Invincible’s impossible Marvel crossover doesn’t happen in season 2, but the show handles it in the best possible way

Between Spider-Man voice actor Josh Keaton’s gentle teases and the fact Invincible season 2, part 2 was all set to take adapt events that take place around the same time as crossover comic Marvel Team-Up #14, many may have expected Mark Grayson to fight crime alongside Peter Parker on Prime Video.

That isn’t the case – but what we do get (including another more obvious superhero tease) is the next best thing.

Some spoilers for Invincible season 2 follow.

In the Invincible season 2 finale, Mark is met at his home by nemesis Angstrom Levy, who has kidnapped his mom Debbie and new half-brother Oliver.

Even with all his Viltrumite might, Invincible can’t defeat Levy so easily. The scientist – who survived the blast from the season 2 premiere – reveals that he has been rebuilt and now has the ability to hop through different dimensions. He even uses some of these portals to send Mark flying through the multiverse. It’s here where ‘Spider-Man’ comes in.

In the Marvel Team-Up comic, Mark ends up in Marvel’s main comic universe, meets Spider-Man and the Avengers while also battling Doc Ock. In the Amazon series, we instead get a warped take on ‘Spider-Man’: an arachnid-themed superhero named Agent Spider (voiced by Josh Keaton) taking on the tentacled villain ‘Prof Ock’.

Whether the show couldn’t navigate the legal minefield of character rights or simply wanted to parody Spidey is unclear. We do, though, get a later nod to Batman.

“You’re a man who dresses like a bat and your name is… don’t you think that’s kind of lazy?” Mark asks an off-screen figure in a scene taken directly from the comics.  

There’s even more multiversal fun for Mark, who also ends up in a reality where talking dinosaurs hunt humans and another zombie-infested world that is pretty close in tone and style to Invincible co-creator Robert Kirkman’s own The Walking Dead comic.

Invincible season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video. For more, check out the new superhero movies flying your way and our ranking of the best Spider-Man movies.