The third season of Invincible is off and running on Prime Video, and the reviews have been glowing. This animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman's superhero comic book is hard-hitting, funny, brutal and more complex than you might think at first glance. There are a ton of characters to follow, each with their own struggles and backstories. The show is only getting more narratively ambitious as it goes, serving up meaty character drama in between bone-crunching fights.
Season 3 will run through next month, but you might already be jonzing for more shows like Invincible. If so, you're in luck, because there are a lot of options. Here are some other series — both animated and live-action, some about superheroes and some not — that deliver some of what Invincible delivers:
1. The Boys (Prime Video)
Prime Video is the premiere streaming service for ultra-violent, original superhero shows. Once you're done watching the newest episode of Invincible, you can click right on over to The Boys and keep the good vibes going.
Although it's debatable just how good these vibes are. Like Invincible, The Boys imagines a more "realistic" version of a world where superheroes exist. But The Boys is far more pessimistic than Invincible. At least Mark Grayson and a lot of his friends earnestly want to do the right thing; most of the superheroes on The Boys are selfish at best and psychopathic at worse. They project an image of righteousness and justice, but really they're in it for themselves. They might use their powers to save people, but usually just to curry favor with the public. And the main villain of the piece, Homelander, is a manbaby fascist who wants to use his strength to take over the world and make slaves of anyone without superpowers. On this show, the heroes are the ordinary people trying to stop the superheroes from taking over.
The Boys is more overtly satirical than Invincible, but it dives into a lot of the same grey areas; what is the cost of power? What responsibilities come attached to it? Also, The Boys goes toe to toe with Invincible when it comes to hyper-violent fight scenes. On The Boys, they're often dialed up to the point where they're supposed to read as funny, but they're still incredibly gruesome.
There are four seasons of The Boys available to watch now, with one more on the way. You can also check out the spinoff show Gen V, about a group of college-aged Supes-in-training.
2. Justice League (Max)
If we're talking about superhero shows, you knew we were going to have to hit DC and Marvel eventually, right? While The Boys is Invincible is it was much more cynical, the Justice League cartoon from the early 2000s is Invincible is it were more optimistic. This animated series draws together some of history's greatest superheroes, including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, and watches as they defend the Earth from threats both terrestrial and otherwise. It's straight-forward superhero storytelling that still holds up today.
The Justice League will fight alien warlords, travel back in time, be stalked in their dreams, and much more. The sequel series, Justice League Unlimited, is also worth watching, and gets into some of the more thorny issues of responsibility and power that Invincible would explore years later. The show is bright, colorful, action-packed and a lot of fun.
3. Creature Commandos (Max)
If you're looking for something with more of a cynical, ultra-violent bent, Creature Commandos may be up your alley. This is another show set in the DC Universe, but it couldn't be more different from Justice League. While that show features a set of heroes pooling their strength in hopes of making the world a better place, Creature Commandos is about a group of super-criminals forced to carry out dangerous missions for the U.S. government.
The show is biting, violent and edgy, but it also has a heart. It's written by James Gunn, who has a soft spot for maladjusted misfits forced together by circumstance who end up making their own family. Under all the blood, sex and cursing, Gunn has a lot of affection for these freaks, and it shows.
The first season of Creature Commandos only recently wrapped up on Max, which makes it the newest show we're covering here. A second season is in development.
4. Peacemaker (Max)
Here's one more DC show for the road: Peacemaker is yet another James Gunn series about a bunch of a maladjusts who somehow end up fighting crime together, only this show is a live-action drama. The maladjust in chief if Peacemaker, a jingoistic gun nut with arrested development and a sensitive side he tries to hide from others. He's brought to life by John Cena in a terrificly funny and physical performance. I'm sure making this show was hard, but Cena looks like he's having the time of his life.
The first season of Peacemaker aired way back in 2022, but there's finally a second one on the way. James Gunn is now in charge of the whole DC Cinematic Universe, so you can expect our screens to be full of colorful outcasts from here on out.
There's a decent number of colorful outcasts in Invincible, as well, with Mark and friends finding that their powers isolate them from other people. Gunn's shows and movies zero in on that part of the superhero experience.
5. The Defenders (Disney+)
Okay, that's enough DC stuff! Let's switch over to Marvel for a minute. There are a ton of Marvel TV shows out there, from WandaVision to Loki to Hawkeye and beyond, but if you're looking for one that feels the most like Invincible, I'd recommend The Defenders.
One of the things that distinguishes Invincible is its deep bench of characters and huge wealth of storylines. Likewise, The Defenders comes with a lot of story behind it. It's a team-up between four different heroes who beforehand all headlined their own TV shows: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. The four of them get together to take on an international terrorist organization called the Hand, led by none other than Sigourney Weaver as the deadly Alexandra.
