Pure Good Proposal: Invincible

“	Because you're a Viltrumite who clings to the old ways, you value and respect only strength. You feel only the strong deserve to live. You cling to practices that pushed our people to the edge of extinction. You see us as people living only for conquest, measured only by the size of our empire. No room for peace. No room for compassion. No room for love. You thought you were keeping the empire alive--pulling us back from the brink of extinction. The truth is you were holding us back. Under your leadership the Viltrumites stood for nothing... fought for nothing. Just like you. Look at what they became under my father's leadership. Look at how they transformed. You can't see it... you can't allow yourself to see it. But it's there. They're here--they're fighting for Earth--for their families there. It isn't a huge shift, but it's there. It shows the potential of what the Viltrum Empire can be. It proves there was a compassion in our people... always there beneath the surface, buried under all that strength and fury. It's there, waiting to be nurtured so it can grow. We can be a force for good. We can spread peace throughout the galaxy. We can love and be loved. We can be happy.	„
	~ Mark to Thragg during their final fight.

Here we go chat. My sixth Pure Good Proposal, and this one is definititely a head turner considering the brutality of his series. Today, I'm proposing Mark Grayson, also known as Invincible.

NOTE: I'm including both his comic version and TV series version as one in the same considering the series so far has faithfully adapted the comic's main story with only minor differences, so for those who only watch the TV series, there will more than likely be comic spoilers. With that out the way, let's get into it.

What's the Work?

Invincible is a superhero series that follows Mark Grayson, a young man who's the son of Debbie and Nolan, with Nolan being the most powerful hero on the planet known as Omni-Man. One day, Mark finally gets his powers and excitedly begins training under his father's guidance. However, Mark soon discovers that being a hero isn't all sunshine and rainbows and is much more brutal than he realized. Meanwhile, he also discovers Nolan's true purpose for being on Earth is far more darker than he originally let on. Upon this revelation, Mark takes it upon himself to protect the Earth from the impending threat that looms over it

Who Is He and What Has He Done?

(Normally when writing these proposals, I'll write entire paragraphs going into detail about the character and their stories under this subheading, but considering the sheer length of Invincible, I think I'm just going to do a bullet list for his most notable and heroic events that come to mind this time around.)

