Item: Invincible
Rating: 7
Author: Alex Maidy

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Plot: Invincible is an adult animated superhero show that revolves around seventeen-year-old Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), who’s just like every other guy his age — except that his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). But as Mark develops powers of his own, he discovers that his father’s legacy may not be as heroic as it seems.

Review: Running from 2003 to 2018 over 144 issues, Invincible is a comic book series that most often connected to Robert Kirkman after The Walking Dead. Where The Walking Dead became a powerhouse live-action series on AMC, Invincible is finally making its way to the airwaves, but in an animated format. Featuring a voice cast made up of TWD alumni as well as a slew of award-winning and iconic talent, Invincible is an action-packed and ultra-violent romp that is on par with the grisly humor of Amazon Prime's other comic book adaptation, The Boys. Since it is presented in animated form, Invincible hews very closely to the source material in terms of character design with the cast perfectly suited to the material. Oh, and it outdoes the gore in both The Walking Dead and The Boys combined.

Steven Yeun, hot off his award-nominated lead role in Minari, is excellent as Mark Grayson. An unassuming teenager who begins wrestling with superpowers and his father's global fame, Mark is an average guy dealing with girls, angst, and everything else high schoolers have going on. His best friend William Clockwell (Andrew Rannells) keeps him down to Earth while he pines for Amber Bennett (Zazie Beetz) while being bullied by jocks at school. At home, his parents are very supportive. His mother, Debbie (Sandra Oh) takes Mark's desire to be a hero in stride along with her time dealing with her husband's dangerous career. J.K. Simmons is excellent as Nolan Grayson (aka Omni-Man). There is a nice family dynamic here with the writing never feeling cliche even though the story starts very similarly to many comic book movies and series we have seen in recent years.

Where the series really stands out is at the conclusion of the first episode. If you are familiar with the comic book, you know what I am talking about. If you are going into Invincible fresh, don't spoil it for yourself. Needless to say, this series takes a turn that allows for some very complex stories and character development to take place and it rests firmly on the acting talents of Yeun, Simmons, and Oh. The design and look of the series echo the recent run of DC Animated films with a look that straddles Japanese anime influences with traditional hand-drawn animation. There is a fair amount of profanity here, but mostly the violence and gore are what earns this series the TV-MA label. I cannot think of a way this series could have been told in live-action, so that should give you an indication of just how gruesome it ends up being.

Each episode clocks in at about an hour, a fairly long runtime for an animated series. But, Invincible never feels like a cartoon. Instead, it is a solidly crafted drama with dark humor that just happens to be presented in animation. The main supporting cast all do stellar work including Gillian Jacobs as Atom Eve, Jason Mantzoukas as Rex Splode, Mae Whitman as Fightmaster & Dropkick, Malese Jow as Dupli-Kate, and Zachary Quinto as Robot. Beyond them, you have Walton Goggins and Chris Diamantopulous as Cecil Stedman and Donald Ferguson as well as Mark Hamill and Seth Rogen as Art Rosenbaum and Allen the Alien. The list doesn't stop there with Walking Dead alum aplenty including Khary Payton, Lauren Cohan, Sonequa Martin-Green, Chad Coleman, Michael Cudlitz, Lennie James, Ross Marquand, and more. Mahershela Ali, Clancy Brown, Ezra Miller, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Groff, Jeffrey Donovan, Djimon Hounsou, and Jon Hamm also lend their voices giving this series the most talented cast in any major streaming or studio project I can think of.

The visual style of Invincible may be the most challenging part in gaining a significant audience as so many people hold a bias against cartoons. I was dismissive at first since the cel-style animation often feels antiquated these days. Many moments in the series feel like they could use some more depth as the characters look less realistic than they do in the comic book itself. It is a small quibble as the voice work really elevates this compared to many of the mature-themed DC films that have been animated in recent years. Many times it feels like the cast could have been performing on a set together and the animation was added after the fact. It feels that organic.

Having seen three episodes of Invincible, I am convinced this series has the longevity to be something that runs for multiple seasons. It is often hard to get into a comic book universe with decades of history and character development which gives Invincible a leg up on DC and Marvel. By releasing the first three episodes at once, fans will get the chance to dive into this fictional world before needing to come back week by week until the first season wraps. Like WandaVision just recently proved, not all series need to be binged. Those unfamiliar with the comics will surely be theorizing and guessing what will come next as they await the next chapter in the saga of the Grayson family. Replete with a solid score and many sequences of character development, Invincible relishes action sequences and character interactions as much as it does explicit gore, all with a wicked sense of humor.

Invincible premieres on March 26th on Amazon Prime Video.