The Defenders isn't so much its own show as a huge crossover event between four other shows. That means there's a lot of homework to do if you want to fully appreciate this one. The Defenders delivers some of the grandiosity that Invincible brings in its best moments, so it might be worth it.
6. Wolverine and the X-Men (Disney+)
Invincible has several teams of superheroes and supervillains fighting against one another, including the Guardians of the Globe, the Teen Team, the Coalition of Planets and more. We have to give a shout-out to one of the most famous teams in all of superhero-dom: the X-Men!
There have been a great many X-Men shows produced over the years; the most recent, X-Men 97', has gotten a lot of praise. For my money, the best is probably Wolverine and the X-Men, which came out back in 2009. This animated show follows Wolverine as he tries to get the team back together following a cataclysmic event. The show packs in a ton characters, plotlines, themes and events into its first season, all of it delivered with solid animation and excellent voice acting.
The bad news is that Wolverine and the X-Men never got a second season, but the first still tells a satisfying story that's more or less cleared up at the end. And if you're still hankering for more X-Men fun after you're done, X-Men '97 is just a click away.
7. The Venture Bros. (Netflix, Adult Swim and Max)
I hope I don't oversell it when I say that The Venture Bros. is one of the best TV shows ever made. From 2003 to 2023, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer labored away at this loving, profane, insane sendup off all things superheroes, comics, and action-adventure stories.
The show begins by introducing us to Rusty Venture, a washed up "super-scientist" who in his youth was dragged all over the world on adventures by his much more successful father, and who now passes the trauma along to his own twin boys. From there, the show develops its own deep lore, introduces tons of memorable characters, and tells so many jokes it struggles to fit them all into 25-minute episodes.
The Venture Bros. began life as an Adult Swim show in the early 2000s, and there's a dated "isn't-this-edgy-are-you-offended-yet" element to some of the early episodes. But even then, you can feel how much the creators cared about their work; how else would they have kept it going for two decades as trends came and went? As it continues, The Venture Bros. stops being a parody of superhero shows and becomes an example of the best the genre has to offer.
Unfortunately, The Venture Bros. is difficult to see nowadays. The first three seasons are available to stream on Netflix, and you can stream the concluding movie, Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, on Max. But seasons 4-7 aren't available to watch on any major service, although you can stream them for free (with ads) on the Adult Swim website.
8. Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix)
Avatar: The Last Airbender is exactly a superhero show, but it's close enough to include. As in Invincible, the show revoles around a young man with incredible power. Aang is the Avatar, the last airbender, the one destined to bring peace to a world at war. It's a big responsibility and he'll have to go through his fair share of trials before he's ready to accept it, but with the help of his friends and more than a few close calls, he'll get there.
The Last Airbender doesn't have anywhere near the level of animated violence that Invincible does, but the emotions are just as intense. Over the course of its three seasons, the characters grow into well-rounded, believable leaders. The Last Airbender is the rare show to end on its highest note. It's not too long, it's not too short; it's paced perfectly.
Netflix is in the middle of adapting The Last Airbender to live-action, but so far the remake doesn't stand up to the animated original. The Last Airbender isn't technically an anime, but it has a lot of Asian influence. But we have to have at least one proper anime show on this list:
9. One Punch Man (Hulu)
One Punch Man poses a question: what if you were a superhero so powerful you could end every fight with only one punch? That's the problem our hero Saitama has to deal with. As he finds out, when you have unlimited power, being a superhero kinda gets...boring.
The first season of One Punch Man finds lots of ways to have fun with that premise. The second is a little more conventional, and follows other superheroes in Saitama's world as they deal with the kinds of high stakes conflicts you'd expect from a more traditional superhero show. But things always come back to Saitama and his amazing one-punch power/curse.
10. Game of Thrones (Max)
This pick may seem to come out of nowhere, but there are a few key things that HBO's fantasy hit Game of Thrones has in common with Invincible that might appeal to fans. For one, it has all the blood and guts an Invincible fan could possibly want; the conflicts in this show get very real, very often. And like Invincible, Game of Thrones has a wealth of great characters to follow.
But the main thing that makes me think Invincible fans might like Game of Thrones is that both shows are narratively sprawling. In Invincible, we're following Mark. But we're also checking in on Atom Eve and her family struggles. We're watching as the Guardians of the Globe dissolve and reform. We're seeing Omni-Man make friends with Allen the Alien. We're diving into Cecil's backstory. There's even a subplot about Cecil's assistant Donald. For a show called Invincible, we spent a ton of time following other characters.
Game of Thrones is even more diffuse, with lots of characters holding down entirely separate plotlines which eventually start to twine together in interesting ways. The two shows have more in common than you think!
And of course there's Invincible itself. New episodes drop Thursdays on Prime Video.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.