5 biggest differences between Invincible season 2 and the comics
The first half of Invincible season 2 has finally premiered on Amazon Prime Video, and it was just as insane as the first season. The first four episodes introduced new villains, fleshed out the main characters and gave us a brutal fights scene in Episode 4, with Mortal Kombat-worthy fatalities galore.
The show made a lot of departures from Robert Kirkman’s Invincible comic books in certain areas. and these changes mostly enhanced the story and condensed or cut unnecessary plotlines. Here are the five biggest comic-to-show differences from Invincible season 2.
The Atlantean Queen
In both versions of Invincible, fledgling superhero Mark Grayson has to travel to Atlantis on a mission to marry the Atlantean queen Aquaria, as is required according to Atlantean custom after Mark’s father Omni-Man killed an Atlantean prince. Under Atlantean law, Omni-Man should be the one doing this, but since he flew into space at the end of season 1, Mark must sub in. On the show, once Mark reaches his destination, the queen explains that the marriage custom was abolished long ago. Instead, Mark simply needs to fight a giant sea creature. Easy as pie.
However, in the comic book, the Atlanteans want Mark to not only fight the depth dweller, but also to marry the queen and make love to her in front of the entire underwater society. Mark freaks out because he’s afraid to lose his virginity to a fish, and eventually he finds out that the queen’s advisor Lethan is in love with her. They devise a plan where Mark makes it look like Lethan defeated the sea monster and he is the one who eventually marries Aquaria.
Most of this arc was likely cut out for time purposes, but I still think it would have been fun to see Mark navigate the whole losing-his-virginity-to-a-fish thing on screen. It’s one of the wackier storylines that makes Invincible a great comic book, and it involves Mark wearing a dress. That said, the show added in a nice beat where, after the depth dweller gets out of control, Mark decides to go back and save the Atlanteans instead of swimming back to the surface. This gave us a moment where Mark overcame the urge to act like his father would and let them all die.