Just because Kirkman is taking his time to be thoughtful about the worlds he’s orchestrating doesn’t mean he’s forgotten to keep the hordes of Invincible fans fed. On top of working on the highly- anticipated fifth season of the Prime Video series, he’s also using spinoff comic series and the Invincible VS video game to carve a grisly path across the galaxy.
Kirkman keeps his cards close to his vest when asked what the Viltrumites are doing on Earth after Mark and Thragg’s tense truce at the end of season 4 and says (with a hint of irony) that they’re enjoying high-stakes poker. When asked whether we could see a new Invincible Universe comic centered on another character similar to Battle Beast, he only teases “We’ll see what the future holds,” and that he and Invincible co-creator Ryan Ottley “are having such a great time” fleshing out this relatively removed science fiction corner of their original comic.
What details Kirkman was able to share, though, will be extremely exciting for longtime Invincible fans. The ongoing comics — Invincible Universe: Battle Beast, written by Kirkman and drawn by Ottley, and Capes, written by Benito Cereno and drawn by Mark Engler — are sticking around for more stories; Invincible VS is getting new characters, potentially a DLC, and comic appearances from Ella Mental are on their way to Capes.
Most intriguing is Kirkman’s enthusiasm for Invincible season 5, though. It’s palpable in the air when he talks about it, even if he can’t share specifics.
“When you want to tell a long-form story over many, many seasons the way we do with Invincible, it’s great to kind of key in and find those things that it’s like, ‘OK, I know we’re on season 5, but now we’re doing this,’ and it’s very different, it’s very exciting, and it’s bringing new elements into the series,” he says before segueing into a litany of jokes about the fandom’s muted response to season 4’s standalone Damien Darkblood episode. “Season 5 of Invincible, it’s called Invincible: Damien Darkblood.”
The process for adapting the comics for the show’s modern audience has been rewarding for Kirkman. He describes bringing the various story arcs and characters from the pages of Invincible to the screen as viewing the source material “with new eyes” and picking new angles for foundational stories. He assures fans of his and Ottley’s brainchild that, indeed, they will be bringing what readers loved in print to life.