Invincible (2021)

If you can hang with its shifts, you’ll find a show that is working at high speed to try to embody multiple elements on the superhero cynicism scale, sometimes all at once. Funny, exciting, and emotionally smart—seriously, Sandra Oh is killing it here.

From its slick animation to its excellent voice cast, it's a winner from top to bottom. And just when you think you know exactly which direction it's going to explore, it pulls the rug out from under you in a truly exciting way. The long-running comic series couldn't have been made into a better serialized format, and if the rest of the show is just as interesting as this one, Amazon has quite the hit on its hands.

Invincible recaptures what our current glut of superhero fiction largely loses sight of: the pleasure that superheroes must feel when wielding their powers. Not the sacred satisfaction of helping the downtrodden, but the id-centered thrills of soaring through the sky and inflicting hurt on those deemed deserving. The series consistently makes smart use of music and sound to sweep you up in the bodily sensations of its heroes.

“Invincible” finds the right balance: acknowledging what a life-changing experience this is for Mark, including typical hero’s-journey scenes (crash landings that really reverberate, grueling training sessions that raise questions regarding what kind of lessons Nathan is teaching his son, and scenes where Mark befriends other teens who also boast similar abilities), and moving the story along so that it also focuses on other characters.

Spry, hourlong animated series that somehow manages to be both snarky and earnest within the same breath. ... What both anchors and keeps “Invincible” compelling is its cast, packed to the brim with talent.

While too early to tell exactly how it will stack up as a season, let alone a series, in an era where lots of “ambitious” TV can feel all too predictable, “Invincible” should keep viewers on their toes — for the right reasons.

While you can’t describe “Invincible” as gritty, it does feel like the right kind of animated super-show for an era marked by Zack Snyder’s dark-hued “Justice League” reconstruction and Amazon’s own, ultra-pathological take on the genre, “The Boys.” It’s as clean-looking as any program we grew up with, but has the dirtier stuff we secretly wanted.

This superhero show may play it a bit safer than The Boys, which won't help it stand out in the current landscape of superhero content, but for now, it works and should satisfy fans of the comic, even if it doesn't reinvent the wheel.

There’s a chance that “Invincible” could get lost in the shadow of two massive super-titans like that headline-grabbing pair ["Zack Snyder’s Justice League" and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier"]. The truth is that it’s in many ways the most inventive and interesting of the three projects, something that truly seeks to use the many clichés of the superhero genre in a fresh new way.

Amazon already has a searing satire about out-of-control superheroes, "The Boys," which has quickly become its signature series. "Invincible," an animated show with basically the same broad outline, thus feels a tad redundant, though the opening episodes, produced very much for adults, yield some of the same visceral thrills.

While Amazon is billing this as an “adult” animated series, that’s only in the sense that there’s ample gore and profanity. The designs (modeled on Walker’s art from the comics) and most of the characterization and plotting feel more suited to an all-ages show — a very good one, at that — but then someone’s head will burst onscreen. ... Still, it’s fun, and Yeun, Simmons, and Oh make for a strong central ensemble.