you'll live to see this world crumble to dust

the Grayson family drama has me in a chokehold and I need to yell into the void about it ~ no. 1 Mark Grayson supporter ~ (Show canon only, not read the comics)

[bebx]

I love my blorbo so much I need him covered in blood and beaten within an inch of his life

[the-alethiometer]

Mark Grayson in nearly every episode of Invincible. Poor kid gets his shit rocked all the time.

[crumble-to-dust]

you'll live to see this world crumble to dust and blow away

[minichupikkk]

Sometimes I think about what career Mark would like to pursue if he never got his powers. And honestly I can't think of a single thing, maybe it's because he was simply invested in all this hero bullshit all his life too much and got striped away from any form of normalcy at 17 y o

But maybe it's because Kirkman never really showed us much of a person Mark is outside of him being invincible.

Like what do we know about dis kid??? His favourite comic? That's kinda all honesty

[crumble-to-dust]

.

[valtsv]

really love a corruption arc where the character is trying way too hard to make it work but they're in over their head and it's uncomfortable and embarrassing and they're swallowing their own puke every time they do something awful and damp with sweat and trembling but insistent that they can do this, they want it, they're not a child, but it's like they're playing dressup in clothes that are too big for them and trying to convince their own reflection in the mirror that they fit and it's just no fun to watch at all

[valtsv]

+ then they find inside them a capacity for cruelty far more upsettingly vicious than anyone could have imagined and decide that because they enjoy how unafraid it makes them feel for the first time in as long as they can remember it must have been their true nature all along instead of something that had to be starved in the dark until it grew desperate enough to claw its way out 🙂‍↕️

[robin-vb]

Can you tell I love to avoid drawing his full mask

[nemnums]

Invincible stills from my animation meme contribution + a crying mark gif

[moonyeyes]

every time I remember oliver is losing his purple I cry

[bayfuzzball7050]

Nolan Grayson you will be dealt with.

[trust-and-jump]

we'd be much more fucked up... I wouldn't survive and certainly I wouldn't be saying to my dad all those things about "I'll stop you" and "what if they resist" and I definitely would not be able to say "I'd still have you".

Also did you notice how often (including comics) Mark zones out? It started in s1 after the first Flaxan invasion and it keeps happening. "Are you in there?"

Also Mark doesn't remember shit after Eve "dying" in the first Conquest battle and he doesn't remember killing Conquest in the second battle. Also he doesn't have control over his own life at all, because of everything he experienced, and many times he lashes out are there because he tries to gain this control back, and most of his big decisions don't feel like the right thing. His autonomy is taken away from him. He never feels like he gets a say in this, things happening to him. He can't find the inner strength because of it, because of that lack of control. And he genuinely can't protect himself because of the trauma, parental violence, everything he endured. He really can't protect himself. He doesn't, his autonomy is violated, his guilt is part of his brain, by now, he won't protect himself, he can only act when he's reminded other lifes are at stake. He doesn't act on himself being hurt. And one of the only times Mark protects himself (after Cecil sends Reanimen) everyone looks at Mark in horror. Not that Mark was completely in the right, that's not the point. But he protected himself this one time and how was it perceived..

More than anything, the lesson Nolan taught Mark in Chicago was not "you are not them, you will always endure, they are insects" but "It's your fault, Mark". That life changing event taught Mark that everything, all the death, all the destruction is his fault. "That was your fault." after the building poisoned Mark's mind for the rest of his life. Nolan said that, after the building Mark collapsed unintentionally, and Mark just bowed his head, accepting it as the truth, this belief settling in his bones.

Through the whole story (including most of the comics, except for the ending) it feels like he's constantly drowning. Sometimes he tries to swim, sometimes he floats at the surface trying not to struggle against the current (fleeing Earth after Robot started his evil things), but in the end, he's still drowning. All the time.

I saw some people complaining about Mark not taking all matters in his own hands, or complaining about Mark being too passive, reacting instead of acting, being submissive, push-over etc. But I know people like that who ARE like that because of the stuff they've been through. They mostly don't even realise that they are acting this way because they were hurt in the past. Oh, and what about some people out there who get into abusive relationships after barely getting alive from the last abusive relationship they got into? That are vulnerable to people who would take advantage of them? Would you be confused about why a person with a poorly healed broken leg is more prone to trip and fall and re-traumatize? That's Mark. He's never fully healed, never truly looked after (Cecil only did it when it was serving his purposes and would manipulate Mark at any opportunity, Debbie for two seasons had many things to be fucked up about herself, Oliver is a child, Eve for the most part except maybe season three had her own problems, Amber was hurt by relationship with Mark herself and couldn't provide anything but distraction from superhero bullshit, William is just a bro and doesn't really have access to Mark, Nolan is Nolan (no comments)...) Always getting punched in the places that already hurt. Poking the bruises. tearing the wounds. kicking the broken bones.

All of that... is why he fucks up, why he can't protect himself, why he jumps into danger, why he is drowning all the time, why he can't gain control, why he feels he's letting everyone down, all the time. And yes someone could say he's whiny. But man he is so much stronger than I ever will be. He *lives*. He's also mostly functional. After everything. I could never.

