Invincible (Amazon Series)

https://www.ign.com/articles/ign-fan-fest-schedule-how-to-watch

It was mentioned that the show will be at IGN Fan Fest on Friday February 26. Now we have the time: 9:55am PT/ 12:55am ET/ 5:55pm GMT.

As to how gory it can get, let's just say that compared to where the comic ends up going what we've seen so far is a long, long way short of the worst.

I honestly think they will tone it at least a bit as there's a risk that going exactly like the comics might end up a little bit over the top and topple into Narm territory (in my opinion.)

https://ew.com/tv/invincible-robert-kirkman-family-drama/

Here's an interview with Robert Kirkman.

This clip came out.

...wow. Just like that huh?

.....he's gonna nearly kill that bully, isn't he?

First 3 episodes are out. Anyone have any thoughts yet?

I do! Keep in mind, I've never read the comics so I'm going in blind.

Things I Like:

• Mark Grayson- I like his character. He's your typical average teenage boy with a heart of gold who wants to use his powers for good, but he isn't boring. Steven Yeun is a fantastic choice. I knew the guy had natural voice acting capabilities since TWD and I'm so glad he followed through with it. He's kind of a dick to his mom though.
• Omni-Man- What a brutal plot twist of villain. I am very invested in the mystery of his motivations. Homelander kind of spoiled this evil superman archetype for me, but he seems to genuinely love his wife and son.
• The animation- Even though a lot of the characters stand still most of the time, the fight scenes are pretty excellent. I've already seen comparisons to Avatar in terms of quality and while I would definitely not go that far, I will say it's about up there with some of the best superhero cartoons.
• Atom Eve: Her friendship with Mark is great.

Things I Don't Like:

• Amber: It's not the character I dislike necessarily, but mostly the way she's been written so far. I want to give the show points for making a black woman the love interest but I hate that it looks like she's going to be shoehorned into the annoyed girlfriend trope. All it does is just make the character come off as unlikable, in spite of the fact that they have every right to be annoyed. I can already tell that Atom Eve is obviously going to be the more popular love interest. She has the cool powers, more chemistry with Mark, badass fight scenes, more screentime, and just generally better writing. Also, she's white a much more conventional love interest. I can already smell the racism and anti-blackness heading this way. Can you tell that I've watched CW's Flash?
• Rex- Seriously, fuck this guy. Annoying would be an understatement for how his character is written. He's not entertaining or interesting. Like..why is here? He serves no purpose. Also, the whole cheating with Kate thing was not only a stupid plot device but it blatantly played into some Unfortunate Implications regarding the fetishization of Asian women.

Overall, the show is good. I guess you can say I'm kind of hooked so far.

Co-creator Robert Kirkman did an AMA on Reddit earlier. Maybe there's something in there that could interest people here.

so no tech jacket or brit huh? thats a shame.

well we did get seance dog instead of science dog so maybe tech pants and aussie as replacements

I'm not familiar with the comics, but I do like how while there's blood and gore and a point is made about how dangerous the hero work is, most heroes genuinely care about people and want to help. It makes it feel more like a real superhero show than an ultra edgy thing.

Agreed about Rex, I hope he gets some depth because honestly he just seems like a disposable love interest.

I'm somewhat familiar with the comics, and Rex does get some depth later on.

Finishing off the third episode. Will come back with some thoughts afterwards.

Edit: Ok. All done.

Phew. That fight between the guardians and Omni-Man. I understand that in the book, they went down pretty easily. Like, they put up no fight at all. While in this, they put him through his paces. A lot of people think Supes could solo the league with ease, but if Omni-man is analogous to him, then they may have to start questioning that.

Rex Plode is Rafi from The League. And there's no better voice. He truly gets that I'm a complete asshole aspect of his character across. He's perfect. And Omni-Man's rampage on the Flaxan homeworld was chilling. Like, I knew it was awful, and I was still bobbing my head to the music as he trashed them.

The new guardians are a mess. All New, All Different X-men / Avengers, they are not. More like Justice League Detroit.

I don't know why everyone seems to hate poor Damien Darkblood. He's just an average run of the mill demon gumshoe. What's wrong with that?

Oh. And Allen was spectacular. He's stupid fun, and that's just from one episode. I knew he was a cool dude from what I've seen of the comic book, but the voice cemented it.

This series is incredible. Like, you'd never expected light hearted superhero fair to mix so well with Ludicrous Gibs, but it does.

