I’ve found myself rereading invincible once again. It is one of my favorite comicbooks ever, and with comicbooks being my favorite medium for fiction that means that it is one of my favorite works of fiction period. Yet I feel like the show so far is an improvement on those first 30 issues.
This show somehow the most faithful adaptation of a comicbook I’ve seen to date, whilst also scrambling the order of many many plot points and changing the dynamics of many characters. Amber and William have been reworked completely, yet I feel like they’ve only been improved. Cecil started working with Mark way earlier, and was actually involved in the battle against Nolan. Robot makes his new body way earlier. There is way more time between the murder of the Guardians and the fight against Nolan, some plot points happen way earlier. These changes are obviously made so that they can compress the story down a bit and give us more character building early on, But I feel that it has mostly worked out for the better so far.
I’m in a similar scenario of rereading the series and whilst I love the show, I wouldn’t say it’s outright better. If anything I’d say it’s different but still good, and at least relatively on similar level when it comes to story.
The highlight like you said was characterisation. Things like expressing Nolan’s regret and guilt before he leaves Earth was a lot more poignantly when in the comic I only really remember his one talk with Debbie in bed after killing the Guardians.
Debbie getting her development post Nolan apparent pre Nolan leaving Earth like the real estate busniess and expanding the SoS group in change of Olga
Mark sense of inferiority to Nolan picks up a bit here too but in more of an admiration level.
The parts I didn’t particularly like was some minor characterisation changes like Nolan’s build of being distant went a little too far at times like the Dragon in Rome, the whole Amber break up and get back together, and some of the ordering of the story like I feel Reanimen really should’ve been saved for after >!Mark reunites with Nolan!< and depending on how episode 4 happened the same with the >!Lizard League Silo/Sequids in Space missions.!<