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YMMV for the Comic Book Invincible
- Alas, Poor Scrappy: In-universe example: Rex Splode. Few people would have admitted to liking him when he was alive, but those who knew him were all very much hurt by his death.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Just before the explosion he caused after taking off his helmet, Angstrom Levy says how he won't let death of a child ruin his greatest triumph, when Mark gets beating from multiple Maulers. Is it a case of Even Evil Has Standards, where Angstrom despite his crimes could have some moral? Or is it more of Pragmatic Villainy, where he wouldn't like to face consequences for Invincible's death? What comes to more Ambiguous Situation is that we haven't got much characterization from Levy before his evil acts and revenge on Marc, all he wanted is just gaining huge knowledge from other dimensions.
- Arc Fatigue: The "Robot Takes Over The World" arc. In a comic that seemingly prided itself in being fast-paced (to the point that the obligatory Crisis Crossover was one issue long), this arc (comparatively) dragged on. Doesn't help that Robot seemed almost unstoppable. The Grand Finale arc it led up to was awesome enough to make the fatigue worth it for most people, but just about everyone agrees it could have been shortened quite a bit.
- Complete Monster: Grand Regent Thragg, ruler of the Viltrumite empire, continues the brutal traditions of only the strong surviving, conquest and genocide throughout the galaxy. Ordering the deaths of countless billions, Thragg leads his people against the heroic half-Viltrumite Markus "Mark" Grayson—aka Invincible—resulting in the loss of their homeworld. Opting to lurk on Earth to breed a new army of Viltrumites with the survivors, Thragg learns his Arch-Enemy, Mark's father Nolan, is the true heir of the empire. Thragg attempts to murder him, only to be defeated and exiled where he travels to a short lived species' world, taking it over and forcibly breeding thousands upon thousands of disposable half-Viltrumites who initially age quickly. Initiating a new war, Thragg attempts to wipe out entire worlds to establish the New Viltrumite Empire, using his own children as Cannon Fodder that he can send to literally break upon their enemy, dying pointlessly by the hundreds before attempting to destroy Earth and his old Viltrumite followers now defending it. A cruel tyrant obsessed with his ideals of strength at the expense of all else, Thragg remained Mark's most personal foe and the author of endless misery.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- The little-seen but hugely popular Allen the Alien. Kirkman has stated that, in his experience with the fandom, Allen is nearly everybody's favourite character. He's also Kirkman's favourite character, which is part of the reason why he hardly shows up; Kirkman's well aware that all it takes is a little overexposure to turn the Ensemble Dark Horse into The Scrappy.
- Astounding Wolf-Man and Techjacket. Enough that they've both spun off into their own books and have pretty much become independent characters in their own right.
- Evil Is Cool: Excluding the Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains of the series, there's quite a few. The main ones include Omni-Man prior to his Heel–Face Turn, Angstrom Levy, the Mauler Twins, Battle Beast, Conquest, Dinosaurus, Grand Regent Thragg, and even Robot after his Face–Heel Turn.
- Friendly Fandoms:
- With The Walking Dead fans since they're both written by Robert Kirkman.
- Since the Viltrumites are a super-powered Proud Warrior Race that goes around sending their own to conquer unsuspecting planets, the go-to summary of them is that they're like Saiyans. Helping things is that Allen the Alien's ability to come back stronger from near death experiences further parallel's a Saiyan's Zenkai boost.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Cecil Steadman states in his introduction in the series he had no idea that Nolan had any intention of conquering Earth. Later issues reveal that Cecil knew Nolan lied about his true intentions after they met.
- It Was His Sled: Omni-Man is actually a mole sent by the Viltrumites to conquer the planet, and he kills the Guardians of the Globe to soften Earth's defenses. Originally meant to be a massive twist for the second volume of the series, instead it became even more known thanks to the Amazon adaptation making it a First-Episode Twist.
- Jerkass Woobie: Both Rex Splode and Bulletproof qualify in similar ways, initially characterized as rather shallow and shameless cheaters who later reveal Hidden Depths and undergo a Trauma Conga Line in both their backstories and present lives, enough to make their sleaziness and infidelity seem like insignificant flaws in comparison.
- Rex is initially established as Atom Eve's boyfriend who randomly cheats on her with Dupli-Kate, ruining their relationship. During the early series of chapters that describe characters' backstories, it's revealed that Rex Splode came from an impoverished family who sold him to a mad scientist, spending most of his childhood undergoing the painful and traumatic experiments that gave him his powers. After escaping, he found the family that abandoned him now living comfortably and happily together, having forgotten Rex entirely. The trope is even Invoked when the narrator asks the audience to keep this in mind, and implores them not to judge Rex too harshly for his Jerkass qualities.
