So, this is gonna get a bit personal and a bit heavy, but I don’t know anyone who read the comics/watches the show, and I really want to talk about this and see if anyone else had a similar experience.
I came to Invincible (the show) not long after my parents divorced. I was 22 at the time, and you’d think I’d be old enough to not be too affected, but the way it happened and the things I found out about my dad as a result left me shook to my core. When I confronted him about it, I ended up breaking down crying, to which his response was that I’m a pathetic drama queen who should be more grateful for everything he’s sacrificed for me.
As you might expect, we broke off contact for a while, but it still weighed on me. My entire life, people have told me how alike my dad and I are, not just in appearance, but in character. For a long time, I took great pride in that. Now, I dreaded it. I couldn’t shake the thought that I was genetically destined to turn into my dad, and the slightest insinuation from anyone around me that I reminded them of him somehow would set me off in a rage.
I guess you might see why I ended up feeling seen by Invincible. As often happens when one is on shaky ground emotionally, I felt like Mark’s story with Nolan was literally about me.
My dad and I have since begun the work of patching things up. We will never have the relationship we had before, I will never look at him in the same way, but my feelings have cooled enough for me to see that he is more than his mistakes. He, in turn, has come to respect those feelings and has expressly validated them. I credit Invincible with the fact that I was able to open up to the idea of having any kind of relationship with him again. Seeing Nolan’s journey, realizing that just because be was far from perfect he also wasn’t entirely evil allowed me to realize the same thing about my dad.
So yeah, Invincible is pretty important to me. Anybody else have a similar experience? Or maybe it’s important to you for a completely different reason? In any case, I’d love to hear it.
TL;DR Daddy issues