Superheroes have dominated film and television for years now. Marvel movie and television offerings break records with every release. Smaller television shows like The Boys and Jupiter’s Legacy gain massive traction. And while DC falls behind, Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” proved itself to be a hit. But with almost all of these projects, there’s one trope that continues to be more unoriginal and insufferable as time goes on: the Evil Superman trope.
We‘ve seen this a dozen times. Ultra-powerful beings (mainly DC’s Superman) go down a wrong path, or there’s an alternate reality in which they’re evil. It started in 2003, when “Red Son” came out. It imagined what would happen if Superman’s pod didn’t land in a small town in America, but into the center of the Soviet Union. In short: it gave us a glimpse of a truly corrupt Superman.
Later came “Injustice,” a comic that showed Superman becoming a dictator after the death of Lois Lane. Snyder’s Batman vs Superman hinted at him becoming evil, while his Justice League showed us a future in which he works for the big bad Darkseid. Back in 2019, “The Boys” got in on the action, showing us Homelander, a truly evil Superman-like figure. While “The Boys” was great, it was at this point that the trope was beginning to get stale. Last month, Jupiter’s Legacy came out, which portrayed yet another evil version of an extremely superpowered being. So, when I heard that there was a new Amazon Prime original called “Invincible” that starred Omni-Man, an—you guessed it—evil Superman figure, I was not interested.
But then I heard about the cast. J.K. Simmons plays Omni-Man, and he’s always a win. Steven Yeun portrays the titular character Invincible, Omni-Man’s good-hearted son. Other big names like Sandra Oh, Mark Hamill, Gillian Jacobs, and Zazie Beetz round up the cast. I honestly have never seen such a stacked roster in an animated show before.
A scene from the animated superhero series “Invincible.” Photo: Amazon Prime Video, 2021.
“Invincible” follows Mark just as he starts to get his powers. His father, Omni-Man is from the faraway planet Viltrum, making Mark half-Viltrumite. As Mark goes through the normal parts of high school, including girls, drama, and acne, he’s also slowly becoming the superhero Invincible, fighting crime throughout the city. It’s classic superhero stuff, similar to Spider-Man. And for the first 45 minutes of the first episode, it remains that way. Despite the amazing cast, there doesn’t seem to be anything different or innovative.
And then the last five minutes happened.
After some credits, Omni-Man walks into the headquarters of the Guardians of the Globe, a superhero team akin to the Justice League. He brutally murders them one by one, in some of the goriest scenes I have ever watched, animated or otherwise. My jaw was on the floor. It was so unexpected, so out of the blue, and I needed to know more.
As the 8-episode series progresses, we slowly start to unravel the true intentions of Omni-Man (as does his wife and son), as well as the various adventures Invincible goes through. Every moment with J.K. Simmons’ character was so strong and so intense. Whether it was between Sandra Oh’s character finding out what’s wrong with her husband, or when teaching Mark the ropes of being a superhero, he’s just so captivating.
Problem is, there’s far too little of Omni-Man than I would’ve hoped. Don’t get me wrong; it’s great to see Mark fight “villain of the week” type characters, and the subplot of Zachary Quinto’s Robot/Clone storyline is equally as interesting. But neither subplots reached quite the same heights as the main focus of the show, which in the end is the dynamic between Mark and Omni-Man as Mark finds out the truth. Still, these scenes are just too few and far between for my liking. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t go so far as to say the rest is filler, because this is one of the best written and most entertaining shows I have ever seen.
Each character, no matter how small, has so much depth. Seriously, there are characters we meet for maybe 30 seconds, and we already feel sympathy for them. Not to mention that this show has such a wide range of characters, everyone from heroes to villains, from huge hulking monsters to small-time criminals. It’s just so great to see so many people fit into this world.
As for the gore, I think “Invincible” handles it very tastefully. There has been an over-abundance of gore in film and television lately, and it just doesn’t have as much impact anymore. For example, in the first season of “The Boys,” each scene of ultra-violence was surprising and impactful. But by the second season, it seemed like they were just making it gory for the sake of it, and it honestly made the show less enjoyable.
A scene from “Invincible.” Photo: Amazon Prime Video, 2021.
“Invincible,” on the other hand, can go entire episodes without gore. But when it does hit, oh boy, does it hit. I can’t imagine the fortune the animators paid on red ink, let’s just say that. But each fist through the stomach feels important; and each limb torn off contributes to the story as the horrors of Omni-Man’s actions come to life. It can be hard to physically watch at times, but it’s impactful.
To be honest, the animation can be a little iffy at times. I think that’s probably because most of the budget went to the absolutely stellar cast, so I’ll let it pass. Hopefully, because of its massive popularity, they will have a bigger budget and improve the animation in upcoming seasons.
I mean it when I say this is one of the most entertaining, well-written, and best acted shows I have seen in a while. In a world where superheroes have been done to death, “Invincible” breathes new life into the genre.
