It's About Time

The story opens at the White House, where the Mauler Twins burst from underground and the Guardians of the Globe, backed by a late-arriving Omni-Man, drive them off while shielding civilians. From there the focus shifts to teenage Mark, who idolizes his father and aches for his own abilities. After an ordinary day of school, bullies and a shift at his fast-food job, Mark hurls a trash bag impossibly far and realizes his powers have finally arrived.

His father Nolan begins training him, pushing hard on flight, landings and taking a punch, and reminds Mark of the Viltrumite heritage that brought him to Earth. Mark struggles, crashes, and nearly hurts himself testing his limits, all while Debbie quietly worries that Nolan is being too rough and privately wonders whether their lives would have been easier had Mark stayed powerless. A heart-to-heart with his mother reassures Mark that he only has to be his own best self rather than a copy of his father. Inspired, he collects a bright new suit from tailor Art Rosenbaum, downs a street criminal, and proudly announces himself as Invincible.

The episode then reveals its darker turn. The Guardians assemble at their headquarters expecting a threat, only to realize none of them triggered the alert. Omni-Man appears, and in an instant snaps from ally to executioner, crushing Red Rush's skull before the others can react. A savage, one-sided slaughter follows as Nolan tears through Martian Man, Darkwing, Green Ghost, Aquarus, War Woman and, finally, a defiant Immortal, leaving himself gravely wounded and collapsing among his murdered friends.

Mark's Viltrumite powers manifest, and he begins training under Nolan before adopting the Invincible identity and taking his first suit from Art Rosenbaum. His debut fight ends with the defeat of Killcannon.

The Guardians of the Globe gather after a false alarm and are ambushed by Omni-Man, who murders the entire team, leaving The Immortal for last. The massacre leaves Nolan badly injured and sets the central mystery of the series in motion.

The title references Mark's remark upon finally gaining powers, echoing a line from the first issue of the comic. The comic Mark reads, Seance Dog, is a renamed stand-in for the original Science Dog. The Guardians are voiced largely by actors from The Walking Dead, and Green Ghost is female here in contrast to the male comic version.

In this adaptation Nolan gives Mark his hero name rather than the school principal, and the Guardians' deaths play out differently than in the comics, where Omni-Man relied on stealth and killed them instantly instead of being wounded in a drawn-out brawl. Titan, seen briefly as Mark's first foe, would later return with a fuller introduction.