There comes a time in everyone's life when they stop seeing their parents as Mom and Dad (or Mom and Mom/Dad and Dad) and start seeing them as people. Just regular, fallible human beings, capable of making the same mistakes as the rest of us, and in some cases, capable of far worse. The question is how we react to this discovery, and what, if anything, we can do about it.
Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), the teenaged protagonist of Amazon's new adult animated series Invincible, is grappling with such questions, except his father isn't like yours or mine -- he's Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), the most powerful superhero on the planet. That is... if he's a superhero at all.
Though Mark has been aware of his father's secret identity since he was a boy and with it the knowledge that he, too, would develop superpowers one day, he doesn't quite have the full story. And as a critic, I'm not quite sure how much I should reveal about that story. I mean, if this were a Batman show, I wouldn't hesitate to discuss the murder of his parents, but if you'd never heard of Batman before, you might consider that a spoiler. I know Invincible is a popular comic book, but I still plan to tread carefully going forward.
The series opens with the big blue Mauler twins attacking the White House in an attempt to kill the president. They're quickly thwarted by the Guardians of the Globe, who are basically the Justice League. They handle the day-to-day business of defending the world, though Omni-Man is their trusted associate and more powerful than all of them.
While Dad is off doing superhero stuff, Mark is in school, where we learn that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. He's quick to defend a female classmate (Zazie Beetz) from a bully who promptly knocks the wind out of him, but won't pose a threat for much longer. In the very next scene, while dragging trash to the dumpster at his crummy fast-food job, Mark's powers begin to manifest, like a late-bloomer entering a lightning-fast superhero puberty. Sure, it'll take him a while to learn how to fly, let alone make a graceful landing, but the boy's potential is unmistakable. He is destined to become the titular superhero Invincible — who's a bit like Kick-Ass except for the fact that he has actual abilities, like throwing a baseball around the world as he plays catch with his old man. The series' title card doesn't appear until 37 minutes into the pilot episode, which ends in spectacular(ly violent) fashion, leaving you hungry for Episode 2.
The second episode zooms out a bit to introduce a shadowy government organization embodied by Walton Goggins, who shows up to investigate an attack on the Guardians (that Omni-Man himself barely survives) with the help of a demon detective named Damien Darkblood (Clancy Brown). We also meet another one of Mark's classmates, Eve (Gillian Jacobs), who has a secret identity of her own as part of the New Guardians of the Globe, a state-funded group of superheroes led by former Teen Team leader Robot (Zachary Quinto). Invincible teams up with this group to fight, well... that's the problem.
I know there's a formidable villain on the horizon, but thus far, the primary antagonists have been fairly underwhelming. They're an intergalactic species of green creatures that emerge from portals and seem like a bunch of foot soldiers who are as disposable as the Chitauri from the Avengers movies. Amazon only sent the first three episodes of Invincible to critics, so while I hate that I'm being asked to review a season of television that I've seen less than half of, I understand that's just the way of the media world these days.
Though I'm neither a huge fan of superheroes or animated TV shows, I dove right into Invincible because I was curious about the tone of this series and the star-studded voice cast convinced me to give it a chance, plus I really like what Amazon has done thus far with The Boys.
Invincible is definitely not The Boys, as it feels less radical and thus, more familiar than that show, though it does succeed on its own merits. For starters, the impressive voice cast is more than game, with Simmons especially well-suited for the role of a middle-aged superhero. (I mean, gosh, remember how jacked he got just to play Commissioner Gordon in Justice League?) Yeun brings a certain innocence to the role of Mark, while Sandra Oh voices the boy's patient mother, who has seen and heard it all over the years, ever since Omni-Man saved her life. Meanwhile, the standout voice among the talented ensemble thus far is that of Jason Mantzoukas, who's an inspired, high-energy choice.
Invincible is based on the Skybound/Image comic book of the same name from creators Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley. That comic had a 15-year run which concluded in February 2018, so there's a ton of material for the show's writers to work with, and the animation stays true to the style of the comics as well. In fact, the series plays like an incredibly violent Saturday morning cartoon, and the crude animation style took me back to my childhood in the late '80s and early '90s when I'd watch animated shows like COPS and The Real Ghostbusters.
Amazon is employing a similar release pattern as it did with The Boys, as the first three episodes of Invincible drop on Friday, March 26, with the remaining five episodes released on a weekly basis going forward. This superhero show may play it a bit safer than The Boys, which won't help it stand out in the current landscape of superhero content, but for now, it works and should satisfy fans of the comic, even if it doesn't reinvent the wheel.
Grade: B
[Editor's note: Jeff Sneider is the current Teams Champion of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown, which is owned and operated by Kirkman's company Skybound Entertainment.]