Robert Kirkman's 'Invincible' is coming to Amazon as an animated series
I've preached the gospel of Invincible to you before. More than once. But I'm happy to cede that sacred duty to Amazon.
Robert Kirkman's long-running, now-concluded Invincible comic book is coming to Amazon in a serious way. The animated series will deliver eight hour-long episodes adapted from the superhero story that launched at around the same time as The Walking Dead.
It's very early days for the adaptation, so details are extremely slim. The press release from Skybound, Kirkman's publishing banner, doesn't offer any specifics on how the story will be adapted. It does note, however, that Amazon's series is happening "in conjunction" with the upcoming movie adaptation from writers/directors/producers Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen.
We don't know much about the big screen take, either. Goldberg and Rogen discussed some of their plans in an early 2018 interview with Mashable. But there too, they weren't quite ready to share the specifics of how they're approaching the project.
"We are definitely telling the classic story of Invincible, and we are doing some directorial things that will make it more dynamic than just the straight-up story," Goldberg said at the time.
"We've come up with some conventions that I think will make it a more cinematic experience that fits in the timeframe more. But we're not reinventing the wheel here, we're not going to massively change Invincible. The core story of that comic and the core characters are what makes it great."
Kirkman's series followed the exploits of Mark Grayson, a teen with a superhero dad who is just developing powers of his own when the story opens. Things go absolutely haywire from that seemingly simple starting point, with twist piling on top of twist throughout most of the 144-issue run.
While the writing, the characters, and the world are all responsible for making Invincible great, there are other differentiating factors that make the comic stand apart from the more classic Marvel and DC superhero stories.
For one, Invincible always went out of its way to torpedo the common tropes in comic book hero stories. From its handling of villains to costume changes, the series almost always found a way to zig when any seasoned comic book reader would normally expect a zag.
What's more, Invincible went out of its way to establish the world around Mark as a living, breathing universe that could bend and change and, in the process, tackle stories that touched on real, relatable issues. Domestic violence, rape, single parenting, and body positivity are just a small handful of the ideas Invincible stories touched on during the comic's epic run.
It's a great comic, and it's equally great to see that those stories are going to live on in a way that exposes them to a wider audience. Skybound and Amazon may not have much to share today, but there's good reason to be excited.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
