A great show to just sit and enjoy

I am skeptical of deconstructions of genre. In lesser hands the deconstruction is boorish with nothing to say more than “Doesn’t this suck? AMIRIGHT?!?!” I call that finger in your eye satire and it's why I turned off the Boys halfway through season 3.

So, when I saw Invincible was coming to Amazon I was curious. Would they improve, however slightly, on the original story the way The Boys was improved? Could they translate the tone of the comic? The funny parts? The art style? I don’t know what I wanted but I was more than willing to give it a chance.

And I am glad I did.

Invincible is a great TV show that refreshes the genre with great story telling and action. Though not perfect it is a worthy addition to the western animation superhero canon.

The story is a remix of tried and true genre conventions. Our main character, Mark Grayson, is the son of the world’s most powerful superhero, Omniman. Mark turns 17 and he gains his powers by virtue of being half Viltrumite. His mother, Debbie, is the patient and dutiful wife of a superhero. They form a warm family unit and ground the show set in a world full of superheroes.

There are the appropriate analogs for the Avengers, and SHEILD, along with specific comic book characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, etc…

It all feels familiar in a way that allows you to know what you are getting into pretty quickly. The show does subvert cliches or uses obscure references but you basically what you see is what you get. With one big exception.

The biggest twist, not just in plot but in tone and visuals, comes at the end of the first episode. Now the twist is not different from what happens in the comics but in the comics it is treated as a mystery. In the show you know exactly what happened but not why. The why isn’t answered until much later in the season when everything is fully revealed. The show spares no detail either and really cranks up the detail on the animation in the last 10 minutes, or so, of the first episode.

That’s the biggest flaw with Invincible: the animation. This isn’t exactly limited animation, made famous by Hanna-Barbara and their lineup of cartoons, but the animation isn’t great at times. Worst is that you can tell where they spent their budget. There are scenes of two characters talking and the details are as sparse as they can get away with. Other times, during combat, the detail is as good as any Bruce Timm show or straight to DVD movie from the early aughts. Normally animation of this quality and consistency is a mortal sin in the world of cartoons but I don’t hold it against this show.

What Invincible does well is story telling. The pacing and tension are both top-notch. Each episode is engaging and fun and builds, appropriately the suspense to the finale. I was never bored, never an episode I skipped on rewatches.

What Invincible does excellent is the voice acting. The cast is a who’s-who of actors of all stripes. Stars, character actors, voice actors, working actors and each of them give a performance worthy of awards. This is the best voice cast, top to bottom, in any animated series or movie since Shrek or Batman the Animated Series. The standout is J.K. Simmons, who can do no wrong in my book. Steven Yeun is also excellent as he endows Mark with the uneasy confidence of a young man.

Invincible is a great TV show. I look forward to new episodes and new seasons when they arrive.