I hope you enjoyed season 1 as much as I did!
It's going to be a long time until season 2 so I decided to put together an 8-episode guide prediction which I'll share here.
I have no inside knowledge but I have read the comic. This post has changes from the comic that I think make it more compatible with an episodic TV show.
Obviously, this isn't how it will actually go down. But it is likely to go down something like this so major spoilers. Stop now if you haven't read the comic book.
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Episode 201
This episode starts at the point where Invincible and Omni Man are talking from 108 where Nolan is trying to convince Mark to join him. The only change is that he doesn't call Debbie a "pet". Mark agrees to join him.
Fast forward to Invincible being shown from a big screen explaining why they are taking over and how this is a good thing for Earth. We then cut to a big battle in town as they take down the Guardians of the Globe. We are shocked to see Mark and Nolan killing the new guardians with Mark quipping to Rex "the feeling was mutual" as he kills him in response to Rex saying "I never liked you."
The only difference from OUR Guardians is the addition of a scientist named Angstrom Levy who is about to be killed by Invincible when a portal shows up behind him with another version of him saying "You're embarrassing us." while pulling him through. Mark and Nolan look at each other in confusion.
The two Angstroms find themselves in the middle of absolute chaos with Angstrom prime thinking he must have taken them to the wrong Earth. But sure enough, it's the right Earth, it's just being invaded...again. He takes Angstrom 2 to a safe house where he meets hundreds of other Angstroms. Angstrom 2 says "I sure hope we're safe here from...INVINCIBLE."
We then switch back to the conclusion of the battle and get reacquainted with Mark, Eve, Amber, etc. Mark has gotten a black eye and must rush to graduation. Things between Mark and Amber are pretty good.
Episode 202
This episode starts with Mark at college and being called away to deal with a turf war between Titan and the Dragon (Mister Liu).
The bulk of this episode deals with an invasion from Mars of the Sequids and the chemistry between Mark and Eve. Meanwhile, Amber is frustrated with Mark constantly being gone. She understands but is frustrated.
Mark, Eve and the others stop the Sequids from reaching Earth...so they think. In the after credits they discover that the astronaut had one left on him and must slowly repopulate.
Episode 203
This episode opens with the Mauler twins in jail. We get a day in the life of what being in a super prison is like and we get to see a bunch of the other super villains in there including the Elephant and a few others that comic fans will recognize (more Multipaul).
Suddenly Angstrom Levy shows up and breaks the Mauler twins out of prison and they go through various dimensions before reaching the safe house we saw in episode 201.
The main plot for this episode is Seance dog showing up to take Mark to an alien world filled with insect people. When he arrives, he finds his dad and they reconcile (kind of). Nolan realizes he can't return home but he is hoping he can talk the Viltrums into accepting this world in lieu of Earth but wants Mark as backup in case that fails.
He has already contacted the high command to welcome this new world into the empire. Three Viltrums show up and after a brief discussion it is obvious that while the world's resources might be useful the insectoids needs to be wiped out. Nolan objects which escalates into a battle. Mark and Nolan are eventually overwhelmed.
The good news is that the Viltrums don't yet know Mark and Nolan are refusing to give Earth to Viltrum. They believe that Nolan was defeated on Earth by the locals or something. They respect Mark for following his father's "orders" but now it's time to return to Earth and prepare it for Viltrum takeover. They patch up Mark and leave with Nolan as a prisoner.
As Mark is recovering he is introduced to...Oliver, his new half-brother.
Episode 204
Mark returns to Earth with Oliver. Amber is pissed as he's been gone 2 weeks. Yes...she understands but her college friends are giving her a hard time about her absentee boyfriend and she can't explain why Mark is gone without revealing his secret identity.
Mark tries to make it up to Amber but is called away to deal with the Mauler Twins.
Mark arrives to see the Mauler Twins and Angstrom Levy (lots of Mauler Twins and lots of Angstrom Levy's) performing some sort of experiment. Mark concludes that if the Mauler twins are involved, it has to be bad and tries to find a way to stop them.
