Mark Grayson - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

Here is mark as a sky kid. I was scared to draw him as a human while wearing sky clothes because it just feels uncanny to me so I just drew him as an actual sky kid. I might redesign this in the near future because I don't like drawing those goggles XD.

I've been doodling memes with Mark and his three moths.

Hey, guys. Sorry, no art posts for today. I'm really busy right in the moment and I might take a very long hiatus. I don't know how long will it take or when will I ever come back, but don't worry. I'll come back eventually. Anyways, I have like a ton of ideas and I'm struggling to decide which one to draw. 😅 I was hoping that maybe you guys would help me with what I'm about to draw next. 🥲👉👈 I mean if that's okay with all of you, of course.

Its for their own good. :(

I know I'm super late to this art trend but this is for stress relief.

I tried doodling Mark in a somewhat of a different style.

Oh, and here's Mark explaining the entirety of season 2 to Toby:

Sky Mark Grayson :3

sandwiched between dick grayson and mark grayson. that’s it, that’s the post.

Best of Animation 2021 - Where I Really Come From (Invincible)

“Finish high school I guess”

When I read that line in the comics for the first time I thought it was meant to sound defeated or unsure. Mark had just been beaten within an inch of his life by his father, who he loved, and wasn’t sure what to do with his life. I thought Mark was feeling defeated. But when Steven Yeun spoke the line in the show there is a much more hopeful tone to his voice that I think brings so much to the character and this moment that my initial interpretation lacked.

Mark is unsure of his future and he is hurting from his fight with his father but his spirit isn’t broken. He still has hope for the future and he still wants to do good. Mark’s spirit and drive are unbreakable, or invincible if you will, just like the title of the show. It brings new meaning to the moment and his actions that will follow.

The voice acting, animation, music, etc all come together to create an unforgettable experience that improves upon the source material. That final line reading by Steven Yeun blew me away in hindsight because it’s something so little but it has such a massive impact on the story and Mark’s characterization that I personally didn’t get when I read the comics (The comics are phenomenal and I highly recommend reading them so saying the show improves certain aspects of the story is high praise).

One rather impressive feat is how well the show translates how the invincible comics portrayed violence.

The invincible comics were well known for their bloody and visceral fights and translating that to the screen could have been a tricky task. Violence is something that could easily become gratuitous and be purely used for shock value if used incorrectly. The show sidesteps this by having every use in this episode serve a purpose. At no point does it distract from the personal conflict that drives the episode- the clash of ideologies and upbringing between a father and his son. 

For example, seeing the destruction in the city after Mark is punched through a building. We see Mark pulling a severed arm from the building rubble after he fails to save the building and a daughter soaked in the blood of her crushed father. All this shocks and horrifies you in the same way it does Mark. That is the arm of a mother he failed to save and it happens right after he tells the mother’s child not to be afraid. We are being faced with the same hard truth that Nolan is trying to beat into Mark. That Mark can’t protect himself let alone anyone else. 

And the same can be said about the train scene. This scene is easily the goriest and most brutal sequence of the entire show (which is saying something) but it very effectively gets across how fragile humans are to Viltrumites. Mark comes out of the ordeal physically unscathed while hundreds of people die. They splatter against Mark almost like a bug does on the windshield of a car (though much more mentally scarring). Nolan even compares humans to pets and talks about humans being lesser than viltrumites further accentuating this point.

There are a lot more examples but anyone who’s seen the episode I think understands. These scenes are gory and intense but they are used very effectively within the context they are being used. If you were to remove any one of them (at least in this episode) something would be lost.

JK Simmons is excellent at getting across that Nolan is trying just as hard to convince himself of these lessons he’s trying to beat into Mark. Each step he takes is him trying to prove to himself that he sees these people as inconsequential collateral in the viltrumite’s conquest like his upbringing taught him to believe.

The photo above may have become a meme but it is an excellent scene that puts Nolan’s desperation on full display. It conveys the conflict between who he’s become from his time on earth and the loyal viltrumite he was so well. And it leads into the best moment in the entire episode.

“What will you have after five hundred years?”

“You dad. I’d still have you.”

This whole episode was amazing. It is easily one of my favorite episodes of television ever but it was this moment that hit the hardest.

Even after everything Nolan has done- all the people he’s killed and how brutally he’s beaten Mark- Mark still loves his father. 

This episode manages to expand on what was ultimately a single issue fight and really dig into the core tragedy of it. 

The one moment I think the comic does better is the moment when Nolan flies away, leaving Mark alive, and crying once he reaches space. I don’t think it was clear enough that he was crying. A lot of people I know didn’t catch on to that fact and a few reviewers didn’t either. In the comics it was very clear and purposefully put into stark contrast so that no one could miss it. This is a little moment but it is one thing I wanted to point out due to how significant that tiny moment is for Nolan’s character.

I’ve seen a lot of people trash Invincible’s animation online and while I do agree there are instances of noticeable CGI that can take you out of it there are also incredibly beautiful and breathtaking sequences of animation as well. A lot of this episode has amazing animation. They spared no expenses on the fight. Here are a few of my favorite moments.

This episode isn’t short on spectacle but it also hits all its smaller moments as well. I’ve mentioned a few above but I want to shine a light on a smaller one near the end of the episode.

The moment I’m talking about is in the hospital when Debbie tells Mark she’s proud of him. She goes to touch his face and he turns away. There’s so much pain in that small moment. Mark is hurting because of the betrayal, the trauma of the events, and because he failed and lost his father even though he tried his best. It’s these smaller moments in the aftermath of the fight that works really well.

When it is trying to set up future events it distracts a bit from what the episode is trying to do but I’m grateful it takes the time to have the quieter moments that get across the heartbreak of the characters, especially Debbie and Mark.

Despite everything going on Invincible never loses sight of the vulnerability and humanity of these characters.  

I can’t wait to see the rest of the Invincible comics animated and brought to life for a new audience. Trust me this is just the beginning. It gets even better from here.

Extra Thoughts

I love the way JK Simmons emphasizes “believe” when he’s telling Mark the truth about Viltrum. “But I believe in our cause” He’s talking about the past but he makes sure to emphasize that this is a present belief which I think plays into how a lot of JK Simmons’ performance hints that Nolan is also trying to convince himself of the rhetoric that he’s spouting at Mark.

I really like how the Viltrumite’s uniforms are white. White is usually associated with good and purity. It’s typically seen as heroic which can be seen in the rhetoric that Nolan is regurgitating to Mark. He’s speaking of the Viltrumite’s actions and conquest as a good thing. It’s all painted in a positive light. There’s a dissonance between how the history is relayed to Mark and how it is seen on screen. Everything Nolan says is sanitized and belays the bloody reality of everything that happened. I just really like this detail.

The score for this episode was fantastic and I really hope it gets released at some point.

I didn’t want to put this above due to the fact I want to stay positive but I wasn’t a fan of Mark and Amber getting back together. With how the show did their relationship I would have preferred them staying broken up. I don’t hate Amber’s character and would actually like to see her friendship with Eve explored and I would have been interested in seeing her be friends possibly with Mark instead of a relationship. I just don’t think they wrote the relationship well enough to get me invested and it’s pretty clear even without reading the comics that they aren’t meant to be endgame. (If you like their relationship then great. It just wasn’t for me)

I know I already said this but I can’t wait for season 2 and 3!

parking this here

One of them flying Graysons