Discussion Invincible - Amazon Prime Animated Series

[GodisanAtheist]

Please mind any spoilers in the tread by using the appropriate tags!

Has anyone else seen this show on Amazon?

Went in thinking I was going to get another "The Boys" and it is that type of show to an extent, subverting the superhero genre in the form of a coming of age story, but I am absolutely gripped so far.

Little weird of Amazon to run both the Boys and Invincible along side each other, feels like they might crowd each other out a bit. While I appreciate The Boys as a solid piece of entertainment with some remarkably layed and complex characters and villians, the show is sometimes unrelentingly bleak to the point of verging on misery porn.

While I have not seen the 8 episodes of Invincible yet (made it through the first 3 so far) the show is tinged with quite a bit more sunshine and feels more like the X-Men or Amazing Spiderman cartoons from my youth with some NSFL levels of violence and adult language sprinkled throughout. I also feel the animated format really gives the story tellers a lot more freedom to really lean into the *comic* book element and going over the top with the imagery.

If you've seen it, what do you think?


- The end of Episode 1. Dear god. The fact that they went though trouble to really show that the Guardians of the Globe were genuinely good people that sacrificed so much of themselves only to get absolutely wiped by Omniman in just an orgy of brutality... that scene was really such a sucker punch even in a world where it feels like every show needs a "Red Wedding" now. It felt like they really had a chance as a team to take Omniman down too, but he just exploited their mistakes and then just dominated.

- Omniman following the Flaxons to their homeworld. "Earth is not yours to conquer" then proceeds to wipe out their entire civilization over the course of months. That is some big D energy right there.

- I appreciate the show trying to do a different take on the "just gained his powers" super hero trope with Mark suffering shellshock in his first actual battle and coming to terms that just having powers doesn't make you powerful.

-Allen the Alien was great.

 

[nakedfrog]

I haven't seen either, but I've read both, and your description of The Boys is in keeping with the source material, and it sounds much like Invincible is as well.

 

[Exterous]

I really liked the show and I agree they did avoid some of the tropes they could have easily fallen into

 

[GodisanAtheist]

OK, watched through Episode 6.

This is, currently, a much lighter show than The Boys and despite the gore and violence actually has a kind of bright eyed innocence about it. I suspect that's going to change soon given recent developments but I'm looking to finish off the last two episodes tonight.


- While the show is generally good about avoiding tropes, it is playing up the "Super hero has to balance his professional and romantic life" thing added in with the "Can't let the girl I love know I'm a supe" thing plus the "In a world with super heroes, how the hell doesn't everyone know I'm a super hero" thing. I'd really like the whole Amber and Mark rocky relationship thing to just be done now, but I understand that its feeding into the larger theme of Mark not really knowing what he wants.

- I did like that the best friend was able to do the simple thing of putting one and one together and realizing his friend is also the title character while he was being saved from a lobotomized fratboy.

-Nolan/Omniman's motivations are still a bit of a mystery here. His son gains powers, so he lures and slaughters the Guardians of the Globe, then his wife and tailor find out that he's the responsible party and he clearly threatens them or is upset that they know, but takes no action against them... yet...

- Cecil is a cool customer. He knows Omniman killed the GotG, but he also knows that humanity cannot take Omniman in its current state. Watching him collect anything that can give Omniman a bad time is sort of interesting. I'm guessing he's essentially creating a League of Villains to counter Omniman's... omnipotence.

- Show is full of interesting and layered characters. Loved the Titan arc as well as whatever the hell is going on with Robot.

- Atom Eve... finally a superhero that uses her powers for actual good, not just fighting bad guys.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Awww lord finished off the first (and currently only) season.

Absolutely intense season finisher, I hope this show is renewed for additional seasons.

It's far from perfect, but is absolutely some of the best of the now somewhat worn superhero genre I've seen. Everytime I feel like the genre cannot entertain me anymore it surprises me.


- Mark has a lot of heart, but damn he cannot fight. Hopefully he gets some tutilege from The Immortal next season and bulks up a little bit. For someone names Invincible, he is quite Vincible...

- The Immortal, also great. Love how he wakes up and just immediately flips out on Omniman. Even after his guts are punched out he still goes for the eyes in a last desperate attempt before being ripped in half. Served his puspose in revealing Omni's true nature to the world and to Mark. "We need to talk..."

-The Mauler Twins: again I really enjoy how the show balances the villains out by giving them some depth and empathy, even if they are ultimately antagonists. Their emotion at Robot's cloning process and understanding what he is going through is great.

-Omniman. Jesus. So he basically comes from a planet of fascist eugenicist super heros that slaughtered half their population so that only the strongest of them were left, then they went out and conquered as much of the Galaxy as they could. He's just on an advanced mission to soften up Earth and prepare it to be absorbed into their empire.

-Omniman "instructing" Invincible. Good God the scene with the train was just so over the top that it left me a bit numb after. Given his absurdly long life, I guess he was basically on "break" raising his family and would resume his conquest of Earth after they grew old and died. Mark gaining his powers made him realize that he was in fact on the clock and it was time to get back to work.

-Cecil. Man that guy is great. Humanity is likely screwed if Omniman comes back, but with Cecil at the helm we'll at least give him a hard time. Looks like we have an army of reanimated robot soldiers... No way that can backfire...

-Props to Debbie. Handled having her husband be a genocidal space Nazi that thinks of her more like a pet he loves deeply rather than a companion and partner about as well as someone can.

- Orbital Ion Cannon. Nuff said.

- Looks like the plotlines for the next season are getting set up. Weird martian mind control slugs, the interdimensional guys rebuilt their civilization, robot zombie guy is now working for the government. I suspect this is all ultimately headed to "no good or bad guys, there is just Omniman and everyone else".

- "I'd still have you, Dad" the feels.

 

[JujuFish]

Absolutely intense season finisher, I hope this show is renewed for additional seasons

It was renewed for 2 more seasons last month.

 

[Exterous]

Awww lord finished off the first (and currently only) season.

Absolutely intense season finisher, I hope this show is renewed for additional seasons.

It's far from perfect, but is absolutely some of the best of the now somewhat worn superhero genre I've seen. Everytime I feel like the genre cannot entertain me anymore it surprises me.

Agreed. And they did a good job keeping me guessing as to who were the good guys vs bad guys. "Maybe there is a legit good reason for that to have happened?"