I recently took the time to read through the first of three compendiums for comic book writer Robert Kirkman’s superhero series Invincible. That’s the story of Mark Grayson, the son of Omni-Man, a Superman like character from another world and the strongest superhero on the planet. Mark had been told he could develop powers of his own similar to his dad’s strength, invulnerability, and flight, and sure enough, he does, tossing a bag of garbage into orbit one night without even trying. From there, he follows in his father’s footsteps, and…well, that would be telling. The series doesn’t quite follow the standard teenage superhero plotline in many ways, setting up interesting characters and their growth over time.
That Amazon Prime Video put out an animated version that is so definitely not for kids was sure to get some attention, especially given that many viewers might not be familiar with the source material. I am for the first third of the story, so let’s see how it goes.
Much of what is on display here is very much faithful to the original story. Young Mark Grayson (voice of Steven Yeun) is indeed the son of Omni-Man Nolan Grayson (J.K. Simmons). Mark’s mom Debbie (Sandra Oh) is basically a stay-at-home housewife. Mark is suddenly a lot stronger and can fly, so his dad, greatest hero on Earth, a benevolent visitor from the planet Viltrum, takes Mark under his wing to show his son the ropes, starting with the basics like how to land properly. Despite the code name Mark gives himself, he’s not only far from invincible, but he’s a bit clumsy and doesn’t know how to do many of the things his dad does on a routine basis.
Now, I don’t really want to say much more about the overall plot than that because the first episode does have a hell of great moment in it that very much sets the overall plot in motion and sets the overall tone for the series. Suffice to say, this is a very bloody cartoon. Invincible isn’t an adults-only sort of cartoon because of sex and profanity, though there is a bit of the latter. It’s for violence. There is a lot of blood flying in Invincible as a lot of the people Mark or Nolan encounter are not as durable as they are. That’s not to say the heroes go about killing a lot of people. It’s more like the situations that Mark often finds himself in are a lot more dangerous for hapless bystanders than they are for him. This is not a show afraid to kill characters off, especially nameless background figures.
However, there is a certain amount of ordinariness to Mark’s existence. He maybe doesn’t know how to land or throw a punch, but he has to do other things as well, like balance a secret identity, especially when he begins dating a classmate, continue to do well in high school, and get a costume. And that’s just Mark. There are other heroes, including Mark’s good friend Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs), her hero group the Teen Team, and her boyfriend/teammate Rex Splode (the always welcome Jason Mantzoukas who probably gets the most profanity and many of the funnier lines per episode). Arguably, the weakest part of the first season was Mark’s ongoing issues with his girlfriend Amber (Zazie Beetz) which often plays like standard teen melodrama.
That said, this was a fun show in many ways. It’s deeper than it appears at first regarding the father-son relationship, and it has a fairly stacked cast that includes the likes of Mark Hamill, Zachary Quinto, Michael Dorn, Seth Rogan (who also executive produced), Clancy Brown, Mahershala Ali, and a few castmembers from another series based on Kirkman’s comics work The Walking Dead for a Justice League-like superhero team. For the most part, this is a faithful adaptation, though it does make the cast more diverse than its comics counterpart while adding more detail to further develop characters like Debbie who might otherwise be little better than background figures. To be clear, this isn’t a lighthearted comedy (though it has comedic elements), but at the same time, it does fit the familiar beats of the superhero story while simultaneously taking some of them apart. Amazon has already renewed the series for two more seasons, so let’s hope the quality continues as Mark Grayson starts to maybe earn that superhero name.
Grade: A-
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