However, Mark quickly gets overwhelmed by Mauler Twins and Angstrom Levy Prime, who only knows Mark as the hero who saved the world from Omni Man and is himself, part of the guardian of the globe in many dimensions, demands the Mauler twins stop trying to kill Mark -- just restrain him. But the Mauler twins refuse to stop. Levy stops the experiment (which we had previously learned was to merge all the knowledge of all the Levy's together so that he could more easily hop dimensions) to save Mark but in doing so causes an explosion that leaves Levy disfigured and all but one of the Maulers dead.
The experiment is a success and Levy knows all the dimensions but is now deformed. He flees to another dimension for medical treatment leaving the lone Mauler twin to his own devices. Mark comes up from the rubble just as the Guardians of the Globe arrive with Eve.
When Mark gets home, Debbie agrees to raise Oliver and Cecil sends over a tutor.
Episode 205
(if the Sequid Mars attack episode wasn't before it'll be here instead) but anyway...
Mark is sent by Cecil to Midnight City to find out what has happened after it was put into perpetual darkness. Naturally, Mark was on a date with Amber when this happened. When he arrives he finds Darkwing -- well technically it was NightBoy before (he was a sidekick). Mark quickly discovered that this new Darkwing has an interesting power: The shadowverse and he has been murdering criminals -- regardless of the crime.
After a brief skirmish involving a failed attempt to trap Mark in the shadowverse (Mark simply holds onto Darkwing and refuses to let go forcing Darkwing to bring them both back to our universe) he brings Darkwing into custody and leaves him with Cecil.
Suddenly, Mark gets a call from an unknown man who tells him he needs to get home. When he arrives he finds Angstrom Levy who has gone mad and seeks to kill Mark in revenge for disfiguring him. Mark tries to explain that he had nothing to do with that, that Angstrom did this to himself when he stopped the process midway. But Angstrom's memories are so jumbled that he doesn't remember it that way.
Meanwhile, Angstrom has severely beaten Mark's mom and Mark is enraged.
After sending Mark to numerous universes, Mark finally is able to pull Angstrom through one of the portals where they fight on a barren world. Enraged, Mark beats Angstrom seemingly to death though not on purpose because Mark has not yet mastered how much he has to hold back based on how durable the opponent is. Mark realizes that he's now stranded on a barren world.
Suddenly, a portal shows up and it's the Guardians of the Galaxy - except quite a bit older. An older Eve is with them. They explain that things on their world have gone badly. The Viltrumites have taken over the world and they exist in hiding. They believe that if Mark had not disappeared "all those years ago" things might have gone differently.
They open a portal for him to return to his time. Before he goes, Eve confesses that she's been in love with Mark and that his Eve is in love with him as well. Before Mark can say anything the portal closes and the Episode ends.
Episode 206
We get a mini Allen the Alien adventure combined with Amber and Mark trying to reconcile.
Allen visits Earth only to meet Immortal instead in space. After a quick fight which shows that Immortal is no match for Allen Mark shows up and he warns Mark that the Viltrums will be coming to Earth.
We get a montage of Cecil training Mark by having him lift crazy sized weights and other activities to try to make him tougher. But we also see that Cecil isn't being fully honest with Mark as he continues to work on the Reanimen and is developing sonic weapons that he thinks will hurt Viltrums.
The bulk of the episode is a visit from the Viltrumite Empire in the form of a powerful female Viltrumite (Anissa) who has arrived to evaluate Mark's progress. They do an adventure together saving a cruise ship. Soon after, she asks if he is convinced that the Viltrum Empire would be good for Earth. Mark is not convinced and there is a brief fight.
Unlike with Nolan, this battle isn't brutal. She simply demonstrates, with absolute clarity that she is far more powerful than Mark and knocks him to the ground and holds him down. He is unable to move or break her grip. She says that she will leave and let him consider his stance with the Viltrums. But the next visitor will not be as gentle as her. She leaves.
On her way out, she encounters Allen the Alien who is seeing to find out what happened to Nolan. He feigns being defeated by the Viltrumite and is taken prisoner.
Episode 207
Dr. Seismic is back! And he has successfully captured most of the world's heroes in his vast underground lair.
Meanwhile, Mark and Amber break up. She says she loves Mark but they just can't relate to each other. He understands.
