Action & Adventure, Animation, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
2021
J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Steven Yeun
TLDR
Invincible deserves all the hype and views The Boys is getting.
What it's about
Having just got his powers, Mark (Steven Yeun) is excited to join his father, the powerful Omni-man (JK Simmons), and start saving the world. However, he quickly learns that his father is not all that everyone’s made him out to be.
The take
It sounds bizarre to say that out of all the superhero media out there, it’s a cartoon that seems to have the most realistic storylines. But it’s also true. Thanks to its serial format and animation style, Invincible has more freedom to explore universal feelings like guilt and pressure, but also problems that are specific to this world, such as the moral ramifications of killing for good, for instance, or whether there is such a thing at all. Superheroes also question how human they are and what they deserve. It goes in deep, a bit like The Boys but with less irony and more humanity. Also, it’s just a very refreshing world to enter, watch, and explore. There are overlaps in heroes to be sure, but Invincible gives them their own spin, plus the 2D animation gives it a nostalgic charm.
What stands out
The gore! Don’t underestimate the animation, even hand drawings can get deeply and explicitly graphic.