Invincible

Ahead of San Diego Comic Con I thought it important to check off some things that have been on my watch list forever ahead of some pretty big announcements. Let’s start with Invincible, not just another superhero show. And something that certainly proves that animation is not inherently for kids.

We clearly have whatever this world’s version of the Justice League is, complete with a stand in Flash, War Woman (obviously Wonder Woman), a green alien that is clearly Martian Manhunter, a batman wannabe and a fish guy that’s about as useful as Aquaman. And of course our main character who is very superman-like.

The story clearly deals with a firm family aspect, Omniman a super-dad actually kinda sucks as a parent. Like he seems like he has the potential to be a good dad and he probably was before the events of the show, but as of the first episode his parenting is questionable at best. I mean he clearly loves his kid but I get the sense that he makes Mark earn his affection and I hate that. This kid clearly just wants to please his father. Momma seems to be the only one that can kind of keep this dude in check.

This sweet baby child wants his dads approval so bad it's actually so upsetting to watch. Playing catch is a classic father/son activity, but playing super catch in the sky is how superheroes bond.

All of the Guardians get called to their headquarters and they just get slaughtered by Omniman, absolutely butchered. And he is severely injured, now this dude clearly isn’t a team player or anything but I don’t think he is the murdery type, at least not when it's good guys.

And now to fill the superhero void we have a bunch of teenage superheroes. I love worlds where superheroes are so normalized, they name themselves so we get to enjoy some super lame hero names like; adam-eve, and Rex Splode.

The attention to detail in this show is actually great, the title card is very strategically placed within the dialogue and there is more and more blood added to the title card every episode.

I also find it endearing and adorable that the son of a superhero and a superhero himself reads comic books (yes I know there are plenty of non hero comics, but we all know what the genre is known for). And this poor boy has no idea how having a secret identity works. He has 1 girl who knows who he is and can fight beside him, and 1 who he would have to hide himself from, lie to, and run out on. A smart teenage boy would focus on the girl who can know who he is, but alas Mark is just a normal teenage boy. Which means he’s a big dumb dumb, and he is of course trying to date the girl he has to lie to.

This show is great at cliffhangers, Omniman killing the guardians, Robot watching the prison breakout, the writing does a fantastic job of laying the groundwork that something sinister is happening. Now as a writer my mind is on fire with the possibilities; a big bad villain controlling heroes, a sinister underground group of heroes that are really villains, a government run and controlled segment of heroes…so many options and they're all awesome.

As it stands at the start of episode 5 it seems to be a little bit of all those options that I just mentioned. Cecil knows that Nolan is the one that killed the Guardians; he just doesn’t know why or how to stop him. Hard to bring justice against a guy that’s indestructible.

Eve needs to punch her dad in the face right now. He needs to be punched, hard and a lot.

This poor boy, Mark, needs to get better at lying and also Amber is kinda stupid. 2+2 normally equals 4 and this chick is trying to make it equal 1000 and I truly don’t understand how she hasn’t put it together by now. Okay so she does know she’s just fucking irritating.

Momma finally puts together exactly what happened the night that Nolan killed the Guardians. And now the suit guy is obviously in danger, Nolan has now been shown watching his son get his assed kicked, and his wife figures shit out. Some shit is clearly going on but my current theory is that Nolan is in fact a bad guy and the only person that's going to be able to stop him is Mark.

I love my little non superpowered William kicking Frankenstein's ass, he’s literally one of my favorite parts of the show. He is hilarious and adorable.

Eve doing her thing is great, she literally just wants to help people and she is finding better ways to do that then causing collateral damage.

Also the subplot of the white house security guard and his stepson is actually hilarious.

Robot has been on some cloning shit, growing himself a new body and he’s been dealing with the wonder twins to help him. So working theory is that whatever Robots motivation is and whatever Nolan’s motivation is they are in opposition (she said hopefully). The other option is that Nolan is doing something to protect his home but very little alludes to that.

It seems to have clicked for everyone that Omniman is the antagonist here, we just still don’t know why. Cecil sucks, willing to risk Mark’s life even though this poor stupid boy has no idea what’s going on. But it really doesn’t seem like robot is the problem here.

That was an intense twist that I definitely could not have figured out in its entirety, though I was right on a couple of accounts here. Mark does in fact have to fight his father in order to save the planet.

So I was correct in a lot of gut feelings about this show, Omniman or Nolan is a terrible father. He was in fact motivated by his home planet, and Mark did in fact have to fight his dad to save the world. I love a lot about how this show was written, the cliffhangers at the end of every episode were very well done and kept the interest and intrigue at a good level. I love how the show was paced. I never had to wait to long for answers or in the case of most of the season, more questions. The twist didn’t come out of nowhere, it was actually very well set up. And the intensity between the characters was really well built up. I think the amount of gore shown in the show was actually very realistic and I think it added to the stakes of the story. Now I’ve never read the comics so I can’t speak to how accurate it was as an adaptation but as an individual piece of media I think it is brilliant and an incredible and necessary addition to superhero media.