Invincible: How Fans Really Feel About The Show Vs. The Comics
When "Invincible" flew onto the small screen in 2021, Amazon hit the jackpot with its adaptation of Robert Kirkman's superhero story. Although the transition from comic book to animation lends itself to bringing the source material to life, there are still plenty of differences between "Invincible" stories.
One of the glaring differences is that "Invincible" features a much more diverse cast, with Mark (Steven Yeun), Amber (Zazie Beetz), and William (Andrew Rannells) all adding representation to Kirkman's work. Debbie (Sandra Oh) is also more of a character in the show, while Cecil (Walton Goggins) features significantly more in Mark's early story. There are plenty of other differences, but "Invincible" proved itself as a worthy adaptation, which isn't surprising with Kirkman bringing his comic to life.
Both versions of "Invincible" having their pros and cons sparks an interesting discussion amongst the fandom. On Reddit, u/Fbritannia got the conversation rolling, asking, "Do you prefer the show or the comic?" stating that the show was a "great adaptation" but still prefers the comics.
Invincible fans agree there are two great versions
Surprisingly, the discussion around which version of "Invincible" is better was incredibly civil, as fandoms often get out of control with debating for one or the other. U/sfinney2 wrote, "There is some nuance in that Season 1 made some improvements over the early comics. But the comic doesn't hit its stride until later on, so the show is going to have to do some heavy lifting."
U/ajc120 took a different approach, writing a dissertation on how the mediums impact each version of the story. Their main issue with "Invincible" is that there's only one season of the show to base it on, leading the two versions to focus on different themes. However, they believe the series drastically improves certain characters, saying, "Amber is completely overhauled and actually has more personality," while "William is also way more likable than in the comics." "Overall, I think the first season was a great lifting off point," they said, believing the show could easily surpass the comics in quality.
U/csummerss said, "You can't compare the two as a whole, but one season of [the] show was better than the first 13 issues." U/VindictivePrune shared a similar opinion, saying it offers "much more life." It seems like that's the consensus among the fandom, but as u/simonthedlgger said, there are just so many more issues than episodes of "Invincible." So until the show gets more seasons under its belt, the comics will always outweigh it.