That one dude who Mark takes out at the end of the episode mouthing off the cops over trying to shoot him when he's clearly above their weight class, Dr/ Seismic pointing out Mark sucks at quips (after Mark does the same to him). It's good stuff. It's fun. And incredibly, it's fun in spite of the Bloody And Gorier nature of the series.

Rock on Invincible. Rock on.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Mar 27th 2021 at 11:08:53 AM

Yeah, comics!Rex really was just 100% douchebag mcjerk for quite a while. He did kind of get a little bit better later on but it was a slow burn and even then his tiny spark of decency was buried very deep.

That said this is definitely not a beat for beat transcription of the comics to screen so who knows.

I did see the writer mention in a reddit AMA that this was kind of a chance to do things better than he wrote them originally.

The only change so far I'm a bit iffy on is the decision to have William gay right from the start. I think it's definitely a good thing not having his realization occur off screen way down the track when Mark barely talks to him anymore, but I would have liked it if we got to see it on screen. Maybe late high school or early in the collage sections.

Although given him being off screen is eventually connected to Mark's increasing focus on being a hero I can see why they might not want to add an extra arc for him.

I liked how the Batman Cold Open had the Guardians focus on civilian casualties for the entirety of the beginning of the fight. It made it clear why they needed a team to deal with these punks; any one or two of the Guardians could've probably taken the Twins but with a great deal of civilian casualties.

Similarly, my favorite thing about the fight scene at the end of episode 1 was Red Rush basically repeatedly saving his team's lives by redirecting Omni-Man's attacks. It speaks to the teamwork that they had and is a really clever use of a speedster. If he hadn't decided to go on the offensive and kept that up they probably would've worn down Omni-Man.

Halfway through episode 2 and I'm really liking it. Hoping the gore gets dialed down; it was great for the plot twist but if it's going to be consistent than it'll begin to feel indulgent.

I can certainly see the argument about the gore seeming a bit gratuitous/excessive if its overdone, but on the other hand I suppose it's fairly realistic given that these are supers in a "normal" world (and it does set up one good joke.)

It depends on how it's treated through the rest of the series I guess

You think so? I kinda think they couldn't have kept up a purely defensive battle forever. Hell, Omniman could have easily began deliberately targeting members in order to lure Red Rush in and kill him anyway. They were going to have to go on the offensive at some point one way or another.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have gone on the offensive, I'm saying he shouldn't have gone on the offensive. I expected that to be how he takes Red Rush out, by feinting to one of his comrades and going for RR when he tries to defend. Instead he just... grabbed RR when he decided to try punching when that, uh, is a pretty lousy idea.

Oh. I see. I misread your thing.

Yeah, Rush didn't play to his strengths there. You could argue that the moment he died was the real moment they lost.

Omni-Man did seem to go in a bit half cocked himself. Comics OM could stomp the rest and didn't need a plan but this version looks like he legitimately could have lost in the right circumstances. Not sure of the relevance.

Personally, I read it as him wanting some kind of... penance. He's got a lack of empathy, but he has still worked with these people for decades and on some level respects them, if not likes them. He could have also easily easily wrecked them one-on-one (with, now that I think about it, the possible exception of Red Rush who could just leave if he wasn't concerned about his allies). If he can call them all there, he could've called them one at a time and taken them out with impunity.

My other thought was that he was testing his strength. He wanted to make sure he could take down the strongest, at their peak, either due to pride or because he has to be strong for whatever his motivations. I know the vague idea behind his turn (his home planet) but nothing more than that.

Obviously the out of universe explanation is so Rorschach/Hellboy/Hellschach can work out what happened.

But in universe I lean more towards it being pride/arrogance due to his Viltrumite upbringing. Picking them off one by one would be "easy", beating them all, simultaneously, in one go is more risky but reflects better on his victory.

Comic Spoilers for later IIRC doesn't Omniman later say he did it quickly to try and avoid thinking about his doubts? Maybe instead here he didn't go about it as optimally as he could have.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Mar 31st 2021 at 9:52:56 PM

For anyone whose reads the comics, how far do you think the season will go?

Could we see Invincible vs Conquest or would that be next season?

I am presuming that the Big Bad of the season will be Omni-Man himself. Or at the very least he will be The Heavy who Mark ends up having to fight. But Conquest might be revealed as an upcoming threat.

Yeah, Invincible vs. Omni-Man seems like a perfect season finale. They might move some other stuff up to pad out until then, like that crazy kid who turned people into androids.