He talks to William (his college roommate now). Mark decides that college really isn't working for him anyway and that he was only coming here to be with Amber. But the fact is, he has nothing in common with Amber.
He gets a call from Cecil about Doc Seismic and leaves. Shortly after Eve shows up and asks William where Mark is and he gets filled in including the part where he and Amber have broken up.
Mark reaches the spot where Cecil says is the closest surface point for where all the missing heroes are. But the heroes are actually a couple miles below the surface. Just as Mark is trying to figure out how he's going to get down there, Evil shows up and with her powers they are able to quickly get down to there Doc Seismic is.
The Lava trolls are able to capture Mark and Eve in the same strange containers that the other heroes are in. Mark asks "So are you going to get us out of this or what?" and Eve answers with a grin "Just a sec, but first, are we dating now or what?" then suddenly, DarkWing shows up in front of an army of Reanimen. Eve quickly frees everyone and together they are able to defeat Doc Seismic and the Lava trolls.
However, Mark quickly knocks Darkwing down and demands to know how he escaped. The other heroes question Mark as they don't understand why he attacked Darkwing. Mark explains he's a murderer and Darkwing says he's "better" now.
Mark flies off to confront Cecil where he not only discovers that Cecil has covered up Darkwing's murders but he's actually employing DA Sinclair. Mark says he can't work with him anymore and quits.
When Mark gets home, Eve shows up and they talk. During this conversation he tells her about her future self from that alternative universe. Eve is shocked leaves in distressed.
Meanwhile, a little globe camera is watching all this.
Episode 208
Evil versions of Invincibles are showing up everywhere and wreaking havoc. This is an episode of extreme carnage.
Mark confronts one and the two battle with our Mark coming out on top.
After Eve is severely injured by an Invincible doppelgänger, Mark stays in the hospital while the evil Invincibles, brought here by a very much alive Angstrom Levy, brings the world to its knees.
The most horrifying part is that the full might of all of Earth's heroes aren't even able to kill a single Invincible with two exceptions: One killed by Mark and another that ends up in the Shadowverse. The Reanimmen and all the other heroes are largely wiped out. A young Oliver is nearly killed by one.
Victorious, Levy demands to know where Mark is. When Mark shows up, Levy says to the other Invincibles "your services will no longer be needed" and opens portals behind the evil dopplegangs and knocks them through with clouds of "ball" devices.
Angstrom Levy has been genetically enhanced and now that this Earth is demolished he will kill Invincible and let the world know that their destruction is because of Invincible's failure.
However, Invincible is much stronger than he was in 108 or even the last time that Levy faced Invincible. This is evidenced from early Mark vs. one of the other Invincible's where Mark kills one.
Their fight, while intense, shows Invincible getting the upper hand. Levy tries to escape but Mark grabs ahold of his arm. Levy closes the portal anyway leaving Mark holding just an arm.
Mark passes out from the battle.
When he wakes, he is in the familiar hospital bed. Cecil tells Mark how Darkwing sacrificed himself to take out one of the Invincibles and that the Reanimen bought the President enough time to escape. Mark admits that Cecil's methods might make some sense.
Mark then sees Eve who has recovered enough to see him. Mark tells her that when he thought he might die, he could only think of her and how much he cares about her. "You and I?" she smiles. "Yea, you and I."
End of season 2.
Notes
Fans of the comic book will notice quite a few changes and reorderings here. First, Rex ends the season alive and well. Second, the conflict between Mark and Cecil is diminished a great deal from the comics and more in line with the more nuanced behavior we see in the show.
The season culminates with the Invincible War and Mark and Eve's relationship. This is a very different order from the comic books. I just think that from a show pacing thing that this is most satisfying.
I also have Mark quite a bit tougher and the Invincible's quite a bit tougher. In the comic quite a few Invincibles were killed in the Invincible War. I found this highly dubious given how things later developed in the series.
I also changed the nature of the Viltrumites a bit to be more nuanced and rational. In the comic they wreck Oliver's home world just to piss Nolan off. I suspect/hope that rationale is changed and that they simply don't see the point of having a bug race that lives 9 months be in the empire. It doesn't occur to them that Nolan left Earth because of his feelings. They think he was weak and somehow defeated and took his son to this planet.
