Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for the Invincible comic book series and its adaptation; read at your own caution.

About

I Thought You Were Stronger refers to a panel from the Invincible comic book series in which the character Mark Greyson / Invincible, covered in blood, makes a regretful comment after killing another character. Originally appearing in issue #33 of the series, the panel has been used as a reaction and a caption meme since September 2022. In early April 2024, the scene notably appeared in the animated adaptation of the series during season two's finale.

Origin

On June 28th, 2006, issue #33 of the American comic book series Invincible, created by Robert Kirkman, was published.^[1] In the issue, the main character Invincible / Mark Grayson, fights pacifist turned villain Angstrom Levy, who threatens Invincible and his family. The fight ends in an alternate dimension where the two are teleported by Levy, with Invincible losing control and killing Levy by repeatedly punching him in the head. Standing above Levy's body, Invincible realizes that he killed his opponent and regretfully comments, "I thought… I thought you were stronger." (panels shown below).

On April 5th, 2024, episode eight, titled "I Thought You Were Stronger," of season two of the animated adaptation of the series premiered.^[2] The scene in which Invincible kills Angstrom and says the same line appears in the episode (shown below, 3:37 mark).

I thought you were… I thought… I thought you were stronger…

On September 6th, 2022, X^[3] / Twitter user @worldofcardbord used the panels in a Everyone Beats Homelander post, marking its first known use in a meme, with the post gaining over 70 reposts and 1,700 likes in two years (shown below).

Spread

On September 6th, 2022, the panel saw more use within the Everyone Beats Homelander trend. For example, on September 6th, X^[4] user @worldofcardbord posted a caption meme that received over 7,900 retweets and 126,000 likes in two days (shown below, left). A same-day Reddit repost of the post received over 6,500 upvotes in the /r/TheBoys^[5] subreddit in six months.

On January 20th, 2023, X^[6] user @just_buka used the image in a post comparing the strengths of Deku from My Hero Academia and Homelander, with the post garnering over 7,400 reposts and 118,000 likes in one year (shown below, right).

The format saw more use in 2023 and 2024. For example, on June 21st, 2023, X^[7] user @kjicrow22 posted the image with the caption "What boss fight made you like this?", with the post gaining over 5,700 reposts and quotes, and 10,000 likes (shown below, left). On November 18th, Redditor Evoxrus_XV posted a Dungeons & Dragons meme based on the second panel, which received over 2,900 upvotes in the /r/dndmemes^[8] subreddit in five months (shown below, right).

The format saw a spike in popularity following the release of the Invincible animated series episode with the scene in early April 2024.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References