• Defends his schoolmate Amber from his bully Todd, despite not having gained his powers yet and getting beat up afterwards.
• When he does finally develops his powers, Mark immediately wants to become a hero and save people.
• When Todd tries attacking him after he gains his powers, he doesn't retaliate, understanding he could seriously hurt or kill him if he did.
• When dealing with his first major attack (aliens from another dimension), he helps the Teen Team and tries to save an old lady who was serverly injured, rushing her to the Global Defesne Agency (GDA) in hopes they can help. Despite this being in vain as she later died anyways, Mark grieves her death, showing how much he cares about others even if he doesn't personally know them.
• Once again teams up with the Teen Team to fight the alternate reality aliens when they came back and saves Eve from nearly getting killed by them.
• Goes to Mars with the astronauts to ensure they stay safe and later saves them from the Martians there.
• Saves his best friend William from getting turned into a cyborg by D.A. Sinclair while on a college trip with him
• Once Nolan reveals his intentions to take over Earth with the Viltrum Empire, he stands up against him and battles him while trying to save any civilians they come across, even when he's on the verge of death. Despite all this, Mark admits he still loves him which causes Nolan to tearfully leave Earth, abandoning his mission and putting him on the path to redemption.
• Goes to a different planet named Thraxa when an alien tells him they need his help (further proving his selflessness). When they arrive, Mark unexpectedly reunites with Nolan who's now the ruler of Thraxa, causing Mark to feel extremely mixed emotions.
• When he finds out he now has a half-brother and step-mother named Oliver and Andressa respectively, he defends both of them and the rest of the Thraxians with no hesitation despite his conflicting emotions when three Viltrumites attack the planet.
• Once again refuses to give in to the Viltrumites demands to conquer Earth after they capture Nolan.
• Helps the Thraxians rebuild their planet for 2 months after the Viltrumite attack before returning back home with Oliver so he can raise him with Debbie's help.
• Becomes an ally of the Coalition of Planets when Allen comes to recruit him.
• When his date with Amber is interrupted by Anissa, a Viltrumite tasked with ensuring Mark prepares Earth for the Viltrum Empire's arrival, he fights her and saves a cruise ship from a Kaiju in the process.
• Protects Debbie and Oliver from Angstrom Levy when he threatens them, seemingly killing him so he wouldn't be able to hurt them anymore.
• Trains under Cecil's guidance to help further prepare for the Viltrumite army.
• Saves Rex from Dupi-Kate's brother Multi-Paul after the villain blames him for Kate's "death".
• Confronts Cecil and fights his army of Cyborgs after it's revealed to him that he has Sinclair and Darwing II working for him, showing he's against him using criminals.
• Stops a missle sent by the Mauler Twins that would have destroyed the Earth's communication systems. He also severely scolds Oliver after he brutally kills the Mauler Twins, telling him heroes don't resort to killing.
• Goes to the dystopian future with Fightmaster and Dropkick and stops Immortal who went mad after being left in charge of Earth and enslaved all of humanity.
• Sympathizes with Powerplex, understanding he's devastated and mentally suffering due to the loss of his niece, sister, wife, and son.
• Helps stop alternate versions of himself from destroying the Earth after they're sent by Angstrom Levy who survived his previous encounter with Mark.
• Fights Conquest right after the Invincible War, managing to put him in a coma despite nearly dying himself in the process.
• Fights Dinosaurus and later breaks him out of prison in the hopes the two can work together and take down Omnipotus. When Dinsaurus later blows up the Arctic in hopes of "saving billions", Mark manages to make him see how his extremist ways are wrong, reluctantly killing Dinosaurus at his request so he can't do anything like this again in the future.
• Officially joins the Coalition of Planets to fight against the Viltrumites and defend the universe.
• Fights Conquest once again and kills him, putting himself in a coma in the process.
• Let's Rudoph Connors from an alternate dimension have a cloned body of his so his universe can have an Invincible that can defend his universe from the Viltrumites.
• Despite his trauma from being raped by Anissa as well as being broken up with by Eve, Mark still finds the willpower to stop Rudolph from taking over the world.
• When he gets sent back in time to when he first got his powers, he ends up saving millions of lives by changing Nolan early before he manages to kill the Guardians of the Globe, thus reforming him before he can cause any major damage.
• Makes the decision to get sent back to his original timeline so his daughter will exist, although he's shown to feel guilt over choosing his daughter over millions of lives.
• Confront Thragg in a final fight, stopping his reign of violence and conquering and reforming the rest of the Viltrumites in the process.
• Later becomes the new Emperor of Viltrum and brings in an era of prosperity for the universe, reshaping the Viltrumites' image from bloodthirsty conquerors to selfless peacekeepers, helping any planets who need them.

Corrupting Factors

This is where it gets interesting. While Mark has moments where he's violent, wrathful, and willing to kill if left with no other option, with the most notable and brought up cases being when he brutalizes Angstrom Levy and Conquest, threatens Cecil, lashes out at Allen, and viciously kills Onaan, all these examples can be classified as justified or heating up moments. When Mark lashed out at Allen, this can be considered a heating up moment as Mark was grieving Oliver's death and needed to take his feelings out on someone. Allen isn't seriously hurt however and the two are later seen to still be on good terms, thus subverting this moment. It's also somewhat justified as Allen even admitted he knowingly put Oliver in danger, meaning Oliver's death is partially his fault.

In the cases of the brutalization of Angstrom Levy and Conquest, both were justified as Angstrom kept sending Mark to other dimensions in order to tire him out and weaken him so he could kill him. He also kept threatening Debbie and Oliver, brutally breaking Debbie's arm in the process. Mark tried everything he could to reason with him and not resort to violence until Angstrom made it clear he would do whatever it took to hurt or kill Mark, even if it meant hurting his family. The same can be said for Conquest, who sadistically fought Mark, breaking both his arms and his leg, admitting to him he enjoyed causing bloodshed. Thus, Mark's brutal attack on both of them was justified as it was the only way to make sure his family, loved ones, and the entire world at large stayed safe, and even then Mark never took pleasure in it, with him showing clear remorse and guilt over seemingly killing Angstrom, mulling over what kind of person wanting to kill him for hurting his family made him.

When he threatens to kill Cecil, he just got done being serverly attacked by him and his army of undead soldiers, showing this threat was justified as he was defending himself. Even then, Mark shows he had no real intention of actually killing him as he told Oliver he only said that so Cecil knew to back off, and he later made up with him anyways, thus subverting this moment.

