Amazon Prime’s Invincible is a hero I didn’t know until I saw the trailer a few months ago. The trailer had me hooked instantly, I went out bought comics, watched YouTube videos, and just generally got ready for the show. Any animation for me is decent, this is the same, the animation used reminded me of Justice League: War.
Episode 1 – It’s About Time
Episode 1 kicks off and dives straight into an attack on the White House by the Mauler Twins, We then get introduced to our first batch of heroes in the Guardians of the Globe team which consisted of members who were very similar to the Justice League. We then get introduced to Mark Grayson voiced by the incredible Steven Yeun, a teenager who is waiting for his powers to kick in. The typically “go to school, run into a bully, get beat up” situation happens then we find Mark at work, taking out the trash, he then throws a trash bag in the air and it goes for miles, his powers have finally kicked in. His father, Omni-Man starts to train Mark to fly, Mark gets the hang of it then Omni-Man full-on punches him in the chest and winds him pretty badly. Mark then goes to school and runs into the bully again, he gets mad and keeps telling the bully to hit him. Mark gets a makeshift super suit and goes out and gets into a fight with a supervillain robber. Later on, he’s with his father and his father inadvertently gives him the name “Invincible”, this is when Mark creates his own suit which looks beautiful. We get a post-credit scene which blew my mind to pieces. The Guardians of the Globe all receive a ping to go to their base, they all arrive and get attacked by Omni-Man, he’s not letting up, he kills Red Rush then one by one takes out and brutally (insanely brutal) murders each member.
Episode 1 did a fantastic job of setting up this universe, introducing characters who were established already, and introducing new younger superheroes like Atom Eve or Invincible. We got to see a new hero in this world of supes which is just starting out, we got to see Mark training, learning, and deciding if he wants to be a superhero. We got to see the struggles he has in his normal life as well as being the son of a supe. Omni-Man is brutal, he has hints of Homelander from The Boys. The ending caught me by surprise, I did not see this coming at all. It was ruthless, brutal, bloody, and just epic.
Rating: 10/10
Episode 2 – Here Goes Nothing
Episode 2 kicks off where episode 1 left off, a group of bloody messes on the floor, body parts everywhere and we see soldiers come in and retrieve the bodies and take a comatose Omni-Man away on a stretcher. While this is happening we get to see Invincible take on his first high-profile mission and it’s an alien invasion. These aliens are brutal, they are killing humans right, left, and center. Invincible grabs hold of an old civilian and try to save her but ends up hurting her badly. A group of new heroes arrives to help and push back the alien invasion. A demon investigator arrives on the scene where the heroes were slain, he starts to investigate the deaths of them. 3 days later the aliens return this time with technology that counters the heroes, it’s been 3 days on Earth but decades for the aliens. The leader goes to kill Atom Eve which enrages Invisible, he then sends them retreating once again. A mission later the aliens once again make their return, this time even more brutal and updated. The leader absolutely pummels Invincible into the ground until Omni-Man arrives, saves the day and flies through the alien’s portals with them, and completely kills every single one of the aliens. Once again showing just how brutal he actually is.
Episode 2 felt like a much slower-paced episode even though there was so much action that this episode had. The action was high-stakes and the episode was overall entertaining. I do feel out of the 3 episodes that released that this was the weaker of the 3. This episode also showcased more of Omni-Man’s brutality.
Rating: 8.8/10
Episode 3 – Who you Calling Ugly?
The episode started off as an emotionally focused scene, the funeral of the Guardians of the Globe. While they had a massive public service for them, they also received a private funeral where the public didn’t know the location of the bodies because of “trophy stealers”. Omni-Man, the person who is responsible for the deaths actually gave 2 speeches for them, this is just how sinister he truly is. After the funeral Atom Eve catches Dupli-Kate with her boyfriend Rex in the showers, this causes a rift in the team and a break-up between Rex and Eve. The US Government holds try-outs for superheroes to be in the new Guardians of the Globe team. Rex makes the team along with another superhero who has the appearance of a kid, he makes jokes because of his cocky attitude but ends up getting beaten to a pulp and losing 3 teeth. The “Monster Girl” goes to continue to beat him up until Invincible stops it, he gets thrown to the wall but ends up punching the monster back into a kid. Atom Eve and Invincible get put on a mission to go save Mount Rushmore from Doc Seismic in which they barely do but Doc Seismic ends up being covered in lava. We get to see the Mauler Twins in prison being delivered food, with someone mysteriously watching on the CCTV cameras. The mystery person allows them to escape, the twins make it outside but one of the twins gets their arm shot off, until the other twin uses him as a shield and makes his escape, we see that the person who allowed it was actually Robot.
Episode 3 had some major action moments and reveals. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. It’s definitely up there with episode 1 in terms of how good it actually was. The episode dived into the lives of the heroes like Atom Eve, it showcased that since she’s a popular girl in school she can still be treated badly by Rex. The episode honestly made me feel bad for her because of what happened with Rex and then seeing Mark with Amber.
Rating: 9.5/10
Overall Thoughts
The first three episodes of the series were superb. They absolutely had me hooked from the very beginning. I went into this not knowing what I was going to get If it was going to be good, bad, or just boring. I had none of that, I was invested from the get-go. The episodes were brutal, bloody, and amazing. The animation style of the series is insanely great.
I would definitely recommend this series to anyone, I knew nothing about these characters, the story, the universe, or anything but the show did a great job of explaining everything to me clearly and slowly opened the universe to me.
I can not wait for the rest of the series.
Photo: Invincible on Amazon Prime
