A new series on Amazon Prime is taking a look at the superhero genre from a darker, more grown-up point of view. No, I don’t mean The Boys, but instead a different comics property, Invincible. The comic book series was created by Robert Kirkman, best known for The Walking Dead, along with artists Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, and was published by Image Comics back in 2003. Amazon picked up the rights to create an animated series based on the comics in 2018 after a planned live-action adaptation with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg fell through. The series made its debut on Friday, March 26th, with Amazon releasing the first three episodes on Prime. I only recently had the time to sit down and watch what was available, and it’s safe to say that I have some thoughts.
Invincible tells the story of Mark Grayson, a teenage boy who just so happens to be the son of Omni-Man, the world’s most powerful superhero. Mark knows that he will inherit his father’s powers, but he becomes a late bloomer and doesn’t acquire them until he’s almost done with high school. He excitedly tells his father, who offers to train the boy in their proper use, but soon after, Mark overhears his father telling his mother that it would almost be better if Mark never gained special abilities. This brings out Mark’s deepest angst, the idea that he won’t be able to live up to his father’s reputation. He starts to overcompensate, acting tough in situations when diplomacy would work best.
While the show’s main arc is Mark’s development, it also offers a murder mystery of sorts. At the end of the first episode, the audience watches a gruesome scene unfold as Omni-Man totally obliterates the Guardians of the Globe, a team of superheroes best described as “this universe’s Justice League.” The scene is bloody, gory, and pulls no punches. And though we know who the culprit is, Omni-Man himself, the rest of the world is in the dark, trying to figure out who, how, and why.
But that last question is the one the show forces us to ask as well. Why would a superhero kill a team of other superheroes? What was Omni-Man’s motivation to destroy his colleagues like that?
We don’t get the answer in the first three episodes now available (why would we?) but we do see the cracks in Omni-Man’s façade. Little by little, his stoic do-gooderism fails him, revealing something sinister underneath. In many ways, Invincible is like The Boys, in that it takes a darker look at the world of superheroes. It doesn’t sugarcoat the deeds and heroics of super-powered beings but instead focuses on the negatives. What if a sociopath was the most powerful person on the planet? (And I mean physically, not politically, which is a regular occurrence.)
The voice cast is mostly great. Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) plays Mark, and he does well with the character. His inflection is great, and he conveys the “troubled youth” vibe perfectly. Also fantastic is Gillian Jacobs (Community), who voices the character of Eve. Eve is another superhero around Mark’s age and becomes his confidant of sorts. She understands what it’s like to walk between worlds, as well as the trials and tribulations of being a teenager. There’s a flicker of a romance between Mark and Eve, but Eve has a boyfriend and Mark isn’t confident enough in himself to interfere. Jacobs take on the character is immaculate. Her voice brings so much life to Eve and really plunges the depths of who she is. Jason Mantzoukas (Parks and Recreation, The Good Place) also stars as Rex Splode, and he’s just good fun. As a comedian, Mantzoukas knows how to use his voice to great effect, and he really brings that out in his character, who is a brash a-hole who needs to be brought down a peg.
On the other side, though, is J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man. Simmons is a renowned actor who’s portrayed a whole spectrum of characters, from an Aryan gang leader on Oz to a loudmouth newspaper editor in Spider-Man to an insurance salesman in those Farmer Insurance ads. But his voice acting in Invincible leaves much to be desired, at least in the first episode. His delivery is flat and stodgy, and he doesn’t convey much through his character. But as the series progresses, it seems that Simmons’ portrayal becomes more nuanced, and there’s a slight edge to Omni-Man that wasn’t there before. So I’m left wondering if the plain performance of the first episode was a stylistic choice.
Another thing that has to be said about Invincible is that it ain’t no kids show. Invincible is bright and colorful, but also marked with bouts of extreme violence and gory so intense that it would make Billy the Puppet wince. The characters are also foul-mouthed and not afraid to express themselves through profanity, but the cursing never feels explicit, unlike the violence. I will admit, while I don’t mind blood and viscera in my entertainment, but Invincible seems like it wants to wallow in it. I’m just not a fan of gore porn, so this aspect of Invincible turns me off slightly (though it’s not a complete dealbreaker for me.)
Strangely, my favorite part of the show so far isn’t the teenage angst or the superhero slugfests, but a side character named Damien Darkblood. Voiced by Clancy Brown, Darkblood is a demon who escaped from hell who solves crimes to save his soul. He is able to divine past situations by touching the remains of a crime scene and piece together what happens. He’s the only one who suspects Omni-Man’s involvement in the death of the Guardians and is intent of proving his theory. He also walks around in a hat and trench-coat like a satanic Sam Spade, and I love him. He seriously needs his own show.
I can’t say that I love Invincible, although I will say that I’m enjoying it far more than I did another mature, animated series based on a different comic book property streaming on a different service. And clearly, I’ve been comparing it to The Boys quite a bit, since both shows seem to share a theme about the darkness of superheroes, but while The Boys take a bleak, almost nihilistic view of the superhero genre, there’s an optimism to Invincible that stands out against its shocking, violent outbursts. They’ve also managed to craft an intriguing mystery among all of the chaos, one that I would like to see the resolution to. So even though I’m not singing Invincible’s praises, It has me hooked enough to at least see it through the end of the first season.
New episodes of Invincible will release every Friday on Amazon Prime.
