Invincible creator and executive producer Robert Kirkman explains how season 2 differs from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe. Invincible season 1 garnered critical acclaim for its animation, action, voice cast, and unique take on the all-too-familiar story of a teenager learning he has superpowers and becoming a superhero. The positive reception and excitement for the long-awaited season 2 comes amid discussions of superhero fatigue in response to new MCU and DCEU projects.
While speaking with Variety, Kirkman shared what makes Invincible season 2 unique and how it is different from the MCU and DCEU. His comments addressed how Invincible captures the essence of superhero comics and how the multiverse is approached differently from how it is used in the MCU and DCEU’s movies and television series. Read Kirkman’s comments below:
One of the secret sauces of “Invincible” is that we embrace everything about superhero comics. There’s a distillation that happens with the MCU, where they shave the edges off to make everything as real world as possible. Like, you’re never going to see Robert Downey Jr. having a conversation with a fish person in the MCU. To me, the tradition of comic books is, you know, there was an issue of “Superman” where he had to marry a mermaid. I like the weird stuff, and people seem to respond to that.
The draw of the multiverse is that you get to play with different aspects of familiar things. It’s just a really easy button to push: “OK, we can bring in these Fox characters that everybody remembers. We can have a digital cameo of Christopher Reeve. We’re going to take this thing that’s popular because it’s a nostalgia thing and then amp the nostalgia up even more.” I consider myself in that fanbase, so I see why it’s so popular. The only thing I’ll say is, what we’re doing is a little bit different. We’re using the multiverse to examine Mark’s character and what aspects of him we may not necessarily be aware of yet. It’s much more of a character-based story. I mean, we don’t have the luxury of bringing in the Invincible from the popular 1990s cartoon. If we did, we probably would.
Why Invincible Is Safe From Superhero Fatigue
Most of the conversation surrounding superhero fatigue has been directed toward the MCU and DCEU, whose upcoming projects are not generating the excitement they once did. The criticism of certain projects feeling generic is an issue that Invincible has avoided, largely because of what Kirkman references with the show fully leaning into the weird, endearing aspects of superhero comics. The television series manifested this several times in season 1, and the first Invincible season 2 trailer showing Mark Grayson/Invincible and Allen the Alien eating hamburgers together showed that season 2 will fully embrace this approach, too.
Some projects in the MCU and DCEU, especially those written and directed by James Gunn, have leaned into such weirdness, but many other stories shy away from it. As for Kirkman’s comments about the multiverse, they refer to Invincible season 2’s main villain Angstrom Levy. Levy is a villain who can access the multiverse, a threat different from anything Mark faced in season 1. Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Flash, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness used the multiverse to bring back beloved characters from Fox’s superhero movies released in the early 2000s.
The Invincible comics explored the multiverse long before these movies. The comics and the television series use the multiverse not for nostalgia but to test Mark with facets of his identity that have yet to be introduced. This approach to the multiverse is more character-driven as opposed to relying on the multiverse for the nostalgia of bringing back fan-favorite versions of certain characters. Embracing the weirdness of superhero comics and taking a character-driven approach to the multiverse will help keep Invincible safe from superhero fatigue.
