the first season a murder mystery.

In the comics, Kirkman plants seeds of doubt that Nolan is truly the perfect father he’s made out to be prior to the murder of the Guardians, however they were always small moments you’d bat an eye at. In retrospect, these moments are eye-opening.

For example, when Mark’s teacher becomes a terrorist, turning his students into biological bombs, Nolan is unfazed when he fails to save one from blowing up.

Similarly, Mark feels the same way when he’s forced to let his teacher explode as he threatens to blow up Mark and Eve. His initial reaction to Omni-Man doing this is feeling unnerved, yet he’s conditioned by Nolan to feel numb to it.

In a way, this moment is a microcosm of Omni-man and Invincible’s relationship early on in the story. Nolan is raising Mark to become a viltrumite who is numb to human suffering. Yet, Nolan is not without those feelings himself, no matter how he tries to suppress them.

Nolan’s Backstory and the History of Viltrum Now that I’ve given you the backdrop of the differences between the comic and show leading up to the confrontation, I’ll begin the analysis of the confrontation itself.

The beginning of Omni-Man’s speech about Viltrum is almost 1-1 with the animated series bar a few details. Nolan talks a bit more about his upbringing and reverence for the empire in the comic.

Once again, the show did an extremely close adaptation to the comic monologue.

Where it differs significantly is the latter half talking about Nolan’s time on Earth. The animated series skims over this and simply says Nolan couldn’t bear to tell Debbie the truth. The comic mirrors this moment with Nolan’s original speech about Viltrum earlier in the story.

“When I met your mother, I knew the only way to enjoy my time here was to actually live as a human.” “I was living the lie a bit too well.” These are Nolan’s true thoughts. When he later says Debbie is nothing more than a pet, I think it’s fair to say he was lying to himself.

Through this speech, we get a better sense of how Nolan truly felt about Earth’s inhabitants. Despite knowing the Guardians would need to be eliminated, Nolan befriended them anyway. These sentiments are real, not artificial. Human kindness rubbed off on him and his cold heart.

What interests me is Nolan’s use of the word “worried”. The straightforward interpretation is that he’s fearful that the Viltrumites will punish him for insubordination if he fails to take over Earth. However, I also believe Nolan is fearful of losing his sense of identity.

When Omni-Man is trying to convince Mark to help enslave Earth, I think Nolan is also convincing himself of it too. As a proud viltrumite raised to conquer planets, this rhetoric about these short-lived people meaning nothing to them is deeply ingrained, yet he knows it’s false.

Mark rightfully calls him a liar. Invincible knows his father is not the cold-blooded monster he’s portraying himself as.

“You said yourself that you lost your way. You lived as a human. While raising me you said you were happy. You can’t make me believe my life with you was a lie.” Both of them are refusing to accept a part of themselves: Mark’s life was a lie and Nolan enjoyed being human.

“You dad. I’d still have you.” With that simple phrase, Invincible won. This entire time Nolan had convinced himself viltrumites were incapable of harboring compassion for these lowly mortals. However, the fragility of love is what makes it something worth protecting.

Mark’s humanity allows him to see through the self-deception of the viltrumites. His longevity doesn’t make Mark abandon the concept of love altogether towards non-viltrumites. Instead of the fear of loss, Mark chooses to focus on the love he’ll continue to share with his father.

As Nolan leaves the planet, these feelings of love and compassion he’s been trying to bury weigh deeply on him. He knows what he did was wrong. Nolan is just as human as Mark, despite only have lived on Earth for a “short” few years

His new life on Thraxa is proof of this. Thraxans are even more short-lived than humans. The Omni-Man of the past would view his current self as a fool for starting life anew with such a “fragile” species.

In the end, I think the animated series shares the same emotional beats as the original comic, although some moments and events are altered to fit the animated format. The main difference between them is the murder mystery aspect of the show which is absent in the comics.