my thoughts on invincible

over the past few years, invincible by robert kirkman has gained a massive following, mainly due to the success of the animated show

Invincible is very easy to get into, and a great starting point for new comic readers. (in fact, its what got me into comics in the first place!). ryan ottley and cory walker are also excellent artists, and explain the story through their drawings perfectly. the first season of the show was also incredibly solid, and did a great job introducing us to the characters and the conflict.

unfortunately, my praise ends there. this comic is incredibly overglazed, and pretty much everything else about the show and the comic is buns. to start, the writing is not that good. the pacing is horrid, insignificant moments get dragged out while major plot points are rushed through. robert kirkman also tends to try and start new conflicts, just to completely forget about them later. there are just so many inconsistencies that make it so difficult to fully immerse yourself in the story, which is what makes comics so fun in the first place. 

another common complaint people have with the show is the animation, which is something that i also tend to focus on as an artist myself. the show is given a budget of millions for each episode, yet they waste that money on casting the most expensive people in the world to play every single character. if they actually paid their animators instead, maybe the show wouldn’t be full of genuine pngs flying through the sky. for a show that is so combat focused, they do a horrible job at portraying combat.

On that note, the series is also just so unnecessarily edgy and repetitive that it gets hard to sit through. people praise invincible for its fighting, yet 90% of the time the combat is just mindless violence for the sake of aura moments. the whole story is just mark going through hell after hell with seemingly no breaks, yet the main character is so unlikeable its a struggle to sympathize with him.

And mark isnt the only unlikeable character. too many of the supporting cast are just terribly written, and have no depth to them at all. they act out of established personality traits and morals for the sake of convenience, and thats only the people who are actually given any depth. in the comics, the only people who actually get a personality are mark and his family, and everyone else is genuinely just there for no reason. 

While the show improved on this slightly (rexsplode), they also completely ruined some of the few actually likable side characters (william) and most characters just still aren’t interesting at all.

also, robert kirkman cannot write women. at all. the comics are horrible with this, every single female character is only there for the sake of the men and none of them have interesting personalities, although that isn’t much different for the men of the series either. the show tried to fix this, and while they succeeded in giving most of the women their own character arcs, the show tends to throw the women into the overused “girlboss” trope, which is just one of the laziest excuses for a personality.

robert kirkman has stated that the show is supposed to be a rewrite of the comics where he improves on aspects of the show that weren't so good before. while this was an exciting idea at first, since the comics have so much that need to be improved upon, he has repeatedly just fumbled the bag, whether it be adding completely unnecessary storylines (like the demon investigator thing???), making the most unnecessary changes ever(WILLIAM) or completely skipping over plot points that desperately needed to be rewritten.

(he’s also just a pretentious prick in general who cant write anything that isnt a straight white male. he’s expressed his dislike for popular superheroes and thinks that he’s special just because his shitty comic is edgy and strays from more common superhero tropes. he peaked with the walking dead and thats it >:P)

so, while the series is full of shabby writing, boring characters, bland dialogue, unnecessary conflicts, and inconsistent powerscaling, people treat invincible like it’s peak fiction. Why? I find that many invincible fans are people who either haven’t looked into any superhero media that isn't mainstream, or just lack literary analysis. this isnt necessarily a negative thing, as i find invincible fans also tend to be younger men and women who only watched it because of its popularity and are more interested in the hype moments and aura over the actual writing. Of course, theres nothing wrong with enjoying popular media, and i have nothing against people who genuinely do enjoy invincible. I just think that people should be more critical of what they watch, as its honestly much more fun to consume media when you fully analyze and try to understand it.

and again, i have nothing against anyone who likes invincible, nor do i think all invincible fans fall into the categories listed above. just trying to share my thoughts ^_^

im also not a very good writer so excuse any errors you may see. if you want to share your thoughts id be happy to dm you about it!!!