Bloody Steaks

Invincible Season 1 (2021)

“What will you have after 500 years?”

“You, Dad.” he pauses. “I’d still have you.”

Invincible made a major contribution both to the already saturated superhero and teen mystery drama genre because at its core the show is about interpersonal relationships of the characters in the midst of a murder investigation. But I had consumed much, too much media and unfortunately disappointed at how most writers, especially at those genres, avoided stakes and consequences as a realistic element of storytelling. Yet I adored how Invincible embraces these elements to keep us engaged in the story.

Week by week we are in a narrative hook, sitting on the edge of our seats– anxious to reveal what’s next.

1. Disguised As A Cliche

The spread of geek-virus and the normalcy that came along with it was owed to the millennials and multi-conglomerate Disney. MCU’s quippy, easy-to-understand, man-cake-buffet, and fan-pleasing attributes act as the perfect gateway drug for both non-geeks and comic book devotees. In the status quo, the reason why most people are educated in the subculture of Superdome–– to a peak where they create zealous Tiktoks stans and fought religiously in Twitter’s comment section–– is because of that rising trend.

The Invincible comic was created a decade before the Marvel clout, ripping off various cliches and tropes in other intellectual property. Like simply how The Guardians of The Globe’s name is a play on Guardians of The Galaxy mixed with the member’s obvious resemblance to The Justice League.

Because of the cliche and tropes, we expected to be served a cliche or worse, a knock-off experience to the already beloved DC and Marvel comics. Gladly, Invincible subverts expectation by twisting the tropes and used them in a surprising and––most of the time–– grotesque way. This unorthodox approach, like The Boys, makes Invincible such a fresh take in the already overkill superhero genre.

Take the ending of episode one. When introduced to Omni-man’s character we saw a clear resemblance to Superman but our perception was quickly debunked when shown his true colors.

The purposefully lazy named Teen Team is exactly like Teen Titans but rather than seeing Mark struggling to work with a team dynamic, we are immediately interested in their individual arcs instead. Alternatively from investing time in him mastering his newly found powers, we use Mark as a naive-spyglass, looking at the world optimistically but alas, like the viewer who’d hope this is a typical superhero story, our embedded expectations are crushed with shocking realizations.

The content also introduced a detective character with noir-like tropes yet in the middle of the season, both the detective and government recognize the homicide of Omniman, they decided to remove the detective knowing that it will tip off evil Superman and ultimately makes the wife filling the role.

2. Importance of Stakes, Consequences, and Build-Up in Story Telling

In season one of Game Of Thrones, the masses were introduced to the importance of build-up, stakes, and consequences when Ned Stark was brutally beheaded. Another medium, that did this too was the anime and manga of Attack on Titan. Both of the examples employ stakes and consequences and receive a good reception at playing with the watchers’ psyche. Ned Starks idealism and chivalry ended his life as the world does not reward that and AOT, that the creator modeled the story like The Song of Ice and Fire, that Levi’s choice on saving Armin and Marley’s guerilla war has life and world-ending consequences.

I would see stake as a promise and an overshadowing that needs to be fulfilled its possibility and consequences are their manifestations. While the build-up is the necessary time needed to create that sense of stake and consequences without it, deaths and betrayal just flow without any emotional baggage for the characters and watchers. Clearly, these elements are not solemnly used as a plot device, stakes are used to produce adrenaline and provoke emotional coherence.

But to put the elements blatantly doesn’t mean instant emotional manipulation, no. Some fail at this. Some narratives create too few stakes and when shown a final fight, THE BIG WAR or THE FINAL DUEL hearts weren't wrenched and adrenaline isn't pumped.

In the realm of the conversation, the idea of predictability is always in session. Some might feel mentally superior after guessing key-plot points in stories and feel things that are predictable is bad. I would argue and agree with George R.R. Martin’s writing tips that subvertion is important or at least something to consider. I think important twists should be unpredictable, or a certain conflict should frame multiple or endless possibilities so that consumers don't know which scenario will prevail.

In retrospect of the superhero genre, the popular Marvel Cinematic Universe is the infamous culprit of these literary crimes as the heroes and heroines exit their arcs scotfree. Or they have stakes but it is easily resolved without taking anything or the stakes were too low.

Sometimes they take their stakes too big, that to our logic, is an impossibility to happen such as the nuclear holocaust, world war 3, or plainly the end of the world. The viewers, or at least myself, knows how it's impossible for the show–– as an example for season 1–– to end the world. (Hold your horses MCU fans, I know they did it in Endgame and Infinity War. And I must say perfectly by the Russo Brothers). I must digress, if we are talking about superhero genres and their respective movies, these genres took much inspiration for comic books where individual wins are needed to create a sense of hero to the story for the inevitability of them teaming up.

Therefore framing the story to have endless possibilities is very important.

3. Absent Stakes

I’m sure you had that experience before, reader. I for once dropped a lot of shows because of pacing and that said stakes. Some might hate me but the shows that I dropped were Peaky Blinders and — the same creators of Invincible — The Walking Dead.

Logically, when these stakes are absent, there is just no reason for watchers to watch it in the very first place, and–– when watching it–– there is no reason to stay. Or worse, even when we stayed, it is just disappointments.

4. Invincible, A Well-Done Steak

Invincible doesn’t juggle between two clashing agendas, but I see four agendas in season one and as a staple for the rest of the show. First is Mark’s understanding to be a hero and his relationship with his father, second is Omniman’s mission and recognition of the love of his son and wife, third is the wife Debbie’s crumbling marriage with Omniman, and lastly the government responsibility to protect the world.

Each episode is around 20 minutes of the initial season. Episode one cements the framework and background of the mystery and stakes. While episode 2 through episode 7 builds up the reveal while we move our attention to Mark interacting with other characters for his ‘grey area of superhero 101’ crash course character development. Making the show very dense and short for a watcher’s emotional manipulation.

The most important thing to highlight is deaths of characters aren't done without reasons rather was done to give weight to the narrative and moreover to show the watchers that death and tragedy can happen to anyone at any time.

Invincible also shows how they’re very daring and aren't afraid to be different. If you haven't watched the show, there's a scene in the finale where Omniman kills a pilot Mark saved and uses his own son as a battering ram for a moving subway train killing hundreds in the process just to prove a point of a ‘meaningless life’ of human beings.

The last fight was fast-paced, gut-wrenching, and bloody because we know in the build up anything or anyone can die or betray one another. Meaning the possibilities are:

1. Mark can side with Omniman and betray his mother and earth
2. Debbie can betray the government by helping Omniman based on love
3. The government can kill Mark, assuming the worst-case scenario Mark will side with Omniman.
4. Or worse, both Mark and Debbie can side with Omniman, easing the conquest of earth.

While we, or at least I, watch Omniman’s reveal to be a villain and his race to find his son, my mind was also racing to think about these likely possibilities. By proxy, the consequences of world domination were a second thought now because of how they frame and build it. The relationship, the perception of Mark as a son and Debbie as a wife is being tested, as well as their dilemma on choosing humanity vs their loved ones. (Damn.)

Rewatching Invincible–– after the reveal underlines each ominous subtext and subtle hits of Omniman–– makes it a whole new experience. At first, when Omniman talks about responsibilities, both us and Mark thought this was of a Superhero’s, but rather it’s about the responsibilities of THEIR kind of killing and conquest to an extent the meaninglessness of life as their kind’s philosophy.

Invincible is a welcomed addition to its cousins of short-running, adrenaline-boosting, bloody-stakes content and I can’t wait for more drama and mysteries.