‘Invincible’ Season 4 Officially Recreated ’The Walking Dead’s Most Disturbing Memory

Invincible and The Walking Dead share quite a few things in common. Both shows are based on the Image Comics series co-created by Robert Kirkman. They’re also packed full of blood and gore, despite being in two completely different genres. The biggest connection that both shows share is an overlap in cast members, which has really hit home in Invincible Season 4. During this week’s episode, “Give Us A Moment,” Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) finally enters the Viltrumite War, and has a long-awaited rematch with the monstrous Viltrumite Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). This leads to one of Invincible‘s most gruesome moments, where Mark brutally chokes Conquest to death despite having most of his organs ripped out.

It’s a scene that’s not for the faint of heart, but it also calls back to one of The Walking Dead‘s most shocking scenes, which also involved Yeun and Morgan. In the Season 7 premiere, “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”, Neagan (Morgan) has cornered Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and the rest of his group, which includes Yeun’s Glenn Rhee. Intending to punish Rick for killing members of his army, the Saviors, Negan brutally beats Glenn to death with his signature baseball bat “Lucille.” It was a truly grim moment, which must have made fans happy when Invincible flipped the script.

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Negan Killing Glenn Forever Changed ‘The Walking Dead’

Glenn Rhee crouched down as Negan stands out of frame, holding a bat, in The Walking Dead.

Glenn’s death was a major twist in The Walking Dead‘s story, as it forever altered the core dynamics of the cast. His wife Maggie (Lauren Cohan) would have to raise their baby without its father. Rick, having had to battle some truly inhuman beings along with the hordes of zombies, finally met his match in Negan. Glenn also wasn’t the only person to suffer Negan’s wrath, as Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) was also killed by the Saviors’ leader. When they first met, Glenn and Abraham were at odds, but they eventually became allies — making their deaths hit all the harder. Robert Kirkman also unpacked why Glenn’s death was hard for him, as he had written the same scene in The Walking Dead #100 right after Steven Yeun was cast:

“Glenn was actually the first death in the comic that happened after the person was cast…There are a lot of other big deaths that happened, but they were all done in the comic before the person was cast, so Glenn was actually the first time while I was writing the comic where I was like, ‘Oh, geez.'”

While Kirkman and the rest of The Walking Dead‘s crew might have been satisfied with Glenn’s death, many fans and critics consider it the point where the series jumped the shark. Most reviews called out “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” for seemingly underestimating its audience’s intelligence or for being “miserable and tedious.” Not helping matters was the fact that the Season 6 finale “Last Day on Earth” ended on a cliffhanger in an attempt to stoke suspense, when anyone who read the Walking Dead comics knew that Glenn was at the end of Negan’s bat. That displeasure extended to future seasons of The Walking Dead and spinoff series The Walking Dead: Dead City, which not only saw Negan working with Rick’s group but also paired up with Maggie.

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‘Invincible’ Flips the Script on Steven Yeun and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s ‘Walking Dead’ Fates – Twice

The casting of Steven Yeun as Invincible and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Conquest once again casts them as hero and villain, but this time, Yeun’s character delivers the death blow. Both of Mark’s fights against Conquest end in a brutal moment, and each time, Mark delivers a dire threat. In their first fight, he tells Conquest, “I can see the future. You don’t live to see tomorrow.” In their rematch, Mark grabs Conquest by the throat and says,, “You’re never breathing again.” While Mark might suffer grievous injuries in these battles, he lives up to his word — even if viewers are traumatized in the process.

Mark’s determination to put down Conquest also follows up on the promise he made in Season 3, where he said that he’d kill anyone who threatens his family. Considering Conquest came close to killing his brother Oliver (Christian Convery) twice, and gravely wounded Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs), it’s not hard to see why Mark took killing the grizzled Viltrumite seriously. His victories have also ensured that Invincible topped The Walking Dead in terms of brutality, and, unlike Negan killing Glenn, Conquest’s death has been met with resounding approval from fans.