While
I am not blessed with an overabundance of free time, I always take 20-30
minutes to read for fun before sleep in order to decompress. One of the styles
of literature that I found works very well with this system is the graphic
novel. I spend time catching up on collected volumes of books like The Walking
Dead and the Goon.
The
series that I’ve most enjoyed starting however, is another Kirkman project:
Invincible. The story follows the titular Invincible, the teen son of the
world’s greatest superhero Omni-man, the Superman of this universe. Invincible
enters a world filled with superheroes and high expectations. All the while he
juggles high school, college searches and interacting with the superheroes of
his generation.
While
Invincible’s story hits every beat of standard origin story, at least at first,
it’s the situations around him that are fascinating. One of the issues spends
the entire time setting up the universe’s equivalent of the Justice League,
complete with an Amazonian, speedster, batman stand-in (Darkwing), fishman,
martian, an green energy user. After spending all that time fleshing out all
these characters, they are savagely murdered in a single page. The fallout from this event spurs
on Invincible’s story as he is forced to step up to cover for the vacuum of
heroes.
One
of the strengths of the book is that it adds a realism to superheroes. When people
as strong as Superman clash, mountains are leveled, city blocks are destroyed,
and despite best intentions, thousands are hurt and killed. And when two nigh
invincible beings clash, the only way to win is for one to brutally and swiftly
end the other.
By
the end of the volume, the big reveal changes everything previously established
and separates itself from the DC comics archetypes it had followed thus far. It
also makes it a far deeper story than the standard superhero fare. Betrayal,
loyalty and duty all weigh heavily in Invincible’s mind as his duty to the
Earth becomes personal.
Invincible
is a series I would recommend to experienced graphic novel readers and those
new to the genre. It offers an excellent introduction to those who are
interested in superhero stories, but find the horribly convoluted continuity of
Marvel’s and DC’s respective universes far too daunting to tackle. Invincible
uses the genre archetypes as the springboard to create a fully realized world
that twists the preconceived ideas about the people behind the masks and capes.
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