In the Invincible animated series, an iconic Image character fails to make an important appearance, deviating greatly from the comic.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Invincible starring Sandra Oh, Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Gillian Jacobs, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, and Seth Rogen, streaming now on Amazon Prime.
Invincible has been a breakout hit since its release on Amazon Prime, and in just the span of four episodes viewers have been immersed into a world of high-flying superheroes and gruesome tragedies. When the greatest heroes in the world are slaughtered in their own home, the funeral that follows is a somber and infuriating occasion. And, while the animated series has brought this and many other classic moments from the comics to the small screen, it left out one key character who broke Invincible’s entire universe wide open.
Early on in Invincible, both in the comics and the animated series, the Guardians of the Globe are brutally murdered in their own headquarters after being called in for an emergency. The culprit is Omni-Man, Invincible’s father and the strongest superhero on Earth. While this event kicks off the first major arc of the series, it also brings together almost every remaining hero to grieve at a funeral for their fallen comrades. Among the crowd with Invincible is his father, playing the part of a broken friend with no one suspecting otherwise. It is a powerful moment in both versions of the story, though there is one very familiar face missing from the small screen adaptation, the Savage Dragon, and his absence reveals a lot about the series’ relationship to the shared Image Universe.
Created by Erik Larsen and introduced to the Image Universe in 1992, Savage Dragon is an Image Comics icon. As the most powerful cop in Chicago, Savage Dragon has spent years beating down superpowered Freaks, demons, and everything in between, all in the pursuit of peace and justice.
No matter how much longer Savage Dragon has been around, his presence has been felt throughout plenty of other books under the Image umbrella, not the least of which has been Invincible. Along with other present characters like Super-Patriot and Shadowhawk, Savage Dragon’s appearance at the Guardians’ funeral in 2004’s Invincible #8 by Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, and Bill Crabtree is what firmly rooted Invincible in the larger Image Universe.
As explained by creator Erik Larsen back in 2005, Savage Dragon is able to exist in the same place as Invincible even though each character has their own, independent universe because of the way Image characters share experiences when they do appear in one another’s titles. As Kirkman said, bringing that kind of shared universe to an animated show isn’t quite as simple as that, considering the number of stakeholders involved. The fact that Savage Dragon has already had his own animated series, which is currently streaming on rival streaming service Peacock, may complicate matters too.
In comics, this moment also set the stage for the relationship between these two particular heroes, who have worked together several times over the years to great success. Although the Savage Dragon and the other heroes of the Image Universe were ultimately only bit players in Invincible‘s story, their absence here still highlights what the limits of the Amazon series likely are.
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