The heavily anticipated Invincible Season 3 finale finally gave Atom Eve her time to shine in the sun.
These last two seasons of Invincible have seriously been lacking when it comes to developing one of its lead characters: Samantha Eve Wilkins, a.k.a. Atom Eve. Despite the occasional skirmish or battle, she hasn’t had a chance to build on the Atom Eve Special released earlier in 2023. That was, until the finale episode of Season 3. Not only did she reawaken a long-lost ability, it also showed Eve going toe to toe with one of the most powerful beings in the universe.
The Invincible – Presenting Atom Eve special was a surprise early episode drop in 2023. It delved further into Eve’s backstory, revealing that Dr. Brandyworth was the scientist responsible for Eve’s ability to manipulate matter. He tampered with amniotic fluid inside the womb of Eve’s mother, Polly, to induce a mutation. Unfortunately, her story spirals into tragedy from that point onward. Polly supposedly dies in childbirth after her body surges with atomic energy and Eve is gifted to grieving foster parents; one of whom eventually comes to scorn her powers. The young superhero spends the rest of the episode discovering the horrid truth that Polly is still alive, but essentially comatose due to irreversible brain damage. Polly’s catatonic body was used to create Eve’s siblings, all of whom have heartless numbered code names: 2, 3, 4, and 5. They all despise Samantha because their powers never managed to match the success of Brandyworth’s first experiment. Her siblings, Polly and Dr. Brandyworth all die by the end of the special and Eve is left cripplingly alone.
Invincible’s last Eve-centric episode left viewers with a lingering piece of unresolved lore. Dr. Brandyworth placed mental blocks on her during Eve’s conception that ensured her abilities wouldn’t interfere with the molecular structure of sentient beings. However, Cooper Hood of Screen Rant details how, in the Atom Eve special, fans learned that trauma or extreme cases of bodily harm can unlock Eve’s greatest power and bypass her blocks.
Eve watches the head of her experimentation program, Erickson, murder Polly with a stray bullet and gun Brandyworth down.
