Nolan's Odyssey

Often called Nolan's Mission, this turning-point event in Viltrumite history spans roughly twenty years, during which the Empire charges Nolan with infiltrating and weakening Earth's defenses to smooth a future takeover. It stands as one of two events that launch the so-called Nolan Era, a reformative chapter in Viltrumite civilization. The arc threads through nearly the entire first season and colors everything the series builds afterward.

Following the devastation of the Scourge Virus, the Empire leans on ever more unconventional tactics for universal conquest, seeding trusted agents onto target worlds to hollow them out from within. Earth qualifies because its people are genetically close enough to help rebuild the Viltrumite population through breeding centers, and the Great Nolan is posted there. For twenty years he passes as the planet's strongest superhero while preparing it and its people for Viltrumite rule. He fathers the first Viltrumite-human hybrid with a human woman to test whether Earth's population can truly replenish his kind. After a seventeen-year wait, his son Mark finally comes into his powers and takes up the name Invincible, confirming humanity's potential.

While teaching Mark to control his abilities, Nolan also works to reveal the truth of the Viltrumites and to secretly eliminate every threat to Viltrum's plans, from the Guardians of the Globe to the Flaxans and the demon detective Damien Darkblood. His designs come apart, however, because of his defiant son, who refuses to turn on his own people, and because Nolan himself develops a genuine affection for the world he was sent to conquer. In the end he leaves Earth for parts unknown, becoming the first Viltrumite ever recorded to forsake his duty.

By the mission's parameters, Nolan succeeds in siring a viable hybrid and in weakening Earth's defenses, but fails to eliminate every threat, above all his own son. Across the multiverse the outcome plays out differently. Angstrom Levy reports dimensions where Omni-Man successfully recruits Invincible and the pair seize Earth together; in one such reality they crush cities and heroes when the planet rebels, though Mark still spares a paralyzed Atom Eve out of love. In yet other timelines, variant Invincibles turn on Omni-Man and kill him outright, whether out of circumstance or a hunger for independence. The clash that ends Nolan's tenure feeds directly into the destruction of Chicago.