Immortal has died at the hands of Omni-Man and an alternate-universe version of Mark Grayson in Invincible, but his latest death has a true sense of finality to it.
In the latest episode of Invincible, Mark Grayson grappled with an Immortal of the distant future, driven mad by grief and age, begging for death. This Immortal yearned for death so badly that he became a tyrant just to incite the people of Earth or the Invincible of his time to kill him, who he blamed for putting him in charge.
To Mark's frustration and sadness, he did as Immortal wished and ripped his head off, ensuring the former superhero would stay dead. But is this death set in stone? Is there no chance for Immortal's fate to be changed? Well, yes and no.
Warning: The rest of this article includes major spoilers for the Invincible comics and potential future events in the Invincible animated series.
Immortal's Fate in Invincible Comics
Mark's encounter with the mad-king Immortal in Invincible Season 3, Episode 4, "You Were My Hero," played out almost exactly as it did in issue #54 of the comics, including Immortal's blatant foreshadowing of future events, such as Mark getting sick, him having a family, and even becoming the Emperor.
Near the end of the original comic, after Mark became the new Viltrumite Emperor for real and dethroned an evil Robot, he attempted to change the disastrous future he saw. After putting Robot's brain in a jar, Mark thought of filtering Robot's ideas of how to best rule over Earth through the morally righteous Immortal.
Immortal will not have to bear ruling the planet alone and, therefore, won't go mad, averting the dystopian future Mark saw, right? Well, no, sadly. In the final issue, #144, Invincible co-creator Robert Kirkman revealed on the letters page that Mark didn't change anything—he only ensured that the future he saw would happen.
According to Kirkman, "Robot's presence wasn't known to [Mark] at the time" when he traveled to the future and that "Immortal was driven crazy BY Robot in an attempt to take over" the planet again:
"FUN FACT: To keep from changing the events in issue #54 as we saw them, my thinking is that Mark believed that having Robot's brain HELPING Immortal meant that Immortal would NOT lose his mind. Because Robot's presence wasn't known to him at the time, he didn't think he was there. BUT HE WAS there and Immortal was driven crazy BY Robot in an attempt to take over (yes, Robot's brain is preserved and lives for a good long time as well), so everything would happen as we saw it, and Old Mark would return to Earth eventually to find that Robot's brain had taken over... or something."
Can Immortal Be Saved by the Adaptation?
At least in the Invincible comics, Immortal's fate ends in tragedy by dying at the hands of a younger Mark Grayson at the machinations of Robot.
Since this is an adaptation of the comics, it does not have to be his final fate if Kirkman has the heart to change it. After all, Shrinking Rae survived her trip down Komodo Dragon's gullet and did not die, unlike her comic book counterpart.
Her survival might only be a temporary reprieve before she dies later, maybe alongside Rex Splode. However, whole storylines have already been altered or removed entirely from the animated Invincible series, with more likely to get snipped, like Amber's abusive boyfriend subplot.
It is anyone's guess how the animated series will ultimately end, especially since many fans criticized the original comic's rushed ending. The animated series is a second chance to properly develop an ending for all these characters, which could end less tragically for some, like Immortal.
New episodes of Invincible Season 3 are released Thursdays on Amazon Prime Video.
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