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| “ | No ... I need revenge. I need to make him pay! I won't rest UNTIL I'VE KILLED [INVINCIBLE]! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom Levy swearing vengeance on Invincible for disfiguring him and killing his alternate versions. |
| “ | You don't know anything! I ... am not ... THE VILLAIN! I'm trying to save the world! Your son is the monster! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom displaying his hypocrisy as he torments Debbie Grayson and breaks her arm. |
| “ | Go! Destroy everything in your path! Make them see Invincible! Make them fear Invincible! MAKE THEM HATE [INVINCIBLE]! Do this and everything you want will be yours. | „ |
| ~ Angstrom commanding his army of Evil Invincibles — His most famous quote. |
Angstrom Levy is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Robot) of the Image Comics comic series Invincible and its animated adaptation of the same name.
A scientist who can travel between different dimensions, Levy attempted to absorb the memories of his alternate counterparts. However, he became severely disfigured after stopping the Mauler Twins from killing Invincible, who arrived at the scene. Driven insane and mutated after the accident, Levy blamed Invincible and subsequently swore to get revenge on him at all costs, becoming one of the hero's greatest archenemies.
He is voiced by Sterling K. Brown, who also played N'Jobu in Black Panther, Gordon Walker in Supernatural, and Philip Davidson in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Biography[]
Plans for the Multiverse[]
Little is known about Levy's background, including how and when he developed the power to open up portals to alternate realities (the animated series elaborates that Levy was born with this ability). At some point, Levy sets out to amass information about the various alternate Earths so as to be able to travel through them more safely. To this end, he contacts alternate versions of himself from hundreds of parallel Earths and convinces them to help him. Next Levy frees the supervillains the Mauler Twins from prison on the condition that they help him create a machine that would allow him to copy the memories of his alternate reality counterparts into his own brain.
With the aid of versions of themselves from other realities, the Mauler Twins are able to construct the machine. Levy is in the process of uploading the memories of his alternate selves when the process is interrupted by Invincible who is trying to apprehend the Maulers. The Maulers are on the verge of killing Invincible when Levy halts the machine to try to stop them, causing it to overload and explode. Unbeknownst to Invincible, Levy survives the explosion but is horribly mutated and disfigured and suffers internal organ damage as a result. Levy has been driven insane by his mutation and now believes it was Invincible who stopped the machine and vows revenge.
Attack on the Graysons[]
Surgeons are able to rebuild and even enhance Levy’s body but are unable to correct his monstrous appearance. Levy is left with a burning hatred of Invincible whom he blames for the accident. He discovers that Invincible is really Mark Grayson by traveling to realities where his identity is public knowledge.
Levy takes Mark's mother Debbie and his baby brother Oliver hostage in their home and lures Mark in with a phone message. When Mark arrives to rescue his family, Levy sends him into various other realities (including the Marvel Universe and the DC Universe). While Mark is away, Levy tortures his family, tossing Oliver around and breaking Debbie's arms in retaliation for a failed attack with a lamp. Levy's plan is to wear Mark down, and then kill him, then kill his family and all the Evil Invincibles.
Mark tricks Levy into entering a portal while he is stranded on an abandoned wasteland of an Earth. Overestimating the success of Levy's enhancements, Mark seemingly beats him to death by accident after he taunts him. Mark is rescued from this wasteland by future versions of his friends, who had traveled through time and space to find him.
The Invincible War[]
At the end of #51, Angstrom is revealed to be alive and is spying on Mark as he sits atop his roof, via a small robotic camera. He is showing sitting in a room with many monitors, all with videos of Mark playing, and also with small electrical globes attached in his head. He has adopted a supervillain style costume, complete with a cape and new scars on his face from his previous encounter with Invincible.
After spying on Mark for a number of months, Levy reveals his plan: gather evil versions of Invincible from other dimensions and unleash them upon the first Mark's world. While this creates worldwide panic and death, the main goal is to ruin Invincible's reputation and cause him suffering. The world's superheroes unite, some giving their lives to battle and kill the murderous counterparts of Invincible. In the end, Levy's plan fails as the Earth, though devastated, is not conquered and while Invincible's reputation was somewhat tarnished by this event, it was still salvageable. He scarcely manages to escape but loses a limb in the process. Upon arrival to the dimension of his doctors, he loses their support and is informed that he now 'works for them'.
