“Invincible,” Amazon Prime’s animated superhero series based on Robert Kirkman’s comic, delivers a perfect mix of heart, brutality and complex storytelling. It starts off feeling like your typical coming-of-age superhero story, following 17-year-old Mark Grayson (voiced by Steven Yeun), who’s just learning how to control his powers after inheriting them from his father, Omni-Man (voiced by J.K. Simmons). But don’t let the first episode fool you, “Invincible” wastes no time and gets straight into the violent action. 

What makes the show stand out is its realism in a superhero world where it shows the true consequences of super-powered battles, cities destroyed, civilians injured and the trauma of being a hero trying to save the lives of others. The show doesn’t try to make being a hero seem like it’s always an awesome job, it shows the strain it puts on Mark and all the other people around him as well. 

Besides all the action, the show has great storytelling, showing Mark’s progression from a naive kid to battle-hardened hero. Not only that, the story has great emotional storytelling as well. The show makes you care about what happens to the characters by spending time giving them depth and really making you relate to them. 

The show does have some drawbacks though, the pacing can feel a bit weird at times. For the middle episodes, it can feel really drawn out if you’re just watching the show for the action bits, but the slower pacing helps add depth to the characters and world that you otherwise wouldn’t get.

One other issue is the animation. The animation can look pretty bad sometimes, like moving PNG of a character level bad, but for the most part the show’s animation is pretty good for things like action scenes, which are definitely a highlight of the show.

In summary, if you want a decently well animated show with brutal action and compelling storytelling you should definitely give “Invincible” a watch.