Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Invincible on Amazon Prime

I'm going to preface this by saying as of this writing, I've only watched up through the second of six episodes. But that's only because I have to sleep. I'm also not familiar with the original work, so this is my opinion going in fairly fresh.

Preface number 2 is that you probably shouldn't watch this if you don't like gore, real or animated. I'll admit right out of the gate that this aspect of the show is probably the most "edgy" thing to make people come back and watch (kinda like sex was in Game of Thrones at the beginning). But if you're a fan of the Super Hero trope, and want to see a slightly different take on it, mixed with the next generation takes over from the prior, this is a show you'll enjoy.

It's also very well paced and gives you the "tell me what's next" hunger to make you watch the whole show in a day. It's been a while since I've watched a super hero serial that makes me want to keep watching.

Even though I have a pretty good idea where the end of this is going to lead (I mean, c'mon, its a superhero story after all, and I have some gray just like Omni-man, although I hope that's where the comparison stops), the ride so far has been great.

And if you're a fan of the Legion of Super Heroes, you probably will enjoy this just due to the Teen Team, which is basically the Titans but with Legionnaires. You'll know when you see them.

Interested to hear what others thought about the series.

There are actually 8 episodes.

I was enjoying at first, but kind of ran out of steam in episode 5. I'll probably finish watching it at some point, though.

Thanks for the correction EDE! I'll keep an eye out around ep 5 and see how I'm feeling.

But it is the first show in months that has left me wanting to just watch it all at once.

Yeah, it might actually watch a lot better that way. I binged the first three episodes when they came out, and then sort of started losing interest during the wait between episodes. It may have just been a change in my own mood, though.

Hmmm. I don't have Amazon Prime, for similar reasons to why I don't have Disney Plus (it's the hippie chick in me.)

Also, a friend of mine with similar tastes to mine told me he was not impressed.

But thanks anyway for the heads-up, GL.

Oh, I just remembered the other thing that dampened my enthusiasm is that I accidentally read some spoilers for the comic that really turned me off. It may not make it into the TV show, but it reminded me why I tend to be wary of Kirkman's stuff.

Ah no worries - all good. I'm halfway through and I can see the sputtering that EDE is talking about. That being said, my 18y/o daughter really likes it and I'm gonna see it through. I still think I have a good idea where this is going, but honestly I'm mainly enjoying the character interaction between the teammembers more than anything else. But from an episode 1 perspective it was diametrically opposite of Jupiter's Legacy.



Is he the guy running the Walking Dead franchise? I'm not a follower, to be honest. We'll see how I feel once I get through the run.

Yeah, he's the Walking Dead guy. I could see why people liked that series (both the comic and the tv show), but, at some point, the continuous introduction of new sympathetic characters who would suffer over and over again until they get killed off just wasn't my idea of entertainment. It sounds like there's a bit of that with Invincible as well, though not to the extent of TWD.

That will be interesting to see where that goes then. I'm not a TWD fan, but I know something about what you are referring to about that, based on a lot of the fan outcry when things would happen. I'll have to keep an eye out. As well as see how I feel about that in this context. I'm generally not a fan of introducing characters just to suffer.

So there wasn't so much of the "intro of a neat character just to kill him off." Although, ironically, during my back research after finishing the series, I did discover that the actor voicing Mark is the same actor that TWD fans lost their s*** over during that run on a death scene. That being said, I did think that in the final episode, the gore level did reach an 11 for my standards, which is not a good thing. Showing a certain sequence for a couple seconds to illustrate a point is one thing, but to have the sequence last a minute, is literally overkill. I also realized in my research that the original series was from Image in the 90s, which had I known, would have been a huge red flag. But I didn't and kinda got suckered.

And I guess that summarizes my reflection on this series at the end. EDE, you probably lost interest at the right point. The last half of the run needed much tighter editing and, I think, *could* have been told in two episodes rather than four.

The problems:

From the end of ep 1, it was EXTREMELY obvious as to where this was heading and how it would end. I surprised myself with the accuracy of my prediction. There was a slight twist for me, but that was more to set up future seasons, apparently.
As mentioned before - PACING. If you're just gonna fill in time with gore, when you could be filling with story, you've kind of lost me. I was as bored during the last episode of Invincible as I was during the first episode of Jupiter's Whatever.

Where it DID get EXTREMELY right was the dynamics of a teen super-team, like the Titans or the Legion.

At least we have the Titans in print. And in animation. And in live action. *Sigh*

Anyway, if you watch the show, you'd be good watching the first 3-4 episodes, then skipping to 8 if you want the experience.

Thanks for the review. I ended up reading summaries of the rest of the episodes, and that pretty much satisfied whatever curiosity I had for watching watching rest of it. It does seem to play out in pretty much the expected way.

I'm curious which spoilers turned you off. I read Invincible from trades and then switched to floppies when I caught up and have read the entire run, so I can't be spoiled. I will say there were a lot of teases about major characters dying that wore thin. When some of them eventually happened (like toward the very end), the effect was lessened considerably. There was a mixture of unexpected turns and groaners along the way. But obviously, I was with it until the end, so I was overall entertained.

I've seen the first episode. I overall liked it, but having the big twist at the end of the first episode felt strange. In the comic, it was about 6 issues in. I like the slower build in the comics. Maybe the shock happens in episode 3 or 4 to allow the status quo change to be more shocking.

I think it had to follow the convention of "we need to shock in the first episode to keep the viewer interested". I think in my case that kinda worked, although I was much more interested in the characters and their dynamics, especially the teens.

The problem was that with the hint that Omni Man gave of his origin plus the shocker basically spelled out how the last episode would go to anyone who's been reading comics for any length of time.

I think they could have got away with kicking that reveal out to ep 3 or 4, honestly, as the pacing and appearance of episode 1 was pretty fresh.

There were also some aspects of OmniMan's behavior in the finale that didn't ring true to me that added to the letdown of the ending. It may feel different if you've read the books, tho.

It's actually the rape rather than the deaths that turned me off.