Invincible’s J.K. Simmons Weighs In On Oliver’s Shocking Twist

Invincible fans, we need to come to terms with an unsettling truth: Invincible has an Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) problem. After flying off from Earth following his brutal pummeling of his son and the world finding out he was a genocidal maniac looking to conquer them to continue the Viltrumite race at the end of Season 1, the show has largely been devoid of his enthralling mixture of superhero stoicism and brutal pragmatism. After the third episode of the current season, it’s clear his son Oliver (Lincoln Bodin) is ready to pick up that mantle, and Simmons is ready for it.

At the end of this season’s third episode, entitled “You Want A Real Costume, Right?” the Mauler Twins (Kevin Michael Richardson) launched an EMP missile to destroy Earth’s communications network to incentivize people to pay to use their shielding system. While Invincible (Steven Yeun) darted to the sky to stop the missile from impacting, his younger brother, overly excited to use his newfound powers to fight evil, does battle with the pair of villains. Earlier in the episode, the show expertly displayed Oliver as a carefree child still figuring out how to fly, pestering his big brother to hang out and train him, and strutting around in his new superhero suit. Up until his duel with the Mauler Twins, we were made to believe Oliver’s superhero inexperience was simply an excuse for lightheartedness. We forgot for a second that Viltrumite blood still burns in his veins.

In a matter of seconds, Oliver kills one of the Mauler Twins by flying through his body. Before killing the second one, the blood-soaked preteen coldly says, “That’s what happens when you’re a bad guy.” His actions become more disturbing when he seems to revert back to childlike innocence, pleading that his murders were accidents. When we spoke with Simmons, even he couldn’t believe what his fake son had done.

“We get shocked and surprised by some of these plot developments as we read them before we put them down,” the actor said. “Oliver is a really cool new character that hopefully keeps people guessing.”

When asked if Oliver’s pragmatic reasoning for killing the bad guys was inherited from his father, Simmons slyly answered, “Nothing’s ever Omni-Man’s fault. Omni-Man is always innocent of any wrongdoings.” The sarcasm in his voice and smirk on his face told us all we needed to know. The child who wanted to honor his homicidal father by donning the name Omni-Kid earlier in the episode isn’t too far removed from his exiled father. But, him reverting back to a clueless child who claims to have accidentally killed two villains we all saw him murder with clear, cold intention means either his Viltrumite killer genes are (literal) sleeper cells that activate when someone disrupts his moral compass or Oliver knows he’s a killer at heart, but must act docile in order to ingratiate himself with the Earthlings he may one day conquer.

If this is only the third episode of what is already shaping up to be the best season of Invincible, we’re in for a hell of a ride. Now, let’s bring Omni-Man back from space jail immediately.