Invincible perfectly maintains that balance between fidelity to its source material and refreshing updates to the story, but its changes to Science Dog are one of the adaptation’s oddest choices. While first time fans to the franchise may not bat an eyelash at the name of the protagonist Mark Grayson’s favorite comic book, it comes as a head-scratcher to readers of the Invincible comic.
One of Mark’s most familiar traits as a character is that he is a comic book fan himself. This often gave an opportunity for some meta commentary as Mark would stop by his local comic book shop, chat with the owner and even occasionally get in line to get his comic books signed. Many of these moments centered around Mark being a diehard fan of the character Science Dog, an anthropomorphic canine who often uses gadgetry and his keen wits to save the day. But in the Amazon Prime Video adaptation all of Mark’s comics and posters have been changed to Séance Dog.
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It turns out the explanation for the change is pretty straightforward. In an interview with Decider, writer Robert Kirkman explained that he wanted to retain the rights to Science Dog because he hopes to do a series in the future. He and co-creator, series author Cory Walker, really did write a series based around Science Dog and slipped it into the pages of Invincible as their own treat. In bringing Invincible to Amazon they wanted to leave the door open to experiment with Science Dog elsewhere.
The news itself is exciting, because Science Dog is a fun character who absolutely deserves his own attention. In his origins he starts as an ordinary dog caught in a science experiment which evolves him several millions of years into a dog of the future. In his new bipedal form Science Dog becomes the most intelligent being on the planet, going on adventures with his signature jetpack and goggles. But Séance Dog would be a whole other story altogether.
Seemingly a riff on Doctor Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme, Séance Dog puts a magical bend on the scientific superhero. The important thing to fans of Invincible is that the core function of the character remains intact. Mark is still a super fan, he still has all the paraphernalia and much of the meta commentary used to comment on Mark’s love for comics — which parallels fans of Invincible — remain completely possible.
The change comes as a cute way to retain the shout out without breaching the creators’ desire to use the characters in the future. As is, Amazon’s Invincible seems far less interested in setting up an interconnected universe with the potential for crossovers and more in telling its own stories. To most, the tweak is minor and understandable, but any diehard fans hoping the Amazon series would be a one-to-one adaptation might just be barking up the wrong tree.
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