Attempt at Peace[]
Levy returns in #104, taking Eve hostage and once again sends Mark to the alternate dimension where the evil Invincibles were exiled. Only two of the evil Invincibles remain - having resorted to cannibalism as they killed and ate each other to survive the barren landscape. A battle ensues between Mark and the cannibalistic Invincible, with Mark being aided by the other mohawk-wearing Invincible. In the meantime, Eve has a passionate discussion with Angstrom, reminding him of his initial desire to help humanity which became perverted due to the influx of memories from his alternate selves. Angstrom repents and opens a portal to bring Mark home. Mark returns through the portal, accompanied by the one surviving evil Invincible.
Angstrom apologizes for everything he has done and explains to both of them that he wishes to pay for his crimes and help humanity, and opens a portal for the evil Invincible to return home. Seeking revenge, the evil Invincible instead grabs Angstrom and drags him through the portal with him, with Mark unable to speed to him in time to save him. When Mark and Robot arrive to the dimension, they find Angstrom still alive and has been tortured severely by evil Invincible. Robot then betrays Mark, kills evil Invincible, and decapitates Angstrom to assure that Mark doesn’t return to his dimension. However, Mark is able to go back to his dimension with the help of evil Invincible's Rudolph Connors.
Legacy[]
In the final issue, it is revealed that Angstrom has a son who shares the same powers as his father. He also seeks revenge on Mark for his death.
Personality[]
Comics[]
Angstrom Levy is a brilliant, though amoral, scientist who only wanted to be able to use his powers to their full potential. His desire to exploit his abilities drove and consumed him to break laws and cut corners in order to satiate it. While Levy wasn’t willing to actually kill anyone to achieve this goal, hurting someone or working with criminals were acceptable costs to him at that time.
The accident affected Levy greatly, distorting his memories of the events leading up to the accident, and transforming him from an easy going yet morally challenged person into a violent psychopath. Levy’s sole reason for being now is to gain vengeance on Invincible for causing the explosion that disfigured him, even going as far as to kill his family just to get back at him.
It is assumed that the brutal brain damage that he sustained from his fight with Invincible only worsened his condition, turning his already irrational hatred for the mainline Invincible into his sole driving factor, even coming to the hypocritical decision to recruit Team Evil Invincible from all over the Multiverse as his personal army. He is completely willing to be complicit in the death of hundreds of millions just to tarnish Invincible's reputation, even praising the destruction his army of Alternate Invincibles had made before betraying them, showing that he still hates them, but to a lesser degree than the mainstream Invincible. Angstrom attempts to justify his hatred towards Invincible by claiming that given the abundance of evil Invincibles, even in the vast infinity of the multiverse, he must be ontologically evil and he is doing a favor in the world by showing them his true nature.
When Invincible is thought dead after his battle with Dinosaurus, Angstrom briefly returns to his pre-accident self and lives a peaceful life in his home dimension, that is until he is actually revealed to be alive, which causes him to regress back into his vengeful and antagonistic self. It isn't until Atom Eve makes him realize the fact that his memories are scrambled with his alternate selves' that he actually forgives Invincible and vows to right his wrongs.
TV Series[]
| “ | "That guy?" That's all you remember of me? That I was THAT guy?! I am Angstrom Levy, and you made me into a monster! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom Levy's outburst towards Invincible. |
Amazon's TV adaptation of the series takes a more sympathetic approach to Angstrom's character, explicitly showing that he's a pacifist who isn't willing to directly hurt anyone. His goals aren't driven by the simple thrill of knowledge like his counterpart, but instead he seeks to create an utopia with the knowledge of thousands of alternate cultures. When the Maulers were about to murder Invincible, Levy took off the helmet that stabilized their machine mid-process, showing that while morally challenged he wasn't willing to let anyone get killed because of him.
After the incident, Levy's brain began to overflow with his alternate selves', gaining a profound hatred for Invincible as he was the most recurrent source of pain caused to his other selves, as well as the source of the accident that disfigured him. From that moment onwards, Angstrom's typically collected mind was clouded by the pain and hatred of his counterparts, and vowed revenge to destroy Invincible and everything that he ever loved.
