WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the fourth episode of Invincible "Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out," streaming now on Amazon Prime.
Part of the joy of Invincible, both from the comics and its animated adaptation, is the complete willingness to throw its audience full force into far-out concepts, be they science fiction or magical fantasy. While the series leans more toward sci-fi than fantasy, the character of Damien Darkblood is straight out of the realm of magic as the demonic detective investigates the mystery of the Guardians of the Globe's murder. The Amazon series bolsters the character's role more than ever, but his investigation just hit a serious snag: an exorcism banished him to Hell.
The role of the character in the comics was a minor one, but started off in a similar place. Bearing a striking similarity to Watchmen's Rorschach at first, wearing the similar overcoat, fedora and white ascot that made them almost indistinguishable from the right angle, the comic similarly tied the character to a superhero funeral and the investigation of their murder at the hands of another hero. But whereas his comic's counterpart underwent an investigation that barely went anywhere, the Amazon series takes his role and expands on it.
Exploring the character's backstory in more depth, the audience learns that Damien is a demon who solves mysteries to atone for the damnation of his own soul in hopes of saving it. Following Omni-Man's murder of the Guardians of the Globe and subsequent cover up of his involvement, Damien proves to be the force most suspicious of Omni-Man as he investigates the hero from the shadows. In the latest episode, his investigation arouses the suspicions of Omni-Man's wife Deborah, and he seems to leave a lingering effect on Deborah as she looks Damien up online and hides her own investigation from Omni-Man's gaze.
Ultimately Omni-Man knows that Damien is on to him, and when the demon does not back down from his attempts to threaten the detective he changes course in his strategy to try to pin the murders on Damien himself. Damien discovers the shadowy government figure Cecil Stedman waiting to ambush him, and accompanies him to the Pentagon, skeptical that the government had any means of effectively disposing of him. After all, he reasons, the incantations to banish him were lost long ago.
Damien doesn't count on the extent of Cecil's resources nor the value of modern technology, however. Using artificial intelligence, Cecil managed to reconstruct the incantation, and by trapping Damien in a satanic rune and completing the spell he banishes Damien Darkblood to Hell. Perhaps most shocking of all is not just the banishment itself, but that Cecil fully acknowledges that he knows Damien is not truly responsible for the Guardians' deaths.
Cecil fully knows that Omni-Man is behind the murders, and instead of attacking him outright hopes instead to wait back and see what his ultimate goals may be in the events that are to transpire. Disposing of Damien in such a way comes off as more narratively satisfying than the story handled the matter in the comics, granting him an exit from the story tidier than a simple fade to the background.
But given the newfound emphasis on the demonic detective, it's doubtful that this is the last we will see of Damien Darkblood. As Cecil himself points out, he is not truly dead, and it's only a matter of time before he comes back seeking his vengeance.
Invincible stars Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Mae Whitman, Chris Diamantopoulos, Melise, Kevin Michael Richardson, Grey Griffin and Max Burkholder. The series is produced by Skybound, and executive produced by Robert Kirkman, Simon Racioppa, David Alpert and Catherine Winder. New episodes are released Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.