Commentary: ‘Solar Opposites’ And ‘Invincible’ Give A Different Spin On DC Heroes

Superhero archetypes are extremely popular. Tons of stories are taking a foil for particular characters and exploring how to use them in new and different ways. A hugely popular one is Invincible, which focuses largely on the Superman archetype and what would happen if Kryptonians truly ran their society as a brutal empire. But another series has attempted to do the same with a completely different DC Comics character: Green Lantern. And this story is coming from one of the most unlikely of sources.

Solar Opposites is primarily a show about a race of aliens on Earth, but it does have other plots that it follows within its main narrative. One is about a society of shrunken down people. The other follows one of the aliens’ neighbors, a man named Glen (Kieran Culkin), who they shoot into space. He begins a journey completely by himself that involves a police force of aliens very similar to the Green Lantern Corps. They call themselves SilverCops, and it was revealed that they aren’t cops at all but rather an empire who invades other planets by force.

The SilverCops are very similar to the Viltrumite Empire from Invincible. Whereas the SilverCops act very similar to Green Lantern, Viltrumites are very similar to Kryptonians. This is reflected in their tactics for using an empire to stage an invasion. In the case of Invincible, they send a single soldier to prepare the planet as that’s all that’s required. Omni-Man (JK Simmons) is extremely powerful the same way that Superman is powerful all by himself. Green Lantern isn’t on that same level of strength. So instead of sending one soldier to prepare the planet, they dispatch a preliminary force of grunts to do all of the brutal fighting before the SilverCops come in and handle the rest. These are two very interesting situations that allow fans to see unique and evil foils of their beloved child.

Invincible is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Solar Opposites is now streaming on Hulu.