Invincible Had An MTV Animated Series You Can’t Watch Anymore

“Invincible” has been doing numbers for Prime Video for the last couple of seasons, but some fans might not know that Robert Kirkman’s beloved series actually had a previous animated adaptation. Kirkman struck gold with his work on “Invincible” in the 2000s, and people were excited for what the future could bring. Unfortunately, the idea of a full adult animated series was harder to come by back then.

But in the 2000s, motion comics were all the rage. With that “new” technology, fans could get their fix of Mark Grayson’s adventures in small doses without having to wait for a big Hollywood studio to get involved. It was a win-win scenario for everyone, but there’s one big catch: The “Invincible” TV series from back then is basically impossible to stream now.

MTV aired these short “Invincible” installments on MTV2 back in the day, with the option to download episodes on iTunes and other 2000s-era digital storefronts. Unfortunately, the parts of the MTV website that used to host “Invincible” are long gone.

So, unless you’re handy with Internet sleuthing, it’s going to be an uphill battle to find that version of “Invincible” streaming anywhere. (A quick scroll over to the Lost Media Reddit board might help if you’re really craving a trip back to the Y2K era of comic-book TV shows.)

“Invincible” was voiced by Patrick Cavanaugh in 2008, and the rest of the voice cast included Pete Sepenuk as Omni-Man and Wendy Allyn as Atom Eve. 

One of the things that makes this version of “Invincible” really interesting is that motion comics really stick to the source material. The motion comic format is literally the panels from the book narrated by voice actors with speech bubbles on-screen, so it’s like picking up those early issues and reading them yourself.

Gain Enterprises was the studio helping bring “Invincible” to life back then. Their “Bomb-xx process” guides viewers through the pages of a comic book, as the motion comic zooms in on key moments and frames conversations to make it easy to follow along. The process was everywhere in the late 2000s, as it was an easy way to animate comic book stories without paying for a production the size of the current “Invincible” series. 

 “Invincible” hit right as “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight” became huge pop-culture forces, and that opened a lot of folks’ eyes to the potential for a big audience flocking to these adaptations. But MTV used these motion comics to help supplement programming on a side channel, rather than on the main network. The channel’s vice president of new media, David Gale, told The New York Times that this was a play to help boost their presence on storefronts like iTunes.

“I like to think of it as cinematic comics – digital cinematic comics… I think it’s important that in this age you really give the freedom to the consumer,” he said. “If all you do is put it on a Web site and ask for them to find it, it’s very challenging. I also think the evolution of download-to-own is becoming such an expected format for people to get content.”

Gale was correct about how big downloading shows and movies were about to get. On the other hand, he also might have been wise not to hype these motion comics as something that would take over the industry. MTV”s versino of “Invincible” now stands as a curiosity for people who love superhero TV media — very fitting for a permanent underdog.