Invincible (Amazon Series)

It's hilarious to think about all the people who don't know about The Thing wondering why other Invincible fans are freaking out so much.

For my part, the only thing I knew about Invincible before I started watching the show was The Thing because of how much people kept bringing it up.

It's certainly one of the most infamous scenes in the whole comic for a reason.

Maybe we can concentrate on the show and not hinting what the comicbook says is coming?

Anissa does give Mark a much stronger pitch on the advantages of viltrumite control than Nolan did but he's seen what Nolan did, he's seen what they did on Thraxia and we, the audience, see how it goes down in other realities, so we know it's not going to turn Earth into a Utopia or anything.

Hey everyone! It's Anissa!

Yeah. The good news is she's gone for now. The bad news is....she's gonna do the thing like she's Zhu Li Moon.

The other bad news is, the dude she's talking about who's coming next is going to be a much worse fight for Mark.

The other, even more immediate bad news, is that Angstrom is here.

Season 3 is gonna be a hell of a thing.

The cliffhanger with Angstrom was insane. He's such a fantastic villain and an even better archenemy.

The is replicating one of the comic's favorite tricks where you think you're about to get a fluffy Breather Episode and than all of a sudden everything goes to shit again right away instead and it turns into a back-to-back string of Wham Episode. You love to see it.

Yeah, Anissa, to her credit, did give a much better argument for why Mark would want to sell out Earth and make it part of the Empire. Granted, her arguments were rather undermined by her threatening to murder Amber and everyone else at the restaurant if Mark didn't talk to her. For all that the Viltrumites talk about only killing when they have to, it's obvious they "have to" kill people quite a lot. Which highlights how self-defeating the Viltrumite way really is; Nolan, Kregg, and Anissa all could've actually probably talked Mark into helping conquer Earth or maybe even gotten Earth to join the Empire willingly if they didn't open with making vicious threats and escalate to destroying everything in sight at the slightest refusal.

I fucking cheered when Allen goddamned punched Anissa in the face and drew blood. The pure shock on her face is palpable.

I can't wait for when Allen finally cuts loose and he begins slaughtering Viltrumites in mass.

"We just want to help humanity by elevating their civilization to a point where they can prosper. And we're willing to kill all of humanity to do it." - Viltrumite sales pitch

They deserve to get the smack down from Cyclops Super Saiyan Seth Rogen.

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Mar 28th 2024 at 5:23:03 AM

The irony is Nolan probably did more to push Earth towards joining the Viltrumites by just being a hero.

If he'd stuck with that for a while, maybe he'd have convinced them to join willingly.

The only problem would be the Immortal. He could have just outlived everyone else who would have objected, but Immortal wouldn't have gone anywhere. So Nolan would have needed to only really convince him.

Edit: Just realized another thing that sets Invincible apart from other universes.

Outside of the Martians, they don't seem to have much contact with alien life. There was nobody who could vet Nolan's story about the Viltrumites. If they'd had at least one other person who was from outside of their solar system with some awareness of what's going on in the rest of the universe, they might have been better prepared for him.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Mar 28th 2024 at 3:44:23 AM

There's some fun ironies.

If Nolan remained a hero he'd have probably won the Earth over eventually.

In almost every other universe Mark sides with his Dad and becomes a tyrant.

I really dig how this show introduces a multiverse and a superhero setting mininally. You'd think one or both of those would be the focus, but its a salad dressing to the meal of the Viltrumite story, and Mark's connection with the greater world.

Like if this were Marvel or DC Angstrom would be the primary threat built up from Episode 1 as the Big Bad. The story would be all Ant Man Quantumania by now. He's menacing but he's a byproduct of the actions of a different Mark and Nolan from an entirely different universe. Everybody's still dealing with other problems while he's out there scheming.

The Machinehead subplot introduced a pretty major character and he was Put on a Bus in that same episode. Mark is dealing with Viltrumite politics while Cecil and the Guardians are dealing with the Lizard League, largely divorced from that plot.

Cecil is being the kind of character we wanted MCU Nick Fury to be - making cold decisions without abandoning empathy, staying one step ahead, staring down all powerful beings in conversation, and reacting immediately when people come into his airspace.

-awkward shirt tug-

But damn that hit Allen landed was satisfying yes.

Watching this scene with Bulletproof and Samson, its going to be pretty interesting when we dive into Bullet's own backstory. I don't really know any specifics but it sounds like he becomes more of a major character when we do begin finding out more about him.

