QUICKIE -- Robert Kirkman's Invincible (Amazon ORIGINAL) - Season 1

Invincible is an American adult animated superhero streaming television series, based on the Image Comics series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley which premiered on Amazon Prime Video. The show follows 17-year-old Mark Grayson and his transformation into a superhero under the guidance of his father Omni-Man, the most powerful being on the planet. During his transformation, Mark finds himself struggling between his personal life and superhero duties, where he will be forced to prove that he can be the hero that his father is. The series stars Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh, and J. K. Simmons, as the Grayson family, while the rest of the cast serve as the recurring characters. 

Premise

Mark Grayson is a normal teenager, except for the fact that his father, Nolan, is the most powerful superhero on the planet. Shortly after his seventeenth birthday, Mark begins to develop powers of his own and enters into his father's tutelage.

Characters

Main

• Mark Grayson / Invincible (voiced by Steven Yeun): The eponymous main character. Gaining his powers at 17 years old, Mark discovers the harsh realities of being a superhero whilst struggling to define himself. He is shown to have a berserker side when fighting the Flaxans and Machine Head's villains, revealed to be a Viltrumite trait.

• Debbie Grayson (voiced by Sandra Oh): Mark's mother and Nolan's wife. Debbie is an experienced realtor, once long adjusted to being a superhero's spouse, before entering into a drunken spiral of depression during the end of the first season.

• Nolan Grayson / Omni-Man (voiced by J. K. Simmons): Mark's Viltrumite father and Debbie's husband. Born on Viltrum to a superpowered alien race, his parents died in his youth before he joined the Viltrum Empire's intergalactic expansion over several thousand years. After arriving on Earth 20 years before the series, Nolan is considered the most powerful superhero on the planet, with a civilian identity of a rich travel writer. He is loosely inspired by Superman.

Recurring

• Samantha Eve Wilkins / Atom Eve (voiced by Gillian Jacobs): A matter/energy manipulating superheroine. Formerly of the Teen Team and new Guardians rosters, she quits after her ex-boyfriend Rex cheats on her with Dupli-Kate after he had mistakenly thought her to have cheated on him with Mark. Struggling to find self-meaning, she chooses to help people directly with humanitarian actions.

• William Clockwell (voiced by Andrew Rannells): Mark's best friend and civilian confidant who is openly gay.

• Global Defense Agency: A clandestine organization that organizes global superhero responses and utilizes advanced technology in expediting their recovery or resuscitation after death.

  • Cecil Stedman (voiced by Walton Goggins): Director of the GDA who possesses a long-range personal teleporter and inducts Invincible at the start of his hero career. He is implied to have a history with Damien Darkblood.

  • Donald Ferguson (voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos): A high-ranking GDA agent who serves directly under Cecil Stedman and is in charge of overseeing the secret projects meant to incapacitate or kill Omni-Man, only to die in a massive explosion in a futile attempt to kill Omni-Man.

• Guardians of the Globe (new roster): Heroes who were formerly of the Teen Team merged with other experienced heroes with diverse skill sets.

  • Rudolph "Rudy" Connors / Robot (voiced by Ross Marquand and Zachary Quinto respectively): A deformed individual who operates a series of robotic drones and has a sizable personal fortune. Using "Robot", Connors formerly led the Teen Team before creating a new Guardians roster. He also uses Rex Splode's DNA and the Mauler Twins' expertise in cloning to make a new body for himself. Connors is loosely inspired by the Ultimate Marvel version of Iron Man.

  • Rex Sloan / Rex Splode (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas): An incorrigible superhero who can charge potential energy into anything he touches to create explosives and a former member of the Teen Team who is selected to join the new Guardians roster. Sloan shows some maturity after Omni-Man's public betrayal, growing closer to the team.

  • Kate Cha / Dupli-Kate (voiced by Malese Jow): A self-replicating superheroine, formerly of the Teen Team, before she is selected to join the new Guardians roster. All Kates are numbered, which decreases in losses so that whichever remains with "1" is the prime Kate.

  • Shrinking Rae (voiced by Grey Griffin): A size-manipulating superheroine selected to join the new Guardians roster. Her name is a reference to the Shrink Ray device. She is loosely inspired by Ant-Man.

  • Amanda / Monster Girl (voiced by Grey Griffin and Kevin Michael Richardson respectively): A cursed heroine whose powers allow her to transform into a powerful masculine-like ogre. She begins the series chronologically at 24 years old but is physically at age 12 due to her powers making her younger with each use. Monster Girl is loosely inspired by Hulk.

  • Markus Grimshaw / Black Samson (voiced by Khary Payton): An original Guardian from the team's early days who left after losing his powers. Donning an armored super-suit to continue as a hero, he joins the new roster as the veteran voice. After being hospitalized by Thokk, Black Samson's powers return to accelerate his recovery, and he shelves his armor.

