Amazon’s Invincible: 10 Things Only Comic Book Fans Know About The Hero

Invincible recently kicked off on Amazon as an animated adaptation of the long-running Image Comics series by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. The series focuses on Mark Grayson, a teenager who develops superpowers and discovers that he is part of a powerful alien legacy that takes a lot of comic tropes and turns them upside down.

Grayson becomes Invincible, a classic superhero who fights alongside other teen heroes and against enemies that may not be all they appear. Nothing is quite as it seems in the comics, which often play with expectations and assumptions heroes have about themselves and that others have of them.

10 Half-Viltrumite

In the comics, Mark Grayson’s story has some surface similarities to the origin of Superman. But whereas Kal-El came as a baby from Krypton, Mark is the son of Omni-Man, an alien Viltrumite from the planet Viltrum. He settled on Earth as its protector and married a human woman.

This revelation upends Mark’s life. He then waits in hope of developing powers like his heroic father, which isn’t certain to happen. His powers manifest when Mark throws a sack of garbage out, and it ends up flying into the sky. From then on, his powers expand and grow.

9 The Scourge Virus

Part of the reason Omni-Man came to Earth is a terrible affliction called the Scourge Virus. This virus was created by the Viltrumites but ended up being their downfall. The plague wiped out all but a handful of them, robbing them of their inherent power and invulnerability.

This caused Omni-Man to come to Earth in the guise of Nolan Grayson. In later issues of the comic, Mark is infected with the virus as well and loses his powers as a result. He eventually gains them back.

8 His Friend Made His Costume

How superheroes get their costumes is a common trope of origin stories. Mark follows in the footsteps of his father by having his costume made by his friend, Art. Art designed the Omni-Man costume as well as other uniforms for other superheroes.

Mark didn’t have a superhero alias when he first went to Art, which put a crimp in the design process. He chose the name Invincible after his principal told him he wasn’t (in the aftermath of Mark standing up for a friend against a bully).

7 Invincible Powers

Mark Grayson does live up to his name. He’s essentially invulnerable thanks to his half-Virtulmite heritage. Beyond that, he has a range of powers including super strength, stamina, and speed that put him in line with characters like Superman or powerful Marvel heroes like Captain Marvel.

Mark often uses his powers to devastating effects in the comics. It might not come as a surprise that the series was created by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, given how violent the cartoon is so far. His punches show true power and consequence, which is often gory.

6 The Teen Team

Mark soon discovers that there are other teen heroes and some of them have formed a group called the Teen Team. This squad, not unlike the Teen Titans in DC Comics. Though they don’t have any headquarters or spy planes they fly around in, the team is very powerful and capable.

Mark joins the team and they go on many adventures together in the comics. The Teen Team is comprised of Robot, Rex Plode, Dupli-Kate, and Atom Eve. Mark would form a close bond with Atom Eve, who he discovered was in fact Samantha Eve, a student at his school.

5 Atom Eve

Just like with many Teen Titans romantic couples, Invincible and Atom Eve become allies and romantic partners. But unlike many superhero love interests, Samantha is a hero in her own right. She’s his equal in power, able to fly, fire energy beams, and alter matter on a molecular level.

Mark’s relationship with Samantha is a long, complex one in the comics. The two fall in love and stay together through a lot of ups and downs, including the loss of a child and the both of them suffering grievously in the line of duty.

4 Tested By Allen The Alien

One of the many superhero tropes the comic subverts early on is that of who is and isn’t a villain. Invincible gets in a battle with Allen The Alien, who he understands to be a supervillain that routinely gets into fights with superheroes. But Mark discovers Allen isn’t an alien at all.

Omni-Man had always considered Allen a villain because of his attacks on heroes, but it turns out Allen is actually a hero himself. His mission is to test the heroes of various planets and prepare them for cosmic threats.

3 Connections To Other Image Comics Superheroes

Invincible takes place in the loose Image Comics superhero universe. This is confirmed when classic Image heroes like Spawn and Savage Dragon appear at a funeral in Invincible. Mark also has appeared in their titles, particularly Savage Dragon by writer and artist Erik Larsen.

But the Image heroes won’t appear in the Amazon animated series. This is primarily due to rights issues, which are held by individual creators like Larsen or Todd McFarlane. McFarlane is currently pursuing a reboot of his Spawn movie.

2 Inner Ear Weakness

Mark Grayson has a tremendous amount of power. One of his few weaknesses is unique to him. Mark suffers from an inner ear vulnerability that can actually be fatal. In order to fly, he needs perfect equilibrium. If that is disrupted, he can’t fly and can even be seriously incapacitated.

Particular sonic pitches and frequencies can disable him, which makes him vulnerable to enemies who are aware of his condition. So far it seems he is the only Viltrumite with this weakness.

1 The Truth About The Viltrumites

Kal-El’s Kryptonian heritage is largely positive, inherited from the nobility of his parents. Mark discovers a major secret about his father and the Viltrumites that changes his entire world – they were villains.

This is revealed in the comics when Omni-Man kills an entire team of heroes, the Guardians of the Globe. The Viltrumites were a warrior race that conquered and brutalized others, including the world of Allen the Alien. The show has already given this twist away, but it doesn’t happen in the comics for many years.

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