Summary
In Invincible #55, Omni-Man reveals that full-blooded Viltrumites are a dying species, with less than fifty remaining, drastically changing their position of power to one of vulnerability.
Omni-Man’s survival is due to Viltrumite tradition which requires two executioners, and when they were called away, his execution was delayed. This reveals the Viltrumites’ desperate need to interbreed with conquered populations to avoid extinction.
The revelation of the Viltrumite population crisis sets the stage for a two-person assault by Omni-Man and Allen the Alien on the Viltrum Empire, leading to the next chapter in the Invincible saga and the downfall of the empire.
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The Viltrumite Empire was a core part of Invincible from start to finish – but as one pivotal issue revealed, despite their individual strength and interstellar dominance, the Viltrumites themselves were in fact a dying species, their numbers dwindling to the point of disappearing from the universe entirely. This significantly changed readers’ understanding of the alien conquerors at the time, and altered the trajectory of the story moving forward.
Invincible #55 – written by Robert Kirkman, with art by Ryan Ottley – catalyzed the next major turn for the character of Omni-Man. By this point, his early role as a performer had begun to give way to a redemption arc.
Set to be executed by the Viltrum Empire Omni-Man was saved by Allen the Alien, who revealed himself to be more than capable of taking on the powerful conquerors in hand-to-hand combat. It was at this point that Omni-Man revealed a startling truth about his people: there were less than fifty remaining pure-blooded Viltrumites in the galaxy.
Over the course of nearly 150 issues,
Invincible
went from the story of a fledgling second-generation superhero to a galaxy-spanning epic detailing the downfall of an imperialist power, and the rise of a new interstellar social order in its place. This story was told through the perspective of Mark Grayson, the hero Invincible, whose father Nolan, or Omni-Man, was
revealed early on to be a Viltrumite conqueror
– and later, reformer.
Related Invincible’s Ending Is the Ultimate Rejection of Superhero Clichés, Says Creator Invincible creators Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker spoke about how the decision to end the series reflected their goals for the story from the start.
The Viltrumites’ Most Guarded Secret: They’re Almost Extinct
A Species On The Brink
As Omni-Man explained in
Invincible
#55, ”
there are less than fifty pure-blooded Viltrumites left alive in the whole universe
,” drastically changing their position from one of might to vulnerability.
In its climactic action scene, Invincible #55 delivered a gamechanging turn of events, as Allen the Alien saved the life of Omni-Man, the Viltrumite foe that he had come to see as a friend. In one of Invincible’s somewhat rare instances of an issue where the focus is far from Mark Grayson – appearances by him and Atom Eve on the first and last pages of Invincible #55 bookended the story of his father’s survival – Omni-Man was spared at the very last second only by the intervention of Allen, who caused a jailbreak, and in the chaos, liberated the condemned Viltrumite.
Invincible #55 (2008)
Writer: Robert Kirkman Artist: Ryan Ottley Colorist: FCO Plascenia Letterer: Rus Wooten Cover Artists: Ryan Ottley & FCO Plascenia
It was in the wake of their escape, and a truly horrifying team-up kill, with the blood of the Viltrumite executioners on their hands, that Omni-Man dropped a major revelation on Allen. Up to this point in Invincible, the Viltrumites had been presented as a flourishing imperial power; while their interstellar control extended far and wide, with many of the galaxy’s other races under their control, the truth of their motivations was much more urgent. As Omni-Man explained in Invincible #55, “there are less than fifty pure-blooded Viltrumites left alive in the whole universe,” drastically changing their position from one of might to vulnerability.
Viltrumite’s Hybrid Breeding Program Was A Product Of Desperation
Invincible #55 Depleted The Viltrumites Numbers Even Further
In
Invincible
#55, Omni-Man explained that his execution was delayed because two executioners are ”
required by law,
” and that when his executioners were called away on other urgent business, it was not as simple as assigning two more Viltrumites to complete the task.
The status of full-blooded Viltrumites as a nearly-extinct population explained their policy of interbreeding with conquered populations. Often, conquering powers in sci-fi and fantasy are depicted as desiring to protect their genetic make-up, to avoid mixing with other species; this was not an option for the Viltrumites, whose drive for conquest was both motivated and sustained by mixing Viltrumite blood with other civilizations. If the Viltrumites did not intermarry and generate offspring among their conquered populations, their people would soon die out.
Were this knowledge to become well known to their enemies throughout the galaxy, it would light a revolutionary spark like no other. Invincible #55 sent its characters off on a different path, as rather than raise an army, Omni-Man and Allen the Alien subsequently went on to wage a two-person assault on the Viltrum Empire, setting the stage for the next chapter in the history of the Viltrumites, and the next grand chapter of the Invincible saga, as it moved steadily towards its triumphant conclusion.
Mark Grayson Changed Viltrumite Culture – What Was Left Of It
Salvation Came In An Unexpected Form
The path to the series’ optimistic ending began in
Invincible
#55, with Omni-Man’s revelation about his people’s deepest, darkest secret, as
Invincible
began laying the groundwork for a spectacular finish.
Over the course of nearly a hundred subsequent issues, until the conclusion of Invincible with issue #144, Mark Grayson and the heroes of the series did more than just fight to defeat the Viltrumite Empire – they worked to irrevocably alter it for the better. While no solution to the ultimate extinction of full-blooded Viltrumites could be found, Invincible and his allies helped Viltrumite culture progress to a point of acceptance of their place in the galaxy. While their attempts to intermarry with other races began as a method of conquest, it became essential to preserving the Viltrumites’ legacy.
As Invincible made clear repeatedly, Viltrumite physiology made them functionally immortal; though their appearance was not distinct from humans, they aged over the course of centuries and millenniums, rather than years and decades. That meant that despite the dwindling number of “pure” Viltrumites in the galaxy, it would be a significant epoch of time before they were erased entirely. The end of Invincible featured Mark Grayson using the scope of his lifetime – even as a Viltrumite-human hybrid – to turn the Viltrumites from an iron-fisted imperial power, to a velvet-gloved interstellar society.
Under Mark’s rule, the Viltrumites flourished because of their increasing genetic diversity, rather than in spite of it. The conclusion to Invincible took readers far into the future, where the memory of the Viltrumites as a vile, antagonistic alien race had faded, the result of Mark and the Grayson family’s tireless efforts to be protectors, rather than a threat, to the rest of life in the galaxy. The path to the series’ optimistic ending began in Invincible #55, with Omni-Man’s revelation about his people’s deepest, darkest secret, as Invincible began laying the groundwork for a spectacular finish.