Insanity Doesn’t Excuse Poor Writing (Invincible season 3 spoilers)

To start off, I completely understand that both of these characters ( powerplex and armgstrom levy) are meant to be mentally unstable, and within the framework of the story, neither is supposed to be entirely rational. That being said, I find Powerplex’s story far more compelling, whereas Angstrom Levy comes across as frustrating and, at times, poorly written.

Why Powerplex Works:

When you analyze Powerplex as a character, it becomes clear that he doesn’t actually hate Mark….at least, not in a way that’s purely rational. The real issue is that Powerplex has no tangible outlet for his grief and rage. The person truly responsible for the chaos and destruction in his life (Omni Man) has long since left Earth, meaning Powerplex is left with no one to hold accountable for his sister’s death.

Because Omni Man is gone, Powerplex fixates on the next closest thing ie Mark. Mark, as Omni Man’s son, is a constant reminder of what happened, and the fact that he’s allowed to walk around freely while Powerplex was utterly powerless to save the people he loved fills him with resentment. In his mind, Mark’s very existence is an injustice, a living symbol of the destruction omni man caused that ruined his life. That kind of misplaced but understandable grief makes Powerplex’s hatred towards Mark emotionally compelling. He’s a man consumed by loss, desperately searching for someone to blame, and Mark is the only option left.

Why Angstrom Levy Falls Flat:

Angstrom Levy, on the other hand, is a strange case. Unlike Powerplex, he actually has a direct reason to hate Mark. this version of Mark is the one responsible for his disfigurement and fractured mind. On paper, that should make his motivation more understandable, but what ruins it for me is the sheer hypocrisy of his actions.

Levy constantly talks about “justice,” yet he chooses to retaliate by unleashing countless evil Marks into the main universe, causing mass death and destruction. If his true goal was revenge against evil marks, why not target one of the many evil versions of Mark from the thousands of alternate realities? He has unlimited access to different universes, yet he fixates on the one version of Mark who actually tries to be a hero. That lack of logic makes his character feel less like a well written villain and more like an excuse for the writers to escalate the conflict in an overly contrived way.

The Key Difference:

The biggest difference between Powerplex and Levy is that Powerplex has no other outlet for his grief. The one person he should hate is gone, leaving him to direct his pain toward Mark. In that sense, his hatred, while misguided, is emotionally understandable. Levy, on the other hand, has an infinite number of options for his vengeance but deliberately chooses the least logical one. His madness doesn’t feel organic, it feels like a narrative convenience.

In my opinion, writing an insane character doesn’t mean they should be completely nonsensical. A well crafted unhinged character should still be rooted in motivations that, on some level, the audience can understand. Otherwise, it just feels like the writers are throwing whatever they want onto the page and expecting us to accept it simply because “they’re crazy.” That’s why I find Levy more annoying than compelling. at best, he’s frustrating, and at worst, he’s poorly written.