With the success of Amazon’s adaptation ofInvincible, the Robert Kirkman superhero saga is more popular than ever, andthe franchise’s surging fandom has lately been fixated on a piece of supposedly “lost” media, which has now been officially rediscovered: the 2006 MTV motion comic version ofInvincible.
On Instagram, the account Geekstuff GT shared a true walk down memory lane for any fans old enough to remember the mid-aughts; while looking through an old iPod, Geekstuff GT foundtheInvinciblemotion comic, which was produced by MTV in ‘06.
At the time,Invinciblewas still in the early stages of its fifteen-year run in publication. In addition to being an exciting pop culture artifact from nearly twenty years ago, the motion comic also makes it clear that there has always been an eagerness to adaptInvincible, with Amazon finally getting it right with the current ongoing series.
MTV’s “Invincible” Motion Comic Resurfaces On Social Media, Taking It Off The “Lost Media” List
Shout-Out To Geekstuff GT For Unearthing The Adaptation
As Geekstuff GT noted in their Instagram post showing off theInvinciblemotion comic, not only did many people think the adaptation was lost, some didn’t even believe it was real. “I’ve been a fan of Invinciblesince it came out,” Geekstuff GT wrote, showing off the OG iPod to prove it. A precursor to the iPhone, iPods might seem almost as archaic as cassette players in hindsight, but in the early-to-mid-2000s, they were revolutionary, and theInvinciblemotion comic produced by MTV is an example of how content creators sought to take advantage of the era’s developing technology.
Even beforeIron Maninaugurated the MCU in 2008, bringing superheroes into the mainstream, it was clear thatInvinciblecould reach a wider following, if only people outside the comic book reading audience could be exposed to it.
Though today, comics are readily accessible in digital format, this was far from the case in 2006. Downloadable motion comics like MTV’sInvinciblewere an attempt to make comic content more widely available. The adaptation also pre-dated the boom period of superhero media; even beforeIron Maninaugurated the MCU in 2008, bringing superheroes into the mainstream, it was clear thatInvinciblecould reach a wider following, if only people outside the comic book reading audience could be exposed to it. While MTV’sInvinciblewasn’t fully successful in that regard, it set a precedent Amazon would later make good on.
The “Invincible” Motion Comic Is A Novel Artifact In Comparison To The Amazon Series
A Comic Book Adaptaion “What If?”
Multiversal shenanigans and"What If?" stories are superhero staples, so it is worth considering, for a moment, the possible alternate timeline in whichIron Manis not a critical success, and the MCU does not usher in a Golden Age of superhero film and TV adaptations, one where MTV’sInvinciblemotion comic is a treasured, if truncated, piece of media, with no greater follow-up. In this timeline, hardcoreInvinciblefans are likely still waiting for an adaptation that does the source material justice, while still enjoying the motion comic as the closest anyone has come.
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Instead, the motion comic is a novelty, one which provides context for the trajectory that theInvinciblefranchise, and the superhero genre in general, have charted over the past two decades.Amazon’sInvincibleseries is a fully-realized adaptationof the original comic, one that creatorRobert Kirkman is essentially treating like a second draftof his own story in a different medium. By comparison,MTV’sInvinciblefrom 2006 looks primitive, but it is worth remembering that it was pioneering in its day, even if it was ultimately just a teaser for whatInvinciblewould become.