It is later shown that the original Angstrom's personality is still somewhere buried deep down in his consciousness, fighting to remember what he once stood for, but is ultimately suppressed alongside the memory that he ever tried to help Invincible in the first place.
Much like his comic book counterpart, the merciless beatdown he received from Invincible left him with severe brain damage and fully suppressed the original Angstrom's personality, motivations and principles, instead leaving behind a hateful shell of a man whose sole purpose in life is to make Invincible miserable and destroy everything that he holds dear.
Whatever standards he might have previously held were completely erased, now becoming completely willing to recruit evil variants of Invincible (some of which even being directly responsible for his most terrifying memories he inherited from his own counterparts) and be complicit in their murder of thousands of millions of innocents in a sick twist of irony, for it was his want to not build his utopia with blood that made him the monster he is now. In Angstrom's mind, this is a necessary evil as he wants the people of Earth to see and feel Invincible for what he truly is.
Angstrom's typically altruistic demeanor became obfuscated by an egotistical thirst for revenge. Even after experiencing the horrible conditions of the Technician's world first-hand, he did not once think about helping them in return for reconstructing him not once but twice, instead seeing them as mere tools at his disposal in the middle of his own personal war against Invincible. It isn't until he is enslaved by them that he actually begrudgingly agrees to help them.
Quotes[]
Comics[]
| “ | I've been collecting my other-dimensional counterparts. It seems through cosmic balance I am the only version of me with my unique dimension hopping abilities. What they do have that I don't is intimate knowledge of their home dimensions. Something I wish to have — Something that would make my powers much more useful. They have all come willingly — with few exceptions — and they've agreed to help me. Oh, and this isn't all of them — not even close. I've got them housed in this location in a dozen different dimensions. What I need you to do is figure out a way to take what's in their heads and put it into mine. Can you do that? | „ |
| ~ Angstrom explaining his plan to the Mauler Twins. |
| “ | THAT GUY?! That's all you remember of me? That I was that guy?! I'm Angstrom Levy! The next time you forget my name — it will be because you're dead! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom Levy's wrathful rant towards Invincible. |
| “ | The truth of the matter is that I'm probably going to kill them anyway. I'm going to just wait until you're too tired to do anything about it — then I'll make you watch. The fact of the matter is that I've had time to allow my hatred for you to grow and grow it has. You wouldn't believe how much I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer. I think after I'm done I'm going to go through every reality you exist in and do it again — and again — and again ... until I'm just too old. | „ |
| ~ Angstrom dedicating his life to revenge against Invincible and his family throughout the multiverse. |
| “ | You didn't really think I wanted you to die some random dimension I sent you to, did you?! You think I wouldn't want to see you die?! Why do you think I was softening you up — tiring you by sending you across the multiverse?! I don't know exactly how strong you really are. I'm not stupid enough to think I could best you in hand-to-hand combat — but that is what I want. Did you think anything less than killing you with my bare hands would satisfy me?! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom during his first fight with Mark. |
| “ | Attack! Go! Spread out! Move across the globe — destroy everything in your path! Make them see Invincible. Make them fear Invincible. MAKE THEM HATE INVINCIBLE! Do this — Fulfill your side of the bargain, and everything you wish for will be yours! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom commanding his army of Evil Invincibles — His most famous quote. |
| “ | Sorry. I prefer to make an entrance. This world is in ruins, this Invincible's reputation is destroyed. The people here will always hate and fear him because of what you've done. Now all that is left is to disfigure him. I want him to know what pain he's cause me. Find him, and bring him to me. | „ |
| ~ Angstrom telling the alternate Invincibles of his plan for Main Mark. |
| “ | There's just something to be said about being back in your home dimension. I can't quite put my finger on it. Of course, it might be how things worked themselves out while I was away ... Heh. | „ |
| ~ Angstrom's happiness when Invincible was believed to be dead. |
