Invincible Volume 1

The guy who writes the Walking Dead writes a superhero book? Yes Please.



I can't remember if I said recently or not but I was given a nice present that allowed me to pick up a bunch of books at the local comic store.  I love this shop because they have a little of everything on top of being super nice/accepting of people trying "to break back in" or even casual fans just there for The Walking Dead or Buffy.

Since this wasn't going to cost me anything I decided to give some things I'd been meaning to check out a look.  I've been pleasantly surprised by some (and blown away by others but thats another review), and some haven't quite hit the advertised mark.

So I'm in the store searching through shelves and shelves of TPBs and I remembered how die hard people were about Invincible.  Everyone I'd ever seen talk about talked about how it was one of the best hero books out there, had a great sense of humor, and great characters.  I grab the book off the shelf and go "Robert Kirkman..Hm..Isnt that the The Walking Dead guy?" Walk over to the section and bam confirmed.  So Yeah, needless to say this was an immediate in the stack of "Yeah I'm buying this."

So whats the story?  Teenager's Dad is a superhero (really reminiscent of Superman's origin.  No bones about it this Kirkman's shot a cape book) and suddenly the teenager starts getting powers similar to his dad's.

And that's about it.  You have some other young heroes (Teen Titans anyone), and some story line about missing students, but Volume 1 is pretty much an origin story.

Unfortunately since cape books are so steeped in cliche, even get ones are slightly tedious on the origin stories nowadays.  While I can't say I disliked this, I can't say it particularly blew me away either.  I didnt finish the last page and say "well back to the comic store, I need more of this."

So far the most interesting bit is the family dynamic of a mother dealing with not one but two heroes in her household.

But here's the thing.

Its Robert fucking Kirkman. This is the man who gave us a "cliche" zombie book that has literally taken pop culture by storm when it got a tv show.  This is the guy who in that same book, literally makes us scream with horror and rage, knowing full well its coming.  This guy can write and if you think otherwise, you're doing it wrong.

This is I believe the first 6 issues of a book that is now on issue 105.  You don't get to the 100s without doing something right.  So when I get some time (something I have little of right now), I'm going to try to check out other volumes and see if this goes uphill.  I'm pretty sure it will.

Waiting on Image to supplant the Big 2,
-Oz