Warning: The following contains spoilers for the campaign mode of Invincible VS.
Invincible VS is one of many fighting game adaptations to hit consoles this year. Games like Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls offer very different takes on the likes of Spider-Man and the X-Men, while Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game has fun with the fan-service potential of adapting the source material. On the surface, Invincible VS seems to be closer to the latter than the former, with a roster of fan favorites going head-to-head in some memorably brutal brawls.
However, the campaign mode for the game tells a different story — literally. The narrative of the game takes cues from the Invincible show and comics, but goes a very different direction in terms of the overarching villains and the nature of the setting. The ending of the campaign even sets the stage for a radically different storyline than anything else seen in the franchise. It’s an intriguing move on the part of Skybound and one they should continue to expand upon in the future.
The campaign mode for Invincible VS sets up a distinct storyline for this take on the franchise, helping it stand out from other iterations of Mark Grayson’s story. The animated TV show has been largely faithful to the narrative of the comics, although certain elements and characters have been updated for modern audiences. The show isn’t above taking the story in new directions, either, including a trip to hell in season 4 that has no precedent in the comics. However, Invincible VS goes even further, seemingly establishing an entirely new timeline and taking on many of the franchise’s most recognizable characters.
In the campaign mode for Invincible VS, players are introduced to a world where events have seemingly played out very differently than in the core canon. Omni-Man doesn’t seem to have found redemption, or at least Invincible still believes his father is fighting to take over Earth for the Viltrum Empire. Characters like Rex have seemingly lived longer than they did in the established canon, helping fight against figures like Conquest, who only appeared in the story after his death. The plot is eventually revealed to be the machinations of the Technicans, minor figures from the established canon who operate between realities.
The entire campaign is predicated on their efforts to harness superpowered conflict for an energy source, using hologram technology and power dampeners to force heroes and villains to face off in constant battles. Although the two sides put aside their differences and work together to break free, they discover that the Technicans used their absence to take over the Earth. The game ends on a cliffhanger, with the heroes now free to fight back — feeling conspicuously like a lingering thread that future expansions or potential sequels could focus on.
This plot is entirely unique to the game, and it could be setting the stage for the game to take things further in its own direction. In the comics and show, the Technicians are minor players in the story arc surrounding Angstom Levy, as well as eventually coming back into play later in the story. The game reinvents them as much more malicious figures, actively using their technology to take over planets and transform them more to their liking. This sets them up as potentially bigger villains that could unite enemies against a common threat. That’s exactly what happens when criminals like Titan, wild cards like Battle Beast, and Viltrumites like Anissa and Lucan team up with the heroes to earn their freedom.
This sets up a possible scenario where the heroes and the villains actually craft a more consistent alliance, potentially keeping this timeline’s Viltrumite War from escalating to the place it reached in the comics and Invincible‘s fourth season. That, in turn, could complicate the dynamic between Earth heroes and alien figures like Allen. The continued presence of characters like Rex and the inclusion of new faces like Ella Mental also highlight how this game universe has the ability to kill off, keep around, or introduce characters that might have very different fates in the source material.
These elements set the stage for a new story, which fits neatly into the franchise’s approach to the multiverse as a concept. Invincible VS sets the ground for a very different take on the material, one where the Viltrumites and humanity might find an unlikely alliance and the Technicians can unleash their full potential. We already know DLC is on the way for the game, and it would be very exciting to see the story continue in new content drops. Especially for fans of Invincible, this new storyline gives players a lot of extra reasons to stay invested in the game and up-to-date with new content.
