WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Invincible, “Where I Really Come From,” streaming now on Amazon Prime.
Invincible‘s first season has come to an end. The show’s finale lines up with the events of Invincible #11-13 — a climactic battle between Mark and his father, Omni-Man — while the rest of the show’s seven episodes borrow from all over the comic’s earlier issues in order to better set the stage for the rest of the Amazon series. Cecil Stedman’s introduction is bumped up, Robot ends up making the switch into his organic body much sooner and other stories, like Flaxan invasions, are condensed and altered so as to better fit the new format. These alterations all make for the best type of adaptation.
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Plenty of the changes involved with Invincible seem like they come as a result of the original comic’s serial nature. While writer Robert Kirkman certainly plotted out larger arcs, the comic was released over the course of 15 years. Kirkman is an executive producer and writer on the show, and gets to write his story for a second time. This means he can retcon or change anything that doesn’t work, with the benefit of seeing the entire picture from the very beginning.
Cecil Stedman
One of the most glaring changes in Invincible‘s first season is the role of Cecil Stedman, who isn’t introduced in the comics until after Invincible and Omni-Man’s first battle. Cecil ends up being fairly important over the course of the series, both as an ally and eventual antagonist to Mark. While such a character could be introduced in the second season of the show, it makes more sense to have his presence be felt throughout its first. It also builds up Omni-Man as a threat, since Cecil spends every resource available to him in order to kill or even slow down the alien menace.
With Cecil’s introduction moved up, the show also finds time to introduce D.A. Sinclair, whose robotic creations serve as the physical backbone for Cecil’s eventual betrayal. While Mark’s college visit exists in the comics, it’s originally split up into two parts — one before and after his fight with his father. Those two different events are combined here, with Mark’s initial fight with one of the “Reanimen” coming only hours before his confrontation with Sinclair. This leaves it as less of an unresolved plot thread, while also introducing Sinclair as a resource for Cecil to draw on after his arrest.
Robot
Robot’s storyline is fairly similar to how it existed in the comics, but is once again condensed to fit better into the first season’s structure. He acts as the leader for the new Guardians of the Globe. He seeks out the Mauler Twins and gets their help in building a new body, before cloning his memories and ordering the new clone to kill him. That clone then returns the Mauler Twins to jail, before revealing his new identity to the rest of the team. He goes by “Rex Robot” in the comics, but the adaptation gives him the nickname of “Rudy” instead. There are no huge changes, but a large bulk of events that would have happened later in the comic are moved up. Like with Cecil, these changes introduce who Robot is much earlier. But those changes are even more crucial, since he’ll end up being more important than Cecil is in the long run.
Invincible‘s story underwent a massive amount of change and growth throughout 15 years, but its overall theme was generally about how morality clashed with practicality. Certain methods of fighting evil might be more effective — but at what cost? At what point can actions be justified for the greater good? Robot is the ultimate manifestation of these beliefs, as he takes over the Earth to prevent the constant catastrophes that seem to plague it. Establishing him as an important character from the very beginning better sets up that eventual twist, and allows for better use of the limited time the show has.
Invincible vs. Omni-Man
As much as Invincible‘s adaptation makes huge changes to the comic’s structure and order of events, issues #11-13 are left almost untouched, and serve as the climactic finale for the show’s first season. Omni-Man’s true nature as a cold-blooded murderer is made clear as early as the show’s first episode, and the foreshadowing that builds up to it covers the entire season. Omni-Man is attacked by Immortal, back from the grave after being revived by the Mauler twins. Their fight is shown before the entire world, including Mark. This leads to a mid-fight conversation between the two, as Nolan reveals to his son the true nature of the Viltrumite empire.
Learning that his father comes from a tyrannical and genocidal dictatorship doesn’t exactly sit well with Mark, and the ensuing fight between the two is a one-sided smackdown. Omni-Man throws his son through a building, down into a subway, deep into the ocean and finally pummels him into the side of a mountain. That order of events is lifted directly from the comics, and Mark’s final statement to his father is also left unchanged. When asked what he’ll have after 500 years — after every person he knows is reduced to dust — Mark responds, “You Dad. I’ll still have you.”
Even as so much else changes about Invincible, that line is left the same. And that’s because it’s the emotional core of the relationship between Mark and his father. Invincible‘s adaptation is a distillation of everything that works about the original comic — altering, rearranging and removing disparate elements while leaving its best moments untouched.
Invincible stars Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Mae Whitman, Chris Diamantopoulos, Melise, Kevin Michael Richardson, Grey Griffin and Max Burkholder. The series is produced by Skybound, and executive produced by Robert Kirkman, Simon Racioppa, David Alpert and Catherine Winder.
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