Why Every Viltrumite Has A Mustache In Invincible

As Robert Kirkman’s animated superhero series “Invincible” continues to serve up new twists and turns in its third season, viewers may find themselves wondering what the heck is the deal with Viltrumites and their mustaches. All of these men are sporting some serious facial growth above their upper lip like they’re Burt Reynolds smuggling a truckload of Coors from Texarkana to Atlanta. It’s a bold bit of grooming that’s too uniform to be a mistake. Meanwhile, Mark Grayson (voiced by Steven Yeun), aka the half-human, half-Viltrumite hero Invincible, is ‘stache free. Clearly, something is up.

There is, unsurprisingly, a perfectly good explanation for the Viltrumites’ grooming preferences, as well as Mark’s decision to go without one (though you could be excused for assuming the young man is as yet incapable of looking like 1980s New York Yankees great Don Mattingly). The short answer is that it all has to do with Viltrumite tradition — something Mark doesn’t know a whole lot about three seasons into the “Invincible” TV show. However, if you want a deeper explanation for the Viltrumites’ love of mustaches, we’re going to have to enter spoiler territory, so be warned.

Spoilers for the “Invincible” comic books (and, most likely, the TV show) ahead.

Per “Invincible” #144 (which, of course, was written by Kirkman and illustrated by his “Invincible” co-creators Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker), the Viltrumites’ mustaches are ceremonial, a tradition tied to their — by this point in the comic books — destroyed home planet of Viltrum. They sport the look as a means of honoring their culture. However, while Mark is sympathetic to this desire following the destruction of their world, he chooses not to grow one.

As Mark explains in this issue of “Invincible,” “I like to think the old ways died with Viltrum. We don’t have to keep doing things as they have always been done. I shave my face in honor of that. In honor of our new way … a way of peace.” Meanwhile, his father, Nolan Grayson aka Omni-Man (who’s voiced on the “Invincible” TV show by J. Jonah Jameson himself, J.K. Simmons), chooses to stick with his mustache. Indeed, as the comics continue from there, Mark remains the only surviving Viltrumite to eschew the mustache tradition.

Perhaps the animated series, which counts among its executive producers the Point Grey Pictures duo of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who’ve brought other edgy comic books like “Preacher” and “The Boys” to television) will veer off in a different direction and allow Invincible to toy with the notion of becoming the bushy-‘stached Tom Selleck/Magnum P.I. of superheroes. Or maybe he’ll start a new tradition and shave off his eyebrows like Bob Geldof’s fascist Pink in “Pink Floyd — The Wall.” He could even try a soul patch à la Bob Denver’s Maynard G. Krebs on the old CBS sitcom “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.”

Or the show could just stick to the comic books since folks seem to like it just fine that way.