- Zandale/Bulletproof doesn't get much spotlight until much later, giving a fairly negative first impression when he attempts, unsuccessfully, to seduce both Atom Eve and Monster Girl while he's still in a relationship (as is Eve, with Invincible himself). His girlfriend Carla even hints at past infidelity on Zandale's part, something she's forgiven while he's evidently failed to learn from his mistakes. Later, Zandale's own Dark and Troubled Past is revealed: he's The Unfavorite of a pair of twins and has secretly been posing as his brother Tyrone, a scientific genius beloved by their parents but also secretly a cruel mad scientist who got himself killed while running dangerous experiments on Zandale. It gets even worse when Zandale attempts to reveal the truth to his parents. They refuse to believe Tyrone's true nature, assuming Zandale murdered him. In the ensuing argument, Zandale and his girlfriend accidentally kill both of his parents.
- Like You Would Really Do It: In issue 63 Conquest appears to have killed Eve. She involuntarily heals herself the very next issue. In issue 100, Mark himself appears to have been killed within the first two pages by Dinosaurus. The succeeding pages show that Dinosaurus killed a clone of Mark, who's completely unharmed.
- Issue 114 Mark confronts Robot, who has just assumed control of the free world in the name of logic and peace, but has killed hundreds in the process, including main characters. He successfully convinces Mark to give up, letting him stay in control.
- A Random Omnipotent Alien gives Mark the chance to go back in time and undo all of the bad things that have happened to him since the very first issue. After much Wangst, Mark decides he would rather keep things as they are and the arc ends with the Cliffhanger that he got even more screwed by the universe (like, for example, his daughter growing up five years without him). The three-issue arc, called "Reboot", even keeps advertising the Invincible universe as "so good it doesn't needs a reboot", so we have a rare case of Like You Would Really Do It lampshaded right there on the cover.
- Love to Hate: Angstrom Levy, for being an extremely personal Arch-Enemy of Mark and his rather creative schemes to try and ruin Mark's life.
- Magnificent Bastard:
- Rudolph Conners, aka "Robot", is the leader of the Teen Team. Coming into prominence following Omni-Man's murder of the original Guardians of the Globe, Robot used his ingenuity to accomplish his own goals while defending the Earth from various threats; using the Mauler Twins to rebuild his body only to turn on them afterwards, and instigating a successful slave revolt against the Flaxans while trapped in their dimension. Resentful of Mark for being given credit for helping rebuild after Dinosaurs' final attack while his efforts go unnoticed, and fearing what Mark could become upon witnessing a evil version of Invincible in a alternate dimension, Robot sought to unify the world under his banner. Trapping Invincible in the alternate Earth, Robot launches a coup against the Global Defense Agency when Invincible got back and purges of many of Earth's heroes; leading to Robot effectively taking over the Earth. Under his rule war and poverty almost completely eradicated, his efforts causing any potential resistance against Robot to fizzle out and forcing Invincible to leave Earth. Even after his defeat by Invincible following a fatal error of Robot's, Invincible, seeing that Robot has benefited humanity, preserved his brain to allow Robot to continue guiding humanity from the shadows, but restrained enough to prevent him from seeking absolute power again.
- Nolan Grayson, better known as the superhero "Omni-Man", presents as the greatest hero alive while being a spy for the Viltrumite Empire. A successful infiltrator of Earth, Nolan lures the Guardians of the Globe into a trap to wipe them out so he might prepare Earth for a Viltrumite takeover. Upon realizing he loves his son Mark too much to kill him for opposing him, Nolan flees, later becoming an enemy of the Viltrumites where he uses his skill, strength and knowledge to assist the Coalition of Planets against his old empire, while telling Mark to use the information in his books against the Viltrumites. Finally ascending to becoming the Emperor of the Viltrumites, Nolan attempts to lead his people into a new age of peace and tolerance.
- Memetic Mutation: From the animated series, the "Think, Mark, think" frame of Omni-man standing over his wounded son got a lot of variations very quickly due to what an excellent meme format it is.
- Also an example of Beam Me Up, Scotty! since Omni-man says "Think" once in the series, unlike the comic.
- Also from the animated series: "Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power."
- Heh.jpeg explanation
- "I thought... I thought you were stronger." explanation
- Memetic Loser: The Immortal. Despite being one of the heavy hitters amongst Earth's superhero community, the poor guy just cannot keep up with the Viltrumites and is more than often subjected to The Worf Effect, with many of his onscreen fights resulting in him getting disembodied.
- Misaimed Fandom: Disturbingly, there is a decent number of readers who wished that they were in Mark's place when Anissa rapes him. This is despite the moment clearly being an attempt to avert the Double Standard Rape: Female on Male, with the scene being portrayed as horrifying rather than titillating.
- Moral Event Horizon:
- Robot murdering various regular characters, heroes and villains alike, in his mission to take over the planet.
- Anissa for beating down Mark after his girlfriend broke up with him and proceeds to rape him in the hopes of getting pregnant. She even taunts him later about how she wants to do it again. While she performs a Heel–Face Turn in the 5 year Time Skip, Mark understandably wants nothing to do with her.
