It's About Time

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"**It's About Time**" is the first episode of the first season of *Invincible*, and the first episode of the show overall.

## Synopsis

When Mark Grayson finally inherits powers from his superhero father, it's a dream come true. But there's more to being a hero than just choosing a name and costume.

## Plot

At the White House, two men talk about having to get recertified in superhuman evasion training soon, which one of them mentions he doesn't like it. His colleague Steve tells him it is part of the job. He is indifferent about the upcoming training because he will be missing it. He is taking his stepson on a two-week vacation to London for spring break. Steve's coworker is curious about why Steve was excited to go, considering the difficulties Steve and his wife, Molly, experienced raising Matt. However, Steve mentions that Matt had pulled himself together and their problems were behind them now. He mentions that he never had a kid of his own, but he was proud to call Matt his son.

Suddenly, the ground starts shaking and splitting. From underground, two supervillains known as the Mauler Twins rise, but one complains that he should have checked his clone's calculations, since they were supposed to be inside the building. The other one gets angry and complains that he is not the clone. They are shot at, but they are unfazed. Steve shoots the one of the twins, and shakily orders him to back off. The twin approaches him, and Steve shoots him once again, damaging the twin's eye this time. Before he could kill Steve, the Guardians of the Globe approach the Mauler Twins and order civilians to be evacuated while they fight. The twin whose eye was shot asks War Woman if she could not have sat this fight out and let them kill the president, but she tells him that it was not her style.

The heroes help civilians evacuate while the Mauler Twins broke through the walls to make it inside. One of the twins throws a woman, so Darkwing catches her. However, when they fall to the ground, the twin throws a tank, which forces him to use his strength to protect them both from being crushed. He was not able to get them both out, so he managed to get the woman out using a grappling hook. When it appeared he would be crushed, Omni-Man lifted the tank and helped him get out.

The Mauler Twins kept on fighting the heroes, while they helped every civilian escape the White House. Soon it was just the heroes against the twins, who were swiftly defeated once they had no more civilians to distract the heroes with.

Mark Grayson was in the bathroom, calmly reading a comic. Soon, his mother walked in on him to grab soap, which annoyed him and forced him to cover. Once they got downstairs, they watch the news, in which the Mauler Twins' attack on the White House was reported. Mark told her that the Guardians were there as well, and Debbie mentioned that the White House was rebuilt very frequently at that point. Nolan makes it home and kisses his wife, who tells him that they should get him out of that suit. Mark complains that his parents should not talk about sex in front of him, but his mother tells him that he should be happy to hear them express their love. They mention they would be going to Berlin, which makes Mark jealous. However, his father tells him that he could go himself once his powers kicked in. Mark leaves for school, and looks at his father fly away with his mother. He tries flying himself, but does not manage to do it and instead gets embarrassed when he finds out somebody was seeing him jump up and down.

At school, his friend William Clockwell was surprised that the Guardians had let the Mauler Twins get that close to the President, but Mark points out that they had not made it inside the building and that Omni-Man was there too. William calls him an Omni-Maniac and teases him. He asks Mark if he wanted to play a game, but Mark mentions that he has a job and tells him that comic books are expensive. Down the hall, Todd teases a girl, who tells him not to harass her. He insists on grabbing her arm and not letting go, which makes Mark angry and he approaches Todd, who was way bigger than he was. He punched Mark, who was only saved by Amber who kicked Todd in his genital area. Once Todd left, Mark was thanked, but left bruised.

Later, Mark takes out the trash at his job, which is not an easy task for him. However, he picks up a second bag and throws it very far, discovering his powers had kicked in, which makes him say "It's about time."

When Mark gets home, Debbie tells him that she had heated up German bratwurst for him. He tells her that he had an interesting day. Nolan makes it home and tells them he had been fighting a dragon in Hong Kong and gets ready to listen to Mark's day. He told them that he had been getting his powers, but his father does not react until Debbie kicks him. Nolan congratulates him, and tells him that they would train the next day. However, Mark could not sleep and remembers when his father told him that he was from a planet called Viltrum and had great strength, could fly and moved at superspeed, leaving Viltrum in order to protect Earth. He told Mark that things would start changing for Mark when he started puberty, which excited Mark. He leaves his room, convinced he would be able to fly and jumps off his roof after convincing himself he finds he can fly now. He soars through the sky, but nearly crashes into a plane, which sends him to the atmosphere, and he starts losing consciousness. When Mark awakes, he finds he is close to the ground and crashes into the street in front of his house.

