Invincible is having a great run as an animated series, produced by Seth Rogen under Amazon Studios. The show recently wrapped up its second season, one that ended with a bang. However, there are a lot of things that had to change for the adaptation of the comic, specifically because of how many characters from other IPs it featured in its source material.
While comics created under the Image Comics label are owned by their respective creators, the characters do share a world with other IPs, and often crossover with each other during major events. Given that an Invincible live-action film is in the works, it is completely possible that Invincible could kick off a shared Image Comics universe, that could bring to the screen a host of beloved characters.
Invincible had to make some changes to the story due to copyright issues
For fans of the comics who are watching the show, it is easy to spot the changes made by the adaptation. To begin with, Science Dog serves as Mark’s premiere comic book obsession. However, since Science Dog is an actual separate series of comics, the show had to change the comic Mark is obsessed with to Seance Dog, which gives the character more of a Stephen Strange aesthetic, rather than the Adam Strange aesthetic that it touted in the comics.
Similarly, Savage Dragon, Spawn, Witchblade, The Astounding Wolfman, and Dynamo 5 all crossover with Invincible in various degrees. An evil version of Mark remarks that he has killed the Spawn of his universe, and Savage Dragon swears by Invincible’s character when the media tries to slander him based upon the alternate versions Angstrom Levy let into Mark’s reality. Essentially, Invincible War serves as a verse-wide event, that invites a slew of other characters into the Invincible story to fight by Mark’s side.
Image Comics could use Invincible to kick off its own Cinematic Universe
Given that the live-action film is a bigger endeavor as compared to animated series, Image Comics could bring over its entire cast to set up a shared universe, bringing in other parts of Robert Kirkman‘s world (such as The Astounding Wolfman) along with characters like Supreme, Captain Dynamo, and Savage Dragon into the live-action universe.
Invincible also crosses over with other characters, like when he made an appearance at Captain Dynamo’s funeral, later assisting his children to fight off a threat that was previously faced by Omni-Man, Supreme, Captain Dynamo, and Savage Dragon in a run of Dynamo 5 called Sins of the Father.
While they were largely absent from Invincible, given that Amazon Studios only had the rights to one character and his mythology, a live-action film developed by Image Comics could have other Image characters, giving the reinvigorated MCU and the rebooted DCU another rival to compete against in the industry. While Valiant Comics failed to enter a third horse into the superhero cinematic universe race, Image Comics is perfectly positioned to enter itself in the race, and perhaps even beat Marvel and DC at their own game.
