Invincible Fixes The Boys Biggest Problem

Invincible Fixes The Boys’ Biggest Problem

Invincible and The Boys are both Amazon adaptations of comic book series about superheroes — but the former fixes a problem in the latter.

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Invincible Fixes The Boys Biggest Problem

WARNING: The following contains SPOILERS for Invincible episode 5, “That Actually Hurt.”

Invincible fixes a major problem in Amazon’s other superhero TV series, The Boys. Both properties are based on successful comic book series of the same name: Invincible, by Robert Kirkman, and The Boys by Garth Ennis. Although the two are set in separate worlds, there are similarities between their stories, which involve a world where superheroes run amok — but unlike The Boys, Kirkman’s Invincible treats violence with a critical eye.

Kirkman serves as an executive producer on Amazon’s Invincible, and, so far, the show is closely following the events of the original comic series. By contrast, Ennis’ The Boys is different from the Amazon show in many ways — but it shares the dark humor of the original. In both instances, however, the shows present an adult-oriented take on the typical superhero narrative — complete with excessive, graphic violence.

The Boys has never shied away from guts and gore; in the first episode, protagonist Hughie witnesses his girlfriend Robin essentially exploding after A-Train runs into her, her blood and entrails covering poor Hughie from head to toe. The moment, however, is largely played for dark-humor laughs, and A-Train is characterized more as a sympathetic anti-hero than a villain within the series. Invincible has a similarly bloody and shockingly disgusting moment in its premiere episode, but it is far more upsetting. Omni-Man killing the Guardians of the Globe is deadly serious, and has long-reaching ramifications for the narrative as a whole.

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This key difference between Invincible and The Boys reflects how the former treats violence more seriously. Although fighting is common in Invincible, and is a key aspect of its satire of the superhero genre, Invincible never glorifies violence the way that The Boys does. The animated series is careful to remind viewers that fighting comes with consequences: in Invincible episode 5, Mark is beaten to a pulp in a fight that, while exciting, is never humorous. Conversely, in The Boys, gore is often used for both shock value and laughs. The stakes for the protagonists are actually quite low — no key “good guy” has been seriously hurt (and the recurring ones who do typically die in darkly-funny circumstances). The Boys is incredibly entertaining, but it does avoid handling violence in a responsible way. While the show certainly criticizes celebrity culture and corporate interest, it takes an almost nihilistic tone regarding violence.

The biggest difference between Invincible and The Boys (other than the former being animated) is that Invincible chooses to give more realistic, if sometimes harsh, outcomes for its naive protagonist. Unlike Homelander, who is dangerous but just sympathetic enough to be likable, Omni-man is cold, calculating, and clearly hiding a significant secret. And while his father is clearly the biggest threat, Invincible has shown that Mark is vulnerable to others in this world as well. In trying to do the right thing in episode 5 (despite his father’s warnings), Mark Grayson almost dies. What’s worse, Monster Girl and Black Samson were also seriously injured trying to save him — in a fight Mark initiated under false pretenses (Titan using him to take over Machine Head’s empire with Isotope). As Invincible season 1 approaches its conclusion, Mark will likely learn further hard lessons about the true nature of being a superhero — and the true nature of his father, Omni-Man.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/invincible-boys-amazon-superhero-show-violence-consequences/

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