| “ | Angstrom: I noticed things were a bit different ... Furniture, decorations. Did Debbie Grayson move out and let you move in with her son? That's a little strange. That purple baby still live here? Where's that at? Eve: ...Please— Angstrom: BEGGING? ALREADY?! Just the kind of coward I would expect Mark Grayson to be with. |
„ |
| ~ Angstrom meeting Eve. |
| “ | Eve: You think I'd still make the same mistake knowing that? Angstrom: I do, so slow down with the posturing. Besides, I want to kill you in front of him. You're safe until he comes back. |
„ |
| ~ Angstrom to Eve. |
| “ | Eve: Mark told me how you got like this. Angstrom: He told you what he did? How he turned me into a freak?! Eve: No ... He told me what happened. Angstrom: You mean how he interrupted my experiment — Killing my counterparts from other dimensions ... Effectively erasing me from the multiverse! No ... Please ... I want to hear his version. Eve: You'd gotten the Mauler Twins to help you transfer the memories of all your counterparts into your head — so you'd know all about all the other dimensions. And when he showed up to stop things, you brought in a bunch of other alternate reality Maulers ... and they were beating Mark to death. He told me ... you saved him — You pulled yourself out of the machine mid-process ... and that caused an explosion that resulted in your disfigurement ... and the deaths of your counterparts. Angstrom: He said I caused the explosion?! LIES! Eve: You were having memories from countless other dimensions pumped into your brain! Do you really think something didn't get mixed up along the way? How can you trust that your memory is true? Angstrom: Even by your own admission, he interfered ... That's what caused this. He should die for that. |
„ |
| ~ Angstrom's refusal to take responsibility for the events that lead to his quest for revenge against Main. |
| “ | Angstrom: I had a plan once. I was going to make the world a better place. I was going to make myself rich doing it ... I'm no saint. But I had a plan ... and I lost my way. Main: Oh, come on! Eve: Wait... Angstrom: All the information, from all the other dimensions ... I was bombarded and some wires ... They got crossed. Main: Some ... wires were crossed?! Angstrom: You're dangerous, ruthless ... evil in so many dimensions. I believe that says a lot about your nature ... It should concern you. |
„ |
| ~ Angstrom commenting on his and Main's character. |
| “ | There are very few dimensions where you were a good person, with altruistic motives ... But I see now that this is one of them. And I'm sorry. So sorry for the pain I caused ... lives I took. I surrender. I've earned whatever punishment awaits me. I only hope that I can one day accomplish the good I'd once hoped to do. | „ |
| ~ Angstrom ending his quest for revenge against Invincible. |
TV Series[]
| “ | Sure. I'm a genius. But I'm not the right kind of genius. | „ |
| ~ Angstrom to the Mauler Twins. |
| “ | I won't build my utopia with blood! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom saving Invincible, before his disfiguration. |
| “ | Mauler Twin #1: How are you even breathing? Angstrom Levy: What...? What did he do to me? Mauler Twin #1: You did that to yourself. And this to me. Angstrom Levy: He did this. And it made me a freak. He-I ruined everything! He killed so many. People I knew. People I loved. Millions died because of him. Mauler Twin #1: Your brain's scrambled. You've lost track of what memories are yours and which come from the others. Angstrom Levy: They're all my memories! All of them! |
„ |
| ~ Angstrom Levy disfigured and unstable after he ended his experiment early. |
| “ | YOU DID THIS! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom's outburst as he still blames Invincible for disfiguring him. |
| “ | Angstrom Levy: Did you think anything less than killing you with my bare hands would satisfy me. Invincible: Stop! Angstrom Levy: No. This doesn’t end until you and your family are dead. |
„ |
| ~ Angstrom Levy swearing that he will kill Invincible and his whole family. |
| “ | Such a happy family. | „ |
| ~ Angstrom spying on Invincible, Atom Eve, and the Grayson Family. |
| “ | This will do. | „ |
| ~ Angstrom gathering Team Evil Invincible to attack the main universe Invincible's Earth. |
| “ | Invincible: I killed you! Angstrom Levy: ♪ No, you didn't. ♪ |
„ |
| ~ Angstrom Levy and Invincible battling once again. |
| “ | Don't worry, Mark! I'll bring you back, once I'm done destroying everything you love! | „ |
| ~ Angstrom to Invincible during their fight after the Invincible War. |
Trivia[]
- He is based on The Leader from Marvel Comics.
- Because of his high intelligence and his seething, unjustified hatred towards Invincible, he could also be inspired by Lex Luthor.
- His name Angstrom means a unit of length, equal to one ten-billionth of a meter (10−10 or 0.0000000001 m).
External Links[]
- Angstrom Levy on the Image Comics Wiki
- Angstrom Levy on the Invincible (TV Series) Wiki
- Angstrom Levy — Wikipedia
