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The Alternate Mark Graysons, also known as Team Evil Invincible are the secondary antagonists of the Image Comics series Invincible, as well as its Amazon TV series adaptation.
They are a conglomerate of evil variants of the series' titular character from across the multiverse, who were gathered together by Angstrom Levy in order to attack his universe and destroy the reputation of the prime Invincible, being introduced as the titular main antagonists of the Invincible War arc of the series.
Although many alternate dimension Invincibles appear in the story arc, an early pitch of the iconic "Somewhere else..." page, revealed by the comic's artist, Ryan Ottley, showcased other variants that were either redesigned or completely changed altogether, being replaced by other Mark Graysons seen in the final product.
Zombie Mark: A zombified variant of Mark Grayson, created as a callback to the zombie dimension visited by Invincible during his first fight with Angstrom Levy. According to Ryan Ottley, his proposed backstory is that he a was similar version to the mainstream Invincible who got trapped in the zombie dimension (possibly by Angstrom or a variant of him) and infected, turning into an undead supervillain. The character was rejected by Robert Kirkman because he thought that bringing the threat of a zombie virus into the Invincible War could potentially complicate things even further and derrail the plot. He was by his request, changed into a variant with a yellow costume and a cape, thus replacing him with Sinister Mark.
Kitchen Sink Mark
Kitchen Sink Mark: The nickname for a proposed variant of Mark Grayson who still wore his original home-made suit from his early days as a vigilante superhero, before commissioning his iconic blue and yellow suit from Art Rosenbaum. Ottley's idea for him was that his universe's variant of Nolan left Earth before he could introduce Mark to Art, leaving him only with his initial costume made of kitchen materials, hence his name. Robert Kirkman would later ask Ottley to change his appearance into a fully-designed costume, while keeping the cloth mask to give him a similar look to the Wildstorm/DC Comics character, Grifter, leading to the creation of Veil Invincible.
Burger Mark
Burger Mark: A variant of Invincible who wears a Burger Mart cap on his head. He's in actuality, an early design for the Cowl Invincible and was born out of a miscommunication between Ottley and Kirkman. According to Ottley's account, Kirkman had told him to draw an Invincible with a "cap" covering his head, instead of an opening for his hair, to which he mistook for a literal baseball cap (instead of a full cowl, which was likely what Robert meant), and added the Burger Mart logo to it because he thought it would have been funny if that variant still worked there in his home dimension. The design was ultimately scrapped due to being deemed "too goofy".
Prophet Mark
Prophet Mark: A variant that was made by Ryan Ottley as a parody/homage to the fellow Image Comics character, Prophet, created by the infamous artist Rob Liefeld. The design was rejected by Robert Kirkman, who thought that he didn't fit the "vibe" that he wanted (to which Ottley agrees in retrospect), leading to him being changed into a standard normal variant of Invincible (who would become Sport Invincible), by simply removing his head guard, swords and shoulder pads.
T-Shirt Mark
Retro Invincible and Long-Hair Invincible (original designs)
T-Shirt/Smiling Mark (unnofficial name): An early design of Viltrum Mark where he sports a simple t-shirt with the Viltrum Empire emblem on it, which was changed into a full-on Viltrumite uniform as per Robert Kirkman's request. He's notably the only variant on the original image to appear smiling, which Ottley changed into a serious expression in the final version of the page, stating it was because "Viltrumites are a serious bunch".
Besides the other rejected Mark designs, the image of the original pitch also showcases early designs for both Retro Invincible and Long-Haired Invincible, both of which appear wearing jackets adorned with the Invincible/Image Comics logo. The reason for these changes is, so far, unknown. Lensless Mark also has the Invincible logo on its mask.
Gallery[]
The original tweet by Ryan Ottley, showcasing the original mockup of the Alternate Invincibles
Zombie Mark (left) vs. Sinister Mark (right)
Burger Mark (left) vs. Cowl Invincible (right)
Kitchen Sink Mark (left) vs. Veil Mark (right)
Prophet Mark (right) vs. Sport Invincible (left)
T-Shirt Mark (left) vs. Viltrum Mark (right)
Original sketches for other Mark variants
A sketch of Zombie Mark by Ryan Ottley
Trivia[]
Besides being a callback to the zombie dimension, Zombie Mark might also be a nudge to Robert Kirkman's track record with writing zombie comics, such as The Walking Dead and Marvel Zombies, with the latter being specifically about a zombie outbreak in a superhero universe.
Sinister Mark's replacement of Zombie Mark is also somewhat ironic, as that variant would infamously cannibalize the other Invincibles while stranded in the desert dimension. An act which could possibly be a reference to his original concept.
Zombie Mark also has design choices characteristic of the Marvel Zombies franchise, such as lipless mouths that expose the rotten and gnashing teeth of the infected and broken eye pieces that reveal the infected's devoid-of-life eyes.
