by Jake Jacobson
Invincible, Kirkman's wonder book. There's very little good that hasn't been said of this title. I'd love to stray from the herd and say that Invincible is a shitty book, or that it's overrated, but the sad truth is that this book rocks. Likewise the hardcover edition of this book rocks, and is weighty enough that it can double as a theft deterrent system (bonus, more bang for your buck).
The collection holds the first 13 issues of invincible in a gorgeous hardbound format with a delightful dust cover. If you've been living under a rock you might like me to cover what Invincible is about, and I suppose I can do that for you. Though, you really ought to be ashamed of yourself if you don't know. Invincible is the story of Mark Grayson, son of Omni Man (a very Superman-like dude) the greatest hero in the world. Now, Mark is a teenager undergoing all that lovely teen angst and if that weren't enough he's got to deal with blossoming superpowers of the same sort as his father. Like any good super powered teen Mark decides to fight crime with his natural gifts. This of course leads to all the usual trouble with villains, rival super types, and all that stuff. It may seem like I'm glossing over a lot here, and to an extent I am. The intro to this story isn't anything you haven't seen before; it's the twist that counts. Seems Mark's father (SPOILER ALERT MUTHERFUCKERS) is in fact an alien (ABOUT TO SPOIL, I AM SOO FUCKING SERIOUS) but is not in fact from a utopian pacifist society (SPOILING IN PROGRESS, SHIT YOURSELF NOW!) and is rather from a tyrannical, galactic brute squad that's been moving from world to world toppling civilizations and taking hyphenated names. Mark's dad has been sent to Earth to ready it for invasion, and after his time here raising a son and being proclaimed greatest hero ever it's high time he started giving the galactic beat down.
Ok, if we've seen Star Wars that wasn't too big a spoiler. For a super hero book even, it's not that unusual. HOWEVER, what sets Invincible apart, what takes it to a whole different level of awesome, is the writing (much like how the writing in Wanted made it utter shit). Kirkman is so concise with his words that every character feels immediately three dimensional and real. They aren't just archetypes, they're people. Of the many comics I've read only a handful make me laugh out loud, and even fewer make me sit back and say "damn, that was awesome". This book made me do both in a two issue span. By the end of this trade I was practically frothing at the mouth, and if I wasn't certain that this book is good enough that there will be another hardcover trade in a year or so, I'd have gone to my local comic shop and bought every issue up to current right that second.
Invincible is the comic for you. Notice I didn't clarify that based on your tastes. It's the comic for you regardless of who you are. There's something in there for everyone. Well, everyone except Nazis. Really though, who cares if the Nazis are happy? So, assuming of course you haven't bought this trade, or you haven't had the time to pick up the individual issues of Invincible, or hell, even if you have, pick up the hardcover. It's hella-rad. Oh, did I mention there's bonus stuff in there too? There is… metric tons of the stuff. There's art and scripts and sketches and the initial proposal to Image (which if you're an aspiring artist like myself is wicked, snowflake on the sun cool) to list just some of it all. The short version of this review reads as follows: Buy this goddamn book!
