Robert Kirkman’s Invincible is the brutal telling of a teenage Mark Grayson, who discovers that he’s inherited powers from his alien father, who happens to be the most powerful man on Earth, and a superhero, Omni-Man. Soon enough, Mark has to navigate this new world of being a superhero, weighing the rights and wrongs, and having many debates on morals with his comrades.
When I first dove into the series, I was intrigued because I’ve always loved superhero media, like Spider-Man and Batman. When I first started watching, I was not expecting the brutality of it, especially in the first episode, where Omni-Man brutally slaughters the Guardians of the Globe. However, it feels like I’m experiencing the brutality of the world with Mark, as he is just becoming a superhero and experiencing a lot of these things for the first time.
After finishing the first season, I was astounded at the brutality, violence, writing, character development, and screenplay. After experiencing a sheer number of great scenes, combined with great dialogue, I couldn’t wait to start watching the second season.
The second season brought more of the same, and we saw old villains, like Doc Seismic, and new villains, like Angstrom Levy. We also saw the plot thicken, as some lore was established, like where Omni-Man went after beating the brains out of Mark. We also see the true might of Viltrumites when they attack the planet Nolan now resides on. Mark gets sent back to Earth with a warning that the Viltrumites want Mark to prepare Earth for Viltrum’s arrival. A few episodes later, a Viltrumite warrior named Anissa comes to Earth to convince Mark to join the Viltrum Empire. When Mark refuses, they start tussling, and Anissa vastly overpowers Mark. Anissa then backs off and tells Mark and the GDA, who were watching the fight through drones, that a much more powerful Viltrumite will come in the future to check in with Mark. With the conclusion of Season 2, I jumped straight into Season 3 with high hopes for where the story was going so far.
Season 3 was much grander than the previous seasons, as it is so much more action-packed, and the plot thickens even more than it already has. There are also a plethora of plot twists. At the end of Season 2, Mark thought he had killed Angstrom Levy after being stranded in a different dimension. After this, he brings different evil Invincible variants from across the multiverse, and sends them to kill our Mark Grayson. This triggers worldwide destruction, as the evil Invincible variants disregard human lives, at the cost of finding and killing Mark. Our Earth’s heroes, with Mark, end up fending off the Invincible War. Just after the devastating loss of this war, “Mr 10 Times Worse” that Anissa mentioned in season 2 shows up, and his name is Conquest, a 5000-year-old, battle-hardened Viltrumite warrior. He and Mark start to fight because Mark is furious about the destruction of the Invincible War.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I love the fight scenes because of the animation. The animation makes the show feel realistic in a sense, thanks to the characters’ expressive faces. Another aspect the show excels in is character development. One example of this is Rex Splode, who, at the beginning of the show, is kind of a jerk, and at the end of the show, he is getting along with more people, because he’s attached to someone, and has changed his ways compared to his earlier counterpart. Another thing the show does great is the title cards. They’re always funny, as instead of saying “Invincible,” they show the title card, which, in my opinion, gives the show humor points, as it is generally a more serious show.
One critique that I will mention is that sometimes the show’s pacing gets thrown off when villains like Doc Seismic or the Mauler Twins show up, because they never really contribute to the plot in any way; they just are an obstacle.
Final Rating: 9.7/10
Final Comment: INVINCIBLE IS PEAK
