Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Invincible Season 2, Episode 8, “I Thought You Were Stronger.”
Mark Grayson visits a bunch of different realities in Invincible Season 2’s finale – but did the Prime Video show really just cross over with the DCU and the Spider-Verse?
Related: Invincible Season 2, Part 2 – Still the Animated Superhero Series to Beat (Review)
Is Invincible Season 2, Episode 8 a Spider-Verse Crossover?
Kinda – but certainly not in an official sense. Angstrom Levy repeatedly sends Mark charging into alternate realities during their fight in Invincible Season 2, Episode 8, “I Thought You Were Stronger,” including one that will look very familiar to Marvel fans. The superhero and supervillain Mark encounters here – Agent Spider and Professor Octopus – are obvious pastiches of Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, respectively. That said, neither character is part of Marvel continuity, on the page or screen.
That doesn’t mean they don’t have any connections to Sony’s Spider-Verse flicks, though. For starters, Agent Spider mentions that Invincible isn’t the only superhero he’s met from “another dimension,” and gripes about an uptick in these encounters lately. This is an apparent reference to 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which features over 200 variant wall-crawlers. So, although Agent Spider doesn’t actually appear in that movie, his dialogue implies that he was nevertheless present, albeit off-screen.
Then there’s Agent Spider’s voice actor, Josh Keaton. Keaton has voiced Spider-Man across a range of licensed media, including Across the Spider-Verse (reprising his role from the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon). This casting, together with Agent Spider’s dialogue referenced earlier, results in an off-the-books Invincible/Spider-Verse crossover.
Related: Invincible Season 2, Part 2: How Did Part 1 End?
Is Invincible Season 2, Episode 8 a DCU Crossover?
Again, this is a “yes, but” answer. Yes, a character from the DC Universe – Batman – technically makes a silent cameo in Invincible Season 2, Episode 8. But no, neither DC Comics nor DC Studios authorized said cameo. What’s more, Batman is never identified as such in the episode itself, nor do we get a proper look at him. All we see is a fluttering black cape with a scalloped bottom edge – exactly like the Dark Knight’s signature cloak.
It’s not a lot to go on, yet Invincible co-creator (and Episode 8 scribe) Robert Kirkman still makes it pretty clear this individual is meant to be Batman. After all, Kirkman has Mark accuse his caped companion of adopting a “lazy” superhero name because he’s “a man who dresses like a bat” – a playful dig at the Caped Crusader’s hyper-literal moniker.
However, as Mark stops short of actually saying “Batman,” Invincible Episode 8’s DCU scene is just as unofficial – and IP law-compliant – as its Spider-Verse crossover.
All four episodes of Invincible Season 2, Part 2 are currently streaming on Prime Video.
