Legacies can carry a heavy burden, even if you have super strength, maybe even more so. Mark Grayson is known for most of his life that he’s the son of the world’s greatest hero but he’s also got to make a name for himself. To some he is just Mark, a kind-hearted guy, but to the world at large, he’s Invincible. So, who is Mark’s dad and what are their family’s powers and origins? Let’s find out!
Markus Sebastian Grayson is the only son of Deborah and Nolan Grayson. When Mark was seven years old, his father would reveal to him that he was Omni-Man, the world’s greatest hero. That his father was a Viltrumite, from the planet Viltrum, a world of people as powerful as he is, with super strength, flight, super speed, incredible durability and recovery. They would send out their people to explore the universe, seeking out planets that could use their help and provide aide as Nolan does as Omni-Man.
Not only was his father the Earth’s most powerful hero, chances were, Mark would eventually get powers too. Mark would have a happy and peaceful childhood, though he would remain powerless until he was seventeen years old. Finally coming into his powers by throwing a bag of garbage into the stratosphere, Mark would happily tell his parents of his newfound abilities. Nolan would begin training Mark in the ways of their powers, learning that it was like skills and with time, he would get more and more powerful.
At school, Mark would get in trouble for hitting a bully too hard, forgetting his own strength and get called into the principal’s office, where his principal’s advice, that Mark wasn’t invincible, would give him the hero identity he had been looking for. Mark’s eagerness to go out fighting crime would lead Nolan to take him to Art, the premiere tailor of heroes, to find a costume design that fit him best.
Mark would team up with the Teen Team, where he would meet eventual long-time friends Robot and Atom Eve, the latter of which he would find also went to his high school. Finding himself not to be much of a team player, not out disagreements, just out of obligation of not being tied down, Mark declines not only the Teen Team but the soon entirely vacant Guardians of the Globe, who were brutally slaughtered by a mysterious attacker. He would have all kinds of adventures, including befriending an alien named Allen who his father had gone toe to toe with several times due to a misunderstanding of galactic proportions.
It would turn out that Nolan had been lying not just to Mark, but the world. The Viltrumites were not benevolent, intergalactic aides, but colonizers in the name of Viltrum. His father had come to Earth to conquer it and was spending his time learning Earth’s weaknesses and to see if having children with humans was a viable option for making new Viltrumites. Now that Mark was growing into his powers, Nolan was able to dispatch of the biggest threat to his plans, the Guardians of the Globe.
Stunned by this revelation, Mark would fight his father, hoping it was mind control or an evil clone, anything but the truth. As Nolan’s age and experience proved to be too much, Mark would realize that this was real, his father was willing to kill anyone who got in his way. The two fought with Mark greatly outclassed and as he laid bloody and broken, his father stopped, and fled to outer space.
The Earth was left shattered, learning that Omni-Man didn’t appear to be who he claimed he was, the fight happening through out the cities of Earth, causing massive casualties and destruction. Mark and his mother were left to recuperate, having lost not only a father and husband, but any semblance of normal. In his father’s absence, Mark was asked by the director of the Global Defense Agency, Cecil Stedman, to take up doing the hero work his father once did for them. Allen the alien would also arrive to alert Mark, too late, of the Viltrumite plans to colonize Earth, but in also letting him know the Coalition of Planets were gathering their forces to try and take on the Viltrumite Empire and wanted his help.
There you have it! There’s more to Mark Grayson’s story but with a new show on the small screen that seems to be a fairly faithful adaptation and a currently finite tale to be told, there’s much to be spoiled. Mark and his friends, family, and enemies are also planned for appearances on the big screen. It seems we may get to see all of Mark’s comics adventures put on one screen or the other. See you next time!
Suggested Reading
Invincible
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
