Back Issues: "Invincible" #48-59

- by ReuBen DeBord, 14 January 2017

Well howdy, trash muties! It’s been a little while since you’ve seen me talk about the creator owned Image Comics series “Invincible”, written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Ryan Ottley. So today, I’m going to do just that. Specifically, I’m going to talk a little bit about issues 48 through 59 (and issue 11 of the Astounding Wolf-Man), all collected in the Invincible Ultimate Collection volume 5.

This bunch of issues is interesting. While it does do a lot of the stuff I complained about before when I talked about this series, I think it manages to make a lot of the things I have complained about in the past work a lot better. For instance, I’ve complained before about trying to make the “landmark” issues feel really important by cramming them with lots of jaw dropping moments, and then going several issues with nothing really important happening. Well, we’ve now hit issue 50, and it feels like the big deal that it wants us to think that it is, because it actually earns the crap that it’s throwing at the fan. 

I said that these landmark issues like 25, 50, 100 or 700 doing the huge “Oh my goodness” moments can work as long as they feel earned. 

In this case, issue 50 has Mark and just about every other superhero in America get kidnapped by one of Mark’s minor foes, and Mark’s boss who works for the US Government sends in some robot zombies created by the mad scientist who turned Mark’s friend into a robot zombie. While the day is saved, Mark is understandably furious. He confronts his boss, his boss doesn’t take it very well, there’s a big fight, and Mark parts ways with the US Government. Bye bye, cushy job, where he gets paid to do what he was doing anyway. In a way, it kinda feels like the “shock for shock’s sake” that a lot of these landmark issues do, but it’s a change in the status quo that the series commits to. And this issue even gives us some backstory for the character of Cecil, which makes this turn of events even more shocking, and yet even more satisfying as well.

After this turn of events, we get some development of Invincible’s kid half-brother, Oliver. Now I wasn’t reading this series when Oliver was introduced or when he was starting to get more screentime like he is in this batch of issues. And if I was, I wasn’t plugged into the Invincible fanbase, so I don’t know what other people thought of these issues or this character. But when Oliver was introduced back in issue 26, I can only imagine people just assumed that this kid would eventually become Invincible’s sidekick (and I can only assume the detractors of this series thought this was the moment the series would become unsalvageable. I’ve heard that introducing a new kid into a series often does that, like with the Brady Bunch). But what I doubt anyone thought would happen is that this Oliver kid, at the ripe age of maybe 10 or 11, would end up being a kinda terrifying and very bratty piece of work. 

We find out some time after he’s brought to Earth that he has memories going back to his infancy, so he remembers his home-world, and as such, he doesn’t really consider himself to be a human, or subject to human laws and customs. At one point he gets in a fight with some of the recurring villains of the series, the Mauler Twins, and he pretty easily eviscerates both of them. While Invincible was really emotionally distraught when he accidentally killed Angstrom Levy (or thought he killed him), Oliver doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal at all. He makes the argument many comic fans make, that if a villain continues their villainy and people die because of it, then when the hero had the chance to kill the villain, innocent blood is on the hero’s hands. ​While Oliver’s words do have a certain ring of logic to them, this pretty much confirms that he is definitely not the cutesy plucky sidekick to Invincible that I assume people thought he would be when he’s introduced. In fact, based on one really unnerving scowl he secretly gives Mark during a hug, I suspect Oliver is maybe this series’ second big villain, slowly going down that path, a la Lex Luthor from Smallville.

And speaking of the big serious villains that I lamented this series was seriously lacking, Angstrom Levy isn’t dead! I have no idea how, but this does seem to be the Angstrom Invincible beat to a pulp, since he’s got scars on his face that are presumably from Invincible’s punchiness. We don’t really get much with Levy in this batch of issues, other than him sitting in an evil lair acting all sinister, watching Invincible from afar. That’ll probably (hopefully? Maybe?) become more important in the next batch of issues. But right now, it’s just percolating while other stuff goes on.

And since I’m here talking about the villains who actually seem to be a big deal and pose a threat to Invincible, issue 59 introduces a new baddie who seems like he might be just that. This guy’s name is Powerplex, and wants revenge on Invincible, because his sister got killed when Mark was fighting his dad waaay back in issue 12. This is a pretty solid motivation for a villain. It kinda reminds me of what David Michelinie originally wanted for Venom, with a pregnant lady who lost her husband because a cab driver was watching Spider-Man fight some bad guy. What’s really new and interesting about this guy is that he’s got a wife and son who love him, and the wife totally supports his plans to kill Invincible. You don’t see that sort of thing very often in comics, and in a way, it kinda reminds me of how Mark’s mom was pretty blasé about Mark becoming a superhero.

But I am a little disappointed that it’s taken this long for the series to get 2 serious supervillains. And one of them is presumed dead and has basically made 1 attempt on our hero (with another in the works), and the other now imprisoned, and who knows how long it’ll take for him to make another move. In the past, I did complain that this series was lacking good villains, and it does feel like the series is correcting that, but it seems like they should have so many more bad guys when they’re almost 60 issues in, right?

Other than that, we do get a short little crossover with the Astounding Wolf-Man series. It’s alright. Kinda fluffy, but a well told story that shows that there’s more to this world than just what’s going on in Invincible (though I won’t be covering the Astounding Wolf-Man in back issue examination pieces anytime soon). And we also get some development of Mark and Eve’s relationship, which doesn’t bother me as much as when the series used to spend time on Mark and Amber.

Maybe because the series has played the long game with these two. They gave us plenty of time (over 50 issues) to fall in love with Eve, and to root for her and Mark. So when it finally happens, it’s worth the wait, and even when the book spends a few issues on them going on dates (with some fun time travel stuff thrown in for good measure. I love time travel, so the book can do no wrong there, as far as I’m concerned).

Overall, I like the direction the series seems to be going with these issues, even if I think it should have been making this much forward momentum back in the 20s. But it seems like this series is following some weird Star Trekian law of me liking or not liking a group of issues. I liked the stuff from the first Ultimate Collection, didn’t like the second Ultimate Collection, liked the third, wasn’t crazy about the fourth, and now I like the fifth. I think this constitutes a pattern, yes? But we’ll see when I cover later volumes in the future! In the meantime, you muties keep it trashy!

Read past "Invincible" issue reviews:
- Invincible #1-13
- Invincible #14-24
- Invincible #25-35
​- Invincible #36-47

Tagged: comics, Back Issues.

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