Invincible season 3 makes genius change from comics – with a twist of one character's fate
Making a big twist out of the franchise's smallest hero.
Adapting a comic that started running more than 20 years ago, the Invincible series has had a plethora of changes in its modern shift to the small screen, but one of its best alterations is starting to pay off in season 3.
Creator Robert Kirkman already told RadioTimes.com about learning a key lesson from adapting The Walking Dead. When it came to the the animated superhero show, he and his team have found a fine line that encourages changes to enhance the story existing fans know, without taking away the core narrative of the source material.
Along with welcome adjustments like Amber's added intelligence and William's sexuality, Invincible season 3 is also showing us why keeping Shrinking Rae alive compared to her on-page counterpart's fate is an improvement for the show too.
Near the end of Invincible season 2, as Shrinking Rae was eaten by the Lizard League's Komodo Dragon, comic fans weren't too shocked, as this was the exact way the character's comic version - the male 'Shrinking Ray' - met his death.
However, it is revealed that Rae in this case barely survived, indicating that something else was going on under the surface.
After all, while the show's season 1 twist of gender-swapping the character into a woman came as a surprise, it wasn't that far of a stretch since Kirkman went on to mention in a ComicsBeat interview at the time that he and the team recognised that they didn't have enough female characters.
As the show went on, though, while Rae didn't have tons of screen time, she was still more interesting than the original, with more engaging dialogue and better action scenes. Shrinking Ray of the comics was more or less a throwaway hero character.
As Rae, Rex, Bulletproof and Rudy leave Guardians HQ to their Teen Team base in Invincible season 3, the show has started to further expand on her character and demonstrate why she wasn't killed off with a throwaway death like before.
As she started to delve into her backstory with Rex in episode 3, talking about her parents depriving her of a childhood to focus on heroism, this incarnation of the shrinking hero has turned out to be more jaded - just wanting to be a normal person who is independent and can enjoy the freedoms of a normal life, instead of being at the risk of being slaughtered every day like she nearly was in season 2.
It seems that's why, in episode 4, on her grocery shopping trip with Rex, she's adamant on just wanting to be her own person who buys and cooks her own food, like any normal person would. By giving Rae a second chance at life in this version of Invincible, she's starting to want to live the one she couldn't when she was younger.
Rather than just being an alternate version of Marvel's Ant-Man or DC's Atom, the TV adaptation of Invincible is playing to its strengths by making characters like Rae their own people - individuals with drives and history that make the world feel more fleshed out.
Yes, the original male Ray was still a member of the new Guardians of the Globe, but he was nevertheless one of those side characters whose absence you wouldn't even notice.
His death at the hands, or mouth, of Komodo Dragon remained tragic despite that - depicting the horrid bloodbath that the path of a hero can throw up - but the loss of Ray wasn't anything comic fans lost any sleep over.
The Invincible series's near-death for Shrinking Rae was still brutal, but season 3 is already demonstrating how keeping the character alive this time around is more useful to the rest of the story than simply killing her off.
With how she's getting more screen time this season, it looks like Kirkman is continuing to fulfil his ambition of only making changes to enhance the viewer experience rather than changing the story for the sake of it.
None of these changes to characters like Rae are altering the outcome of the evolving conflict between Mark, Nolan, and the other Viltrimites in the fight for Earth and the universe.
All the while, the franchise's original team and the team behind them are taking the opportunity to make the world everybody is fighting for feel lived in with additional layers that don't take away from the big original story beats that everyone loves.
So, in the end, no matter what happens to Rae in this season of Invincible or beyond, the wrap-up of her story will feel much more meaningful than it did in the show's source material.
Invincible season 3 is s – you can sign up now for a free 30-day Prime Video trial.
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