Invincible: The Most Human Superhuman

I’ll admit it—I didn’t discover Invincible through a trailer, a recommendation, or some carefully curated “Top 10 Superhero Shows” list. Nope. I stumbled onto it the way many people did: a meme. Specifically, that meme. You know the one. Nolan, aka Omni-Man, looming over a bloodied Mark, screaming “Think, Mark! Think!” with all the fury of a disappointed dad who's just found out you left the stove on.

Naturally, I was curious.

At first glance, I expected a cheeky superhero parody. Something with a bit of action, some satire, maybe a surprising emotional beat or two. What I got instead was a gut punch of a story wrapped in a cartoon cape—and I wasn’t ready.

Invincible isn’t just about a teenager with superpowers. It’s about what happens when those powers come with expectations, legacies, and some horrifying truths. The show follows Mark Grayson, a high schooler who’s just discovered he inherited abilities from his dad, Omni-Man—Earth’s most powerful superhero, and as it turns out, not the kind of father figure you want giving life advice.

Without diving too deep into spoiler territory (don’t worry, we’ll crack open the heavier stuff later), Omni-Man isn’t exactly who he pretends to be. He’s a Viltrumite—an alien from a race of hyper-powerful warriors with a bit of a... colonization kink. He came to Earth, fell in love with Mark’s mom, Debbie, and raised their son like any regular dad would—if your average dad could fly at Mach speed and punch a kaiju in half.

Omni man

I thought the show was going to be about Mark learning to be a hero. And it is—but not in the way you’d expect. The lessons aren’t clean. The victories aren’t painless. And the biggest fights don’t happen in the sky—they happen at home, in hospitals, in broken relationships, and in Mark’s own mind.

Okay I’m sure you’re confused. You’ve watched a million superhero movies. They all follow a template. The hero awakens their powers, has an initial run-in with the villain and is easily defeated. Bonus points if the hero loses a loved one at this point to serve as emotional fuel. The hero then trains to become strong, over a montage of them slowly learning the ropes, as a mentor figure nods solemnly in the background. The hero is then plagued with self-doubt and questions of “Am I good enough?”. In comes the heroine or friend with a rousing speech about how the hero is the most amazing person to ever grace planet earth with their presence. Now armed with the power of friendship, the hero defeats the villain we saw at the start of the story, now stronger and wiser. The end.

Invincible on the other hand… well. It follows the mold to a certain extent, but that’s about it.

From a certain point in the story, it deviates. And THAT’S what makes it one of a kind. Now, it starts off like usual, with Mark learning the ropes with his dad, but then takes a sharp left turn, into themes of trauma, inadequacy, the cost of heroism and the other side of being not just a superhero, but a human, that’s usually glossed over.

What I love about the show is that when it’s fast, it’s fast. It pulls no punches (pun intended), in the action department. There’s blood. There are limbs flying about. There’s everything you want to see in an action show. But here’s where invincible differentiates itself from the usual superhero trope. USUALLY, the hero triumphs in the end. Yes. But the camera rarely pans around to show the cost of the said victory. To cite an example, all the Avengers movies had mass destruction of cities that were… conveniently ignored. Earth’s mightiest heroes eat shawarma at the end, blissfully ignorant of the hundreds of bodies buried in the rubble around them. Superman defeats Zod, sure, but what about the buildings he toppled in the process?

Invincible takes the time to pan the camera. Invincible shows the COST of the victory (if there is one in the first place). The show goes in depth into how Mark suffers from guilt from all the lives he was UNABLE to save, instead of basking in the glow of his latest victory. Every battle comes at a price. Every punch, every kick, every building demolished tells a story, albeit without words.

It’s hard not to compare—especially when shows like the classic DC animated series depict destruction without accountability, but I must point out that in a battle between Superman and Shazam in the animated series, a mere skirmish results in a dozen occupied residential or office buildings being razed to the ground with people inside, and a HOSPITAL crumbles because superman thought it would be a great idea to throw Shazam into one. The battle ends, no-one bats an eye, and both the supes take off, as if nothing had happened.

There’s none of that in Invincible. He’s responsible. People hold him accountable. And what I found to be particularly interesting about the story is that despite his name, Mark is NOT invincible. Unlike the usual overpowered hero trope (yes, I’m looking at you, Gojou Satoru), Mark actually has to earn his strength. There's no secret move. No instant mastery. Just pain, training, and trauma.  He’s laughably weak at the start. Tossed around like a ragdoll. And to the frustration of many fans? He loses more fights than he wins. This might frustrate viewers expecting a Superman clone—someone who suddenly stands toe-to-toe with warriors despite growing up on a farm. Nope.

 Mark gets his ass kicked in most of his earlier encounters. The villains in the show point out that his superhero name is not entirely accurate. It took me a while too. I’ll admit. There were moments in which I got frustrated, and much to the confusion of anyone looking at me, yelled at mark to “get up and get em!!”. But over time, I realized that winning ISN’T the point. The name, “Invincible”, did not refer to his physical invincibility. It ACTUALLY refers to his mental strength. The ability to keep going no matter what. The mental capacity to push through the trauma and keep fighting.

I think Invincible teaches a valuable lesson to the current generation. It’s a departure (thankfully), from the older generation’s “suck it up and push through”, while also gracefully avoiding the “OMG I’m suffering from this and that and therefore I can’t put in the work”, that seems to be lingering in the current generation. Invincible says, “I acknowledge your trauma. I see your suffering. Sit through it. Experience it. Work through it. Come out on the other side stronger, and keep grinding”. THIS personally, is my favourite part. The show, despite being about superheroes, is… human.

When I say it’s human, I am referring to the fact that it takes time to explore the struggles of the side characters, not in a preachy “Oh, so and so is stuck in this situation, but here comes our hero, saving the day!”, kind of way, but in a more grounded manner. The characters have issues that are not swept under the rug. Issues with dealing with identity, with very human issues like college, loans, poverty, desperation and much more. It’s very rarely, that the cycle of crime is shown in a superhero movie. The “other side of the coin”, so as to speak.

Usually, the story STARTS with a criminal robbing a bank. With the hero swooping in and stopping it. The police (who arrive late as usual), then thank the hero with a curt nod, proceed to go ahead and arrest the said criminal. All that does happen in Invincible as well, but it also takes the time to explore what drove the criminal to crime in the first place. Through this, Invincible explores the various nuances of society, and critiques how it makes the poor poorer and the rich richer.

See, It could’ve coasted on its fight scenes and fans wouldn’t complain—but it doesn’t settle. It aims higher. If you take all this away, Invincible is still a good show with absolutely banger action sequences that will keep the dopamine fuelled brains of the current generation happy.  But I gotta really appreciate the fact that invincible takes the time and effort to explore all these perspectives. This is partly why Invincible is not really for everyone. If you’re here purely for the action, well then, you’re gonna find yourself skipping through the show a lot, looking for where you find the next blood splatter on the screen.

But I’d like to suggest a better way. Be patient. Watch everything the show has to offer. Try and understand what it’s trying to tell you. I can assure you; it’ll be worth it. For me personally, Mark Grayson stands out to me not as the strongest superhero I know. He’s not the smartest. He’s not the fastest. What he is, however, is the most human superhuman I’ve ever seen. In my mind, the show will always be....

INVINCIBLE!