WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the sixth episode of Invincible "You Look Kinda Dead," streaming now on Amazon Prime.
The Nick Fury role in many superhero stories is iconic enough to be its own archetype, and in Invincible it's the director of the Global Defense Agency, Cecil Stedman, who fills that role. Much about the character remains true to his counterpart in the comic book source material, and yet one quality stands out as markedly different.
The Cecil Stedman of the Amazon series has a softer edge, and the result is a character who breaks out of the archetype to feel more like a real person.
It's easy to see why the cliched portrayal of the head of a clandestine government organization would often be portrayed as callous and cold-hearted in their tactics. Indeed the Cecil of the comics often spoke at length about the utilitarian calculations he was forced to crunch in order to do his job, a role which he felt was necessary given a world filled with idealistic heroes blinded by their own morals. The Cecil of the animated adaptation largely remains a mystery and could well agree with many of those diatribes, but what stands out is a far more personable demeanor.
Some of this gentler touch could be chalked up to the performance of voice actor Walton Goggins, who curiously has a reputation on film most often as villainous heels in features like The Hateful Eight and Ant-Man and the Wasp. Here Goggins plays the role with an almost hat-in-hand intonation, showing up in the aftermath of bloody battles gracious for the help of the superheroes who survived and seeking to comfort those who were injured. This stands out most of all in the latest episode, "You Look Kinda Dead."
First in a hospital standing beside Omni-Man, Cecil chuckles at Invincible's defiance of his father. He comments on the irony of the most powerful man in the world still being unable to control his teenaged human son, and when Omni-Man bristles, Cecil shrugs it off. The interaction could have been played as cold and cynical and would likely sound that way in the comics with Cecil's scarred and sneering demeanor. But instead the lines are delivered with the familiarity of old friends, and given that the audience knows of Omni-Man's betrayal it almost feels like Cecil is reaching out in an attempt to touch what humanity remains within Omni-Man.
Later in the aftermath of his fight with the Reanimen, the GDA director shows up to comfort Invincible, reassuring him that he would have done the same thing and that he would do what he could to help Invincible's friends. You can see just a hint of his comics' calculating nature as he examines the Reanimen's technology, wondering about its potential, but there is a lingering regret in his demeanor that says nothing about these calculations are cold-hearted.
Such a demeanor is exactly what such a character needs. It is far too easy to vilify or dehumanize a character in Cecil's role when they are stoic and uncompromising. Showing the character's vulnerabilities make all the difference, and whatever he goes on to do -- good or bad -- the audience can feel for him knowing that any decisions made were not easy ones.
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 are released Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.
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