He wakes up at 6:00 AM, very tired and his father tells him they would train. Once they are in the sky, his father tells him he would get the hang of flying, having to focus at first. His father tells him that flying could tire him, and to use momentum in order to relax from time to time. He told his son to relax and realized Mark had practiced the night before. He tells him to land, but Mark had a hard time doing so and eventually crashed into the ground. Nolan told him to hit him and to use his whole body while doing it, even practicing while flying. Nolan showed Mark how to punch, and hurt Mark, which Nolan told him was part of his preparation.

At home, Debbie reads, and sees Mark go to his room. She asks Nolan how bad the training had gone, and he says that he had pushed their son very hard since it was what he needed. She asks if maybe he had pushed him too hard, which makes Nolan very mad. Debbie asks him what had gotten into him, and he admits he did not know, but thinks that maybe their lives would have been better if Mark had not gotten his powers.

The next day, William asks Mark if he was still sore from Todd's punches, but Mark says he was fine. Todd approaches Mark and puts him up against a locker, telling him he would hit him. Mark asks him to hit him as hard as he could, and asked him to repeat his punches when they did not hurt him. Todd called him a freak and left.

Mark realized he needed something to punch in order to blow off steam and hears gunfire. Three criminals run from the police after robbing a place. Mark fights the big criminal and manages to hurt him. Omni-Man approached him and told him he looked ridiculous, also mentioning that he had skipped a few steps since he had caused a lot of destruction. Mark asks his father to hit him, since he was not ready before, but his father told him that he would not hit him. Mark grew desperate and told his father he knew that he did not believe in him, but he wanted to prove he was strong enough and wanted to be like him. Nolan hugs his son and tells him that he would be, then telling him to follow him.

They fly to a tailor, where he tells Mark he would take him shopping for a suit. Art Rosenbaum greets Mark and tells him it was a pleasure to meet him, and gets Mark excited. Art hands him a suit, but Mark was not sure about orange and yellow and wanted something more iconic, which Art understood. Art told him that he needed a name from him so he could grab inspiration from there, telling him to let him know later.

Debbie calls Mark, but finds he is not home. She hears a crash close to her and Mark exits a small crater created by the impact. Mark tells her he was practicing his landings and apologizes for the destruction he was causing in the backyard, but also said that he needed to be better. However, his mother told him he needed to sleep since he had school the following day and she had to work. Mark told his mother to make him go to sleep, and she asks if the fact that she could not physically move him made him feel strong and Mark simply said that what he was doing was important to him.

Debbie asks him if he remembers his former bullies, and she told him about drama in her life to make him feel better. She also tells him that she was still there for him, but now instead of them being together, he was now more inclined to spend time with his father, which she understood. However, Mark says that he was nothing like his father and was more like her, asking her how he could ever live up to everything his father had done. She tells him he did not have to, and only had to be the best version of himself.

The next day, Nolan told Mark he seemed tired while they played catch while throwing a baseball around the world. Mark told him he was scared and was worried he might not be able to be a hero, but Nolan told him that it was the beginning of a long journey for both of them and told him that it was okay to be scared but needed to push through. His father told him that kids his age believed they were invincible, but he actually was invincible.

Feeling inspired, Mark rushes to Art's shop and tells him he has his name ready. Later, he sits on top of a construction crane with his new suit and flies through his city. As he did this, however, he saw a laser attack from the distance. Killcanon, the super-criminal shooting it was being shot at by cops, but this did not bother him. Mark arrived at the scene and punched Killcanon through several walls and through the street until the villain could not move. Standing victorious, Mark introduces himself as "Invincible".

Olga tells Red Rush that he should be nice to Aquarus. He says he tries, but during the conversation, he rushes to fight a villain, which angers Olga since she felt she did not have his attention. Red Rush apologizes, but is called to fight once again, so he uses his superspeed to rush to the scene.

A man tells The Immortal that he would make Denver explode, so The Immortal throws him into space until he is called elsewhere. Aquarus was underwater sleeping, but was awakened by an alarm telling him there was action, which excited him.

Connie tells Holly that with their third quarter roll-out of Haven Storm 4.0, their market share could rise, but Connie mentions that what she wants is a spectacular year for the world until she got called into action. She dressed as War Woman and left.

