Invincible: Thoughts

Hands down my favorite book is Robert Kirkman’s “Invincible”.

I can only praise Kirkman’s work on this title because I don’t read any of his other stuff.

Like most people I thought the six episode run of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” was fantastic, but I never read the source material.

I hear it’s good.

I don’t want to come off as snob but when it comes to funny books I mostly go for superhero titles.

I do read non-superhero titles but they don’t give me the same charge as the ‘tights and flights’ books do.

At the top of that list is “Invincible”.

SPOILERS BELOW

 

I love everything about it.

Robert Kirkman does a lot of talking about the importance of creator owned books and frequently offers his opinions on what talented/top writers should or should not be doing.

That is a post for another time, but Kirkman’s main point is or what I think his main point is, with a title like “Invincible” the character(s) is not restricted.

Issue 79 came out this week and two plot points came out that are examples of this.

The lighter one is that Mark Grayson aka Invincible turned 20.

When the book began back in 2003 Invincible was in his last year of high school.

With the exception of Peter Parker and Dick Grayson what other leading superhero has aged?

I am not trying to throw out an Eisner Award for this but when I read that, my smile went from ear to ear.

The other plot point that came out in this issue was the revelation that fellow superhero Atom Eve (Invincible’s girlfriend) had an abortion.

She and Invincible got pregnant but before ‘Eve could decide what to do, Invincible was rushed off to take part in a war in a far off galaxy.

‘Eve didn’t know what to do, she was scared, had no idea if Invincible was coming back, so she aborted the pregnancy.

This is huge.

Not because it’s topical. Not because it’s political. But because Lois Lane or Mary Jane could never do this.

Could you imagine if Wonder Woman had an abortion?

This is the kind of freedom you can get when you are writing a creator owned title 

“Invincible” is usually written as a fun almost satire look at superhero comics. Filled with great characters and character development.

You just never know what you are going to get.

One minute your dad is the greatest hero on the planet the next he’s the biggest threat to it….and then he’s a good guy again and you’re saving countless worlds fighting at his side.

If I had a complaint about the book…there is a lot of crying. A lot.

But I guess if you were responsible for the lives of everyone you knew, you’d be very emotional too.

Great book. Check it out.