Invincible Season 2 Has A Walking Dead Easter Egg You Might Have Missed
"Invincible" is filled with little blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments and details — one of the benefits afforded to animated shows. Like the comics it's based on, the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video series is a love letter to the superhero genre, and it's packed to bursting with colorful character designs and sneaky references. One of those "Invincible" Easter eggs pops up at the end of Season 2, Episode 6, but you may have missed it.
Some viewers may not know that Robert Kirkman, who is the co-creator of the "Invincible" comics alongside artists Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, also created "The Walking Dead." Knowing this, one brief shot in "Invincible" Season 2, Episode 6 takes on extra meaning. After donning a swanky new suit, Season 2's primary villain, Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown), is shown walking through a series of portals, traversing dimensions on his way to a presumed showdown with Invincible himself (Steven Yeun). One of the parallel realities he strolls through is filled with zombies who look quite similar to the eponymous walkers from "The Walking Dead." Given Kirkman's connection to both franchises, this hardly seems like a coincidence. The background of the scene — a suburban neighborhood recently laid to waste by undead hordes — also evokes the specific setting of the early "Walking Dead" stories.
You could write this off as a simple aesthetic choice and not an intentional Easter egg, except for the fact that "Invincible" and "The Walking Dead" have a long history of referencing each other. And no, we're not just talking about how Steven Yeun appears in the TV adaptations of both comics (though he knows he can't play Mark Grayson in live-action).
Invincible and The Walking Dead have been referencing each other for years
If you watched AMC's "The Walking Dead" after reading some of the "Invincible" comics, you'd have noticed a number of call-outs. Physical issues of the comic make appearances throughout the show, often being read by Carl (Chandler Riggs) or RJ (Antony Azor). In other episodes, you can see "Invincible"-themed t-shirts and even toys representing characters like Allen the Alien and Omni-Man.
In turn, the "Invincible" comics have also paid homage to "The Walking Dead." Issue #81 of "Invincible" includes a brief appearance from two King County, Georgia police officers who look exactly like Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh. It's a small Easter egg, but still a fun one for both of the Robert Kirkman-scripted sagas.
Given this history, it makes sense that we would see a zombie world pop up in the "Invincible" TV show, albeit just for a couple of seconds. There isn't anything quite as distinct in the shot as the Rick and Shane lookalikes from the comics, but any diehard Image Comics fan will likely make the connection on their own.