Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was pretty great. Busy, but great. So I went to my sister's for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday, which was yesterday, and while I was there we watched the first three episodes of Invincible, a show that I've been wanting to watch since it dropped on Amazon Prime almost two years ago. Being that I don't have Prime, I wasn't able to watch it as it was coming out. And since we only got through the first three episodes of the series, that's what I'm going to be reviewing today. I'm not gonna have a whole ton of spoilers in this review, just so those of you who are interested in watching the show, but haven't yet, can still see what I thought of these first three episodes. So let's get into it.
Based on the comic book series created by Robert Kirkman, who is well known as the creator of The Walking Dead, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, and ran from 2003 to 2018, Invincible is an animated series that was also created by Robert Kirkman. It's so good!!!
Over the last few years I've been building up my Invincible comic book collection by picking up the trade paperback collected editions, but since I don't have all of it yet, I've only read the first eight issues of the comic, which are collected in volumes 1 and 2 of the original regular sized trades. So when I heard that an animated series was going to be coming out, I was intrigued. But because it's on Prime, and I don't have Prime, I couldn't watch it. Which sucks because it's really good. The show, like the comic is about Mark Grayson, whose father is a superhero named Omni-Man, who is also from another planet, and because Mark is half alien, he also develops superpowers and becomes Invincible. There's also the high school aspect and the usual teen superhero stuff that we all know and love.
The visual style for this show is very reminiscient of the late '90s-early 2000s superhero animated shows like Batman Beyond and X-Men: Evolution. It's bright, almost cheerful in a way, and very clean looking even when there's gore all over the place. Yes there is alot of gore in this show, but that's because it's in the comic. And of course it's Robert Kirkman, who created The Walking Dead, so it would be weird if there wasn't alot of gore. And I think that's why I was okay with it in this show when I'm not big on a ton of violence and gore in my superhero shows and movies. Because I've read the first eight issues of the comic, I'm used to it and so I was prepared for it in the show. Plus the comic, and by extension the show, knows where to use the gore and where not to use it. And it never gets super extreme like it might in something like The Boys or Kick-Ass.
The cast for this show is amazing. You have Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson/Invincible, Sandra Oh as his mother, Debbie, and J.K. Simmons as his father, Nolan/Omni-Man for the main cast. But then you have Seth Rogen as Allen the Alien, Mark Hamill as Art Rosenbaum (the show and comic's version of Edna from The Incredibles), Zazie Beetz as Mark's girlfriend, Amber Bennett, Zachary Quinto as Robot (the leader of the Teen Team, the Teen Titans analogue), Gillian Jacobs as Eve Wilkins/Atom Eve, Walton Goggins as Cecil Stedman, director of the Global Defense Agency, and so many other animated voice actors such as Clancy Brown. Basically it's a Who's Who of performers, not just from animation, but from live action TV and movies as well. I'm not familiar with Steven Yeun, but basically everyone else I've either heard of or seen in movies or on TV over the years.
Like every other adaptation of comic books or novels, some things are switched around or removed entirely. Like in the comic Amber isn't introduced until her cameo in issue #8 and then it's probably either issue #9 or issue #10 when she makes her first full appearance, but on the show she's introduced in the very first episode. Which is interesting. And the entire plot from the first four issues of the comic, involving Mark and Eve's teacher turning kids into biological bombs, targeting shopping malls, is completely removed in favour of focusing more on Omni-Man and his and Debbie's relationship with Mark, as well as a focus on the Guardians of the Globe (Kirkman's version of the Justice League). Which, in a way streamlines it a little bit since they only have eight episodes to tell the first season's story in, but it also doesn't give much for the Teen Team to do before things really start happening in episode 2.
There also seems to be more of a focus on the teen drama elements as well, which are in the comic, but they're very much between Mark, William, Eve, and Amber once the whole teacher stuff is dealt with in issue #4. On the show it's much more broad and more similar to what we've seen in the first Spider-Man movie as well as in comics like Robin (1994-2009) and the X-Men comics.
Also, the Mauler Twins, who are the first bad guys that Mark fights in the comic prior to getting his Invincible costume, are introduced in the first scene of episode 1, during an attack on the White House, which Omni-Man and the Guardians of the Globe stop. In the comic, Mark catches them stealing game boxes from a toy store the first night he practices flying in issue #2. They appear again in episode 3 of the show.
Overall these are an amazing introduction to the show. Particularly for those who have never read the comic, which is probably a good majority of the audience watching the show. I had so much fun watching these episodes, and I think my sister and her partner enjoyed them too. I'm looking forward to the next time I'm able to watch the show again. It's definitely not for everyone though, so if this kind of show isn't your thing, that's okay. But for those of us who love this kind of thing, yeah, I definitely recommend watching Invincible.
Alright my friends that's going to be it for me for today, but I will be back tomorrow for another Christmas special review. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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