Invincible creator Robert Kirkman discusses how the new Amazon series and the comics toy with fans’ expectations.
There’s only a few days till Invincible starts airing on Amazon, and we found it to be a viciously wild ride that both new audiences and fans of the comics will very much appreciate. Not only does it provide a satirical commentary on the superhero genre, but it plays with what viewers expect to happen. When we spoke to Invincible creator Robert Kirkman, he explained how he worked with Cory Walker (the artist and co-creator of the Image Comics series) to ensure the show was faithful to the comics, but in a way that keeps audiences on their toes.
“I think I leaned on Cory Walker to make them as visually different as possible and having him onboard for the show as lead character design kept that present within the animated series. But I think that Invincible celebrates everything that’s great about superheroes and also kind of subverts what you expect from superhero stories and there is an essential element of analogues when you do superhero stories.”
Robert Kirkman went on to explain that Invincible uses typical tropes like a Superman-inspired hero, in a way that subverts the viewer’s expectations of who that character is with a number of elements that also add new dimensions to the genre. However, Kirkman also pointed out that the show introduces a whole bunch of superheroes with wildly inventive powers. Take a look below.
“So you have a character that may feel like a Superman so that you can make your audience expect a Superman-like story and then do something completely different. I think that’s a well-worn trope in superhero storytelling that we’ve been able to play with but there’s a lot of new elements that we bring into the genre and a lot of different kinds of superheroes that we were able to introduce through Invincible that aren’t really very similar at all. So we’re trying to have a nice mix.”
Are you excited to see Robert Kirkman’s Invincible series? What are you hoping to see in the series from the comics? Sound-off in the comments below!
Here is the official synopsis for Amazon Prime Video’s Invincible animated series:
INVINCIBLE is an adult animated superhero series that revolves around 17-year-old Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), who’s just like every other guy his age — except his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). But as Mark develops powers of his own, he discovers his father’s legacy may not be as heroic as it seems. From Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead. Coming to Prime Video in 2021.
Invincible will feature the voicing talents of Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandrah Oh, Mark Hamill, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Mae Whitman, and Malese Jow.
Invincible arrives on Amazon Prime Video on March 26, 2021. Stay tuned to Heroic Hollywood for the latest news on Robert Kirkman’s Invincible as we learn it and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more video content in the future!