Invincible: a series review and a goodbye (SPOILERS)

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Blacksmith_99

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Edited By Blacksmith_99
Girls, acne, homework, super-villains. When you're a teenager, it helps to be INVINCIBLE
Girls, acne, homework, super-villains. When you're a teenager, it helps to be INVINCIBLE

Back in 2007, I was a "nerdy" teenager who loved reading comics, playing D&D with friends and teabagging on Halo 3. My favourite characters were the big three: Superman, Batman and Spider-Man. However, at that time, I began to grow tired of the usual heroes and their usual storylines. As much as I loved them, I wanted something new and fresh, something that wasn't afraid to question the good vs. evil morals.

That's when I found Invincible.

Written by the renowed writer Robert Kirkman, also responsible for The Walking Dead on-going comic series, Invincible #1 was published in January 22 of 2003. Fifteen years later, in February 14 of 2018, Invincible has reached its final issue of number #144. In this blog of mine, I'll be not only reviewing the series, but explaining why it is so important to me and probably so important to many others.

Before that, I'd like to once again announce that below here, spoilers from the first issue to the very last issue of number #144 will be mentioned and commented on. So if you haven't read Invincible yet, do not read this blog or continue and read it at your own risk. Thank you.

Marvel Team-Up #14: Spider-Man meets Invincible.
Marvel Team-Up #14: Spider-Man meets Invincible.

Going back to my first few words, you might be asking yourself what makes Invincible so different from Superman, Batman and Spider-Man? I'll tell you: it's not so different. What I believe is the best thing about the Invincible series is how it plays with the usual hero tropes and clichés, and uses them in refreshing ways. My favourite example of this lies on the very first issue, and it immediately got my attention.

No Caption Provided

My favourite thing about this moment is how the "superheroing" is treated so normally, as it should be in a world full of supers. If this was a Superman comic or a Spider-Man comic and Mark said that he got his superpowers, we'd have a full page with Mark's mom face and her jaw dropped, leaving a cliffhanger to the next issue. However, in Invincible, that's immediately subverted and treated as a meal talk, where this would be so common that she immediately shrugged it off and asked Mark for him to pass the potatoes.

There are many other instances where this subversion happens, like in the second issue where Mark's dad is telling him about the history of Viltrum and how he came to be and young Mark simply ignores all that story and focuses on the fact that he will have powers, immediately saying "Wow. I'm going to be able to fly?". Kirkman's comic is filled with these subversions that sometimes are parodic, as the examples given, and sometimes are more serious. Out of these more serious subversions, the biggest one that is seen throughout Invincible is the subversion of the fight between good and evil, and sometimes even questioning what those even mean.

The best example I could find of that is during the entirety of the Dinosaurus Saga (Get Smart + Family Ties + What's Happening + The Death of Everyone). Where this "supervillain" named Dinosaurus makes Mark question his own morals and his sense of what's right and what's wrong.

Moment where Mark questions what's right and wrong

Though, Invincible is not only made of subversion of genre. The development of its characters is brilliant. Even the side characters get their time to shine, specially ones you'd never guess, such as the Mauler Twins and D.A. Sinclair. It is incredible how each character has changed in different ways, specially Mark, who went from a teenager superhero to Viltrum's emperor in the last issue. Nolan, aka Mark's dad, who went from a Viltrum agent to one of it's biggest resistance fighters. Every character got its time to shine, even Marky, who basically had only three issues of appearance.

Although its good lies heavily on the characters, that doesn't mean its plots aren't good, it's quite the contrary. Invincible not only excels at building and developing its characters, it also excels in building an interesting plot that keeps you wishing that the next month would come sooner. It does suffer from poor writing sometimes, but this is rarely seen on Kirkman's writing. The comic's pacing is a bit of a problem sometimes, in the last issues it rushed a lot, and in some other issues it would drag a lot, but most of the time it kept the balance on its pacing. This series has brilliant fight scenes, and I'd like to give a shout out to Conquest versus Invincible fight. This one is one of the greatest and tense fights I've ever seen in a comic (my opinion of course). It's definitely one of the goriest fights, but also one of the best. This is not an exception, almost all fights in Invincible are incredibly paced and tense enough to make you fall of your chair.

