Ian

Ian is the title character and protagonist/antagonist of the Comedy Central animated series, Ian's Not So Boring Life

Ian is a member of the Irken Race, where placement in the social heirarchy is determined by height. Ian, being a taller one of the race is a great asset to the Irken race. Ian usually partakes in missions of the upmost importance, however he was once sent to Earth, which according to Vasquez is little worth to the Irken Race. Upon his arrival, he realized the violence, the Earth Inhabitants partake in and is stabbed by an unknown spectator. Afterwords, himself being subjected to an Irken mental rehabilitation faccility. Some 2 years later, he is missioned to secretely destroy Earth with Zim being the non the wiser. For the next 4 years, he tries succesfully completing his mission but to no avail. He suffered a mental breakdown due to the cruelty of the humans. He was then meant to be taken back to Irk, however Ian purposely angered an Irken official, as an attempt to be freed. He was tossed in the air, landing on a Bus somewhere in Wisconsin, vowing his revenge on the World. He is voiced by Ian McCormick, through the run of the series but on occasion would be voiced by Billy West in some episodes and in The Weird Gang using a voice mimicing Phil Hartman. He was voiced by Jason Marsden in the pilot and by Andrea Libman in Brianne (which was the "Politicaly correct" children series version) and was made a female character.

Characteristics
Within both Ian's Not So Boring Life and Invader Zim, comments from both Zim and Ian indicate they are (by earth standards) much older than normal human beings. As Jhonen Vasquez has indicated, Ian is atleast 2 years older than Zim, which according to Vasquez before is that Zim is 16 in Irken years and 159 in Earth years. Thus placing Ian at 18 in Irken years and 161 in Earth years. Tak is also revealed as the same age as Ian.

In the pilot, Ian was a hagered and seemingly elderly Irken. His design ethic was different such as how he had pink eyes and an overlord like collar. He came to Earth and attended Skool as a High School Drivers Ed Teacher. In the pilot he ended up killing most of the class with an explosion, dismissing it as a student being a suicide bomber.

Ian is notably taller than Zim is, which since the Irken race is based on Height, Ian is of more use than Zim is. Ian is about the same height as Tak as well. Both Ian and Tak's human and Irken guise have the same skin-tone.

Abilities
Throughout the run of the show, we see Ian's abilities fluctuate in scope and capacity.

Like Zim, Ian can Goose-step well and usually seems to forget that he does so. He has been trained since birth as a ruthless and maniacal conqueror.

Ian is rahter skilled at making inventions, half the time they will work but other times they fail. However, Ian himself has stated, "Zims inventions fail but mine can to...... not as frequent as Zim's". Ian however has stated to be the inventor of the Toastee machine which is "Earths disgusting new combination", Slurpee and Toast. He states he invented it in the Insane asylum and left it out in the open after landing on Earth.

Ian is a well pilot and can usually go toe-to-toe with skilled fliers, though Ian is apparently against speed-racing.

Personality
Ian is like Zim in some ways such as having megalomaniacel, sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies. Ian however unlike Zim, is rather kind when he wants to be. Considerably he has taken a liking to some humans (Zita, Stanley, Brian etc.).

Ian usually can see his failures but notably Ian learns from his mistakes unlike Zim. Ian somehow thinks his mission is a flop but then claims "Earth television is too exciting for me to care!". If you put it this way, considering Zim's mission is a joke it could make Ian's a joke as well. However its more seen as killing the joke as dubbed by the Tallests.

Ian is usually Humourous making other class-mates either fear him or see him as the class clown. Usually making jokes at Zim's expense which is of course a pleasure to all the students, even Ms. Bitters once giving Ian an A+ for calling Zim "A Complete Bastard". Ian is described as Zim, Frank Garrett, Vyvvian Bastard from The Young Ones and Ace Ventura were all blended into one.

Ian is without a doubt just as capable as Zim at destroying Earth, however out of comic-relief his insanity gives him the inability to utilize it properly.

Even though Ian wishes to enslave Earth, but he has little desire to be the dictator or "This Hairliped Douchebag" as he puts it. Again this is comparable to Zim as he is pretty much the same way. Once again we must say about how the Irkens have little use for Earth and mostly just kill off all Earthly life and make it a Parking Structure Planet such as Planet Blorch having been done to before.

Relationships
Ian, while being antisocial and completely dependant on himself, has varied and often complex relationships with the many beings around him

Bilinar

Bilinar is Ian's own SIR Unit and his primary sidekick. He apparently has been destroyed during Ian's attempt of destroying Rigel 6 in which had many attempts to destroy before. Most of the previous Irkens sent there being found dead. Bilinar had tried defending Ian while facing the Rigelian Army, though it only left Bilinar destroyed. Ian took Bilinar for his next mission which was "The assumed Planet" (Earth) and hoped to repair him once reaching there. Bilinar was thrown into the Asylum Cell with Ian. When returning to Earth, he used parts from GIR to help repair Bilinar. He apparently was fixed after he was once released from the Asylum, ony to be destroyed by Tak, taking place during the events of Top of the Line. This caused Ian to have yet another mental breakdown.

