Invincible Doing Invincible Stuff, Double Iconic!

The bloody welcome party we deserved this year was presented to us in black yellow and blue. *Clears throat* It isn’t the best color scheme but it grows on you, I promise.

After all the threads connected in the seventh episode, I was here, blood pumping hard and fast. My previous murmurings about how inconsistent the episode felt sometimes had been swallowed by the how categorically captivating presentation. If I remember correctly, it was a little past 2am. Oh giddy, was I when the prospect of the finale kept me in a trans-like state.

Enough “fanboying”. Let’s get to the core of it, shall we?

Invincible hit the world decisively and secured up to third installment in the coming years. What gripped fans was its brutal battle scenes and its roll of interesting side characters in an oddly grounded world. There are so many personalities and subplots kept in line and finally allowed to clash in the visually stimulating finale. For lucky individuals who did or will binge watch Invincible, it is an almost impeccable first season and I bet they’d wish the next season would be airing the nearest #InvincibleFriday.

SPOILERS AHEAD; VILTRUMITE BLOOD AND DURABILITY REQUIRED

PLOT/STORY

While the Amzon Prime adaptation clearly takes some creative discretion with the order of events as it happens in the early 2000s’ print version, it only adds more life to the already interesting story. It progresses at a very reasonable pace, keeping you interested even in the relatively smaller events happening around the main pillars of the show. Even when I griped about how inconclusive the first few episodes felt, I still tuned in every week to get some more. It’s alluring and seems almost a different show than we’d seen in the pilot episode. It constantly shifts from the small perspective of the unsuspecting protagonist to darker traces of the “bigger picture” with conspiracy theories implications too dire for us to shake off. The shows popularity has also breached internet meme world with the “think, Mark, think” meme where omniman has beat his boy till he’s missing 98% of his biters. typical

One name, Omniman!

CHARACTERS

Invincible is full of nuanced characters who will compromise to achieve some goal. The heroes don’t seem to be bound within the all-righteous, altruistic ideals you would see in, say, Superman. When push comes to shove, the tension raises unhinged. Themes touch on anger and frustration especially during unwinnable battles (which if you watch anime you’ve seen a gazillion times). They’re diverse racially and have varying motivations which may coincide at some point within the story.

As already noted, things aren’t like in comic books. To spice things up, the adaptation takes a more organic approach when it comes to dialogues and character interactions. Take for example, Amber who is a blonde Caucasian in print is changed to an African-American to match her voice actor, Zazie Beetz’ ethnicity in the animated series. This brings a certain freshness to the title and keeps both old and new fans alike on their toes. Other characters like the Mauler Twins, Damien Darkblood, Cecil Stedman, Black Samson(the all father) and everybody’s favorite, Allen will certainly pique your interest.

DESIGN AND MISC

This satisfyingly raunchy iteration of the superhero genre much like its predecessor, The Boys, has stolen a place in all our hearts, without a doubt and the designs and changes work for the concepts the episodes are meant to hold in it score. But…(yh you probably saw this coming but this is a very small but so) sometimes I get the feeling It would have shone much brighter if it had more detailed animation like Castlevania and Wonder Egg Priority. Maybe not as “detailed” as WEP but you get the point. The colours, shades, blood and occasional scattered innards would look much more defined than the Ben-10ish flat style we got. Again, it doesn’t take anything from the series and I rarely recommend art styles considering 7.8 times out of 10 times, professional artists will make a good decision when it comes to animation but I digress.

It was also breathtaking that some of my least favorite parts of modern anime was being adapted in a heavily western production. You know, that bizarre thing with distant crowds looking hyper-unrealistic in 3D blends like aberrations from the white part of hell. Goes to show just how far the tendrils of anime have reached in our time. If only Japanese productions would learn the subtle dialogue/interaction parts of western styles…

CONCLUSION

So it came, it bled, we loved it and now we want more! There isn’t much to say at this point. This blood pumping experience had left many in stunned in its wake, ourselves included. More, we cry, more.

In the mean time here are…