Invincible Season 3 sees Mark Grayson at odds with Cecil Stedman, head of the Global Defense Agency, and has the show's titular hero questioning just how good his boss (later former boss) really is.
Voiced by Walton Goggins, Cecil has been a key character in all three seasons of Invincible so far. In Season 1, he was investigating the murders of the Guardians of the Globe. Season 2 saw him sending Mark on missions while working on an army of robots on the side.
While Debbie Grayson and Mark (to an extent) have never fully trusted Cecil, the hostility reached an entirely new level in Season 3.
Why Does Mark Hate Cecil in Invincible Season 3?
At the end of Invincible Season 3, Episode 1, Mark Grayson learns that Cecil Stedman has been working with D.A. Sinclair and Darkwing II, despite both of them being criminals who Mark feels should be in prison.
Throughout the rest of Episode 1 and much of Episode 2, Cecil tries to justify his actions and defend himself, but Mark is not willing to consider it. He threatens Cecil, saying that if he goes near Mark's family again, he will kill the older man.
What the audience and Cecil both know that Mark does not, though, is that Cecil felt the exact same way when he was starting out — so much so, in fact, that he was imprisoned for it himself.
But, over time, he learned what his boss had tried to teach him: "We can be the good guys, or we can be the guys that save the world. We can't be both."
Does Cecil Have Powers In Invincible?
It is worth noting that Cecil Stedman does not have any actual superpowers in Invincible Season 3, though he certainly has abilities.
In the Season 3, Episode 2 flashbacks to Cecil's past, it is revealed that most of the man's skin is not real, and was regrafted onto him after an accident on a mission (only his scars are his real, human skin).
He also has the ability to teleport with a device and has an army of robots he has been working to train at his beck and call.
Is Cecil Evil in Invincible Season 3?
By technical definition, Cecil is certainly the antagonist of Invincible Season 3 so far. This does not necessarily mean that he is evil, but he stands against the protagonist, Mark, making him objectively an antagonist.
As for his morality, it feels intentionally murky. He and Mark essentially represent being for and against the idea of the ends justifying the means, respectively.
Cecil is willing to do morally wrong if it will help more people, whereas Mark sees taking the morally wrong action, no matter what the eventual outcome is, as unacceptable in any circumstance.
This speaks to other things Cecil does too, like the device he implants in Mark that can weaken the half-Viltrumite by emitting a painful sound. He made it as a contingency, knowing how much damage Nolan Grayson was able to do left unchecked. But, it caused Mark pain.
So, there is not necessarily a definitive, objective answer as to whether Cecil is evil or not — it truly depends on the viewer's outlook on the world. It is an ethical dilemma with no clear single answer, just two completely opposite perspectives and outlooks.
New episodes of Invincible Season 3 release Thursdays on Amazon Prime Video.
Gillian Blum has been a writer at The Direct since 2022, reporting primarily from New York City. Though she covers news from across the entertainment industry, Gillian has a particular focus on Marvel and DC, including comics, movies, and television shows. She also commonly reports on Percy Jackson, Invincible, and other similar franchises.
