This article contains spoilers for “Invincible” season 3. 

“Invincible” season 3 puts the Marvel Cinematic Universe to shame in terms of storytelling, especially after the finale, which sees Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) beat Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), one of the comics’ strongest villains, to death with his head. The gore-soaked battle not only delivers the brutality, but it’s the type of character-driven action sequence that’s missing from the more spectacle-driven superhero fare on the screen at the moment. Of course, the big question heading into “Invincible” season 4 is whether Conquest is actually dead after being smashed to mush by Mark. To answer that question, we must look to the comics.

The “Invincible” season 3 finale sees Mark demand to see Conquest’s remains so that he knows he’s dead. However, deception is afoot, as the episode ends with the revelation that Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) has the real body and intends to interrogate the Viltrumite warrior, which is a scene lifted straight from the source material. No matter how noble his intentions are, that probably won’t end well for Cecil.

In short, Conquest is still alive — unless the animated Amazon Prime Video adaptation decides to have him die while he’s in captivity, which isn’t going to happen as there is more drama to be mined from having the villain survive. Furthermore, creator Robert Kirkman has more or less confirmed the character’s return in season 4.

The “Invincible” season 3 post-credits sequence sets up Damien Darkblood (Clancy Brown) and a high-ranking demon as season 4’s big bads, so viewers can expect some hellish drama to unfold. However, fans can also look forward to Conquest unleashing more chaos on his enemies, with Robert Kirkman telling Entertainment Weekly that Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s antagonist will factor into the chaos. As he explained:

“I think a Cecil interrogating Conquest scene, with Walton Goggins and Jeffrey Dean Morgan going head to head, that’d be a pretty cool, intense scene. “But to put it more succinctly, I don’t think Cecil would’ve gone to all the trouble of containing Conquest the way he did if Conquest was dead. So I think it’s safe to say that Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Conquest will return in some capacity.”

The Image Comics series includes a further battle between Mark Grayson and Conquest before the latter is ultimately defeated. With that in mind, the villain won’t just survive on the show, but he’ll probably be given another meaningful storyline before he’s put down once and for all. The comics also feature an alternate universe version of Conquest, so should he die in the Amazon Prime Video series, there could be other ways to repurpose the character down the line.