I just got into this series recently, didn’t find an existing thread on it, so bam.
Despite minor predictable plot patterns, there’s so much to like about this series. In particular, I have to formally acknowledge penciller/inker Ryan Ottley’s utterly amazing ability to depict anger and wrath. I’ve read gory books before, but Ottley just draws the most epically furious and pissed off looking mofos I’ve seen in a long time-- maybe ever. Some of the panels of Mark’s dad made me feel like I was looking at a fully raged K-Groove Ratio 4 Sagat. And even though this book isn’t gratuitously gory (ok, maybe just selectively gory), I found myself :wow::amazed::shake: on more than a few occasions. Mostly @ the Viltrumite fights, because those guys fuck mofos up. Again, it’s Ottley’s keen eye for graphic violence that makes these images so visceral and… well, awesome.
Yeah this is a nice series and a good one for those who are newcomers to comics since you don’t have to know a lot of background info to enjoy this series.
I’ve only read up to issue 35 so far (waiting for the next hardcover). It is a very good series. It’s a modern take on the prototypical Marvel superhero of the '60s. The subplots can get lost in the monthly serial, but reading fat chunks of it is satisfying. The way Kirkman writes his subplots into the issues actually does remind me of the old-school style of storytelling. It works, though.
The art’s subtly spectacular, too. The graphic design sense is keen; I’ve been very impressed with the panel compositions and how things are laid out. It’s all done in a deceptively simple style but it always looks like a lot of thought went into how to maximize every inkline for maximum effect. The bright color palette also works really well in an age where a large amount of colorists seem to prefer using darker and murkier colors to try to bring gravity to the art. In Invincible, the lightness of it all stands out even more in contrast to the more violent aspects.
It’s one of the funnest series around today. I would hope Kirkman could do stuff on this tier of quality on a regular basis. I haven’t read any Astounding Wolf-Man yet, but it would be nice if it were almost as good as this.
I will probably give it a read one of these days. I’ve just been wary because other than The Walking Dead and Invincible, I haven’t really read anything by Kirkman that stood out. And some of the stuff he’s written for Marvel was just plain horrible. He probably does better work on his own stuff, but I’ve also read some Brit and I didn’t think that was anything special, either.
I don’t really like Astounding Wolf-Man at all. Invincible is a ton of fun because it’s like a slightly new take on all those old 60’s superhero comics like you said, Zephy - it’s like a superhero comic now with an old school take that doesn’t make it overly cheesy.
But Wolf-Man has a really old school take that makes it come off as really cheesy…I don’t know, it’s like Kirkman fell off with Wolf-Man while balancing the line.
Walking Dead is great, but I’m not a huge fan of it personally, just because it kind of drags on you eventually because the main plot just doesn’t really go anywhere. Invincible is great because it has all the great writing and intercharacter stuff of Walking Dead, but he’s a superhero so he gets to do all this awesome stuff. Instead of just run from zombies over and over again every month.
Also the art is better.
Invincible might be my favourite superhero title month-to-month, right up there with Iron Fist.
Clinty, just admit that you are a superhero whore.
And Charlie Adlard’s one of the greatest artists alive right now. Don’t make me cry, bub. DON’T DO IT
I only hope that Kirkman has an ending in mind for The Walking Dead. If we get to issue 389 and they’re still running from zombies… I don’t know about that. Endings are what give most great stories a lot of their meaning. The Walking Dead is a little too good to just let it go on eternally. With Invincible, I think it’d be okay to let that go on forever, because it is a superhero book and we all know everything in that genre is devoid of literary value.
I have no qualms in readily admitting this, and I do so regularly. Which is why I’m so angry at Marvel and DC - theoretically I’m already biased towards the big superhero circle jerks they always roll out…and yet the hate flows so freely through my veins.
You know what’s really odd about Invincible as well…it plods along in a relatively innocent mindset…no real adult or mature issues are addressed, relatively light-hearted stories, there’s always those silly “This is a family book!” editor’s notes before every love scene or whatever, and by most measures I feel like as if it’s a book that I could give like my 10 year-old cousin to read.
And then suddenly sometimes, out of nowhere, Invincible flies through a guy and cuts him in half, with his intestines and all that flying all over the place, guys covered in head to toe with blood, superstrong punches knocking eyeballs and shit out of a guy’s skull.
Like just all of a sudden! You’re reading this fun, old school superhero story, he’s in a hilarious spot trying to keep his secret identity, tra la la, turn the page, BOOM, two page spread of intestines all over the place.
