In comics, manipulation of reality is a seductive device that allows for all kinds of intoxicating images or unexpected ideas. And when adapted to the screen (especially in live action), those ideas can be held back by the constraints of form (much like stretchable forces).
Scarlet Witch, the respective Doctors Strange and Manhattan, and Green Lantern are some of the more famous examples, but the list of heroes and villains who can change the world for them with ease goes on and on. Invincible‘s Atom Eve stakes her claim in that elite group, especially after the amazing hour-long special that just dropped on Prime Video.
The ‘Invincible: Atom Eve’ special runs just under an hour and is co-written by Helen Leigh (Dismissal, Archive 81) and show creator Robert Kirkman (who also created the original comic). It takes a step back to tell the origin story of Atom Eve, voiced by Gillian Jacobs in the show’s first season and by Aria Kane and Jazlyn Ione in the special.
The special shows how Eve gained her powers through a brutal science experiment and explores her difficult upbringing with parents who just don’t understand her or what she is capable of. “Invincible: Atom Eve” delivers Invincible did it best in its first season: compelling animation, slick action, and complicated family dynamics, all without the pacing issues that occasionally held back the first season.
But the real highlight is how the special gets the most out of Atom Eve’s power set. Her ability to rearrange atoms on a molecular level allows her to completely alter reality – transforming one object into another or creating objects from nothing. The only thing she can’t change is living tissue (her attempt to turn a squirrel into a puppy fails).
Image: Prime Video
Off the bat, “Atom Eve” leans on how this particular teenage girl would use these powers. Eve first encounters her powers while doing some homework, accidentally making her book glass. But her real eureka moment is when her mom drops a cream cheese and olive sandwich on her doorstep. Eve turns it into a juicy burger (something she will do more than once in the special), and later changes a dress gifted to her from an aunt into something more suited to her taste.
Perhaps the concept is best demonstrated by the episode’s big fight scene, set on a highway (and clearly influenced by Akira) when Eve encounters four other genetic experimentation victims from the same lab that created her. It’s a poignant sequence, as it might be Eve’s first time meeting real family, and they’re here to kill her. How the scene unfolds and how Eve uses her powers creatively people rightly point out that it outshines most images of the similarly powered Green Lantern.
First, Eve warms up by jogging in place, while pink light from her powers flashes under her boots, which she will use as makeshift missiles. She uses highway cars and energy beams to create obstacles between her and her attacking opponents, before a real angle of attack emerges: one of her opponents attacks with a band in his arm, and she transforms it into a parachute to send him flying safely away. When pinned down and in what seems like an unwinnable situation, she makes an entire section of the highway disappear, overwhelming her opponents.
Image: Prime Video
The whole affair is dynamic, with smooth, readable action and a consistent rhythm of events and reactions. Eve got into this situation not expecting a fight, and it shows – she reacts to the stimuli as they arise and uses her creativity to get out of it. That creativity is reflected in the sharp animation — Invincible’S visual style lends itself to reading facial expressions clearly, and seeing Eve reflect during the fight is as much of a highlight as the fight itself.
In contrast, a lot of Green Lantern adaptations we’ve had lean on using his powers only in the biggest ways. He makes a great shield, or a great hammer, or a big gunor large aircraftor a big dragon (OK, granted, that one is cool). By reducing Eve’s powers to the basics of her daily teenage life, alongside quick, creative responses to an attacker’s attack, Invincible breaks outside the boundaries of “going big” and instead takes full advantage of the potential of reality manipulation powers.
As is the case with most of the action sequences in the show, there’s a lot of gore and guts in the sequence. Invincible‘s ultra-violence and gore has been one of the most effervescent parts of the show, and rightfully so – it’s quite shocking at times – but it also evokes a sense of fairness compared to other superhero mediums. People with so much power would wreak extreme havoc, and the ever-present threat of irreparable damage in the show’s action sequences only adds to the emotional intensity as tragedy approaches. That’s even more true in this scene, as Eve is forced to take down people who are essentially siblings she just met.
Besides the creative displays of her powers, the hour-long special is also among the best Invincible show is set there. It’s a delicate coming-of-age story about a complicated family told with care that doubles as a strong origin story for one of the show’s most important characters.
“Invincible: Atom Eve” and the first season of Invincible are available to watch Prime video. The first part of the second season of Invincible premieres on Prime Video on November 3.