Fans of superhero movies and shows have never had it so good. There are more movies and shows available now than ever before and plenty of them are delivering both great entertainment and high-quality content. We’re all familiar with the massive success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with blockbuster film and now on acclaimed shows on Disney Plus. While the DC universe hasn’t had quite the success of Marvel, it has still delivered a number of excellent films and shows. Then, add in the more independent content, like Amazon’s The Boys.
Comic and superhero fans also know that some of the best content historically has been animated, rather than live-action. This brings us to a new animated series on Amazon - Invincible. The show is based on a comic series of the same name from Image Comics. It is coming out with weekly installments in 2021 and is now through episode 5. While we can’t provide a full-season review yet, let’s look at what the first 5 episodes have delivered.
The Premise
The series is framed within a fairly typical coming of age, superhero origin story, with a few wrinkles. The main character, Mark Grayson (aka Invincible) is a regular teenager in high school, other than that his father is Omni-Man, the Earth’s most powerful superhero. In the first episode, Mark finally comes into his powers, which he and his father were uncertain would show up.
The first few episodes take us through Mark’s transition into an official superhero, Invincible, and his learning curve in adjusting to his new abilities - which include flight, super strength, super speed, resistance to damage (although not invulnerability), faster than normal healing, no need to breathe oxygen, etc. Basically, a semi-Superman set of powers, minus the heat and x-ray vision.
His father is actually from another planet and he explains that all people from his planet have superpowers and expand through the universe to help protect other planets from threats. Sounds wonderfully altruistic, but let’s say that viewers are left with questions about just how truly altruistic his motivations really are.
The world of Invincible has many superheroes and supervillains, with Omni-Man seeming to be the most powerful. As Mark takes his place as a recognized superhero, he initially works with a teen-focused hero team, but eventually chooses to work on his own, at his father’s prompting.
The Main Characters
Mark Grayson (Invincible) - Our hero. Teenager and brand new superhero just figuring out his powers and where he fits into the world. He has a tough act to follow in his father.
Nolan Grayson (Omni-Man) - Mark’s father from the planet Vitrum. Earth’s most powerful superhero and protector. But, we learn fairly quickly that he may have a different agenda than just protecting the Earth.
Debbie Grayson - Mark’s human and non-superpowered mom. She is something of the moral center of the early episodes, grounding Mark and also Nolan to some extent.
Samantha Eve Wilkins (Atom Eve) - One of the first superheroes that Mark meets, who happens to be a classmate of his in high school. She is part of a teen superhero team when the series starts and helps bring Mark into the larger world of superheroes.
Amber Bennett - Mark’s human classmate (non-superpowered) who he begins dating in the early episodes. This leads to some predictable tensions between his duties as a hero and having a girlfriend.
Cecil Stedman - Director of the Global Defense Agency (GDA), a government organization that oversees superheroes and also human defenses against threats to the Earth from aliens or supervillains. He works closely with Omni-Man and brings Invincible into the fold as a new hero.
The Guardians of Globe - The Earth’s most formidable team of superheroes. The original members are introduced briefly in early episodes before they are all killed and replaced with a new, younger team.
The Story so Far
Along with Mark’s origin story, we are seeing that Omni-Man may not be the hero that the world thinks he is. He fights and kills the members of The Guardians of the Globe in a battle whose cause we don’t know. Did Omni-Man do it intentionally or was he perhaps under mind-control? We don’t know and he isn’t telling us either, since he claims not to remember the fight, in which he was also badly injured.
The GDA is also suspicious but knows that Omni-Man is powerful beyond their ability to deal with, so they are carefully looking into what happened. They are also evaluating Invincible to get an understanding of where his loyalties lie - with Earth or with his father.
A new team Guardians is formed, pulling from the teen team that Atom Eve was a part of. She refuses to join the new team but is becoming closer friends with Invincible.
At the end of episode five, we have Invincible being badly injured after a battle with a group of supervillains. He is rushed off to the GDA medical center for treatment. The GDA also gathers a sample of his blood for testing and we see they have learned that Vitrumites do seem to be largely invulnerable to almost anything.
Not for Kids
Like The Boys, Invincible is definitely not for kids. While it is an animated series, it has some pretty extreme violence. It’s not quite as explicit as The Boys, but it’s in the ballpark. So, this one is definitely for the grown-ups.
The Verdict
If you enjoy superhero stories, like them to be a bit more on the violent side, and enjoy an evolving mystery element, then definitely add it to your watch list. We'll post further reviews of the series later in the season.
