Invincible, Amazon Prime’s new animated series, is already highly acclaimed and firing on all cylinders. Based on Robert Kirkman’s (The Walking Dead) popular comic book series, the show benefits from having the creator onboard to translate Mark’s story from page to screen.
Kirkman spoke with Screen Rant about some of the changes in the adaptation, as well as how his voice cast helps solidify already important story beats.
I'm a big fan of your work, and I was introduced to Invincible early on in my local comic book store. I haven't gotten through the whole thing, but this show came along and it is phenomenal. At first glance, Mark is an overwhelmed teenage superhero, but he has such a good heart. Was that always the way the character was gonna play out, or did he evolve that way?
Robert Kirkman: Yeah, I always wanted to start the series with a young, naive teenage superhero akin to the early days of Spider-Man. And in the 90s, there were a lot of solo Robin series that I was reading in my teens, so I thought that was really cool. I wanted to introduce the world through this young, naive kid and have him grow and mature and reach adulthood through the story.
That was the idea: to watch this guy grow and become an adult and get married and have kids, and see where that goes. I think that being able to introduce the superhero world through that lens, and watch the world expand as Invincible's awareness of the world around him expands, is a fun thing to do. And it's something that we're trying to carry forward with the animated series as well.
What do you think makes the "Beware the Superman" story beat such a fertile concept to explore?
Robert Kirkman: I think that when it comes to superheroes, you're dealing with extremely powerful beings, and the concept of power corrupting is something that's inherent in a lot of fiction - and in real life.
We live in a cynical world, and so that has made Superman a little harder to do. It's not impossible, but with the cynicism that's present, you are always going to be suspicious of someone that is that powerful, and is that kind and welcoming. There's always this sense of like, "Eh... Can I really trust this?" and that's something that is really a lot of fun to play with. And to see a world being somewhat utterly helpless in the face of someone that's this powerful is a really fun dynamic and is really interesting to explore.
What Invincible does is it layers on a father and son story in that dynamic, which makes for a really interesting story of coming of age. I try to take everything that I do, and I boil it down to something that is relatable in my life, and I hope that it's relatable to everyone else. I had a pretty profound time in my late teens, where you start to realize, "Oh, my parents are human beings." Your entire life, you see them as these unflinching monoliths of security and stability. And then you reach a point where you're emotionally aware enough to be like, "Oh, these people are having problems. And these are things that everyone deals with. They're just like me; they're scared, and I'm scared. And this is different."
To be able to layer that into a superhero world and heighten things, I think this is something that anyone can relate to. We all hit that point where we go, "Wait a minute, my dad isn't Superman and he can't do it." It's just that much more interesting to bring that kind of thing into a much more interesting superhero world. I apologize for rambling for four hours.
One of the big moments that people talked about was towards the end of that first episode. Why the tweak of Omni-Man attacking the Guardians earlier in the story? Did you ever consider opening the show in a different manner?
Robert Kirkman: No. From minute one, when I realized that we were doing an hour-long animated series, that was the construct of the episode. I knew that I wanted to open with a big original sequence that introduced the Guardians of the globe in a really cool way, and that became the White House sequence. And I knew that I wanted to end the episode with those characters - spoiler alert - dying a spectacular death.
My jaw was on the floor. It was insane.
Robert Kirkman: Awesome, great to hear. That's the times we live in. You almost don't even have a full episode to hook people, and I was a little worried that people wouldn't even get to the end of the episode to see that twist. But I decided that's the risk I'm willing to take, because I'm lulling people into that sense of security where there's no violence in the episode up to that last sequence. There's very little profanity, if any, at all.
It seems like it's got an emotional maturity to a certain extent, when you see these scenes of Mark interacting with his parents - but for the most part, it seems like it could be a show for children in a way. You're going, "Why was there a warning at the beginning of this episode? This doesn't make any sense." And to be kind of put on your heels at the end of that episode, where it shows you what this series can and will be - I wanted that gut punch where you're like, "I did not expect this. This is something different."
It's possible that Frank Darabont handled it a little bit more eloquently in The Walking Dead by having Rick, shoot that little girl in the head in the teaser of the episode. That kind of does everything that we accomplished in Invincible in the opening four or five minutes. But by doing it over an entire episode, I hope that it still fills you with that sense of, "I am on this journey. I want to see where this show goes. I am on this streaming service. I will now watch episode two. And hopefully, I will continue watching the show for the rest of my life."
I couldn't wait for Episode 2. I know there's been some changes from the comic to the show. What has been your favorite tweak to the story so far?
Robert Kirkman: I think it's really cool having Cecil and Donald be much more prevalent in the early chapters of the story. I think Walton Goggins and Chris Diamantopoulos are just absolutely great in those roles, and having them be interacting with these stories [is great]. Because they don't come into the series in the comic books at all until certain storylines that have not wrapped up in the show wrap up, so we don't see them for a while. But having them there and having them doing things behind the scenes, I think is a really cool change.
What do you think is the key to keeping characters emotionally grounded even in wild situations, like superheroes and magic, or even the intergalactic universe that is Invincible?
Robert Kirkman: Well, I think that's another change that I'm really happy with: expanding the character of Amber and expanding the character of Debbie. These are our two real world, non-superpowered characters, and they have subplots and goals that are as important to them as the world-shattering events that are happening for the superheroes. So, by treating their storylines with as much importance and putting them on an even playing field narratively, you show that this is a very grounded series, a very relatable series, and a very human series despite the fact that we're casually going to Mars and encountering aliens.
We've got crazy superpowered mob bosses and super powered henchmen doing all kinds of nutty things. But Amber and Eve working at that soup kitchen together is just as interesting and character-building and essential to the show, and it really shows the heart and the humanity of the series.
Have you plotted out how many seasons this series is potentially going to go on for? Or is that still up in the air?
Robert Kirkman: In nailing down what was going to be in the first season, there is a rough roadmap for where things from the comic book would fall, and how to continue rearranging things to make it all fit in the animated series. I would never reveal what that plan actually is, but I will say that there is a plan, and it involves many seasons.
You have a phenomenal cast. Is there anything that surprised you with the cast that you may include into the show, or story beats later into the show based on their performance?
Robert Kirman: Yeah! I'm trying to do this without spoiling things. It's what I was talking about, where the non-powered characters have stories as interesting and compelling as the superpowered characters. I didn't know that would work as well as it was going to work without Zazie Beetz and without Sandra Oh.
With Sandra, you can just give her anything, and it's absolutely compelling. I can definitely see us having more Debbie storylines moving forward and doing some very interesting things with Debbie, because we know that we have Sandra Oh, and we can lean on her to really carry these scenes in really interesting and compelling ways. So, I'm really excited about that.
What can you tease about Debbie's investigation into her husband, and where did that element come from?
Robert Kirkman: Narratively, when we take what we put in the first episode - and we're about to release Episode 6, so I don't want to spoil anything - Debbie's a very intelligent character who we thought would figure this kind of thing out. It's her husband, so her going on that journey and discovering these different things, we thought was a very good character building thing. And also, it's just realistic. You want to make sure that you're not portraying your characters as stupid, for lack of a better term.
It gives her something really important to do, and it heightens it, Every episode, you're waiting for someone else to discover the secret, and for there to be ramifications from them discovering it, or what actions they're going to take now that they know. And it really just ratchets up the tension episode to episode, leading to some eventual thing that will happen in an upcoming episode that is possibly going to be somewhat startling - without spoiling anything.
I think using that character to add that tension to the series is really driving the season and making things really more exciting than they would have been otherwise.
Is there any updates on the Walking Dead movie?
Robert Kirkman: No, there is not.
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