• Amber Bennett (voiced by Zazie Beetz): Mark's classmate and girlfriend. Amber was redesigned from her comic book source with a resemblance to her voice actress for the series. She is depicted with an insight to her, deducing Mark's identity before he tells her.

• The Mauler Twins (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson): Blue-skinned, hyper-powerful, super-genius superhumans and long-time adversaries of the original Guardians. Both proclaim to be the original while stating the other is a clone.

• Art Rosenbaum (voiced by Mark Hamill): A superhero suit tailor and long-time friend to many superheroes.

• Damien Darkblood (voiced by Clancy Brown): A demon detective who escaped Hell to seek justice for others and save his soul, whose presence triggers a sudden cold in the ambient temperature. Cecil banishes him back to Hell to keep him from exposing Nolan too soon. Damien is loosely inspired by Hellboy.

Guest

• Allen the Alien (voiced by Seth Rogen): An assessor of member world candidates for the Coalition of Planets whose homeworld was conquered by the Viltrumites. He initially has a scuffle with Invincible near the moon's orbit, but realizes that he mistakenly went to Earth when he was supposed to travel to the planet Urath.

• Kill Cannon (voiced by Fred Tatasciore): The first supervillain that Mark fights as Invincible who is armed with an arm-mounted laser cannon.

• Steve (voiced by Jon Hamm): A Secret Service agent guarding the White House front gate.

• Matt (voiced by Max Burkholder): Steve's step-son.

• Guardians of the Globe (original roster): A decades-old superhero team that is loosely inspired by the Justice League. Following the massacre of the original membership, a new roster is created.

  • The Immortal (voiced by Ross Marquand): The millennia-old leader of the Guardians who was once a barbarian before he was exposed to a cosmic anomaly. He went on to fight in the Crusades and become Abraham Lincoln. The Maulers revive him to fight Robot and the New Guardians, but the Immortal goes to fight Omni-Man, is subsequently defeated, and recovers under the GDA.

  • Holly / War Woman (voiced by Lauren Cohan): A powerful ancient warrior and co-benefactor of the Guardians. She is loosely inspired by Wonder Woman.

  • Alana / Green Ghost (voiced by Sonequa Martin-Green): A superheroine in a green full-body encasing with ghost-like powers. She is loosely inspired by Green Lantern.

  • Martian Man (voiced by Chad Coleman): An exiled, shapeshifting Martian hero. He is loosely inspired by Martian Manhunter.

  • Josef / Red Rush (voiced by Michael Cudlitz) A Russian speedster and the team's first responder. He is loosely inspired by The Flash.

  • Darkwing (voiced by Lennie James): A gadget wielding caped crusader and co-benefactor of the Guardians. He is loosely inspired by Batman.

  • Aquarus (voiced by Ross Marquand): A hydrokinetic fish-man, and king of an underwater nation. He is loosely inspired by Aquaman.

• Connie (voiced by Mae Whitman): War Woman's co-worker and business partner in the heroine's civilian identity.

• Principal Winslow (voiced by Reginald VelJohnson): Mark's high school principal.

• Doc Seismic (voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos): An earthquake-generating mad scientist who holds SJW views on the government and it’s past leaders.

• Bi-Plane (voiced by Ross Marquand): A flight suit-empowered supervillain. He is loosely inspired by Vulture.

• Kursk (voiced by Ross Marquand): An electrokinetic supervillain. He is loosely inspired by Electro.

• Titan (voiced by Mahershala Ali): a criminal enforcer who can manifest regenerative stone skin armor at will. He later becomes a crime lord after his boss, Machine Head, is arrested and works to protect people that are overlooked by superheroes.

• The Flaxans: A warrior race of aliens who capture slaves from other dimensions. They seek to conquer Earth despite three failed attempts and Omni-Man attacking their planet.

  • Slash (voiced by Djimon Hounsou): The scarred leader who aims to kill Invincible for scarring him and conquer Earth before he is slain by Omni-Man.

• Olga (voiced by Grey Griffin): Red Rush's widow.

• Martian Emperor (voiced by Djimon Hounsou): The Martians' ruler who quarantines Mars to isolate the parasitic Sequids from the rest of the universe.

• Vanessa (voiced by Nicole Byer): Titan's wife.

• Fiona (voiced by Nicole Byer): Titan's daughter.

• Machine Head (voiced by Jeffrey Donovan): A cyborg crime lord with an auto-tuned voice, extensive illicit funding, and Titan's former boss. Currently in GDA custody.

• Tether Tyrant (voiced by Reginald VelJohnson): A supervillain hired by Machine Head.