It does make you think what all the other teams are like. And they do still exist since Cecil references how pointless throwing them at Anissa would be.

Which still makes me wonder why the heck they weren't pulled in for the Silo situation.

He does indeed. Such that even describing how he does is a massive spoiler.

The show does suffer a little for the fact that they can't include all the spin-off characters (Brit, Wolfman, Capes Inc, etc.) or other Image characters (Youngblood, Spawn, Firebreather, etc.) because of rights issues. In the comic, all those other teams we hear mentioned do regularly show up and play roles in the plot. The Lizard League incident, for example, had Brit show up at the end in the comic to help out (with the gag that he shows up after they've been beaten).

That does make me wonder how they'll handle some of the plotlines later on that include such characters, like Techjacket being a major part of the first major offensive against the Viltrumites.

Edited by immortaleditor on Mar 28th 2024 at 4:29:33 AM

Yeah it rather neagtivly affects the worldbuilding as we aren't shown much of any other heroes beyond the ones we immedialty know. I keep seeing questions of why the world's biggest hero group doesn't bring in more heroes to join.

Not sure why Techjacket isn't in this, isn't he an Invincible character?

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 28th 2024 at 4:33:39 AM

He started in his own comic, but he does seem to be a Kirkman universe character, and it's already been stated that he plays a big role in the Viltrumite battle, as well as appearing during the Invincible War, and then the final battle of the series (spoiler for the final arc) against Rex.

As far as I know he's a character they should be able to use.

It's the issue that either characters really need to start taking a lot of levels in badass or we have to start bringing in heavy hitters.

Cause at the moment all Earth has to fight a Viltrumite is Mark and he sure as hell can't win.

Hell Immortal is stated to be the greatest hero on Earth and Mark has already surpassed him. The old man is lagging.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 28th 2024 at 4:55:57 AM

I will say, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Allen being basically invincible now. It kinda makes me wonder why Thadeus is so interested in Mark. Seems like he has the ultimate good thing going with Allen.

Kirkman doesn't want to give Amazon too much rights to his I Ps. This is why Science Dog was changed into Seance Dog.

So I wouldn't expect Wolfman or Tech Jacket to show up either.

Without saying anything spoilerly, trust me, Allen is far from invincible and will be getting his fair share of horrific beatings. He's just at a level now where he can fight Viltrumites without being insta-obliterated, which translates into curb-stomping weaker ones and being equal to stronger ones.

As for Thaedus still wanting Mark involved... bear in mind, as strong as he is now, Allen is still just one dude and there's a war involving numerous different planets going on. Allen being way tougher now is a boon, but it's gonna take a whole lotta boons to turn the tide.

Edited by immortaleditor on Mar 28th 2024 at 5:34:07 AM

What said. Allen is one tool in the box, but for all he's powered up, that's all he is.

Plus, having another Viltrumite (well two now) willing to fight with the Alliance is a great boon. Nolan also has knowledge of things that can hurt Viltrumites, which even Thaddeus seems to lack.

Also...

Now I know you didn't just say that without a dramatic pause and the title card, now did you?

You broke the rules man. I revoke your nerd credentials.

Allen only encountered one Viltrumite and did well. That far from makes him invincible.

Uh, yeah. He’s somewhere in space and Invincible is back on earth!

…If you think that joke is bad, you’re lucky I didn’t go for the obvious cut to title card.

Maybe it's the way it was edited, but the way it looked, he didn't just do well. He seemed to be so in control that he was able to experiment and was basically going "huh, neat." the entire time. It didn't even seem like her punches did anything to him.

I admit, when I heard that Allen had Zenkai boosts, I thought they'd be more... gradual than this. I was expecting him to be able to fight Viltrumites now. Not be at the level where he can already curbstomp some of them after one boost.

Edited by GNinja on Mar 28th 2024 at 12:53:00 PM

THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO!

Now I revoke your nerd credentials too!

Anybody else want to do the joke wrong? Anybody.

Continuing on with the actual topic, while point about Allen not being....

Still stands (sorry, I couldn't find a clip with just the card), note that Allen also took on Anissa and bloodied her after Mark failed to do the same, when before he got his ass kicked by three Viltrumites, one of which Mark was able to fight equally against.

So he's sky rocketed now in terms of ability, but we'll have to see how he fairs against other high tier foes.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Mar 28th 2024 at 5:54:40 AM