This is something I’ve been worrying about for a while. I feel like I would love for Invincible to go on forever, but knowing from brief research just how long and crazy the comics get, I feel like the showrunners might not wrap it up in a concise manner.

Kirkman obviously has been through this before with TWD. It went on for far too long and everyone got really bored of it after a while. Invincible potentially might do the same and I think there’s at least one good reason why it might do that: the hesitancy to kill off major characters.

Now before any comic readers come for my throat, I know that the show obviously isn’t afraid to kill major characters, but I also know how fucking crazy it is that many of them get beat within an inch of their lives, survive and fully recover. A good example of this is Allen, who I know comes back after hearing some minor spoilers. His beatdown was very effective in showing the brutality of the Viltrumites, and the fact he survives is fine and all but how many more times will the show do that for big players? Any regular watcher will take one look at Allen and say “yeah, he’s dead” but then the story pivots and he’s actually alive again. Same with Immortal, same with Monster Girl, same with Black Samson, Donald too I suppose.

It’s a sort of sense of consequence that might just fall away after a while. I can see an average viewer getting really fucking annoyed by it if they keep it up. You could be watching a really fucking awesome fight but feel nothing because you know there’s potential that whoever gets “killed” will probably come back anyway. I’m getting very worried about it more now that there’s a multiverse angle, which also might be a huge factor in a decline.

I know Kirkman did multiverses before they were popular in the comics, but they’re being adapted into the show right as they’re falling out of favour with audiences. Everyone’s seen it already and I can see some huge eye-rolls happening when it becomes really important later down the line.

So all this really begs the question: how long can the show keep doing this without getting repetitive, annoying or just generally boring to the general audience? We all love the first season for good reason, but has all the new and fun stuff that made it so special already been shown? TWD is a huge example of this happening, as AMC filtered Frank Darabont out of the project after a glorious Season 1 that showed audiences a new take on the Zombie genre all to give Kirkman more control on the project as he said he’d do it for a smaller budget than Darabont wanted.

Another recent example is The Boys. It’s only on its third season and already quite a few people are getting irritated by the fact they just kinda keep doing the same thing over and over again without anyone ever suffering consequences apart from whoever the newbie for that season is. The Season 4 trailer didn’t look too promising considering Black Noir is back and there’s a Stormfront regen that will inevitably bite the bullet by the end of the season. As much as I enjoy that show, it does get pretty stupid when you consider all the times Homelander could’ve killed Butcher or Hughie or anyone without the massive public outcry he so fears.

This is a general question and I mean no animosity to anyone that loved the comics all the way through. How much do you trust Kirkman not to overdo it so he can tell his huge winding story that is likely way too long for 4-5 seasons of television?