- Dinosaurus attempting to kill off eighty percent of the world's population, which doesn't quite succeed but still manages to kill almost a million people. Even he considers this to be unforgivable later, which leads to him asking Mark to kill him.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Oliver became a lot more tolerable after he began to appreciate humans better.
- Signature Scene: Quite a few.
- "What will you have in 500 years?!"
- The entire fight with Conquest, especially Mark's brutal finisher.
- Anissa raping Mark.
- The Identical Panel Gag.
- The final page of the final issue. "Heh".
- Romantic Plot Tumor: Mark and Eve's Will They or Won't They? dynamic. The first 50 issues were spent with them dragging their feet around the fact they liked each other, Mark constantly fucking up the opportunities to be with her, and staying in a relationship with Amber despite everyone (both in, and outside universe) seeing how much he was in love with Eve. Things get much better once they get together in issue 50, and they develop into a healthy and appealing couple.
- The Scrappy: Duplikate. We're supposed to find her relationship with The Immortal to be wholesome, and also serve as a more responsible and "has-its-shit-together" counterpart to Mark and Eve's relationship, but we are never shown why the Immortal cares about her so much. Not only is she shown to be a serial cheater (granted, Rex kinda deserved it), she constantly makes disparaging comments about Eve's appearance and is shown to be a stereotypical nagging and manipulative asian wife. And unlike Rex and Bulletproof's cases, we are never shown a complex backstory justifying the less savory aspects of her personality.
- Unpopular Popular Character: Rex Splode. While generally viewed as an annoying Jerkass in-universe, he's one of the most popular of the new Guardians/Teen Team with fans, with his takedown of the Lizard League and later Heroic Sacrifice in the Invincible War causing many to regard him as a legitimately badass superhero despite his flaws.
- Values Dissonance: Some of the characters using the word "gay" disparagingly in earlier issues, particularly with the whole "this is so gay" Running Gag. While not inaccurate to how teens talked during the time of its release, such usage drops off significantly as the series progresses (and not just because of the characters getting Older and Wiser), and the animated adaptation made a point to leave it out entirely.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: While the art style is bright-colored and whimsical, the comic itself is very violent and dark. What doesn't help is that the series starts off as a normal lighthearted superhero comic, and even so, flip-flops from being dark to lighthearted.
- Prime Video even went so far as adding a content warning in the description that the animated series isn't for kids, which is the only show they've done it for. This most likely is because this is one of their very few original animated shows aimed only at adults, and the first episode may catch unsuspecting parents off guard.
- Played for Laughs in the 'Allen the Alien' issues, which always cut away from sex scenes, with Kirkman claiming he wants to keep the comic family friendly. These same issues tend to contain some of the most violent battles in the comic, the first having Allen's intestines and eye ripped out. It's a Shout-Out to the old Comics Code, which was very lenient towards violence but extremely conservative in regards to sexual content.
- Wangst: Mark really needs to have someone tell him to get a grip sometimes. To put it more clearly: As the series progresses, Mark is seen openly weeping with increasing frequency as the series goes, to the point that it occasionally sours the mood by making it seem like the author is desperate for any sort of emotional reaction from the audience. While he has legitimate reason for it a lot of time, there are also times where you think he'd be used to that kind of thing by now. Even Kirkman himself admits via Author Avatar that he didn't really handle every tone shift as well as he'd hoped.
- The Woobie:
- Mark's fiance breaks up with him and later Anissa rapes him when he's at his lowest, all in the same day. Even when he and Eve reconcile, the latter still haunts him.
- Rick who's, turned into a robotic zombie super soldier against his will and even though he is partially turned back into a human, he is still affected by the trauma.
YMMV for Invincible by Michael Jackson
- Critical Dissonance: U.S. Reviews, while mixed, weren't very kind to the album, and (by Jackson's standards) it virtually bombed in its home territory, selling only two million copies. International sales and reviews, however, were much better.
- Sequelitis: The lowest performing of all Jackson's albums made under the Epic label, both critically and commercially.
- So Okay, It's Average: What listeners eventually felt about it after the controversy about Jackson's personal life died down. By all accounts, yeah, it's not a phenomenal album by Michael Jackson standards, and contains some of his more infamous post-Dangerous trademarks: songs that go on for hours, and borrowing from several then-popular styles of music. However, this is still the King of Pop, who refused to release anything unless he felt it was as flawless as possible, so the songs on their own are still really great. It's telling that "You Rock My World" was the #1 downloaded song on iTunes the day MJ passed and not, say, "Billie Jean" or "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough."
- Vindicated by History: While still regarded as not one of his strongest solo work compared to his previous ones, many agreed after Jackson's passing, that Invincible was nowhere near as bad as people said it was back in 2001 and actually contains some hidden gem songs.
- The track 'Heaven Can Wait' trended on Tiktok in 2022 and was added to the 'Michael Jackson Essentials' playlist on Apple Music due to its popularity.
