Advent of Conquest

Warned months earlier by Anissa that a far crueler warrior would come, Mark trains relentlessly with the GDA, yet nothing prepares Earth for Conquest. The ancient Viltrumite arrives already delighting in the carnage, admitting he was ordered to seize the planet by any means and treating the mission as pure sport. He and Invincible tear across ruined cities, trading devastating blows that flatten whole blocks and hurl civilians through the air.

Kid Omni-Man joins the fight and is nearly killed, and when Atom Eve enters the battle Conquest punches straight through her body, seemingly slaying her. Enraged and grieving, Mark finds a second wind, and a resurgent Eve unleashes her full, restraint-free power to blast Conquest apart, letting Invincible pound the crippled warrior into unconsciousness.

Conquest fractures Invincible's leg, snaps his neck at one point, and destroys his artificial arm, pushing Mark to the edge of death. Atom Eve breaks through the mental blocks that cap her powers, first after being mortally wounded and again to fire the blast that scorches Conquest. Conquest confesses his loneliness, revealing that even the Empire fears him and that Conquest is merely a title, not a name. Cecil defies Mark's order to incinerate the fallen Viltrumite, instead sealing him alive in a tungsten alloy to interrogate him. Rex Splode's funeral follows, and Robot renames himself Rex Conners in his memory.

Comics readers know this event as the Invincible War: Aftermath, since it lands almost immediately after that larger conflict. It is the series' third planet-spanning battle, arriving after the Invincible War and the earlier Destruction of Chicago, and it deliberately mirrors Chicago in staging, with Conquest using Mark as a living weapon against bystanders. The confrontation marks only the second time Eve lifts her mental restrictions to tap her full potential. Conquest's captivity ultimately backfires, as he later escapes and is sent by Thragg to hunt the Grayson family.