Zim

The secondary protaganist of the series. Zim is the moronic invader that had been given the task of Earth domination during the begining of Operation Impending Doom II. Ian's mission was basically assigned to murder Zim, though Ian found this attempt harder than though, also taking advantage of the time to invade earth. Ian is stated to have had no prior contact with Zim before coming to Earth. However he has stated many things that link to Zim. Ian's best friend, Invader Dennis was the smeet shoved through the Birthing Tube which was described in the Missing Zim episode The Trial. Also the events of IZ's Tak: The Hideous New Girl describes that Ian was once a Guard at Devastis when Zim blew up the Snack machine, trapping Tak. Ian tried rescuing her but got slammed with a piece of flying rubble. Ian is constantly annoyed by Zim and is one of the causes towards his impending resurfacing insanity.

GIR

Gir is Zim's SIR Unit. Like Zim, Ian has some amount of dislike towards GIR. Ian usually misleads the gullibale GIR into doing things to get him away from him. GIR was the main source Ian used to fix his own Sir, Bilinar.

Minimoose

Minimoose is Zims secondary sidekick. Like Zim, Ian respects Minimoose and whatever he does. He states that Minimoose is the only one who truely listens to me. He treats Minimoose like a Pet Dog in ways.

Minifish

Ian's own secondary sidekick like Minimoose. Like Minimoose, Ian respects Minifish and whatever he does. He was made by Zim as a way to shut Ian up.

Dib

Dib serves as the primary antagonist in the series, he is determined to expose Zim's extraterrestrial identity and stop the Irken Invasion. As such, they are bitter opponents, whose conflicts blur the line between petty rivalry and mortal enmity. He is determined to as well stop Ian, however Ian has little desire to cause such conflict. He considers Dib as an off and on friend. However Ian dislikes Dib to a minimum extent. He however insults Dib for his big head in many instances. Ian admits that when he were to destroy the Earth, he would save Dib. This happens however it was Zim who did so.

Gaz

Ian and Gaz rarely have interaction. A main reason is that Ian is scared of Gaz primarily, however he understands that she finds Zim as too stupid to conquer Earth and on one occasion agrees with her. When Ian first came to Earth, he thought Gaz was a figment of his imagination as he states "She is too scary to be anything of this world or the next". She however compares Ian with Zim as the two of them both being too incompetant to do so.

The Tallests

Ian is highly respected by the Tallests and vise versa. However Ian has doubts about the reasons of their sending him to Earth as explained before.

Ms. Bitters

Ian harbors a relationship bordering on respect for his 'Skool' teacher, and finds her a useful repository of Earth knowledge. But, even with this pseudo-respect, he is still often bored by her lectures, and finds himself passionately aching for an end to her intolerably dull and oppressive classes

The Skool Children

The Children treat Ian with a usually fearful respect but some of them however bully him. Ian has some respect towards them more notably Zita, Brian, Sarah, Stanley and Samantha.

Tak

Tak is a female Irken that despises Zim. While Zim is the one whom ruined Tak's life, Ian sees Tak as the one who ruined his life. Tak and Ian were born on at the same time at the birthing facilies. However Tak had curiously pulled Ian's antanea off leaving only a strand of vein, though it was reattatched, it became rather bent and decomposed. Ian holds a grudge on Tak for doing so. How exactly he remembers exactly is unknown. However Tak seems to have a bit of a crush on him, notably she tries to impress him. Ian however through the run of the series has grown more fond of her, however is oblivious to her crush. Said crush probably evolved during Ian's attempts to save her while she was trapped on Devastis. On one occasion they decided to team up and kill Zim of course failing, miserably.

Tyler, Dennis and Alyx

Invaders Tyler, Dennis and Alyx, all being based on Ian McCormick's Middle School chums (and the one Tyler is based on being voiced by him) are three invaders. Ian met Tyler while being trained together, notably they were the class clowns as consired causing a great amount of stress to their teacher, General Struppenson. How Ian met Alyx and Dennis are unknown. Dennis is the smeet that Zim shoved in the Birthing tube as a smeet and as a result, he has many robotically acquired parts. He hates Zim for doing so and is on Earth waiting for his chance to murder him. Alyx's background is left unknown and mysterious and thus not much can be said about his past. However, he is a loner seeing his best friend killed before his eyes though. Dennis was killed off in Series 5 and Tyler went off to Planet G-9 to help the invasion of it with Larb. As for Alyx, it can be assumed he went back to Irk after Ian went insane.

Sizz-Lorr

Ian and Sizz Lorr were apparently good friends and Ian had also once worked at Foodcourtia as a summer job. Ian is stated to be a valuable customer there as well.

