Invincible Vs Roster Adds Cecil Stedman, “Ordinary Man With Government Money”

So far, every character confirmed to appear in Invincible Vs, a 3v3 tag team fighter starring characters from Skybound's Invincible series, is an enhanced superhero. Today at New York Comic Con, Skybound and developer Quarter Up changed that, with Global Defense Director Cecil Steadman officially added to the playable roster.

Designing a human character to take on the Almighty and an invincible-level superhuman opponent requires a change of approach. GameSpot sat down with Invincible creator Robert Kirkman and various members of the Quarter Up development team to talk about the process of bringing Cecil and his unique abilities to the game.

The “only” human being

As a “normal” human among superheroes, Cecil relies less on super strength and speed and more on the vast resources of a government agency to provide extra firepower. This idea is key to Cecil's appearance in Invincible, as it's these resources that make him a very powerful foe.

“I'm not saying he has endless funds, but he's using a lot of taxpayer dollars to get around,” said executive producer Mike Willette. “He can jump and teleport because even though he's just a regular guy and doesn't have the mobility to double jump and fly like other characters, with the government funding, he can move around pretty well.”

This movement allows Cecil to manipulate the arena to his advantage, which Willette said plays into the character's role as a master manipulator. “He's got projectiles with long-range arcs, he's got a sonic mine that hovers before exploding, he's got a lot of long-range utility,” Willett said. “He can fill the screen, almost like a barrage hell, and as soon as he confirms a hit, he'll jump right back into our combo system.”

When you add a human like Cecil to the roster of Superman, it's not just the action set-up that proves challenging. he must look Just like he can hold his own against the other players on the roster. Skybound art director Dan Eder explains how the team found different ways to truly tap into Cecil's powers.

“We asked ourselves, how can we make him an impressive guy without having a big body like an all-around guy?” Edel said. “We definitely gravitated toward the show, but we went through a lot of iterations with each new character, and I think the artistic process here was very challenging, but also very satisfying. Ultimately, I think this character feels very real, and he's going to feel cohesive with the rest of the roster, even though they're quite different visually.”

Integrate into Canon

The addition of Cecil also brings news of an original storyline that will be told in “Invincible VS.” Although the team didn't specify where exactly the game would fit in the overall timeline, Robert Kirkman said the teams at Skybound and Quarter Up worked closely to ensure the story felt natural to the series as a whole.

“(Narrative director) Mike (Rogers) has been working closely with Helen Leigh, who was one of the lead writers on the Invincible series and co-wrote the Atomic Eve games with me,” Kirkman confirmed. “It makes sense for the game's story mode to fit in with the narrative of the Invincible show, and while we're not going to discuss specific details today, fans of the Invincible TV show are in for a really cool experience that's specifically tailored to fit that narrative.”

Rogers himself likened the story of Invincible to a “stand-alone special” of the overall Invincible storyline. “It was a real pleasure working with Helen and Robert,” Rogers said, “and really made this feel like a real Infinity War universe.”

While Atomic Eve is a narrative adventure game focused on Atomic Eve, the story of Invincible gives the narrative team a wider choice of available characters. For Kirkman, the ability to use these characters in new ways is a big reason why projects like this are so appealing.

“I think it's cool because it's a bigger playground for them to play on,” Kirkman said. “Sometimes, the interactions of these characters are a little unique to the universe. There are characters in this game's story who interact with each other that haven't really interacted with each other before in other forms of Invincible.”

Invincible Vs will launch in 2026 on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC. Cecil joins a roster of playable characters that also includes The Almighty, The Invincible, Atomic Eve, Rex Sproid, Bulletproof, Tula, and Battle Beast.