Invincible (Part 1) Review: Teenage Drama

Invincible is an adult animated superhero series that is based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman. The series follows 17-year-old Mark Greyson, who, under his superhero father’s guidance, embraces his newly emerging powers. However, with new changes to his changing body in full swing, he must find balance between his professional and personal lives, while also juggling to accept himself for who he is.

Invincible Review

Invincible is a delightful watch that’s majorly a teen drama with superheroes and a little bit of mystery peppered in. What this setup entails is that there are not many memorable superhero moments to remember, except maybe a massacre that is left unanswered, but it makes for good, light-hearted binging content.

Invincible Season 1 follows Mark Greyson, a teenager just on the cusp of adulthood, who is waiting for his superhero powers to kick in. You see, Mark isn’t like the other teens. He’s the son of Omni-Man, the strongest man on earth, and is, thus, struggling to find his footing. When he eventually does get his powers though, he has to face something more difficult than just normal teenage drama.

The series, as I mentioned, is light-hearted and does not really go too serious during its almost 3-hour runtime. The tone is always light and humorous and we mostly focus on drama in Mark’s life than the intricacies of handling the responsibilities of adulthood and superhero-dom. There are jokes and snarky comments in almost every scene and there are also relationship troubles that come with Mark’s age. However, there’s also something more than that.

When the Guardians of the Globe are found slaughtered, and Omni-Man is the only superhero left alive, it becomes a baffling question as to who can do this. There are fights with other dimensional beings, maybe even a traitor among the heroes – but we never really get too deep into any of it. This is odd because Invincible is a very well-made series, complete with an excellent cast of voice actors. The animation and art style, additionally, are excellent and a delight to watch. Yet, the story just feels so lacking. You want to love it and remember it because there’s potential here, but it never really goes beyond that.

The series, however, does well with putting the drama in the superhero and makes it a point to tell us that being one isn’t as simple as we make it out to be. There’s a lot of gore, mostly from the good side, and a lot of innocents are killed. So, while the job might seem that of bravado, there’s a lot that goes on in the battlefield that’s not all pretty.

Also Read: Invincible Season 2 Part 1 Review: Mark’s Emotional Life Faces a New Adversity

Coming to the voice cast, Invincible boasts an excellent array of actors to back up the venture. This includes Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh, Jason Mantzoukas, Zachary Quinto and J. K. Simmons, amongst others. The voice cast, without batting an eye, does an excellent job at getting these characters just right, although some of them needed more fleshing out. Add to that the excellent animation, you get a miracle waiting to happen. The art style is just so good that you feel like it’s pages of the comics come to life. Yet, Invincible ends up being just another teenage drama series.

Summing up

Invincible is a series that ends abruptly after three episodes. I don’t know the deal with that since there are just so many unanswered questions that the series leaves us with. More episodes are expected to come out soon, so that should answer some of those, and I look forward to seeing what else lies ahead for our teenage superhero and what the hell is up with Omni-Man. But for right now, it’s a good, fun and light watch that is funny and looks awesome. If you’re thinking of winding out infront of the television and don’t want to invest a lot of time, probably start with the three episodes and see where that takes you.

Invincible is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Also Read: Amazon’s Invincible Part 2 Recap: It Only Gets Better