[artbyblastweave]

I maintain that, ironically, one of Invincible’s missteps may have been to make Amber and William actually interesting. 

Amber’s narrative role in the comics was to demonstrate that being a superhero would be massively damaging to a relationship with a normal human, even if they were 100 percent informed of who they were dating, and she didn’t have much going on besides that. William was sort of just…. there, to demonstrate that Mark had friends, and he and Rick rode off into the sunset after around issue 50 because that’s just… what happens, you know? That’s what happens to your best friend from high school. They drift off to be the star of their own life.

That worked in both cases because the comic was really decompressed; a character can fade out like that without much closure and it isn’t a jarring transition. A big theme in the comic, too, is that Omni-Man had a point that a superhuman like Mark is inevitably going to outgrow normal human society, and it’s up to him to figure out how to make that transition productive and healthy instead of becoming a mad god. None of the tertiary cast from the start of the comic are still around by the end of it, and that happens so gradually it’s easy to miss. 

But season one of Invincible really heavily centers people who were just kind of…. there, in the comics. The D.A Sinclair arc got adapted faithfully, but they took it from a two issue subplot to an eighth of season one. It really gets  William and Amber down in the trenches with Mark and gives the guy an inner circle of civilian confidantes. There’s no way to remove them from the narrative that won’t feel like time and effort was wasted, and I’m not sure how you keep them in the narrative when you get to the point of Mark fighting in a space war for a year unless you start handing out superpowers to the supporting cast like candy.

(Which already happened to Rick, so, uh, maybe? It was definitely a good move to have Mark and Eve source some of their social conscientiousness from Amber, at any rate.)

[vanlegion]

I only just finished this show three days ago and I very much enjoyed what I watched. I’ve poked and peeked at the comics without trying too much to spoil anything, and from what you’ve said and what I’ve seen.. I do actually think I very much prefer the ‘misstep’ taken for the TV show. It sorta of gives the show a chance to grow a little on its own without being a complete direct translation, which makes me pretty happy since I basically fell in love with William. (Andrew Rannells helped that a lot XD) He’s sorta a ball of chaotic bitch energy to Mark’s coasting chill (at least at first, until shit went sideways). Going back to how you mentioned Amber’s role in the comics - I get the point, and I get the idea behind it but it also sorta of doubles back on itself, because if the idea is that these advanced Super beings can’t or shouldn’t be cultivating relationships with human, then… well, Mark shouldn’t have ever been conceived. By that logic. But in every Superhero genera, there will be people out there who are a Super/Human couple, with a life and kids. I mean, some of our most iconic pairs are just that. So for a series to imply the pointlessness of it all, just seems so… Viltramite, honestly. Heh. I would argue that Mark would be all that much more in favor of wanting a relationship with a human partner all the much more since he is VERY aware he’s going to outlive all these people. They’ve become that much more precious to him. Now, all that being said, I would absolutely be thrilled if they ended up giving William and/or Amber some kind of powers, or longevity or what have you. I mean, it’s not out of the scope of possibility considering everything we’ve seen up to this point. And you’re right. Those of us have that have become invested in Mark’s connections to Amber and/or William, his mom - these civilian humans - it would very much feel like a disservice to just anax them out of the show just because. I’ve held an almost forty year long friendship I made when I was in single digits. There’s stories of people who’ve been friends for their whole life. Those kinds of friendship aren’t too common, but they aren’t exceeding rare either. I would be very hard pressed to believe Mark and William would just drift apart. There’s a Ride or Die feel with them, and I’m all here for it (my shipping ass aside). So it’ll be interesting to see how the show will handle this shift, and I do hope it’ll be done well and with care.

[summerprime]

amber saying “make sure the voice in your ear isn’t the only one you listen to” and mark in the next episode telling cecil “i need to listen to myself before i listen to you” and tossing out his earpiece. god markamber was so good

[bayfuzzball7050]

I saw a post about what mark would study in college because “we actually know so little about this kid” and realized. Mark’s lack of personality outside of his childish interests and trauma is actually a core part of his character just listen bro he was absorbed into the superhero world when he was barely out of 10th grade and didnt even get to develop his own hopes and dreams, after all, he was Invincible. He is Cecil’s best weapon and his dad’s heir and his whole life he chased after his dad’s shadow just to realize he wasn’t anything like the hero he dreamed to be one day which left him ‘without floor’ so to speak. He was a kid. He didn’t get to figure himself out. His life was stripped of normalcy the day his powers kicked in. He clung to his relationship with Amber because she was the last string of normalcy in his life even if wanting to keep her around was selfish and he knew he couldn’t give her what she needed. He only talks about his tragedies because that’s all that is to his life. He knows nothing but being a kid and being abused. Oh god.

[nc--arts]

Because I'm [title card]

[summerprime]

imagine being oliver and your brother is always like “oh man im literally just like our dad,,,im turning into him,,,it’s inevitable :(” meanwhile this is your pov constantly:

[byfulcrums]

thinking about how loneliness is a constant in every mark grayson of every universe

thinking about how eve always dies, how he'll never have any friends his age, how no one will ever trust him after what he's done. thinking about how, in many of these universes, his parents die too. thinking about how many times he's been the one to kill them

[birdssong]

not him but pretty damn close