I just finished season one of Invincible. Wow, that's some powerful stuff. I went into this show without having read any of the comics, but some of the twists had already been spoiled for me. There seems to be a certain genre of comics that exists only to subvert our expectations. The problem is, edgy subversions are becoming so common, that "wholesome" is becoming the new edgy.
I think the real problem is that there's only so many plots (at least, only so many that readers find entertaining), but a seemingly unlimited number of writers. Now that the internet can make anyone a writer (just sign over most of your profits to the Kindle store), we're seeing more copycat works than ever. Amazon is bursting with books about vampire romance or wizarding schools. It takes an amazing mind to come up with something truly original.
Unfortunately, Invincible isn't it. The show is full of clever observations on the realities of super hero crime fighting, but they're not so clever that I hadn't seen these tropes before. But at least it combines these tropes in an entertaining way.
When I first saw the trailer for Invincible, I thought, "great, another modern take on superheroes that uses graphic violence to be edgy." But the actual show is pretty good about only using gore to make a point.
Saving Private Ryan used violence to show the horrors of war. The Passion of the Christ used violence to make Christ's pain seem more real, instead of the "fairy tale" quality most Biblical films have. They weren't pandering to teenage slasher fans, they were serious movies that used violence to make serious points.
Invincible seems similar in its intentions, though it's going to appeal to the teenage edgelords as well. When the title character enters his first mass battle against some alien invaders, he sees citizens getting blasted into pieces. He ends up covered in blood and gore from those slain, and it rightly freaks him out. He tries to save an elderly woman, but he ends up injuring her more in the process.
The whole scene is there to show that being a superhero isn't as neat and clean as he thought. Invincible (the character) had grown up reading comics and watching other heroes (including his father) fight bad guys on TV. But that didn't prepare him for how real things would get when he became a hero himself.
When it's not making a point, the violence isn't any worse than an episode of Justice League. The first episode's opening scene has a team of Justice League expys defending the White House from a pair of criminals. Barely any blood is spilled, innocent lives are saved at the last minute, and on the whole it could have been a kid's cartoon. The plot of the first episode rips a lot from Sky High, and it looks like the episode will end on a high note.
And then, the subversion comes. I'm not going to spoil it here, but when the tone changes, it really changes. That said, I really wasn't surprised much. The season had a few twists, none of which were really twisty. Some of the so-called surprises were spoiled by memes, but they're also pretty well telegraphed in the show itself. I mean, even my wife knows that a certain character is secretly evil, and she hasn't even watched a full trailer.
But that might be on purpose. Maybe they want you to know certain twists going in, so you'll be even more surprised by later subversions of subversions in season two, I don't know yet. All I can tell you is that while none of the show's tropes scream "original" to me, this combination of tropes is still pretty fresh.
I'm a little afraid to keep going, though. It was written by Robert Kirkman, the same guy who wrote The Walking Dead. I read the first 100 or so issues of TWD, and while it was pretty good, I don't like "anyone can die" style writers. Kirkman's the kind of guy who will develop a character for 75 issues, then unceremoniously kill them off because he thinks it makes his penis look big.
If I keep watching Invincible, sooner or later a character I like will die. Don't get me wrong, I'm not so fragile that I can't handle the death of fictional characters. But I still don't find it entertaining when a character I like is killed.
Do I recommend the show? That's hard to say. I'm not even sure why I like it. But if you like superheroes, and graphic violence doesn't churn your stomach, then you could do a lot worse.
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