Invincible Season 1 (spoilers obvs)

[stubbleupdate]

Invincible Season 1 finished this morning on Amazon Prime.

It was a pretty faithful adaptation of the comic, telling the story of the first four or five trades. ish. Some stories that were dropped in to the series in bits and pieces have been told in one go in an an episode.

The voice acting is excellent, with J.K. Simmons starring as Omni Man, but also Sandra Oh, Zachary Quinto, Walter Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas and Michael Dorn standing out.

It is also incredibly, unbelievably violent. Even by the standards of Invincible, it is outrageously violent. The logo might suggest how violent it is, but it is much, much more violent than that.

Has anybody else been watching it? Fans of the book or newcomer, what did you make of it?

Comments

[lordultimus]

I quite liked it. They took the time to rewrite many of the parts that didn't age well or could have been executed better. Very glad that Season 2 and 3 have already been confirmed.

[obsidianwolf]

I've been meaning to watch it and now that season one is finished I probably will. It's just the comic toward the end of it's life was just so blah (not bad but not exactly good either) that I don't have much interest in seeing an adaptation of those years of it.

[stubbleupdate]

I get the vibe that Invincible wanted to be about Invincible more than it wanted to be Invincible by the end.

[zachbeacon]

The pacing was weird to me.

The Omni Man story rushes through the first one and a half trades of material in the first episode; that makes sense to me since it shows viewers what kind of show it is. Unfortunately, it spends episodes two to six spinning its wheels and building tension. Then the last two episodes are a horrifically brutal adaptation of the third volume.

Meanwhile characters like Eve and Robot are left in a place they don’t get to until much later in the comic. Granted, sometimes it works because I don’t think some of the early William stuff would go over very well in 2021.

The Twitter discourse (especially around Omni Man) has been interesting. I really enjoy seeing something that has already been experienced by a relatively small fanbase hit a larger audience. Usually I see it through a Marvel context but every now and then its something else.

I hope Walker and Ottley didn’t get screwed over.

[thezmage]

There was an exchange from a discord I’m in that I really love:
“Ok I'm watching Invincible, having never read the comic, and I'm sure it's intended but I'm laughing so hard at the just-barely-not-copyrighted-heroes”
*several seconds later*
“ oh my god”
“ what the fu¢k is going on”
“ WHAT JUST HAPPENED”

I do kinda wish they’d have had one episode before that reveal to properly mimic the comic reading experience

[stubbleupdate]

From speaking to a few people who know comics, bit not Invincible, they were not that impressed with the first forty minutes of the show,and it was the final 3 that made them come back.

For the book fans, we were waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the novices, the massacre sets the tone of the world immediately.

[zachbeacon]

Some other favorites

Pretty much everything about the final fight. There are too many memorable reactions to Omni Man calling Debbie his "pet", the Immortal and Invincible failing to live up to their names (again), the Guardians sitting the fight out, Oliver foreshadowing, ect to list them all.

"I bet Battle Beast could have taken Omni Man" (and then some a-hole ALWAYS posts that one image. You know the one)

"Is this real?" (In response to pictures of Bulletproof as Invincible)

"I'm glad Robot didn't turn out to be evil"

"Allen is the best" or "Allen is the worst". There is no middle ground.

*Laughs in comic fan*

[leahandillyana]

As fun as the show is, I'm disappointed that the adult animation finally blossoming on American popcultural ground means hyperviolent shows like Invincible, Castlevania or DOTA and not more shows that tell stories too complex, too intellectual , too sexual and frankly boring for a seven year old. Poppy War, Captive Prince or Machineries of the Empire would be perfect in animation. And these are still action/suspense series. I can only dream of animated romantic series from mature audiences.

[mrstatham]

Agreed. I'd kill to see an adaptation of the Locas stories from Love and Rockets; no clue how well you'd be able to pull that off given how the characters developed over thirty years, but Jaime Hernandez' style is another one I'd consider perfect for animation.

[mrwalker]

As someone totally unfamiliar with the books, I was NOT ready for the closing moments of the first episode!

[mazway_75]

I liked how they took time building it with stuff like Mark learning powers.

I admit, I liked more in the comics, an emergency near school, he races to fight it, comes back to tell William with a "sorry had to run..." and William just goes "dude, why didn't you tell me you were a superhero!"

Still, amazed they didn't wimp out on the violence but show how dark this world can be and the Omini-Man story working well even when you have read the comic. So damn good and can't wait for season 2.

[zachbeacon]

I wasn't as bothered with the violence in the comic because the art was so cartoony and half the people involved were aliens with blue blood or whatever.

(Whereas I noped right out of Walking Dead when Carl got shot in the face)

I was still a bit surprised at how much worse it got with the show's style change but then they went and added extra stuff like the train.

Oh, dear god, the train.

[stubbleupdate]

I would be fascinated to know
a) how the train scene was received when it was pitched
b) what else was suggested that didn't make it into the show

[zachbeacon]

Given Seth Rogen’s involvement, I imagine there was a lot of giggling.

I’m of two minds there.

On the one hand, the comic confrontation was pretty quick and – after spending SO many episodes building up to it – it would have felt really anticlimactic if Omni Man beat the Immortal and Invincible and just left.

On the other hand, the show has been renewed for two more seasons so I assume they’re eventually going to get to the point in the story where Nolan is redeemed. I’m not sure you can redeem a guy who attacked major cities and killed thousands just to prove a point to his son.

[owlbrigade1]

It was entertaining enough, and definitely what I would have considered "adult" and "mature" in terms of gore when I was thirteen-to-fifteen, which is the age group that aspect seems to be pitched towards. There are few things less actually mature and grown up than what kids think is grown up and adult. I enjoyed more Debbie's story and how her being married to a serial abuser and violent man affected her and her relationships, which is the actual mature part. I could have done with more of that.

The most disturbing part of the entire show, though, was that offhand unexamined statement by Cecil in the final episode that they put stuff in the drinking water to blot out people's perceptions. I'd like to see something more on that, and the exposing of that along with the need for genuine accountability of government agencies. Mostly it was disturbing because you just know someone in the various alphabet agencies is in love with that idea and wishes they could make it happen, but for realsies.

[stubbleupdate]

Or Cecil's genuine disgust at Sinclair, then we see Sinclair is on the payroll, reanimating soldiers' corpses to fight Omni Man, then making dozens of Reanimen, presumably to take down Mark if he goes rogue.

[owlbrigade1]

Indeed. Now don't get me wrong; I do believe that governments have a duty of care towards their citizens, and that extraordinary threats demand extraordinary measures, and we don't always get to work with nice guys to do so. However, I also believe that governments have a duty of accountability too, and there is a big conversation to be had on the extent of their measures and what we have to give up, morally speaking, in order to achieve that care.

And I do think there are elements of that in the show, I just wish we'd seen more exploration of those issues than we did body disarticulated body parts; the latter being something that just does not move me in the slightest one way or another, other than appreciating the technical skill of the animators. It kinda saddens me that the closest we've really come to it was the Cyclops Space Assessor saying that when he screwed up and got Earth mixed up with another planet, his supervisors went nuts because he failed his duty of care and diligence. There is an "eye on the ball" pun in there somewhere, but I just can't get it to work.