Invincible, #99

[CBR News]

"THE DEATH OF EVERYONE" continues!
Invincible Vs. Dinosaurus for the fate of the world! Could this be the end of Mark Grayson?!


Full article here.

[wiski]

Mmmmm... Best comic coming out currently.

[ultraaman]

Mmmmm... Best comic coming out currently.

People keep saying that! But I have tried on 3 different occasions to pick up this book and every time I have, I can't stand it. Something about the way the stories are structured that it feels like Invincible is a passive participant in his own stories. Also from this sample the writing is, 100 issues later, still too verbose and exposition-y (though I concede that may be a result of the splash-page gimmick copied from Superman #75). The art has gotten better, that's for sure.

[wiski]

Not gonna say you're wrong, and I definitely agree that sometimes Mark feels like he's not the main character in the book, but at times I actually like that, because Kirkman does so well with the 'background' characters that it feels like 'Invincible' is a comic that's not supposed to have one main character, and Mark is definitely not my favorite character in the book.

Sometimes the writing is wordy, sometimes it's not, depends on what's going on, but that's the same with most comics. Personally, as someone who loved the original 'Thunderbolts' comics, a lot of comics nowadays could stand to have more words in them, instead of giving me a book that takes barely 4 minutes to breeze through. I like comics that have actual story.

That's one question though, when you say you've picked up the book on 3 different occasions, were you picking up the comic after breaks in issues where you didn't know what had happened since the last comic you'd read? For instance, stopping at issue #71 and picking back up at issue #80. If that's the case it might contribute to you not liking it so much, because 'Invincible' is more of a continuous story comic, unlike a lot of comics where you can pick it up after having dropped it a while ago without having missed much, because the characters don't change and only the story is new. 'Invincible' usually has too much character and story development to just randomly grab an issue and know whats going on, which can be argued as good and bad.

Absolutely not going to say you're wrong in not liking 'Invincible', but for me it is the only comic that checks the boxes I want checked:
Great art that keeps improving.
Usually great writing.
Consistent creative team that isn't constantly getting changed.
Characters that develop and grow over time.
The characters are not infallible.
The title character is not the only one that matters, and the supporting cast is fantastic.
'Realistic' view of super powered beings. (For instance, super-strength is shown to mean that the characters that have it have to be careful not to pulp characters without the ability to withstand it, where in other comics it hardly matters)
Long-form story instead of a series of story arcs that are only loosely connected.
Things that happen in the story stay, as in there are no universe resets after a city gets destroyed or the like.

Probably some other stuff too, but I basically see the comic doing more right overall than any other comic coming out.

[capuga]

Pretty much what wiski said. If you're going to start from the beginning make sure you read until at least issue 11. That's when things really start moving. If you'd like a taste of why everyone loves the book so much read issues 60 - 65. That's the height of the series in my opinion and can be enjoyed even if you don't know the characters that well.

[EuphemismForSex]

Exciiiiiiiiiiiiiited.

[Tristan_MC]

Pretty much what wiski said. If you're going to start from the beginning make sure you read until at least issue 11. That's when things really start moving. If you'd like a taste of why everyone loves the book so much read issues 60 - 65. That's the height of the series in my opinion and can be enjoyed even if you don't know the characters that well.

This was the book I read exclusively for a while. I won't say the early issues are a little slow, but things really get interesting after 10. For anyone who asks, I definitely recommend this comic. Great writing, funny characters. I love it!