Skoodge

Ian has apparently known Skoodge for a long time but how long is unknown. Ian enjoys the company of Skoodge compared to Zim.

Zak Zak is an enemy of Ian's who was only featured as an addition to Season 5. Zak was apparentaly an old colleague of Ian's back while training. Ian surpassed him within training, Zak was deemed unfit for being an Invader, and as a result, he suffered a mental collapse. When hearing about Ian's success, he was enraged and escaped from the asylum, setting off to Earth. Zak took many attempts at killing Ian like hiring an Irken to take Ian's place as a mirror and kidnapping him. He was killed in the 5th Season finale!

Weaknesses and immunities
While Irkens like Zim exhibit severe adverse physical adverse reactions to certain normal Earth products, Ian is shown to most of the time be an exception to this as Ian found a solvant for immunity. It is determined to be covering himself in glue but what his solution is, is left unstated. However it is shown in few episodes that he has the same reaction as Zim, possibly more proof to the Glue idea.

Unlike Zim, Ian finds the Earth food fine (exception to the Lunch at Skool) and dosent tend to react towards any contact of it. Ian is not burned from contact with meat, which is also a trait that Tak tends to carry. Alyx and Tyler however react in the same way as Zim, though they tend to bring Irken food where Earth food is about.

Ian apparently has little reaction to pain as it is implied in one episode that he lost the ability to feel anything. Ian has the strongest pain threshold of the other Irkens (Sent on Earth atleast). Ian has lost his appendages on several occasions, and he has had no reaction what so ever. Also contrary to that, Ian has the ability to have any body part lost, grow back.

Ian cannot be killed with any amount of ease. It is a recuring gag in the series that Ian would die. This is all a direct gag toward Kenny McCormick from South Park. Ian is not killed in every episode however. He has only been killed 24 times in the series. Ian states that he dosent belong in either Hell or Heaven until it can be certain he has proven himself.

Ian is also apparently immune to Tak's hypno powers which is partly a result of his crippled antenae.

Disguises worn in Public
Ian often wears a disguise in an attempt to conceal his human identity from the humans. Ian's ones are more well constructed than Zim's bouffant wig and contact lenses.

Ian's costum consists of a Red-haired wig, and contact lenses. Ian however has a wrist communicator that disposes a Vortian formation rubber which forms into a human shape along with a Black sweatshirt and jeans. Ian also has a tendency to wear a red and green hat.

In the Pilot episode Ian used biker apparel (ala P.T. Boomer) consisting of a leather jacket, helmet and goggles. His wig was still ginger in it, but his skin was overly hagered and dark.

Ian has worn a Robotic Mid-20's man which is screwed up, out of control and completely haywire. It usually makes twitching noises and such. Ian used it to confront Dib in "Irken Eye for Dib the Human Guy". Ian also wears a wetsuit in "Wet" for swimming class. Also in the same episode, he created a Robot named the Richard Simmons Bot.

In The Weird Gang, Ian wears basically the same disguise but is altered with more droopy hair and black dyed tips at the end of his hair. Ian also instead wears a Black Johnny the Homicidal Maniac cap. Also his sweatshirt has "Rush Limbaugh is a Fat ass" written on it. This was used as Ians design for the rest of the whole series.

Later Series
Ian was featured in Ian McCormick's Internet Series "The Weird Gang" as a major villian. His appearence there is an explanation from the last episode of INSBL in which he lands on a Bus in Wisconsin. Apparently realizing Roy, is the Irken meant to replace him. So he thus was hoping to terrorize the Humans, end the world and kill Roy.

However Ian would later return to New York and help Zim destroy the horrible species instead of trying to kill him. But before hand, he played a role in the "Weird Gang Movie" where he realized about the Island of Sodor and its secrets and helped the others help Craig out.

Ian would later succesfully kill out the human race by giving Zim, the Control helmet he would use to destroy it. Ian returned to Irk to start a new life.

Voices
In the original pilots, Ian was voiced by Canadian actor, Doug Lennox but was replaced with Jason Marsden due to voicing misfitting. However the envisioned voice was found when hearing a Wisconsin inhabitant named Ian McCormick.

Trailers for the series depicted Ian with a deep, Upper class British accent. McCormick later reveals that Keith Scott was yet another choice and before finding McCormick, he was the final choice for Ian's voice. Apparently, Scott recorded Ian's voice for the first 7 episodes.

Every now and then when McCormick is not available for Ian, he is voiced by Futurama voice actor, Billy West, who was ironically the original voice for Zim. He used a Phil Hartman like tone for Ian, which when Ian McCormick took the series over, decided to have West do Ian since he feels he couldnt do Ians tone anymore.

In Brianne which was the "Politically correct" version of INSBL. Ian was rendered a female character (probably as a result of his long hair) and had been voiced by Andrea Libman.

In the UK version of INSBL, Ian is voiced by Adrian Edmonson, the former voice of Vyvvian from "The Young Ones".