At his house, Nikki is excited when a shapeshifter manages to expand himself beyond what he had ever done before. He gets called to action and leaves. At a photo shoot, another woman is called and she leaves as well.

As two men try breaking into a building, they get scared about Darkwing who had seen them. He attacks both of them and manages to bring them down easily, handcuffing them and asking them about their boss. He was called and told them he would check with them the next day before leaving in his jet.

The heroes meet, but realize that none of the other Guardians made the alert. Red Rush senses the presence of Omni-man and narrowly saves The Immortal from being decapitated using his super speed. Realising his betrayal, the Guardians attack Omni-Man. Omni-Man takes a few punches from Red Rush before catching him by his wrist and horrifically crushing his skull while the other Guardians watch in shock and terror.

Martian Man wraps himself around Omni-Man, and the remaining Guardians fight for their lives. Omni-Man continues to progressively overpower and further slaughter them, smashing Darkwing's head to pieces against the floor, and driving his fist through Green Ghost's skull who catches her colleague's corpse. He uses her body as a shield against Aquarus's attack and, after dealing with War Woman's heavy strike, kills him with her mace. An enraged Martian Man once again traps and subdues Omni-Man briefly while the two remaining Guardians, The Immortal and War Woman, batter him, drawing whole puddles of blood. Eventually, Omni-Man rips Martian Man's head to pieces, punches a hole through The Immortal's stomach, and breaks War Woman's neck. The last Guardian to live, The Immortal stares at him, still conscious, and, weakly, yet decidedly asks him what drove him to commit the rampage. Omni-Man, without responding, decapitates him and, heavily injured, collapses himself in exhaustion among the remains of his betrayed friends.

## Cast

#### Starring

* Steven Yeun - Invincible
* Sandra Oh - Debbie Grayson
* J.K. Simmons - Omni-Man

#### Featuring The Voices Of

* Mahershala Ali - Titan
* Zazie Beetz - Amber Bennett
* Lauren Cohan - War Woman
* Chad L. Coleman - Martian Man
* Michael Cudlitz - Red Rush
* Chris Diamantopoulos - Donald Ferguson
* Grey Griffin - Monster Girl / Shrinking Rae
* Mark Hamill - Art Rosenbaum
* Jon Hamm - Steve
* Lennie James - Darkwing
* Ross Marquand - The Immortal / Aquarus / Bi-Plane / Kursk
* Sonequa Martin-Green - Green Ghost
* Andrew Rannells - William Clockwell
* Kevin Michael Richardson - Mauler Twins
* Fred Tatasciore - Killcannon
* Mae Whitman - Connie

## Trivia

* This title **"It's About Time"** refers to a statement Mark makes in the episode whenever he first acquires his powers, referring to the amount of time he waited to get them.
	+ It's also a reference to a line spoken by Mark in *Invincible* Issue 1.
* The comic book Mark is reading, is called Seance Dog, he was originally called Science Dog back in the comics, this was because the series doesn't have the rights to Seance Dog's original Name.
* War Woman's friend Connie, is played by Mae Whitman, who voiced Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman's sidekick in Young Justice.
* The Guardians are all voiced by well known *Walking Dead* actors.
	+ Aquarus and The Immortal; voiced by Ross Marquand (Aaron)
	+ War Woman; voiced by Lauren Cohan (Maggie Greene)
	+ Green Ghost; voiced by Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha Williams)
	+ Martian Man; voiced by Chad L. Coleman (Tyreese Williams)
	+ Darkwing; voiced by Lennie James (Morgan Jones)
	+ Red Rush; voiced by Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford)
* Green Ghost is a different gender, unlike the comics where he is male.
* Invincible's name is given by Nolan, rather than the principal of his high school in the comics.
* Titan, Invincible's first foe, would later return in "That Actually Hurt", with a new introductive story.
* It is unknown who the criminals in Midnight City was working for, some rumors believed it was Machine Head.
	+ The criminals of Midnight City would be seen again in "In About Six Hours, I Lose My Virginity to a Fish", albeit as skeletons, implying that no one released them after Darkwing's death.
* The demise of the Guardians of the Globe is very different here compared to the comics.
	+ In the comics, Omni-Man relied on stealth to slay the Guardians.
	+ Immortal remarked he never liked Nolan, to which he responded with a mutual reaction. However, in the show Nolan doesn't say anything during the fight.
	+ The Guardians all get instantly killed by Nolan in the comics, while in the show he gets gravely injured before the Guardians get killed.