Amazing Comics: Invincible

Robert Kirkman is indirectly responsible for there being a game where Norman Reedus throws poop grenades at slime-lions, so for that he has my respect, but i still think The Walking Dead is uh... you know... sorta gay. Fortunately for all of us, boosting the guy from Boondock Saints' career and being the richest man in the universe wasn't enough for Kirkman, so he decided to write a comic that was actually good, and it was called Invincible.

I spent the last couple of weeks reading all 144 issues of this Amazing Comic in my down time between clown time. This became necessary because apparently it takes 2 years to animate 4 episodes of the show. So at this rate the fucking thing will be on longer than Walking Dead ever was, and i do not have the patience to be told a story that slowly.

I am a master absorber of art and media, i watch 2 movies, listen to 3 audiobooks, and play 6 video games at the same time because there is much to be done. My life might actually end some day so I'm not wasting it on a story that never does. I ain't gonna wait 2 more years to see what happens with the bug baby.

So i read the whole stupid comic and it was pretty great. The show is faithful enough to the source material that i was able to find the exact issue to pick up where the season 2 episodes left off. I could tell that a few details had happened in a different order than the show but more or less it's a very smooth hop from one to the other.

This is a hella-consistant book both in terms of story and art. The art style, which the show made sure to adapt as faithfully as possible, is super clean and bold, and the fact that it never changes does a lot to make this feel like one big story.

I don't know how much of it was planned from the beginning. Everything or nothing would be impressive for different reasons. The story just feels really coherent with events building into other events. Everything happens because something else happened so everything feels important, and it all comes together pretty neatly in the end.

There's a lot of comics that sell themselves on the gimmick of being a sort of anti-comic. There's always another edgy satire about superheroes being ultraviolent and cunty. Invincible is ultraviolent and many of the characters do occasionally exhibit signs of cunthood, but by the end it becomes pretty clear that the point was never to be edgy at all. This is a loving homage to the entire medium of superhero comics and it's ugly or brutal moments were in service to an optimistic world of tomorrow resolution that is classic sci-fi.

The series is insanely paced as well. A lot of wild stuff happens in these 144 issues. Crazy shit is always popping off. It never slows down. There's a frantic sense to the whole series that these guys legitimately wanted to put out the most exciting comic that week. Major arcs happen right after another with the resolution from one usually leading directly into the next. And something big happens in just about every issue. Someone's always getting their guts ripped out or killing someone or getting their leg kicked out of their leg.

There's just never a break. You end up feeling just as exhausted as the characters, but it feels even more relentless for you because at least in the story characters can rest and time passes off panel. But I'm invested in this ride, I'm over here reading 25 issues a night getting whiplash and throwing my back out.

All the main characters and even most of the secondary characters are very strongly defined and despite often being deliberate homages to super hero character tropes, are fleshed out enough to stand out as unique and memorable characters in their own right. These characters continue to change and react, coming up against each other for different reasons and always learning something.

Omni-Man in particular just gets more and more interesting as the series goes on. He sort of has a redemption arc but it's more complicated and frankly, more realistic than that. Nothing about this guy is ever as simple as good or evil, everything he does makes sense to him, and sometimes it means he's on Invincibles' side, other times they both feel they must oppose each other.

The relationship they develop is very compelling. Especially as Mark grows up and they both acquire greater and greater responsibility. I absolutely love that the story eventually goes full Dune with the reveal of royal blood in the family and Nolan becoming emperor. Problems on Earth get smaller and farther away as galactic conflict takes over. So while the characters deal with problems in one location, another suffers. Wherever Invincible isn't, that's where some bad shit's going down to set up the next terrible disaster in his life.

This guy is truly fucking cursed. His name is a lie, he is quite vincible. Christ almighty it's like no matter what you goddamn do life is getting ready to fuck you one way or another. That's how i feel living this life and it's how i feel reading this comic too. Mark's life SUCKS. Forget Parker Luck, Mark Grayson has Matt Murdock luck. He's got Shinji Ikari luck. Sideshow Bob stepping on a rake luck. This poor motherfucker is the Wily. E. Coyote of superpowered heart throbs.

Every day of Invincibles' life sucks harder than the one before. A typical day for him is wake up, immediately get body slammed through the floor and irish whipped through the wall, get snu-snu'd by a rape-kryptonian while his girlfriend gets her tits ripped off by a goblin. Then he gets thrown into a cannibal dimension for 5 years, comes back, gets beat up by his dad some more, his brother's dating a cockroach, his girl's been getting brain massages by a blue alien mailman, and he hasn't even had breakfast yet.

But in the end it's all worth it cause homeboy gains the ultimate prize, 500 years of sex with a woman, and 10,000 more to coom. If i wrote the bible that would be in it.

It's a good thing Mark is actually cool or this series would fall apart. His character development throughout the series is great. In one of the letter sections i read a response from Kirkman that said one of his favorite things about the series is doing the kind of big devastating events from other comics but having them impact the characters in a more realistic way.

Mark's arc ends up going in a surprisingly mature direction. Mark begins the series naively trying to embody an idealized version of his father, but later on he realizes this shit ain't a fuckin game, so he has to look at things more realistically to protect his loved ones. Over the series he learns a lot of harsh lessons, and the consequences when he fails are brutal, so he gradually becomes a lot more cynical, ruthless, and cunning, while still remaining a good person.

If i had to interpret the subtext here, It seems like the comic is making the case that it's better to be a responsible adult than an idealistic child. In order to be a real leader, and a real protector, Mark has to learn that he's not a hero, because being a hero is umm.. you know... sorta gay. It's the exact lesson Spider-Man's been supposed to learn for 60 years but will never be allowed to because he prints money.

Well anyway, I'm tired of sitting in this chair so the review's over. My fuckin ass hurts. Invincible is great and if you're wondering whether you should hop from the show to the book, stop wondering. Do as I command and read comics, you fool.