Invincible War in the comics saw a lot of Image characters that share the same universe come to the forefront of the comic to fight the various Invincible alternates that had invaded Earth thanks to Angstrom Levy. These characters were some of the biggest names in comics, but there were two in particular who could have been a lot of fun to see in the show, but couldn’t show up because of a rights issues.
The comics saw the Invincible War play out with a lot of characters in the fray, such as Savage Dragon, The Dynamo 5, Capes Inc, and Firebreather, all of whom are mainstays of Image Comics, owned by different artists. While these are very niche characters that fans would have enjoyed seeing in the show, there are two characters in particular that would have elevated an already brilliant episode: and the showrunners revealed why they weren’t there.
Spawn and Witchblade were absent from Invincible War (despite being there in the comics)
Spawn and Witchblade are pretty popular characters on their own and were a part of the Invincible War in the comics. A lot of their plot points were given to characters like The Astonishing Wolf Man, who also took over for Savage Dragon. These characters were largely present in the comics but were left out of the TV adaptation due to rights issues that were not congruent with what Invincible was adapting. Showrunner Simon Racioppa revealed that despite how much the creators of the show wanted to use these characters, it was simply not possible. Speaking with EW, he said:
I don’t think anyone on the show would not want that to happen but there’s just so many rights issues. It is a lot easier in comics than it is in television. When Robert was writing these books years ago, it was a lot easier. I think everything is now so controlled… It’s a bit of a nightmare.
Characters like Tech Knight, The Astonishing Wolfman, Kid Thor, and others, however, did manage to make it into the show, substituting a lot of moments from the comics that originally belonged to other characters. Even the variants of Invincible got an expanded lore, with all of them receiving at least a few lines of dialogue to build up how they are different from the version of Mark that we have been following so far.
Could the live-action Invincible film bring in these characters?
It is known that despite the success of the animated series, there is a live-action film that is still in development. It is possible that Image Comics sets the film in the same universe as King Spawn, which is another film from the comics giant that is currently in development. This series of films could feature Invincible and a slew of other Image comics characters sharing a universe, a la the MCU and the DCU.
What this essentially allows Image Comics to do is to put a contender front and center when it comes to the Big Two companies that currently dominate the superhero landscape. This could not only diversify the live-action space when it comes to superhero shows on film, but also allow more creative voices to have a say in what passes as the best that the genre has to offer.
Invincible is currently streaming on Prime Video.
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