Allen the Alien's 'Invincible' Story Takes a Jarring Twist
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The following story contains spoilers for Invincible Season 2, Episode 3, "This Missive, This Machination!"
FANS OF INVINCIBLE—both Prime Video's animated series and the original Image Comics series—were likely drawn to it for three major reasons: a great story, great characters, and a completely fearless approach to subverting storytelling tropes of a very well-worn genre.
Those tendencies to subvert have never been on better display than in Invincible's third episode of Season 2, titled "This Missive, This Machination!" While the show starts off the episode mostly following Mark (Steven Yeun) as he moves into his college dorm at Upstate University, things quickly shift away when Mark and his girlfriend, Amber (Zazie Beetz) start to have sex for the first time. This is a family show! (Narrator's voice: No, it's not.)
The action then unexpectedly goes out to space, as we catch up with an old Season 1 Invincible friend, Allen the Alien (voiced by Seth Rogen, who also produces the show). This marks a perfect time to get Allen's origin story (he was bred from birth to be the Unopan who could take down the Viltrumites; it didn't quite work out that way, and so he goes searching for great warriors for the Coalition of Planets instead), and find out what he's been up to since he last met Mark.
Allen, it turns out, has been greatly vouching for Mark, and how he stood up against his dad. Allen takes this and draws a theory: if other Viltrumites have children, and could be willing to rebel against their parents, there could really be a path to defeat the conquerors. Allen makes this case to the leader of the Coalition, Thaedus (voiced by Transformers icon Peter Cullen), who seems to be somewhat on board.
We also learn about Allen's personal life. He's got a girlfriend/love interest named Telia (Tatiana Maslany, voicing her second character of the season), and the two like spending time together—while both being part of the Coalition and potential Viltrumite rebellion. The two are together when Thaedus shows up and asks to speak with Allen alone, telling him that he believes there could be a mole in their ranks.
That's all we hear on the topic, until three Viltrumites show up, and Allen is brave enough to take them on—and quite literally gets the guts beaten out of him. It seems like Allen is dead... until we see him clinging to life in a life support-type of machine keeping him alive, as Telia and Thaedus look on. And then—whoops!—as soon as Telia leaves his side, Thaedus powers the machine down.
Have we seen the last of Allen the Alien on Invincible?
Did Allen The Alien really die in Invincible?
While it seems like we have saw Allen the Alien die not once but twice in "This Missive, This Machination!", creator Robert Kirkman has thankfully confirmed that he's still around. But things are going to be different.
He explained to TV Guide:
He's not dead because he's in that iron lung at the end of the episode, so he's still alive. He may be a vegetable for the rest of the show, or he may be a severed head that's got a robot body that exists in that form, or he could just be a disembodied voice that's driving a drone from that iron lung thing. So any number of ways Allen could continue on in the show, but it's definitely going to be different from the way he existed before.
It's reasonable for Allen to be alive, despite what we saw in the Invincible episode: he's been set up as a key character in Mark's coming-of-age as a superhero, and he also had one hell of an arc even here in his mini standalone episode. That said, this is Invincible, which gets its power from subverting expectations. So anything is possible.
But, even despite what Kirkman says above, we would expect to see Allen the Alien back in superhero form on Invincible soon enough.
Allen the Alien is voiced by Seth Rogen
Allen has one of the most recognizable voices in the film/television industry, because it belongs to Seth Rogen. The star and writer of movies like Superbad, Pineapple Express, and This Is The End, Rogen has been one of the biggest stars in comedy since his film breakout in The 40-Year-Old Virgin back in 2005.
In recent years, he's taken on lots of responsibilities as a producer (alongside his partner Evan Goldberg), and has been a major force in getting comics previously deemed unadaptable—including Preacher, The Boys, and Invincible—to the screen.
Rogen has had a couple cameos (as himself) in The Boys, so it makes total sense that he would have a lot of fun voicing a key character (Allen The Alien) in Invincible.
What happens to Allen The Alien in the Invincible comics?
Interestingly enough, Allen's standalone story in the Invincible comics plays out almost exactly like it does in the episode, down to getting the life (nearly) beat out of him (in an extremely gory manner!) by the trio of Viltrumites—but with one major difference. In the comics, Allen is in the same coma that we see him in during Season 2, Episode 3, but he eventually recovers from his injuries and gets a body that's even stronger than it was before. The twist of Thaedus powering his machine down does not happen.
Allen continues to appear as a major character in Invincible throughout its 144-issue run. It's possible, then, that the show is taking a major swerve—but it's likely that one way or another, Allen will be back and better than ever soon enough.
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