• Thokk / Battle Beast (voiced by Michael Dorn): A space-faring leonine alien warrior who seeks to find worthy opponents to fight.

• D.A. Sinclair (voiced by Ezra Miller): A mad scientist with an obsession for "improving" humanity. After his tech overwhelms Invincible, Cecil Stedman hires Sinclair to mass-produce zombie cyborgs, or "Reanimen", to fight Omni-Man and counter the Viltrumites' impending invasion.

• Dropkick (voiced by Mae Whitman)

• Fightmaster (voiced by Mae Whitman)

• Rick Sheridan (voiced by Jonathan Groff): William's love interest who is kidnapped and converted into a Reaniman.

• Adam Wilkins (voiced by Fred Tatasciore): Eve's father who vocally disapproves of her being a superhero.

• Eve's mother (voiced by Grey Griffin): A soft-spoken woman who acts as a buffer between her husband and daughter.

• Doug Cheston (voiced by Justin Roiland): A student at Upstate University who is kidnapped and converted into a Reaniman. He commits suicide after a fight with Invincible.

• Kyle (voiced by Khary Payton): A nerdy frat-boy who befriends Amber at Upstate.

Episode Summaries:

Episode 1: "It's About Time"

When hulking villainous scientists, the Mauler Twins, attack the White House, they are repelled by the Guardians of the Globe and Nolan Grayson / Omni-Man. Nolan's son Mark, who is waiting for his powers to emerge, goes to school and defends classmate Amber Bennett from bully Todd. After Todd punches Mark to the ground, Amber saves the latter and develops an interest in him. Later, Mark's superpowers emerge, and he finishes work to tell his parents at dinner. While Nolan is initially uncertain, he still begins to train Mark on how to use them. However, wishing to emphasize the severity of being a superhero, Mark is caught off-guard by his father punching too hard. Feeling hurt emotionally and physically, Mark blows off steam by stopping a robbery in a homemade suit. After a heart-to-heart with his son, Nolan takes Mark to meet superhero suit tailor, Art Rosenbaum, who creates a proper superhero suit for Mark after he chooses to call himself "Invincible". Later, Nolan secretly entraps the Guardians and kills them all before falling unconscious from damage sustained from their resistance.

Episode 2: "Here Goes Nothing"

The clandestine Global Defense Agency nurses a comatose Nolan in their secret hospital, but failed to revive the Guardians, so Director Cecil Stedman informs Mark and his mother, Debbie. As extradimensional aliens called the Flaxans attack, Mark helps the Teen Team hold off their forces. When the Flaxans rapidly age and retreat, Teen Team leader Robot deduces this was due to a time dilation difference between the Flaxans' homeworld and Earth. As Mark recognizes Atom Eve as classmate Samantha Eve Wilkins, they share their identities and become friends. The Flaxans return with anti-aging technology, but Mark and the Teen Team destroy them, forcing another retreat. The Flaxans return once again and nearly succeed until a recuperated Nolan forces them back to their homeworld, where he devastates their planet in retaliation before returning as news breaks of the Guardians' deaths. Meanwhile, Mark skirmishes with Allen the Alien, who wants to test Earth's defenses for the Coalition of Planets. Calling a time-out to talk and learning of Allen's mission, Mark corrects his mistaking "Earth" for another planet, "Urath". Allen leaves, bidding a friendly farewell. Concurrently, demon detective Damien Darkblood investigates the Guardians' deaths for Cecil, theorizing the killer was among the heroes.

Episode 3: "Who You Calling Ugly?"

After a televised funeral, the Graysons attend the Guardians' private burial with their loved ones, where Darkblood questions Nolan privately and hints at his suspicions. Cecil commissions Robot to form a new Guardians roster of his choosing, given his handling of the Flaxan invasions, so Robot merges the Teen Team with other heroes Monster Girl, Black Samson, and Shrinking Rae. However, Eve immediately quits, still resentful of her teammate and boyfriend Rex Splode after catching him cheating with teammate Dupli-Kate. When Mark gets Amber's number, he sets up a "study date", which gets interrupted when he helps Eve stop Doc Seismic from attacking Mt. Rushmore. Despite waiting, Amber still stays for their date out of intrigue. When Rex tries apologizing to Eve, she refuses to accept and seeks out Mark, only to discover him with Amber and leaves unnoticed. With Robot's unseen help, the Maulers escape from their GDA prison, though one sacrifices the other. When Darkblood questions Debbie, he finds Nolan shared little with her. This encounter leaves her suspicious of Nolan, who senses Darkblood's lingering presence.

