Anissa's Arrival

Anissa's Arrival is a pivotal turn in the series, sending the powerful Viltrumite soldier Anissa to Earth on a scouting run that leads to her first fight with Invincible. The event opens the door to two later crises, the coming of the far deadlier Viltrumite Conquest and the Asteroid Prison Break in which Allen frees Nolan. Anissa's visit puts to the test whether Mark can be pulled toward his father's people.

Granted a week off by Rex, Mark finally enjoys a quiet evening with Amber across Chicago, until Anissa interrupts and threatens to break Amber's neck unless he comes with her. High above the city, Anissa dismisses Mark's insistence that his Viltrumite blood does not define him and pitches the Empire's grander vision. A Cruise Kaiju attacking a ship gives her a chance to watch Nolan's son in action, and she is unimpressed when Mark loses control, finishing the creature herself with a single strike.

The two carry the vessel to an island and argue over Viltrum's plan to seize Earth, which Mark rejects on the grounds that humanity should choose its own path. Enraged, Anissa batters him with ease. Cecil urges Mark over the earpiece to feign agreement and buy time, but he stays defiant and swings back, only to be launched into a crater along the shore. Anissa spares him, admitting the goal was never to kill him, and departs with a warning that a new agent will soon arrive.

Back at the dorms, a bruised Mark returns to Amber, who has finally had enough of the constant separations and ends the relationship for good. As Mark sits with everything that has happened, his phone rings, and instead of his mother's voice a menacing stranger asks whether he intends to visit the house before long.

Reporting to Kregg aboard his cruiser, Anissa concedes she failed to turn Invincible and calls him corrupted like Nolan. An alarm then sounds as Allen, who happens to be nearby, engages her. Now far stronger than before, he outmatches Anissa, yet he permits her to capture him so he can locate and rescue Nolan from the Viltrumite Prison. The confrontation makes Anissa the third Viltrumite to court Mark and the second to fail, and it drives the GDA to upgrade its ReAnimen and harden Invincible's durability. Mark and Anissa meet again on Talescria in a later season, where a single powerful blow shows how far he has come.