Josh Reviews Invincible: Season Two — Part One!

Invincible is a terrific animated series on Amazon Prime Video, adapting the comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Cory Walker & Ryan Ottley.  Mark Grayson is a senior in high school: he’s also the powerful superhero Invincible.  Having only recently discovered his superpowers, Mark has gotten caught up in a complicated world of super-heroes and super-villains.  This might seem like a classic Spider-Man-like premise, but Invincible (both the original comic-book series and this animated adaptation) tells these stories through an adult prism — this world has ultra-violence and flawed characters who don’t always make the right choices.  I was a huge fan of the comic book series, and I absolutely adored the amazing first season of the Amazon Prime Video adaptation!  (Click here for my review of season one!)

It’s been a long two-year wait after that eight-episode first season.  It’s a real shame that it’s taken so long for new episodes to arrive.  And clearly they needed even more time, because after the Atom Eve one-shot special released a few months ago, this new season consists of only four new episodes.  (I’ve read that the remaining four episodes in this second season will be released in the spring.)  It’s a bummer, because I felt this new season was just getting rolling when suddenly episode four was done and it’s back to waiting.

These four new episodes are terrific, don’t get me wrong!!!  I love this show, and despite the lengthy hiatus, the show’s storytelling hasn’t skipped a beat.  But after the dramatic events of the season one finale, the early installments in this new season operate on a lower key, as we see our characters taking stock of the changed world they now live in, and trying to rebuild their lives.  (I don’t want to spoil any of the amazing twists and surprises in season one — if you are reading this and haven’t yet watched that first season, go watch it now!!)  Things do start ramping back up in episode three, and episode four is a barn-burner.  It’s not a shock that I felt the show comes roaring back to life once Omni-Man, voiced by the incomparable J. K. Simmons, re-enters the story.  Episode four is amazing, and damn it but the show ends on another killer cliffhanger.  I can’t wait for the rest of this season!!!  (I know what happens next from the comics… and I still can’t wait!!!)

Invincible has what has got to be the greatest voice cast ever assembled.  Returning from season one are: Steven Yeun as Mark; Sandra Oh as Mark’s mom Debbie; Gillian Jacobs as the superheroine Atom Eve; Andrew Rannells as Mark’s friend William, Zazie Beets as Mark’s girlfriend Amber, Walton Goggins as spymaster Cecil; Jason Mantzoukas as the jerky super-hero Rex Splode; Zachary Quinto as Robot, Seth Rogen as the jovial Allen the Alien; Chris Diamantopoulos as Cecil’s right-hand man Donald; Mark Hamill as Art, who helped Omni-Man with his costumes; Kevin Michael Richardson as the Mauler twins; Reginald VelJohnson as the principal of Mark’s school (which was cheekily named Reginald VelJohnson High School in the comics), and many more…

And joining the voice cast here in season two are: Peter Cullen (who famously voiced Optimus Prime in the 1980’s Transformers TV show) as Thaddeus, the leader of the Coalition of Planets; Sterling K. Brown (Black Panther, The People v. O.J. Simpson) as multiversal villain Angstrom Levy; Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) as the fish-queen Aquaria (and again later as Allen the Alien’s girlfriend Telia); Jay Pharaoh as the super-hero Bulletproof; Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation, The Afterparty) as the Shapesmith; Lea Thompson (Back to the Future) and Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) as people Debbie meets at a superhero spouse support group; Rob Delaney (Catastrophe) as the insectoid alien Luolzon; Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul) as Andressa, Omni-Man’s new wife on the planet Thraxxa; Lenny James (The Walking Dead) as the crazy vigilante Darkwing; and the great Clancy Brown (Highlander, Lost, The Shawshank Redemption) as the super-powered and super-evil Viltrumite General Kregg.  And many more beyond them!

Oh my goodness!!!  That cast!!!!

It’s fun to see the way the show — faithfully adapting stories from the comics — allows the characters to grow and change.  We get to see Mark’s mom Debbie struggling with the trauma of the events of season one.  We get to see Mark, William and Amber graduate high school and go off to college.  We see Eve struggling with her relationship with her parents and her emotionally abusive father.  (Invincible is more fun super-hero adventure than it is nuanced drama, but nevertheless, I appreciate that the show allows its characters real, adult emotions.  The grown-up nature of the show isn’t just the ultra-violence!)  I was also thrilled to see the wonderful villain Angstrom Levy make his first appearance on the show this season — perfectly voiced by Sterling K. Brown.  This is a great character (with a terrific super-villain origin), and I can’t wait to see more of him in the back-half of the season.

I was thrilled by the spotlight in episode three on Allen the Alien (borrowing the funny conceit from the comic of cutting away from our main character Mark for a while when he and Amber decide to have sex for the first time).  It’s fun that, even in these short seasons, the show allows itself to be playful with its structure!

As was the case in season one, the show remains a wonderfully faithful adaptation of the original comic book.  This is one of the most faithful comic-book adaptations I’ve ever seen.  They do of course take liberties, moving stories around, condensing or expanding events… but they’re batting nearly 100 in that these changes are almost always for the better.  It’s very impressive.  For example, I was happy to see the way the show made more of a meal out of Donald’s gradual discovery that he’d been resurrected as a robot.  I loved how they tweaked the character of Telia, Allen the Alien’s girlfriend.  I liked that she is now an officer in the Coalition of Planets, rather than just a civilian, and I liked her uniform (which was a vast improvement over the silly skimpy lingerie she was wearing when she was first introduced in the comics.)  I was also happy to see that the way they amped up the emotional feeling of Mark’s reunion with his father.  That was well done.  I also thought it was fascinating to see, in a quick blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment that, right before Omni-Man rescued the insectoid Thraxxans’ ship, it looked like he was contemplating suicide by allowing himself to drift into the black hole.  That’s another example of the way the show drilled down on these characters beyond even their depth in the comics, deepening their emotional arcs.  Very cool.

I love this weird, crazy, violent super-hero show!!  (Click here to watch it right now!)  I can’t wait for the remaining four episodes of season two… and, I hope, many more episodes after that!!

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