Being a huge fan of The Walking Dead, also written by Kirkman, I knew (or hoped) to expect great writing, characters, and pacing, and boy I was not disappointed. About a year ago now I picked up the first trade, collecting the first 4 issues from back in 2003, and have just finished the fourteenth trade (up to issue 78).Ooh - just to note - there are going to be some spoilers here (otherwise I couldn't really talk about it!) but I'll try not to ruin anyone's enjoyment of this superb book...
It begins using a lot of similar superhero motifs that we've come to know from many other very similar stories. Mark Grayson is your typical teenager, powering through puberty and living with his mum and Dad, Nolan, who also happens to be Omni-Man, a Freddie Mercury lookalike from the planet Viltrum (where EVERYONE has a moustache!!!). Omni-Man is the most powerful superhero on the planet, flanked by a Government-sanctioned team of heroes called the Guardians of the Globe, a group run by the haggard Cecil Steadman. Mark begins to manifest hereditary superpowers and, before long, Nolan is showing him how to be a superhero and telling him about his Viltrumite origins. Nolan explains that he's an ambassador of sorts for Viltrum, and that Earth is his charge. Mark meets some other teen superheroes, Atom Eve, Robot, and Rex Splode, and as Invincible, he gets into a few scrapes and misadventures over the course of the first few issues. So far, so safe.
Then it starts to get dark. Really dark. In Issue 7, the Guardians of the Globe are all murdered, and there's confusion abound. In a remarkable twist (STOP READING HERE if you don't want to know any more!) the killer is revealed to be none other than Omni-Man himself... you see, he's not been entirely truthful about the Viltrumites' intentions for Earth, and now that Mark's started to understand his powers, he chooses this time to reveal his true nature and request Mark join his mission: to conquer Earth. In a spectacular battle, Nolan battles Invincible in the skies and cities of Earth, claiming thousands of lives through collateral damage and beating his own son to a pulp in the process as they argue their ideologies; and then, Invincible having refused to join his father, Nolan disappears into space, tears in his eyes... setting the stage for the central continuous plotline in the book.
So there's the epic scale of that plot... which to some writers might be enough, but this is Kirkman, and he's invested so much into building a self-contained universe for Invincible that there are dozens of subplots running at the same time. There are expository one-page stories so quick you might miss them which foreshadow new villains and conflicts eight or so issues before we come back to them. We have, for example, the character arc of scientist Angstrom Levy, who collects the brainpower of scores of alternate versions of himself for good, only to be injured in an accident which causes him to blame Invincible and turn evil; there's the expedition to Mars which introduces not one but two new alien races; there's the Mauler Twins, clones who perpetually argue over which is the 'real' one (despite neither of them being the original); or crime boss Titan... at any one time Kirkman has so many plot threads dangling it's a wonder he can sew them together. But that he does, and spectacularly so.As well as plot threads, Invincible is continually playing with similar motifs and themes; one very important aspect of the book as Mark's development into an adult (another unusual thing for a superhero book, Invincible unfolds pretty much in real time, so he's a young man now), equating his physical and intellectual growth with the development of his powers, but also the fleshing out of his moral core. Issue 50 follows the breakdown of his relationship with Cecil, whom he believes to be making morally incorrect decisions, only for this to be revisited twenty or so issues later as Cecil turns the tables on him and points out that Mark's recent behaviour has been less than morally straightforward. We also get the more human life lessons through our emotional connection to the characters - particularly poignant are the effects of Nolan's absence following his fight with Invincible; his mother's despair, alcoholism, acceptance and grief are beautifully played out alongside Mark's reactions. And of course, his love pentagon (?) with Atom Eve, Rex Splode, best friend William and girl next door Amber.
The other thing that's very noteworthy about Invincible is the GORE. From Mark's early confontation with Nolan to his battles with other Viltrumites, especially the female Anissa (no moustache) and the absolutely brutal Conquest, this book pulls no punches on the graphic content front, and therefore I would say kids or people of a weak disposition should not pick it up! Innards, teeth and limbs spill out and off the page at regular intervals, with long battles offering us very sustained levels of violence.
This, though, is where Ryan Ottley absolutely excels (having taken over the series from Cory Walker at issue 8-ish - NB Walker has done the odd bit of pencilling since). Ottley's work is detailed, but more than anything FUN even in these extended scenes of gore. He can be quite daring with his layouts, notably a wonderful double page montage showing Invincible and Atom Eve's courtship, and more recently as part of the Viltrumite War arc, several wordless double page spreads in a row, all incredibly dynamic and detailed.
In short, I can't recommend Invincible enough. Whether the superhero genre is your bag or not, this is a book that offers well-rounded characters (hundreds of them!), larger than life new worlds (hundreds of them!) and moustaches (hundreds of them!)Invincible is published monthly by Image Comics (current issue #89) and is collected in 15 trade paperbacks, 6 oversized hardcovers, and one compendium.
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