Episode 4: "Neil Armstrong, Eat Your Heart Out"

Angry that the GDA has not caught the Guardians' killer yet, Red Rush's widow, Olga, commissions Debbie to sell her house so she can return to Moscow. Cecil asks Nolan to protect the first mission to Mars, but the latter refuses, citing his responsibilities protecting Earth, so Mark volunteers. Despite a successful landing, Mark's inattentiveness allows Martians to abduct the astronauts. The Martian Emperor orders their execution to prevent the parasitic Sequids from reaching Earth and destroying the universe. Mark hastily evacuates the astronauts to their shuttle, failing to realize a Martian had replaced one of them. Meanwhile, as Nolan and Debbie vacation in Rome to rekindle their relationship, he manipulatively regains her trust with half-truths. Cecil realizes Nolan is the killer, but cannot act until he determines the latter's motive and a way to stop him. Knowing he will not drop the case, Cecil banishes Darkblood to Hell, unaware that the detective hid his notepad in Debbie's closet. As the surviving Mauler begins cloning himself, Robot monitors his progress and methods before stealing a DNA sample from Rex to present to his real self, the deformed Rudy Connors.

Episode 5: "That Actually Hurt"

After Debbie finds Darkblood's notepad, her lingering suspicions return, and she locates Nolan's bloodied super-suit while he is away. After Black Samson lectures his teammates on failing to protect civilians due to their infighting, Robot secretly approaches the restored Mauler Twins with a job offer. Meanwhile, Mark promises to help Amber at a soup kitchen she volunteers at as recompense since he neglected her while working as Invincible. However, he must also help superpowered thug Titan defeat his boss, Machine Head, who predicted their attack and hired multiple villains for security. The Guardians arrive to help, but Mark, Monster Girl, and Black Samson are beaten by Thokk, the Battle Beast, which prompts the rest of the Guardians to act as a team. Seeing the other villains swiftly defeated, Thokk abandons the battle due to its ignominy. The GDA arrest Machine Head and medevac Mark and the others, allowing Titan to take over Machine Head's operation. Eve also volunteers alongside Amber, needing direction after quitting being a superhero, but leaves when Cecil calls her about Mark's hospitalization. Elsewhere, GDA scientists test samples of Mark's blood, discovering the cells are invulnerable to every lethal test they run.

Episode 6: "You Look Kinda Dead"

Humbled by his week-long recovery, Mark reconciles with Amber before both accompany his best friend, William, on a weekend visit to Upstate University to see his crush, Rick Sheridan. However, a cyborg experiment of mad scientist, D.A. Sinclair's, escapes confinement and fights Mark before killing himself. As William deduces Mark's identity, Amber breaks up with Mark due to his "absence" during the cyborg's rampage, and he sacrifices reconciliation to rescue William and Rick from Sinclair. Seeing Rick converted into a cyborg, William's pleas for help enable Rick to overcome his alteration and help Mark win. Following Sinclair's arrest, Cecil takes an interest in his technology, which overwhelmed Mark's physiology. Meanwhile, Rosenbaum examines Nolan's bloodied suit for Debbie, confirming Nolan killed the Guardians. Both fearfully agree to stay silent, but the revelation sends Debbie into a drunken depression. Having studied her biology beforehand, Robot gathers magical ingredients to heal Monster Girl. While the Maulers continue to grow a body for Robot, they also exhume the Immortal's corpse in order to resurrect him as their enthralled weapon against Robot. Concurrently, Eve is inspired by Amber to skip college and use her powers in direct humanitarian endeavors.

Episode 7: "We Need to Talk"

After Debbie relocates to the GDA, Cecil explains the truth before both witness Nolan kill Cecil's associate, Donald Ferguson, and several GDA agents. Adding a neural link upgrade, the "Rudy" clone reluctantly euthanizes his progenitor. Paying and betraying the Maulers, the new Rudy leaves for a Guardians summons. He explains himself to the team, who are taken aback by Rudy's revelations before learning the truth about Omni-Man and their predecessors' fates. Cecil buys time by talking to Nolan before retreating to deploy Sinclair's "Reanimen" and a modified Kaiju to kill him. Unfazed by Mark revealing his superhero identity, having deduced the truth weeks earlier, Amber dumps him as he never trusted her before. Mark seeks Eve's wisdom, but she criticizes his selfish behavior. When the two intercept Nolan's fight with the Kaiju, Cecil orders Eve to abandon Mark and rendezvous with the Guardians. Just as the Maulers revive Immortal, he flies off to battle Omni-Man and avenge his team's massacre while Mark narrowly subdues the Kaiju. News choppers capture Omni-Man killing Immortal in a live global broadcast before Nolan finally asks to talk with a bewildered Mark.