For Onaan, while he was incapacitated by Mark and Eve at the time of Mark killing him, Mark at least tried to reason with Thragg and trade Onaan for his daughter Terra, showing he didn't truly want to kill him. He only did so when Thragg made it clear he had no intention of making the trade and claimed Mark wouldn't do it because of his status as a hero, to which Mark crushed his neck. Although this was mainly done to spite Thragg and prove him wrong, he also did it in retaliation for them attacking his family. For context, Mark's first introduction to Onaan was a few minutes beforehand, with Onaan attacking Terra and threatening to split her in half and peel the skin off her face, which Mark could tell he was serious about. Keeping Onaan alive would also prove to be a risk to him and his family's safety as it could give Thragg and Ursaal the chance to free him. In a previous issue, it's shown Onaan has a similar mindset to Thragg as he mercilessly kills the inhabitants of a planet they conquered even after they surrendered and weren't a threat. He also took some of them to a cave and tourtured them, showing he's a sadistic individual who took pleasure in causing pain to others. Although Mark wasn't aware of his previous actions, killing him was overall for the greater good as it was highly unlikely he was going to change his barbaric ways if he was kept alive and was more than likely going to either continue killing innocents or attack Mark and his family when given the chance.

Overall, Mark's "Lethal" moments are justified as they're all in self defense or to protect others. They might be brutal at times, but Mark is usually left with no other way to stop them which forces him to be this way. It's also worth mentioning Mark's brother Oliver ended up qualifying for Pure Good and he intended to kill billions of humans just to ensure the Viltrumites died and that his family was safe. He didn't succeed, but he's arguably more lethal and less justified than Mark due to his intent to kill innocents, and he still qualified for Pure Good after subverting his negative traits. Not only that, it's important to note many heroes on this wiki haved killed for the betterment of others and still qualified for Pure Good, with various examples being Tanjiro, Yuji, Luz Noceda, Mulan, Ekko, Link, Monster Girl, Oliver Grayson, etc, thus putting them under the "Righteous Killers" category, and I believe that's a category that also fits Mark.

Even with all the previous examples I mentioned, by the end of the series, all of Mark's "corrupting moments" can be considered reverted as Mark never truly took pleasure in doing them and he more than makes up for them after becoming the Viltrum Emperor. As Emperor, he goes across the universe helping other planets and civilizations with any issues they have, refusing to resort to violence even when others attack him, with the only example proving otherwise being when he and the Viltrum Empire went to war with the Coalition of Planets, and even then we aren't shown any actual deaths. It's also shown he wasn't the one who initiated the war and that he was fighting so poorer worlds wouldn't have to suffer from having their resources unfairly taken and given to worlds that are more fortunate.

Admirable Standard

Overall, I'd say Mark is the most admirable character in the series. He's always shown to have a heart of gold and almost always strives to do the right thing, even when it's tough or nearly gets him killed. He stood up against his father when he was told the Viltrum Empire was going to take over Earth, helping redeem him in the process, refused to comply with the other Viltrumites, even when they kept sending agents to make him comply through force (namely Anissa and Conquest), and constantly protects Earth and other planets from any other types of threats, whether it be aliens who are invading from another dimension, an extemist Dinosaur who's willing to kill millions for the "greater good", or just a simple bank robbery.

Mark also proved that at the end of the day, despite all the fighting and brutality he's gone through, at his center he's someone who's in touch with his humanity and strives for peace and hates resorting to extreme violence. He tries to talk down and relate to Angstrom, despite how the villain threatened his family, sympathizes with Powerplex after the villain accidentally killed his wife and son, gets Dinosaurus to see that he was wrong in his extremist ways and that killing millions "just for the sake of billions of lives" isn't the way to go, and most notably successfully converts the Viltrumites from their conquering ways. This peaceful way of thinking only further proved true after becoming the Emperor. He's brought peace and prosperity throughout the universe, helping settle disputes between nations and sucessfully changing others way of thinking, even when they're violent towards them.

Final Verdict

A solid YES. Despite his past faults, Mark has always tried to help others, whether it be his family, humanity, or a civilization from an entirely different planet, and has more than made up for any of his past mistakes after becoming the Emperor of Viltrum, bringing peace and prosperity throughout the universe. His sheer selflessness, bravery, and determination truly makes him deserving of the name... INVINCIBLE.