It gets violent! And Ottley’s style (or maybe it’s the clean inking and bright colouring) doesn’t really lend itself to imminent violence of that magnitude…not like say…Steve Dillon or something. Everytime I read a story illustrated by Steve Dillon, I’m expecting a guy’s eyeball to pop out everytime I turn the page. And it’s not like Preacher and Punisher have influenced that impression of his art in my head, it’s the other way around - it’s Dillon’s stuff that makes those books so gloriously violent. But Ottley’s style is more clean lines and cartoony…more in the Bruce Timm, Darwyn Cooke mold than in the Dillon or any random Constatine artist mold.
So it’s always a fun surprise when that stuff happens…not that Ottley is in any way incapable of telling a completely violent and visceral story at all. But no, I would not give this book to a 10 year-old to read.
Ottley’s art has come leaps and bounds since he started.
FCO’s colors are, I think, better than Bill’s. He definitely adds more to the violent scenes in the book.
People who are up to date will know that he can render a black eye like nobodies business.
Edit: It’s also grounded in a lot more realism than most mainstream comics.
By that I mean: When a building gets leveled, people die.
When someone with super strength hits someone without it, bones break, body parts will fly and they bleed…a lot.
When aliens invade and destroy stuff, it doesn’t magically reappear fixed the next issue.
Normal people are actually in danger of being killed. This includes the regular cast of characters. If a bad guy shows up in front of say, his mom or Amber, there’s actual suspense because they could die.
So, stuff completely changes here. There’s no way a lot of the heroes in the Image Universe can take 1 Invincible, let alone 20 evil ones.
Clearly some heroes don’t make it.
This “event” takes place over the course of 3 days and it jumps around a lot. A lot of stuff is “glossed over” because, naturally, they can’t devote a whole page to each of the 100+ Image characters.
They get at least a panel, though.
EPIC SPOILERS
[details=Spoiler]
Almost no one walks away from this.
-By the end there’s only 8 evil Invincibles left.
-Atom Eve is severely injured (off panel) and in the hospital with at least both of her legs broken.
-Mark refuses to leave her side, telling Cecil that the rest of the superheroes can handle it.
-Bulletproof loses his left hand.
-Monster Girl is barely breathing, carried out by Robot and Bulletproof.
-Rex charges his own skeleton to kill off himself and one of the Invincibles so they can get away.
-The Guardians of the Globe are decimated. Immortal is beheaded (his head thrown through Duplicate possibly killing her last copy) Black Samson, Shapesmith and Darkwing II are all still barely alive.
-Darkwing II takes the Invincible into the shadow realm. Neither return.
-Pitt, Witchblade, Dragon, Youngblood, Cyberforce and other are all shown unconscious.
-Angstrom Levi betrays the 8 remaining Invincibles and traps them all in the original dimension Mark was trapped in waaaaaaay back when he “killed” Levi.
-Mark, Bulletproof and Oliver ambush Levi and Mark makes the decision (with Oliver pleading) to kill Levi.
-Levi escapes through a portal before Mark can kill him, but Mark holds on to his arm, severing most of Levi’s right arm.
-Levi is not allowed to return, told by the beings who repaired him that he “works for them now”.
-The world is pretty much in shambles. The Pentagon, NYC, Paris, you name it, it’s destroyed. [/details]
Just read #60, too fucking bloody!
Good issue overall and Kirkman delivered with the crossover, even though the focus was mostly on Invincible.
…and did I just see Sabretooth and Psylocke in one panel?
Cyblade, you mean. And it should be Wolverine, not Sabretooth.
Cyberforce has always been a cheap Chinese bootleg of X-Men anyway, I argue that it’s wrong to even make the distinction that Cyberforce characters even really exist in the first place. For all intents and purposes, that WAS Wolverine and Psylocke. And Cable’s there too!
All the initial Image launch books were rip-offs of early 90’s Marvel properties.
(Except for Spawn, I guess…? But that’s a whole 'nother discussion.)
Really cool idea for #60, but while I’m a big proponent of not stretching stories out and telling 4-part minis in 8 issues, I can’t help but wonder if this would have been better served with more pages. Some cool match-ups in there, the Image fanboy in me (ha) wanted to see some expanded. But still, really cool idea to keep it all within one issue, really fun issue.
Violent as hell too…I honestly don’t think there’s a more violent monthly out right now.
There’s (not many) books out there that are as bloody…but when’s the last time you’ve seen a guy get his head beat to pulp like in the second page? And the Pitt! Wow.
(And don’t bring up Kick Ass, that book is nonsense and unworthy of mention. BOO-URNS!)
Cywhatever.
The one with the shitty rushed art that won that rigged pilot season and never comes out.
As far as Kick Ass is concerned: Kick Ass is trying to be that violent and shocking and Invincible just is. (on top of being a great story with actual supporting characters)