Episode 8: "Where I Really Come From"

After revealing himself as an infiltrator for the Viltrum Empire sent to conquer Earth, Nolan fails to convince Mark to join him and overpowers his son, devastating Chicago and slaughtering thousands. While reminiscing on Mark's childhood however, Nolan realizes his own humanity and love for him, and tearfully flies off from Earth. The Guardians and Eve mobilize to aid Chicago relief efforts as the world learns of Omni-Man's betrayal while Cecil helps Debbie and Mark by falsifying Nolan's civilian death. A devastated Debbie shares a drink with Rosenbaum, also hurt by Nolan's betrayal, as Mark and Amber rekindle their relationship after his two-week recovery. As she and William learn Eve is also a superhero, Cecil sends Mark to intercept an approaching Allen and updates him on recent events. Allen warns Mark that a Viltrumite fleet will come for Earth, given Nolan's uncharacteristic abandoning of his post, but he thinks that Mark can help the Coalition stop the Viltrumites' expansion. As Mark plans to finish high school, the Maulers are arrested while Immortal recuperates under GDA protection. Villainous forces conspire to return as Cecil commissions D.A. Sinclair to mass-produce Reanimen contingency troops.

The Verdict:

I went into this series without any prior knowledge, despite hearing about the title of this comic in passing for years, but never looking into it for myself, much like Kirkman's other works, such as The Walking Dead. 

Throughout the course of the first episode, I was ready to write this show off completely as being another boring Justice League clone/comparison. "How many of these shows with mock-up version of the Justice League have been out there?" was a question I kept asking myself. "To say that this genre is completely oversaturated at the moment, this was the best they could do?" Then the twist at the end of the first episode happened where we see Omni-Man slaughter all of the Guardians in a horrifying manner. Simply put, I was left with my jaw on the floor and I knew it right there... I was hooked. I was honestly relieved to see that this show wasn't going to fall into the same patterns and jump through the same tired and done hoops as so many of these stories like this in the genre. Don't get me wrong though. This is a world ripe with easy comparisons to more well-known and established franchises and characters in the superhero genre, but those comparisons and easy-to-spot recycled tropes are easily overlooked in favor what this series brings to the table.

As the series went on, the comparisons to more established/commonly known heroes didn't bother me as much as it helped draw comparisons of how powerful we as viewers were expected to perceive these characters. That was the thing that made the deaths of the Guardians so shocking. Omni-Man takes them all out, one-by-one with the precision and tactical finesse that one would expect out of an "evil" Superman. It posed a lot of questions - why would Omni-Man do this and go to these extremes? Is he under some sort of mind control from another villain that we're not aware of? Is this an evil clone or parallel universe doppelganger that replaced the real Omni-Man? We had the Hellboy-esque detective, Damien Darkblood, on the case wondering the same thing as he examined the scene of the crime and wondered why Omni-Man was the sole survivor of this horrifying attack. It wasn't hard for him to put the pieces together as even Omni-Man's own wife, Debbie, was beginning to have her own doubts about the situation. 

Episode 2 debuts the Teen Team, composed of several budding young heroes that are comparable to the Teen Titans, New Mutants, or Generation X. Mark gets a little in over his head dealing with an alien invasion (The Flaxans) during one of his first outings as the costumed hero that he refers to himself as "Invincible". The ongoing irony of that name will be painfully apparent as the series goes on...

Mark finds some help in another hero, Atom Eve, who is a member of the Teen Team, who quickly join the fight. They drive the Flaxans back to retreat since they rapidly age after prolonged exposure in our atmosphere. It's not long before the Flaxans return with anti-aging technology, but the combined forces of the Teen Team and Invincible drive them back again. When you think that they've had enough, the Flaxans return yet again, but a fully recovered Omni-Man forces them back to their homeworld, where he pursues them and completely obliterates their planet. Nolan returns just as the news about the deaths of the Guardians is broken worldwide. 

It doesn't take much for Darkblood to put the clues together and to have the guts to confront Nolan about his suspicions. The head of the Global Defense Agency (GDA), Cecil, commissions Robot (of the Teen Team) to form a new team of Guardians of his choosing since he was vital in the operations of the Teen Team dealing with the Flaxan invasions. Robot holds auditions for this team and enlists the Teen Team with newcomers, Monster Girl, Black Samson (a former member of the original Guardians), and Shrinking Rae. Atom Eve quits right off the bat after catching her then-boyfriend and teammate, Rex Splode, cheating on her with fellow teammate Dupli-Kate. Rex tries to explain that he merely did it as he thought she was cheating on him with Invincible but she wasn't. Invincible/Mark had his eyes on his fellow classmate, Amber Bennett. 

