Invincible S3 Review: Mark of Maturity
Teen advisory: actual adult relationship content this time!
When comics and their adaptations are labeled for mature audiences, we usually know what that means: gore, swearing, maybe some boning. It's a label that has come to mean shock value for adults more than actual mature themes, rather than the deconstructions of comics by featuring more realistic versions of what being a costumed crimefighter means for the psyche of the person under the mask. Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, for example, were all that...and gore and boning. The Sandman, by the guy who pretty clearly sucks now, had its share of the explicit stuff too, but it was the multilayered monomyth culled from multicultural sources that really sang. Nobody reading Sin City cares about such things – it just has really beautiful artwork of horrible and scarred people butchering each other, stripping, and, yes, more boning.
Invincible, the animated series based on the Robert Kirkman-written comics, now in its third season, features genuinely mature content. Though the lead character is still only about 18 – the show premiered three years ago, but it is not running in real time – he now has to deal with navigating adult romantic relationships, becoming a big brother, and learning not to trust the government, corporations, or organized crime (but I repeat myself) any further than is briefly mutually beneficial. Oh, and he also disembowels and bones, but not at the same time, thankfully. The Boys, also on Prime Video, has that covered.
And while The Boys takes on right-wing politics with such accuracy that it seems to predict our own stupid, stupid world, Invincible takes on neoliberalism (as I understand it, anyway – “neoliberalism” is one of those words that leftists sometimes use to mean “anything I don't like”). If you've ever been one of those folks attacking the MCU from the left, by complaining that it makes the military look too good, Invincible is with you. It also takes on a couple of major controversial plot points from the Snyderverse, with episodes that riff on both Bruce Wayne's opening scenes in Batman v Superman, and the General Zod neck snap (here, a complete manual decapitation). It doesn't necessarily disagree with Zack Snyder's conclusions, but with more time to flesh them out, it helps them sit better. And if you're a viewer not familiar with the DCEU, it doesn't matter. For the most part, this show isn't about the references, though it does pointedly have its own version of Batman this time around (albeit a teleporting, Black Batman).
All of it still takes place in a world full of superhero fights, aliens, and monsters, and on an individual basis, it's often fairly clear who the bad actors are. Often, but not always. Invincible tries to shake up its episodic structure a bit this season by, among other things, beginning one episode with a wordless montage chronicling the backstory of a super-powered couple of gay bank robbers, and what brought them to the desperation that leads to them being punched by Invincible. It wants to be a mix of both the Pixar Up montage and the Last of Us episode “Long, Long Time,” and while those are high aspirations, the fact that it gets even remotely close enough for me to mention it in a sentence with those two things is a testament.
Another episode appears to end halfway through its run time, as it starts the credits, then segues from an adventure starring Invincible/Mark (Steven Yeun) into an all-new minisode about Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen) and his attempts to free a guilt-stricken Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). That's one of the season's running threads, along with the developing relationship between Mark and Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs), the rise of semi-benevolent crimelord Titan (Mahershala Ali), Mark's rapidly growing alien half-brother Oliver (Christian Convery) and an all-out schism between Mark and his government handler Cecil (Walton Goggins), whose origins get more fully explored.
The fight sequences feel especially video game influenced this time around, especially the kinds of fighting games where you get to tag in a replacement character. The show is also fond of heroes fighting kaiju with no clear weakness, which sometimes feels a but much – if they can't be hurt, where's the fun of the fight? As with many boss fights in games, sometimes it's a weardown battle, but other times, it's a puzzle to solve instead.
Dramatically, one of the aspects of the show that continues to impress is just how much lore there is that I've completely forgotten every time a new season rolls around, yet once I'm plunged back in, I go, oh yeah, that's this, that's that, haha, Shrinking Rae is a good pun that I forgot they made, etc. It's a testament both to the writing, as supervised by Kirkman and Simon Racioppa, and the astonishing voice cast – I feel more chemistry and spark between Mark and Eve than I do many live-action potential couples.
[It's kinda weird, though, in a show full of flying intestines and f-words, that when it comes to sex scenes we're still doing bra-on. Meanwhile, The Boys has exploding penises, so we know Amazon's not squeamish.]
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I got to see six episodes – two remain, with one heck of a cliffhanger at the end of 6. With the MCU unable to use Kang any more, it does seem like Invincible may, in its own way, be picking up on some threads they dropped. No matter which way it goes, though, I'm invested in Mark, Omni-Man, Allen, and the rest, so whatever they do in the time that remains, I'm interested,
If you've come this far with the show, you should be too.
Invincible Season 3 premieres Feb 6th on Prime Video with the first three episodes, and weekly thereafter. All images courtesy of Prime Video
Oof, those last two were not as good. But we did get bra-less sex.