Robert Kirkman’s Invincible comics were first published in 2003, the same year the writer’s lauded zombie series, The Walking Dead, began. It’s taken much longer for Invincible to be adapted off the page, but that day has finally arrived, with Amazon’s animated Invincible show finally hitting Amazon Prime on March 26.
But while a live-action zombie series on television was a novel concept when The Walking Dead hit AMC in 2010, superheroes have already invaded every corner of TV, from the Arrowverse to Disney+ and beyond. Does Invincible offer anything we haven’t seen before by now?
The answer is “no,” but Invincible is still a solid adaptation of the source material, and for fans, that will likely be enough.
Invincible follows Mark Grayson (The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun), a teenage superhero who inherits powers from his father, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). Mark has to navigate family life with his father and mother Debbie (Sandra Oh), plus high school and relationships. Invincible’s world is populated by heroes, many of which are thin satirizations of DC and Marvel characters; some are genuinely good, while others harbor dark secrets. If it all sounds familiar, it’s because the concept has been done many times by now, across comics, TV, and movies.
Like the comics, the show’s focus is squarely on Mark, but several side characters have been fleshed out and given more screen time than they received in the early issues of the source material, including Mark’s love interest Amber (Zazie Beetz) and his superhero teammates Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs), Rex Splode (Jason Mantzoukas), and Robot (Zachary Quinto). However, in the three episodes Amazon sent to press for review, these characters’ primary functions in the story have not been elevated beyond their two-dimensional characterizations in the books; Rex acts like a douche so Mark can be a “good guy” in comparison, while Atom and Amber exist only to form a teen-male-fantasy love triangle between Mark and his two crushes. At one point, after Mark ditches a study date with Amber to go do superhero stuff, Amber literally waits around in his bedroom for him, and they make out a bunch when he gets back, while Atom gazes jealously through the window.
That said, the voice actors breathe life into these characters that elevates them beyond the clichéd writing. Yeun and Simmons form the emotional core for the first few episodes, while Mantzoukas makes Rex hilarious in ways the comics version of the character couldn’t dream of. Oh, Beetz, and Jacobs deserve bigger parts, but we’ve only seen part of the show’s first season, and with such great voice talent behind them, there is potential for these characters to evolve. And that’s not even mentioning the rest of the expansive cast, which also includes Walton Goggins, Seth Rogen, Kevin Michael Richardson, Mark Hamill, Mahershala Ali, and many more.
One area in which Invincible excels is the animation. Like in the comics, the action is bloody and brutal, whether this world’s superheroes are fighting invading aliens, or one another. The animation style is clearly inspired by ’80s cartoons of the G.I. Joe era–albeit with some very modern gore–a novel twist that helps to set Invincible apart from other contemporary adult animated series.
Based on the first three episodes, it seems the show is also paced better than the original comics. Given how many similar stories have been told in recent years, from Marvel’s Runaways (a Hulu streaming show) to The Boys (another Amazon show), you’ll likely see Invincible’s twists coming from miles away, but they’re still pulled off in a satisfying fashion, and it’s possible the series will surprise us down the road.
With its fun ’80s-inspired animation style and stellar voice cast, Invincible is worth checking out for superhero genre fans. That said, it offers very little that we haven’t seen before. Fans of the comics may not mind, since the adaptation remains faithful to the spirit of the original while making some smart changes as well. Unfortunately, that also means that some of the characters are relegated to clichés–at least, in the episodes we’ve seen so far.
Invincible streams on Amazon Prime Video starting March 26.
Source: GameSpot
