Summary
Invinciblehas become one of the most popular animated superhero shows on Amazon Prime, and for good reason. This excellent series draws inspiration from some of the best animated superhero series from DC and Marvel over the years, such asJustice LeagueandX-Men Evolution.Among the standout aspects of the series is its power scaling, with the main characters demonstrating impressive strength and unique abilities. But no superhero series is whole without its own fodder characters and “street-level” threats.
Invinciblehas a diverse roster of weak superpowered characters. While some of these are just a gag or a pastiche of a character from another universe, some characters have interesting roles. The weakest characters inInvincibleall have their own unique identities that stand out, and they aren’t treated as afterthoughts.
8Elephant
A Man With the Strength of an Elephant
The Elephant is a minor villain who makes a few funny appearances. He’s not really “villainous,” and takes on small mercenary-for-hire roles. He has good intentions, but his strength can sometimes pose a threat to regular humans. His “agenda” is to stop people from eating meat, and he does so by demonstrating his strength, claiming he got that strong because he’s a vegetarian.
To put it simply, he’s a man in an elephant suit, complete with trunk and big floppy ears, and is as strong as the animal itself. That is to say, he can lift around 6 tons of weight. He’d be strong in a series full of regular humans, but theInvincibleuniverse has characters that can level entire cities and mountains and destroy asteroids. Because of his harmless nature, Elephant is used as a training dummy for Invincible and, later in the series,his younger brother Oliver.
7Killcannon
Atom Eve’s Arch Nemesis is Quite Weak
Killcannon is the first villain in the series to be defeated by both Invincible and Atom Eve. He’s first introduced in the first episode after Mark gets his powers and is exploring the city for opportunities to use them. Killcannon is seen escaping a bank heist when he runs into a novice Invincible. He barely puts up a fight against him, and is taken down easily. Likewise, in his fight against a young Atom Eve inInvincible: Atom Eve, he loses to a young and inexperienced Atom Eve who makes short work of him.
In terms of strength, he’s likely even weaker than the Elephant. What makes him more of a threat is the destructive potential of his arm cannon. To its credit, this weapon puts up a good fight against Atom Eve in their second encounter, being supercharged by Robot’s device. Killcannon is also more malicious and willing to risk civilian lives. Regardless, he’s quite weak overall.
6Isotope
Right-Hand Man to Street Level Crime Syndicate Bosses
Isotope is easily the weakestsuperpowered characterin the series, but does get points because his superpower is a gimmick that can be exploited. He’s the right-hand man or second-in-command to crime syndicate bosses in the series, who aren’t very powerful themselves. In the beginning, he was working for Machine Head, but betrays him and starts working for Titan, who takes over the syndicate. He later starts working with Machine Head again, who breaks out of prison because of Mr. Lee’s rampage.
Isotope has one power: teleportation. Everything else about him is human, making him pretty weak. Regardless, he is a conniving character who knows his limits and plays his cards right for survival. When exploited, his powers can be quite useful for escaping hairy situations.
5Machine Head
A Gimmicky Crime Boss With an Autotuned Voice
Machine Head becamean instant favorite with fanswhen he showed up inInvincibleseason one. He’s not powerful in terms of raw strength or abilities, but he is capable because of his connections and his ability to navigate the criminal underworld in a world full of superheroes. The fact that he was convincing enough to pull someone as strong as Battle Beast into a street-level fight is pretty telling.
Machine Head’s powers lie in his intellect and his ability to improve it, considering that his head is a machine. When Titan steals a chip and gives it to him, Machine Head installs it into his brain, and it seemingly gives him some powers of foresight. These powers allow him to anticipate Titan’s betrayal, in response to which he hires a few superpowered characters to fight Invincible and Titan.
4Titan
Impressive Strength & Durability
Titan is one of the most interesting street-level antagonists in the series. He’s introduced as an enforcer working for Machine Head because he owes him a debt. He goes on to manipulate Invincible into helping him take down Machine Head so that he can take over. He shows Invincible the poor living conditions in the streets because of Machine Head’s tyranny, presenting him with a moral dilemma.
Throughout the series, he demonstrates impressive showings of strength and durability. His powers seem to resemble a combination of Tombstone and Luke Cage from the Marvel Comics universe. He can alter his physiology to resemble a sturdy rock-based form which is practically immune to bullets, and reduces the pain he feels on impact. He’s also a capable hand-to-hand combatant. His most impressive feat is surviving some blows fromBattle Beast, one of the strongest charactersin the universe, without taking too much damage.
3Doc Seismic
The Genius Environmentalist Plagued by Poor Mental Health
Doc Seismic is often used as a filler villain with street-level powers, but for someone who’s not often taken seriously, he seems quite capable and almost always requires powerful superheroes to team up to defeat him. He’s the subject of debate within theInvinciblecommunity regarding his motives. He believes that humanity is destroying the planet with its hubris, and his goal is to establish a new world order that places nature first.
His powers seem to be on the level of some powerfulmutants from theX-Menseries. He can trigger seismic shockwaves, to the point of causing powerful earthquakes, and is capable of coming up with intelligent plans. Unfortunately, all this comes at the cost of mental instability, which makes him dangerous and unpredictable. Individually, a superhero like Invincible should be able to take him, but he still proves challenging enough that superheroes often have to team up to thwart his plans. At the end of the day, the series still treats him like a street-level filler villain.
2Donald Ferguson
Cecil’s Loyal Right-Hand Man is a Capable but Weak Cyborg
Through most of the first season ofInvincible, Donald appears to be a regular human working under Cecil. He’s one of Cecil’s most loyal enforcers and his right-hand man, holding a leadership position at the GDA. However, the series later reveals that he’s actually a cyborg, and his brain is the only human part of his body that’s left. Donald, like the Immortal, has “died” several times and been revived with his cybernetic body being rebuilt.
This makes him noticeably stronger and more durable than the average human, and he survives several incidents that would otherwise destroy even many superpowered characters. For instance, he survives gettinghis spine crushed by Omni-Manin Season 1. Because of this unique ability to be revived, Donald seems to be a bit more reckless and willing to take on threats far above his pay grade. He’s also incredibly intelligent, sometimes even more so than Cecil, and very perceptive.
1Brit
Invulnerable to Damage, But Has Little Else Going For Him
Brit is introduced in season three, but seemingly has an illustrious past with Cecil Stedman. He was once a soldier, and at some point, he gained complete invulnerability to all forms of damage. This is an interesting premise and a great way to make a character with seemingly the most powerful trait also among the weakest ones in the series. Because other than this invulnerability, there’s not much else to him.
Brit is a capable fighter, considering he trained and served as a soldier in combat zones. He’s also got some degree of superhuman strength, because he’s seen lifting weights far beyond the capabilities of regular humans. But it’s unclear whether this is because he has enhanced strength, or simply because he’s invulnerable to damage, and can therefore handle feats that would otherwise prove too much. An interesting scenario would be matching him up againstthe most powerful character in the series, i.e. Thragg or Invincible, and see if his “invulnerability” holds up against them. Regardless, he’s not shown doing a lot, because all he can do is survive everything.