The rest of the season follows Mark as he's juggling his double life as an amateur costumed superhero, his high school studies, and now his social life - once he began dating Amber. Sad to say, but Mark is fumbling at all three of these tasks. He's barely finding success as a competent hero when he's not on the receiving end of some of the most brutal beatings in this show. His grades are suffering and Amber is losing her patience with him - no thanks to his constant disappearances to address crimes or assist in saving the world in one way or another. All of this makes Mark completely oblivious to the truth of what is going on with his father, Omni-Man. 

When that truth does come out, it hits Mark like he just ran into a brick wall, with his entire world (rather life) that he's known to this point coming crashing down. For the viewing audience, seeing Mark's double life play out over the course of this season is like watching a train wreck in progress - you can't look away and find yourselves engaged at how bad it's going to be before it all comes to an end. 

Characters

I'm not going to touch on EVERY character that appears in this series, just the ones that I found to be the most interesting or rather stood out the most over the course of the entire season. 

It's hard not to like Mark Grayson as we as the viewing audience follows his exploits as an amateur hero trying to follow in the footsteps of his Superman-like father. Mark is far from perfect as he stumbles and bumbles along the way of attempting to juggle a social life and the life of a superhero, much like Spider-Man/Peter Parker, so it's hard not to like the guy. Mark was completely in the dark about his father's true intentions for not just the Earth, but for himself, so when the truth finally comes out, Mark is completely in denial of Nolan's plans for global conquest and his murderous actions. I see it as Mark's greatest weakness being that the fact he's not as "invincible" as his namesake, but the fact being that he has more compassion and apathy for humanity as a whole. It causes him to leave himself vulnerable to his enemies to exploit at the cost of his own safety and well-being, not to mention of those around him. 

While we're on the subject of Mark's superhero moniker, it's ironic that this show makes a point to test that theory at every opportunity. I didn't catch it until a recent rewatch, but the opening splash/title screen gets bloodier and bloodier with every passing episode. 

Right off the bat, Nolan came off as too "perfect" - my issue with a lot of these Superman-patterned heroes. Then we were treated with his horrifying actions at the end of the first episode and that turned the whole notion of Omni-Man being yet another "boy scout" like a lot of these Superman-archetypes tend to be completely upside-down by murdering the original Guardians of the Globe. I'm sure there were a lot of people who collectively groaned at another evil Superman trope (much like Homelander in another Amazon Prime adult-oriented series, The Boys), but I found myself very intrigued by this one. He wasn't manipulated nor brainwashed. He was already devoted to the Viltrumite Empire's plans of conquest when he arrived to Earth. All of his work serving as Earth's protector was merely to ensure that the planet remained the pending property of the Viltrumite Empire. He wasn't acting out of character - he was deadset on his mission at all times. The only complication or roadblock in said plan(s) were falling in love with Debbie and having a son with her - Mark. I have to wonder what would have happened if Mark didn't develop Viltrumite powers after his 18th birthday. Would Nolan have murdered both Debbie and Mark in the name of the Viltrum Empire? He had no qualms about slaughtering people on a whim in the last episode while fighting Mark, so it's scary to think what he would have done in that situation. 

It's more interesting to see what he didn't do more though. He had every possible advantage over Mark in their battle and choose to spare not only him, but Earth as a whole by abandoning his post on this planet. He could be dooming the planet to a worse fate when the full force of the Viltrum Empire comes crashing down to investigate. The fact that Nolan hesitated to complete his mission is very telling after he was trying to convince Mark (and more importantly, himself... ) that what he was doing was right during their battle. He was so committed to this cause, only to give up the ghost just like that tells me that he found something more valuable to him than the Viltrum Empire's tyranny and conquest - family. 

Debbie, who can be easily compared to DC Comics' Lois Lane, is definitely one of the unsung heroes of this entire show, especially for this season. She's juggling the responsibilities that come with being a loving wife and mother to her superpowered husband (Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man) and son (Mark Grayson/Invincible), who is developing his own powers similar to his father's, while trying to come to grips with this horrible tragedy that paints her husband in a horrible light if her fears become a reality. 

Debbie's the heart and soul of the Grayson family, but she's the main person who is questioning Nolan right off the bat about what happened to the Guardians. Once Darkblood brought more questions to the table, Debbie ran her own investigation on the matter to find the truth. I don't think that Debbie's compassion and kindness is credited enough for having such a profound effect on Nolan by the time the season was over as evidenced by his inability to finish Mark off in their final battle. He may have come to prepare Earth for the pending conquest by the Viltrum Empire and regarded Debbie as a "pet", but he can't deny that their time together had softened him. With that fact in mind, Debbie should be credited for saving the Earth as much as Mark if we want to be honest with ourselves.

