Spoilers are ahead for Invincible season 2, part 1.
One Invincible season 2 subplot is undermining Atom Eve’s character in a particularly frustrating way that could have an impact on the character’s role in future seasons. In Invincible season 1’s ending, Mark Grayson, a.k.a. Invincible (Steven Yeun), goes head-to-head in a violent battle with his father Nolan, a.k.a. Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). Instead of joining his planet-conquering, Viltrumite father, Mark ends up near death, while Omni-Man abandons his post on Earth. In Invincible season 2, which has been split into two parts, Mark deals with the fallout, as a war between the Viltrum Empire and Invincible‘s Coalition of Planets brews.
In the break between seasons, Robert Kirkman’s series also released a special episode centered on Samantha “Eve” Wilkins, a.k.a. Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs). A look at Samantha’s past, Invincible: Atom Eve delves into the character’s origins and her desire to be normal. After discovering her transmutation powers, Invincible‘s Atom Eve is driven to help people. Able to manipulate matter and energy, Atom Eve struggles to find meaning in her actions, especially when she’s part of a superhero team, so she often opts to help folks directly. In Invincible season 2, episode 2, Atom Eve tries her hand at some humanitarian aid — but things go awry.
Invincible’s Atom Eve Can Literally Fix Anything With Her Powers
In season 2’s second episode, Atom Eve is eager to help rebuild the city. Confident that she can use her energy and matter manipulation powers to better folks’ day-to-day lives, Eve turns up at a construction site. Despite scaring the crew with her out-of-the-blue appearance, the young superhero uses her powers to re-lay pipes and reconstruct the brick wall of an apartment complex. “Saved you some time,” she says cheerfully as a group of onlookers gasps in wonder — but the construction crew’s lead is far from pleased. “How do I know that’s up to code?” the unnamed supervisor asks.
Do Atom Eve & Mark Get Together In The Invincible Comics?
Mark Grayson and Atom Eve are not together by Invincible season 1’s finale, and the comics reveal whether they will eventually be together.
One of the bystanders tears down the construction tape and barrels through. She’s eager to return to her newly rebuilt apartment with her young daughter and can’t thank Atom Eve enough for her help. “It’s about time someone cut through all the red tape and did something, instead of just talking about it,” the woman says, before telling Eve about a vacant lot that’s been sitting empty for years. Knowing that she can fix literally anything with her powers, Eve transforms the mess into a community park. However, before the episode ends, it’s revealed her fixes aren’t up to code, which causes even more problems.
Why Invincible Season 2 Is Putting A Cap On Eve’s Abilities
At home, Eve gets into an argument with her dad, who’s still ashamed of her powers. Given how Invincible season 1’s finale left the city in shambles, Eve’s father can’t believe that her powers could actually help people rebuild their lives. Later on, it’s revealed that there’s a sinkhole beneath the park that Eve built. Since it’s on unstable ground, the whole community park collapses. Although there aren’t any casualties, Atom Eve’s fail devastates the hero. Not only did she cause more destruction, but the collapse adds fuel to her father’s anti-superhero argument. The whole subplot also undermines Atom Eve’s character in a much more far-reaching way.
Given that Atom Eve’s powers allow her to rearrange matter at a subatomic level, the whole “not up to code” rationale feels incredibly flimsy. Instead of providing a legitimate reason as to why Eve can’t find a way to truly help folks in need, Invincible creates a plot device that, ultimately, undermines Eve’s character and powers. The show puts an ilogical cap on her abilities for the sake of creating conflict in the episode. The limit imposed on Atom Eve by the series diminishes the power of one of Invincible‘s strongest characters, which will undoubtedly harm the larger narrative, especially since Eve’s hidden superpower is essential to Invincible‘s ending.
