WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Invincible, streaming now on Amazon Prime.
Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker’s Invincible comic book series featured a lot of references to pop-culture, and the Amazon Prime Video adaptation follows suit. While it doesn’t make reference to Image Comics like the original, the Invincible TV series still features a lot of tongue-in-cheek jokes and references, including one in the show’s premiere episode, “It’s About Time,” that makes fun of a key Kick-Ass character.
In “It’s About Time,” Mark Grayson/Invincible’s superpowers finally kick in after years of waiting. Much of the episode then deals with Mark’s first days as a superhero. Among the first things Mark must figure out is his superhero name. After laying out a robber named Titan, Mark wonders, “What about Ass Kicker?” However, he soon dismisses the name for being “willfully childish.” Soon, with help from his father, Mark instead decides on the name Invincible, prompting the show’s logo to appear for the first time.
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Created by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., Todd Haynes/Ass-Kicker first appeared in 2008’s Kick-Ass #1. Over the course of the series, Ass-Kicker proves to be one of Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass’ most important allies and a key part of that character’s quest. Ass-Kicker appeared in 2010’s Kick-Ass and 2013’s Kick-Ass 2, where he was played by Evan Peters and Augustus Prew, respectively.
While it’s entirely possible that the reference is just coincidental, Invincible poking fun at the name of a Kick-Ass character would certainly fit with the style of the show, and it’s unlikely to cause any rights issues since Ass-Kicker is a relatively generic name. Overall, though, the reference to Kick-Ass doesn’t matter much to Invincible as a show and is instead just meant to be a funny reference poking fun at another well-known and popular series for its character names.
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