Sandra Oh's vocal performance in this role from start to finish is definitely one of this series' highlights. I'm shocked that she wasn't nominated for any sort of award as of the time of this posting. 

From what I have been told, Amber Bennett's comic book counterpart is white and a complete ditz in comparison to her sassy, African-American counterpart in this animated series. In the first half of this season, Amber was my favorite character in the entire show - from her design, her personality and character traits, and down to Zazie Beetz providing her voice. 

It was around episode 5 and 6 where I was starting to get annoyed with Amber's character. We, as the audience, know that Mark's juggling his responsibilities as an amateur costumed superhero while trying to keep up his grades and have a love life with Amber. She doesn't know that he's Invincible like the viewing audience does, so I kept cutting her a break as Mark was in that same "shit out of luck" spot that Spider-Man/Peter Parker found himself in with all of his girlfriends throughout his comic book history, prior to any of them knowing his secret identity/double life. All of Amber's gripes and concerns about their relationship came off as reasonable since she didn't know about his double life. Everything comes to a boil about their relationship with the last straw when Mark seemingly "abandons" her during the Reanimen attack on the college campus during Episode 6, when in reality, he made a hastily exit to arrive on the scene in costume as Invincible to save lives. This is followed by Amber formally dumping him when they get back home in Episode 7, despite the fact that Mark confesses and reveals that he's Invincible to her. Amber doesn't react as she reveals that she already figured it out, which makes this break up even more daunting to me. 

I've seen countless people go up for bat defending Amber's behavior, I have seen others straight up roast this depiction of her character, and finally, a select few settle for the fact that this "tokenized" version of Amber is better than her comic book counterpart. For me personally, I can't comment on her comic book counterpart as I haven't read the Invincible comics, so this animated series/adaptation is my first exposure to these characters. That being said, I applaud Amber for having a brain and not coming across as a stereotypical "angry, black female" that we see a lot of fiction and on television in general. Her issues with her and Mark's relationship are reasonable - to an extent anyway, especially when Mark is constantly lying to her and I'm sure that hurts even more with the revelation that Mark is Invincible and he didn't trust her enough to tell her without her figuring out first on her own. 

On my first watch of the series, I'll admit that I flat out HATED Amber's character as of episodes 5-7, with 7 being the straw that broke the camel's back after seeing the abuse that Mark has been enduring physically throughout the series (especially after nearly dying in Episode 5) and still has to come back to hear this bullshit (read: nagging and clinginess) from her. I can understand where Mark's mindset was out in this situation. He was trying to hang on the little bit of normalcy in his life now that he has these superpowers and a responsibilities of juggling this double life on his plate - on top of trying to finish high school. Let's not forget that he only just started dating Amber. Sure, he met her parents and all that jazz, but revealing his identity to her is life-threatening and could potentially put her in harm's way if any of his enemies found out. In that regard, I don't blame Mark for not telling her, but I say he was fucking stupid to tell her while they were on the verge of breaking up. That just screamed desperate and pathetic at that point. In a recent rewatch of this series, I could see where Amber is coming from too in a sense. From her perspective, she's giving so much in this relationship with Mark making little to no effort to show the same amount of sacrifice and commitment. She's constantly reminding him about how committed she is to her goals and keeping promises. So when Mark habitually finds ways to miss dates and appointments with her, it makes her feel like she's not important at all and he doesn't care about anything - as if he's a total slacker, with his grades showing evidence of that. 

After taking all of that into consideration, I can cut Amber a little slack in her treatment of Mark here. This depiction of her character is a vast improvement over the total ditz she seems to be written as in the comics. From the little that I have seen of her in the comics continuity, she gives me the impression as the comic book equivalent of Jillian, AKA Brian's blonde airhead girlfriend on Family Guy that appears in Season Five and onward. 

Out of all of the heroes in this show, I found Atom Eve's powers (energy and matter manipulation, despite looking like a mere imitation of Green Lantern/Star Sapphire's powers on the surface) to be the most interesting on a visual and technical level. I highly recommend that readers of this review don't do like I did and start reading up on her powers on Google as that will lead into a TON of spoilers concerning her fate and the fates of a lot of other characters from the comics continuity that this show is based off of. 

I think it is pretty obvious that this show has been alluding to a love triangle between Mark, Amber, and Eve down the road, especially after they had her break up with RexPlode when she caught him cheating on her with Dupli-Kate. Eve's journey throughout this season after that isn't too excited though. She meets Mark, breaks up with RexPlode and leaves the Teen Team while simultaneously refusing to join the new Guardians team. We get to see her runaway from home, walking out on her overbearing parents in the process as she decides on her own that she doesn't need them for anything. She creates her own treehouse in the wilderness and takes it into her own hands to be an independent heroine. What we little that we see of Eve for the duration of season is extremely minor as she's playing a backseat to Mark's relationship woes in dealing with Amber and making excuses for him while not even participating in the 

RexPlode became one of my favorite characters from the moment he was introduced. I instantly recognized Jason Mantzoukas' voice from his performance as Alex Dorpenberger on Close Enough. Rex was a complete douchebag right from the start, but I couldn't help but laugh at his antics and dialogue. He's always the one who has one of the funniest lines in every episode that he appears in without any sort of filter whatsoever. 

