My comment has some spoilers on the story so far (for the animated series), you have been warned.
Is it just me or does it feel like this entire series is about teaching the viewer that no good deed goes unpunished? I love invincible but every single good thing heroes do always becomes something bad somehow, it gets tiring. Also it feels like his strength lv fluctuates like crazy, from being a punching bag to any villain then accidentally killing another without any training.
He's incredibly powerful for an earthling. He's a weak viltrumite. Ircc viltrumites get stronger with age until there's a steep decline, and he's around 20. I'm pretty sure Nolan is close to 1000, and hasn't hit his decline yet. The whole season we watched him get beat up while he tried to do the right thing. That's largely the theme of the story. Doing the right thing is often harder than not. I loved the comic. I really like kurtzman as a comic writer. Invincible is his love letter to the super hero genre. Later storielines play with a lot of tropes in fun ways. If it's not your thing though, maybe just drop it?
And yet, in the series, he beats this lady vitrumite when apparently he stops holding back, which is absurd considering how many times earth was close to being destroyed and he 'held back'. This is my issue, at least from what I saw, he either is super strong and holds back all the time or his power changes with the moon
He’s basically leveling up with every fight
Key point here is that he lost decisively to the pony tail, and was wrecked by Anissa. He momentarily held his own against a relatively weak, and past her prime viltrumite, and didn't stand a chance against an elite like Anissa. @John_McMurray also makes a good point about Mark's abilities.
However, I will concede that this is a piece of pop culture, and you shouldn't have to be a big fan of the comics in order to understand why the cartoon isn't inconsistent. THAT is bad writing.
That's actually a key plot point. Mark comes back more durable every time he gets his ass put in hospital. What doesn't kill him literally makes him stronger. Because he is constantly losing to galactic level threats instead of working with them, eventually he becomes the strongest one out there. (Also that scene meant to imply he had to quit acting like it was a boxing match and get vicious if he wanted to live)
You're confusing Mark and Allen.
Mark, like other Viltrumites, trains, and gets more powerful with age. Beatings just hurt, they don't do anything for his powers.
Allen, on the other hand, works like a Dragon Ball Saiyan, getting significantly stronger after each beating (and the closer he gets to dying the stronger he comes back).
No, I'm not. It's the same for both. Just not so obvious early on for Mark. He ends up the strongest before he hits 40 because of this.
And he still lost because he wasn't vicious enough
The source material is even worse. It’s just bad writing across the board.
And yet it's a critically acclaimed series with even higher reader ratings. 🤷♂️
Alas, there's no accounting for taste, or, in your case, lack thereof.
It’s a shit series with no deep story to tell. It’s gore porn that tries to be edgy for the sake of being edgy. It never actually makes you stop and think. It’s like the Burger King of comics.
And yes, I read all of it. Terrible. Series like this being “critically acclaimed” is why Japan and now Korea absolutely mogs American comics.
~~Ah, so you haven't read the books, then.~~ Edit: Well, if you've read it as you say, then, as I said, there's no accounting for (poor) taste. Maybe try it again in a few years when you're more familiar with the genre. 🤷♂️
(Or, wait, are you mistaking Invincible for The Boys..? Ennis is indeed a bit of an acquired taste, and in that case it is a good thing that the adaptation doesn't follow the books...)
I read both Invincible and The Boys, I would give Invincible the edge but they're almost both equally terrible. There is no "acquired taste" here besides pushing the envelope as far as you can for the sake of it and gore porn.
If Invincible is “gore porn” then so is, say, Saving Private Ryan.
There's a difference between gore for the sake of gore (as in Ennis' works, for instance) and gore for the sake of telling a story.
(Though, frankly, the amount of gore in Invincible is extremely limited anyway, so it's kind of weird that you're choosing to fixate on a few pages out of 144 issues.)
Comparing Invincible to Saving Private Ryan is offensive. That movie is better than any arc or chapter Invincible has to offer. It actually has a life lesson to teach and it uses the gore to show the horrors of war.
Invincible? Rofl. People get dismembered left and right because the author feels like it. There is no nuance, no substance, no symbolism to the gore. Invincible gore is not just “a few pages”. The visceral imagery is key to the experience of the comic.
That split entirely ruined the season for me. There's way to much time between seasons, which I get, animation takes time, and they have some big names voice acting. But that split in addition with the long season time meant I could barley remember what was going on and then it was over.
I don't know, it's a great show but I'll probably catch it 5 years from now when it's done. Just boneheaded producing decisions.
I can almost excuse a mid season break if the season were more than 8 episodes. I really miss the days of 26 episode seasons of shows. You really got to get to know characters back then. Now I feel like I watch a whole season of a show and then forget almost everything that happened in it as soon as it's over.
Right?! I also think those "filler" episodes gave writers an opportunity to try to stuff out and see what stuck. I get that that's way more costly in animation but... Yeah. Like both chunks of this season I kept thinking "I know this is really cool but I entirely forget why"
I had a good sense of the story, but season 2 part 2 was just completely underwhelming. If they'd released it all at once, it would have been setup, payoff for all the season 2 stuff. Instead, we get setup, giant wait to build hype, mediocre payoff.
Great show but God please improve the animation it was ass in season 2
Gotta hire someone other than North Koreans.
They did a great scene in the latest season talking about how they cut corners in the animation department to save money. Animation aside, the writing is top notch.
That scene was straight from the books... though obviously the original was about reusing panels and such.
So good. I love this series.
And they used Tim Robinson for that scene!