After working on my previous post about the Stratemeyer Syndicate and how their novels were published on a monthly basis, naturally it led me back to comic books. Which led me to doing this review. As you all know, I love comics, but I prefer writing about movies, TV shows and novels as I feel like I have a lot more to say about those mediums than I do with comic books. But I decided to bring back reviews of singular issues, rather than full story arcs. So I chose Invincible #1 by Robert Kirkman with art by Cory Walker.
Invincible #1 is probably the best first issue of a comic book series I have ever read. Kirkman does a really good job of establishing the setting and the main characters, without giving us too much all at once. It's not an overwhelming issue like Spawn #1 is or repetitive like Superman #1 from 1939 is. It flows naturally and sets a decent pace for the entire series as it feels like Kirkman wrote it with the long haul in mind. For those of you who don't know what Invincible is, it's a story about Mark Grayson who develops super powers as a teenager, becoming the superhero known as Invincible. His dad is a superhero as well, and other superheroes populate the universe too.
I've read the first two trade paperback volumes, containing the first eight issues of the series, and one of the things that I like about it is how normal Kirkman makes the superhero stuff. Like, Mark tells his parents that his powers have started developing and his mom is just like, "That's nice dear" as if he told her he was starting to have hair grow on his face or something to the effect of some puberty related event happening to his body. And they don't even talk about him becoming a superhero like his father, because they knew it was going to happen eventually anyway.
Of course, because Mark is a teenager and in high school, there's plenty of drama in this early part of the series. But it's not the kind of teen drama that other teenage superheroes, like Robin or early versions of Spider-Man had to deal with. Mark has friends, he goes on dates and the only bullies that he deals with are the ones who he insinuates himself with when they're picking on some other kid. That's the extent of it. Otherwise Mark has to deal with the same thing that other teenage superheroes have to deal with, like keeping their identities secret from their friends and teachers, while staying on top of their grades and whatever other activities they have going on after school, whether it's extra-curricular activities, an after school job or hanging out with their friends. You know, the day to day stuff that we all find relatable.
Robert Kirkman is a geek who loves comic books. In Kurt Busiek's introduction to Invincible Volume 1: Family Matters, he mentions that Kirkman didn't want to deconstruct superheroes with Invincible the way Alan Moore had with Watchmen or Frank Miller had done with his Batman books. Instead, Kirkman wanted to tell a story that embraced the superhero genre and used it to it's full potential. And from what I read of the series so far, that's exactly what it does. It doesn't satirize superheroes either. This isn't a tongue in cheek thing. It's a full fledged, serious, interesting, epic, superhero series with all the tropes you come to expect from the genre and the book does those tropes unapologetically.
Cory Walker's artwork is amazing. It's simple, but amazing. To be honest, I actually prefer Ryan Ottley's work on the later issues, but Walker established the look of the series while Ottley enriched it. And honestly, the two of them are so close in their art styles that there really isn't a noticeable difference when Ottley takes over for Walker in issue #8. Definitely the opposite from the difference between Norm Breyfogle and Jim Aparo's work on Detective Comics and Batman in the late '80s and early '90s.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Invincible #1 is a great first issue of a comic book series. It doesn't throw six hundred characters at you, it doesn't try to be spectacular and epic in a single issue, it doesn't try to do anything daring or different with the genre. It just tells a simple story about a boy getting super powers and that's it. It accomplishes that and sets up a wonderful story that gets more interesting and exciting as it goes on. If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend it. I don't know what the original edition of the issue goes for in terms of price, but it was reprinted recently as a Free Comic Book Day 2020 promo for the upcoming Amazon Prime Video animated series coming out next year and it's in a number of Invincible collected editions, trade paperback and hardcover. I'm giving Invincible #1 10/10 stars.
Links
Image Comics Wiki: https://imagecomics.fandom.com/wiki/Invincible_Vol_1_1
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