WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Invincible, streaming now on Amazon Prime.
With 144 issues to draw from, the first three episodes of Amazon Prime Video's Invincible make a lot of changes to the story, scrubbing away some of the unsavory elements from the story and shifting things around in a way that makes for better TV.
Here are the biggest alterations that have so far been made to Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker's Invincible in the adaptation.
In the comics, when Mark Grayson got bullied, he fought back and was thus sent to Principal Winslow's office. There, the administrator told Mark he wasn't "invincible," which inspired the young man's future superhero name. However, in the TV series, Mark's dad, Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man, lectures him on his abilities and says he's pretty much invincible, which is why Mark takes the name up.
Mark donned a homemade costume on his first mission, running into the rock-man known as Titan and some of his associates. While he foiled the robbery he was sloppy with it, which drew the ire of Nolan, who was standing by. Nolan took Mark to get a proper suit afterwards, and while the show mostly sticks to this plot point, Nolan was actually judging his son in the TV series.
In the source material, Nolan turned on the Guardians of the Globe, killing them in a few panels, swiftly and without taking any damage. However, in the Invincible TV series, the show has Omni-Man team up with the Guardians early on to stop the Mauler Twins at the White House. The show also lengthens the fight in which Omni-Man kills the Guardians. The Viltrumite also takes a lot of damage and ends up passing out at the scene of the crime, which leads to the Global Defence Agency and Damien Darkblood investigating Omni-Man.
In the Invincible comics, Nolan asked Mark to go fight Allen the alien in space as he himself was busy. However, the show changes this, as Nolan has only recently left the hospital after killing the Guardians. He sends Mark, and while the fight plays out like the comics, there's a slight aesthetic change to the end. In the TV series, Mark views the Earth with the sun's glow rather than just by itself.
The comics had the Flaxans battling Mark and Nolan before they teleported Omni-Man to their homeworld. While there, Omni-Man slaughtered the Flaxans and eventually returned home. However, Invincible the show handles this whole event much differently. Firstly, in the comics, Mark meets Teen Team (Robot, Atom Eve, Rex Splode and Dupli-Kate) in an early confrontation with the Mauler Twins. In the TV series, though, Mark meets Teen Team while they're fighting the Flaxans. Secondly, Nolan only joins the fight much later, though he does end up going through the portal with the aliens.
The comics handle the Robot taking control of the Guardians much differently. In the series, Robot is set to join the team before the Guardians die. However, Cecil expedites hiring him after their deaths. The Invincible TV series, though, has Cecil approach Robot for the first time after the Guardians are found dead. Robot's recruitment session for the new Guardians is also quite different, showing Shrinking Ray and Black Samson in the trials and extending the sequence of Monster Girl beating up Rex.
In the comics, Black Samson's butler, Sanford, donned his employer's power-suit and attacked the Guardians' funeral, as he was bitter about Samson being let go from the team. That scene is entirely omitted in the show. There are also some difference at the funeral, including new and cut cameos. This time around, the Global Defence Agency opts to bury the Guardians at a hidden location so no one can dig them up. This changes quite a few things, as in the comics, the Mauler Twins eventually get ahold of Immortal's body.
Overall, there are a lot of changes to Mark and Eve's dynamic in the early part of the comics, as the Invincible show takes more time to flesh out their relationship and conversations. The show, in general, has them spending more time together, including when they take on Doc Seismic at Mount Rushmore.
There are a lot of changes in the Invincible TV series that make the show more diverse while fleshing characters out. Amber, for example, is Black on the show, while she was white in the comics. Shrinking Ray and Green Ghost are also genderswapped to be women. Additionally, Mark's best friend, Will, is out as gay much earlier in the TV series than he was in the comics. Other changes include Deborah Grayson, Mark's mother, working as a real estate agent and Mark's favorite hero -- Science Dog -- becoming Seance Dog.
Invincible stars Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, Walton Goggins, Jason Mantzoukas, Mae Whitman, Chris Diamantopoulos, Melise, Kevin Michael Richardson, Grey Griffin and Max Burkholder. The series is produced by Skybound, and executive produced by Robert Kirkman, Simon Racioppa, David Alpert and Catherine Winder. New episodes premiere Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.
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