Assault on the Graysons

Assault on the Graysons delivers one of the hardest breaking points in the series. Mark and his family come under attack from Angstrom Levy, a foe who knows their Viltrumite lineage and nurses a deep hatred born of an earlier encounter half a year before. The clash seeds the Invincible War, the catastrophic future battle between Earth's defenders and Mark's evil variants drawn from across the multiverse.

Just after his final breakup with Amber, Mark answers a call from a menacing stranger who asks when he will be coming home. He arrives to find the deformed-headed Angstrom Levy, once the Mauler Twins' hidden partner, who blames Mark for the brain damage that scattered his mind across dimensions. Angstrom flings Debbie and Oliver aside and traps Mark in a strange world of intelligent raptors, then keeps hurling him from reality to reality, through a Spider-like hero's city, a zombie-blighted version of his own house, a caveman ambush, and stranger places still, all while taunting Debbie at home.

As Mark reels through Angstrom's own broken memories of alternate Invincibles slaughtering his loved ones, his tormentor's hatred hardens into a demand for Mark's death. Debbie fights back, cutting Angstrom with a shard and pleading with him, insisting her son is a hero and no murderer, until he throws her onto a glass table and snaps her wrist. When Mark finally pins him down and sees his mother's broken arm, his restraint shatters. He unleashes his full, long-suppressed power and beats Angstrom into a bloody ruin, ending with a two-fisted blow to the chest. Staring at his own bloodied hands and Angstrom's battered body, Mark can only moan that he thought his enemy was stronger.

Wracked with guilt, Mark is met by alternate versions of Eve, Monster Girl, Bulletproof, and a disguised Robot, who arrive through a portal. Eve cleans the blood from him and confesses her love before Robot opens a way home, a confession Rex warns could ripple through the timestream. Back in his own world, Mark breaks down in a safe Debbie's arms at the Pentagon, and Cecil assures him he is nothing like his father. He visits Upstate University meaning to see Amber but leaves without a word, resolved to move on and keep her out of danger. At home, the Graysons watch their house rebuild itself, and Mark, weighing his future, decides to drop out of college to focus on discipline. Unseen, an unknown party recovers Angstrom's body and rebuilds him, setting a far more horrific plan against Invincible in motion.