Invincible...
Continuing a blaze through comicdom, I started to read a comic that caught my attention a while ago. Invincible seemed an interesting concept enough, a teenaged boy is starting to get his superpowers inherited by his father Omni-Man. Seeing how he has this power, he decides to take up the family business and fight crime.
When I first heard about this comic, I thought it was a pretty lame concept. I think most of it had to do with the costume design, Omni-Man looked like my old elementary principal in spandex and Invincible looked completely different from his father which sort of set off the whole son and father relationship in my mind.
But a year or so later when I saw Wizard list it as one of the trades to pick up, well it kinda put in a marker in my mind to pick it up. Since I had so little access to comics before, Wizard was one of the major connections to the comics. I'm quite capable of being swayed from this magazine.
But now that I read it, to me it's one of the most perfect superhero books ever. There is something refreshing to see a new superhero rise and grow into his moniker, instead of reading the same old stuff from staples. How many times can we see Batman as the paranoid control freak until it becomes boring? How many times do we have to hear about Spiderman moan about being a superhero only to rise above the occasion and kick some serious ass? And yet it's because of those superhero conventions/cliches that makes Invincible so great.
It has a great wit about poking fun at the entire concept of superheroing. Kirkman treads a fine line between parody and a completly serious tone in which in one way it sounds funny, but in another way it sounds dead serious. Usually when a comedy/parody of a hero recalling a certain exploit of danger, it comes off as cheesy and yet in Invincible, there is something especially real and funny about the situation. Once again it brings to humanize the superhero culture, in which I seem to be finding a lot of comic series that does that.
Best of all, it has an incredible plot. Not that it's so full blownly stupid, but it's very subtle. Changing in leaders for the superhero team Guardians of the Globe, even a few panels indicates or hints at the formation of another sub-plot. What interests me the most is how it really draws me into wondering what will happen next, as opposed to thinking....oh, so something is going to happen but I don't really care.
When I first heard about this comic, I thought it was a pretty lame concept. I think most of it had to do with the costume design, Omni-Man looked like my old elementary principal in spandex and Invincible looked completely different from his father which sort of set off the whole son and father relationship in my mind.
But a year or so later when I saw Wizard list it as one of the trades to pick up, well it kinda put in a marker in my mind to pick it up. Since I had so little access to comics before, Wizard was one of the major connections to the comics. I'm quite capable of being swayed from this magazine.
But now that I read it, to me it's one of the most perfect superhero books ever. There is something refreshing to see a new superhero rise and grow into his moniker, instead of reading the same old stuff from staples. How many times can we see Batman as the paranoid control freak until it becomes boring? How many times do we have to hear about Spiderman moan about being a superhero only to rise above the occasion and kick some serious ass? And yet it's because of those superhero conventions/cliches that makes Invincible so great.
It has a great wit about poking fun at the entire concept of superheroing. Kirkman treads a fine line between parody and a completly serious tone in which in one way it sounds funny, but in another way it sounds dead serious. Usually when a comedy/parody of a hero recalling a certain exploit of danger, it comes off as cheesy and yet in Invincible, there is something especially real and funny about the situation. Once again it brings to humanize the superhero culture, in which I seem to be finding a lot of comic series that does that.
Best of all, it has an incredible plot. Not that it's so full blownly stupid, but it's very subtle. Changing in leaders for the superhero team Guardians of the Globe, even a few panels indicates or hints at the formation of another sub-plot. What interests me the most is how it really draws me into wondering what will happen next, as opposed to thinking....oh, so something is going to happen but I don't really care.
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