Okay, so before we get into it, this needs to be said: Shang-Chi trailer!!! I’ve been waiting for this for so long, and it’s finally here. It looks amazing! So many questions, the fighting looks amazing, and everything about it screams Marvel Does a Martial Arts Movie in the best way, both wholly MCU and wholly martial-arts movies. Also, Tony Leung Chiu-wai sounds so good! Hollywood, you could’ve been making movies with him this whole time!! Don’t you feel dumb now? Bring on September 3rd! (Get it together, people, because I can’t handle another delay to this movie.)
Ahem. All right, and now back to your regularly-scheduled post. The first three episodes of Invincible dropped all at once, so I figured my weekly reviews would be coming out on a delay for the remainder of the season, but Andrew Rannells/William promptly skipped the next three episodes to come out, meaning we’re now caught back up again. A lot has happened on the show since episode 3, and this is an especially-good showing for William.
After a serious miscalculation on Mark’s part very nearly turns deadly, he starts to reevaluate his place as a superhero. When he hears about William’s plans to go on a college visit to meet up with a guy, Mark decides to tag along, bringing Amber with him in an attempt to reset and do normal-teenager things for a while. But superhero life doesn’t just go away, and a threat emerges on campus that has Mark struggling more than ever to juggle his heroics with his personal life. Back home, an unearthed secret creates a rift between Mark’s parents.
Touching quickly on the side plots first, this episode has some good scenes for Mark’s parents, as well as for Art, the supersuit tailor voiced by Mark Hamill. Tension has been building for a while now, and things are coming to a head. There’s been a lot going on with the other heroes during the recent episodes, and here, I really like the stuff between Robot (Zachary Quinto’s character) and Black Sampson, an OG Guardian who’s been trying to adjust to working with a new crew.
The A-plot, though, is where the biggest action is. As Invincible, Mark has fought threats all over the place, but it’s neat to have his personal and superhero lives clash so thoroughly here, with an unexpected baddie intruding on his “let me just be normal” getaway. Mayhem strikes at a moment when his relationship with Amber is already kind of unstable, and it’s hard for Mark to deal with protecting her and William while trying not to give away his secret identity. Additionally, this storyline features Ezra Miller as an evil mastermind and Jonathan Groff as Rick, the hunky college guy William is gaga over.
Speaking
of William, this is Rannells’s best outing on the show so far. Certain
developments get into spoiler territory, so I won’t go there, but he gets to be
funny, serious, lovestruck, and terrified-but-brave. His swoony preoccupation
with Rick is super cute (“They have a very handsome pre-med program. Did I say ‘handsome’?
I meant to say ‘world-class.’ And also handsome…”), and I enjoy seeing his
attempts, however shaky they may be, to find his inner badass when shit hits
the fan. He delivers on the best-friend front too, offering Mark encouragement
as well as tough love. I appreciate that, while his supportive role never
really wavers, he also speaks up for himself and doesn’t let his own stuff get
pushed aside for Mark’s sake.
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