An example of Conquest vs. Invincible, draw by Ryan Ottley
An example of Conquest vs. Invincible, draw by Ryan Ottley

Invincible's art is a bit troubled. While Ryan Ottley's art is amazing, as you can see in the panel above, making the characters seem almost realistic, Cory Walker's art is usually underwhelming, save for the very last issue where his art is able to finally shine. There are some fans of Cory's work on Invincible, but I'm definitely not one of them.

Now, onto the final issue that was released today (14/02/2018), it was definitely a satisfying end and a step-up after the rushed last issues. Although some stuff there could be told in five or more issues, it was surely a fitting end to this series. I was genuinely surprised that Cory's art worked well in that issue. It wasn't anything amazing, but it was good enough to make me feel satisified.

However, the reason I made this blog wasn't to simply review this amazing series, but to say how important this series is to me. I've been reading Invincible for an entire decade, 11 years to be more precise, I started reading it as a teenager who was about to go to college and now, eleven years later, I finally finished it as a grown man with a full-time job. Like I said, I started reading it back at 2007 and I've already closed many things from that time. I sold my Xbox 360 and no longer teabag in Halo 3, my D&D friends got jobs and moved on with their lives and although I still read comics, the characters I used to read have either rebooted or changed completely. All that, except Invincible. It sounds cheesy, but in some sort of way, Invincible's ending closed a chapter in my own life. In the future, the end of the MCU (if it will ever end) will be the closure of a chapter in a lot of people's lives, just like Invincible's ending is to me. It will be hard to find something that impacts me the way Invincible did, but who knows, maybe it is just lying down the corner...

The very last panel of Invincible's comic, draw by Cory Walker. Goodbye, Invincible :)
The very last panel of Invincible's comic, draw by Cory Walker. Goodbye, Invincible :)

Thank you for reading.

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joshua755

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This was very good

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StaticDwanyeMcduffie

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I wanted see little bit more of Markus.

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DarkPsychicLord_Prime

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I will come back to this after i finish the last issues for myself, but very good post man, Invincible did bring out a lot of emotions and reflexions about certain concepts while i was reading it, granted i started 2 years ago, it has meant a lot to me during this time. It is definetely one of, if not THE best comic book i have ever read and it truly saddens me that it has come to an end, but i guess everything good has to. In the earlier issues Kirkman said he wanted to continue writing it as long as he could, and when he could't any longer, he would find another writer to continue the series. But then he changed his mind (for good imo), he realized that if the series kept on the run indefinetely it wouldn't have been any different than any other comic book published by the big companies such as Marvel and DC, and we all know Kirkman wanted to stay far away from that as possible. He demonstrated this during all the Invincible series, i.e: mocking overused tropes in comics, and when a character in Invincible died, it would stay dead. That and the amazing writing by Robert, made Invincible, an unique comic book and i truly hope Kirkman was able to give this story the end it deserves.

P.D: At least we have the movie coming.

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mrmonster

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I didn't get to read much from Invincible (my library only the first few volumes) but what I did read was great. Invincible was a great character, and Omni-Man was a great villain.

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DarkPsychicLord_Prime

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@mrmonster: I don't mean to force you to do it, but i encourage you to keep reading it, the series has transformed and developed the characters so well that you'd hook up after keep reading the following issues, you can read them online if you don't want to buy it, but i truly recommend the series to any comic reader or any reader in general.

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mrmonster

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@mrmonster: I don't mean to force you to do it, but i encourage you to keep reading it, the series has transformed and developed the characters so well that you'd hook up after keep reading the following issues, you can read them online if you don't want to buy it, but i truly recommend the series to any comic reader or any reader in general.

Are there are websites where I can read them for free, and without pirating it.

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jashro44

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ITouchedTheBoat

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so...it's over.

Time to go on a reading binge lol

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DarkPsychicLord_Prime

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Blacksmith_99

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I wanted see little bit more of Markus.

Yeah, like I said, that could have easily fit five or more issues instead of only one.

P.D: At least we have the movie coming.

Wait, really? I didn't know they were planning on an Invincible movie. Though, I believe that it would fit the series format much better.

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jesusdisciple001

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Wonderful one, I am a fan of Cory's though I see why people might not like his stuff, it was a beautiful capstone to great series. Could you still move this to the Invincible Forum instead of General Discussion as that may fit better.

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Blacksmith_99

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@jesusdisciple001: Thanks for the compliments. Also, is there any other way I can move it without being copying this post and re-posting it on the Invincible forum?

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jesusdisciple001

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