Rex's arrogance and macho exterior is mostly an act to hide his own insecurities and inadequacies as one of the young heroes in this universe, especially when he is among the few who are called upon to fill in the shoes of the deceased Guardians of the Globe. Rex matures over the course of the season and like the rest of the members of the new Guardians, they learn to work together as a cohesive unit instead of showboating for personal glory and fame. Fortunately, Rex doesn't loose his wisecracking/smart ass mouth, so we still have that to look forward to in season two. 

Early on, I thought that Robot was just a sentient AI that is part of the Teen Team and later leading the new Guardians, much in the same vein as Vision in Marvel Comics. Later on, it is revealed that he is merely one of many remote controlled drones that are controlled by his immobile, deformed creator, Rudolph Connors. I've seen comparisons to the Ultimates version of Ironman in Marvel Comics and I can easily see that. Robot actually being human makes his infatuation with Monster Girl (previously Monster Woman before the prolonged usage of her powers de-aged her to a young teenager) slightly less creepy in comparison to the modern depictions of Vision falling in love with the Scarlet Witch. Invincible definitely dodged a bullet there with that, but I'm anxious to see how he is going to solve her de-aging problem if she continues using her powers regularly as part of the Guardians. 

If I'm honest, I could easily see Robot becoming a major foe down the road from what extremes he is willing to go to complete his goals. He went as far as allowing the Mauler Twins to escape from jail and even though they didn't kill on their way out of the imprisonment facility, he still allowed them back into the world to commit whatever crimes to complete their cloning experiments for him. What's stopping him from creating an army of machines to protect not only himself but to save Monster Girl's life if she's in critical condition again? We saw what lengths that he was willing to go in that situation and for prolonging his own life, so who or what's going to stop him in the future? He poses a much bigger threat with his brilliant human mind behind his advanced robotics than some rogue AI in control.

In a lot of ways, I compare Cecil Stedman to Marvel Comics' Nick Fury and DC Comics' Amanda Waller. He's willing to do anything and everything to protect not just his country, but the entire human race from extinction at the hands of any potential threat. Over the course of this first season, we've seen what lengths that he's willing to go - including hiring D.A. Sinclair to continue his research and supply him with an army of Reanimen, made from the corpses of fallen soldiers. Let's not forget how much manpower he has in esponiage and monitoring almost every aspect of heroes' (namely Omni-Man and Invincible) lives and researching how to kill them. 

Much like Robot/Rudy, I could easily see Cecil being an antagonist down the road with his extremist ideals. He only cares about the end result(s) over the means to accomplish said tasks and would make whatever sacrifices to ensure the survival of humanity. With the threat of the Viltrum Empire looming on the horizon, you know he's going to make whatever sacrifices needed to make sure he comes out on top, no matter who has to throw under the bus to win that war. Cecil may have shown some compassion in consoling Debbie and Mark following Nolan's betrayal, but I don't doubt for a second that he would allow his emotions to get in the way if it meant saving the world or not. 

Watch It or Don't Bother?

Invincible definitely deserves all of the accolades and praise that it received in 2021. It was the biggest surprise to come out of the superhero genre all year, not just in animation but narratively and visually as a whole - even though some of the extreme levels of violence may not be for everyone. This cartoon definitely pushed the envelope in that regard (especially in Episode 8) as I can't fathom how this adaptation would have worked in live-action as originally planned and rumored. This is one animated series that I would like to recommend to a lot of people, but I can't do that in good conscience due to the extreme violence and gore involved in the visuals. If you enjoyed The Boys, another Amazon Prime exclusive, then you won't have any qualms about watching this. That being said, I can't recommend this for anyone under the age of 18 either. 

For everyone else, I humbly suggest giving this a shot, especially for fans of the comics that this animated series is based off of as I have been told that there have been a lot of creative changes/liberties taken with this adaptation, much like Robert Kirkman's other beloved adaptation for television, The Walking Dead. I can even recommend this series to those who may be feeling a bit of superhero fatigue with the oversaturated landscape currently, but I think this series provides enough fresh paint on the genre for viewers won't feel the notion of "been there, done that..." that accompanies their reactions to a lot of the same themes and tropes despite the fact that a lot of them reappear here.