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Invincible, originally written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Cory Walker, recently got adapted into an Amazon Prime Video series, so I thought it would be a great idea to pay homage to the series by looking at Invincible: Vol. 1! Before continuing, however, the Amazon Prime show is absolutely fantastic, and if you aren’t watching it already, you should be!
The Story
Invincible: Vol. 1 opens with an intense scenario where some sort of superhero carries a person into the sky, complaining that the person is ruining his day. The person explodes in the air, and the hero flies off, leaving readers to question what the heck just happened.
Chapter 1
Elsewhere, we are met with Mark Grayson, a 17-year-old who is currently taking a dump in his bathroom, being rushed by his mother to get to school. Mark is born from a human mother and Omni-Man, the world’s strongest superhero. He and his mother discuss his whereabouts, and according to the news, Omni-Man is in Taiwan, to which his mother cracks a small joke by telling Mark that she’d never been.
After a day of school, Mark’s friend, William, approaches Mark, wondering if he wanted to tag along with him and a few others to hang out, but Mark declines due to his job at Burger Mart. During his shift, Mark takes some garbage outside to put into the dumpster and throws it, but the bag ends up flying quite high into the sky. Mark follows this up with
“It’s about time.”
Mark returns home and discusses his day with his parents, to which neither of them is too surprised, given that they were expecting his powers to develop sometime soon. That night, Mark practices using his new abilities while also dawning a super low-budget hero costume against a few bad guys the day after. While doing so, Omni-Man visits him, disrespects his costume, and takes him to his tailor to get him his very own official suit.
The next day, after physics class, Mark defends a teenager who is getting harassed by a bully, shoving the bully into a locker to prove a point. Mark is then sent to the principal’s office, who sympathizes with Mark but tells him that he isn’t invincible, spinning something inside Mark. The story then cuts to a bank that is getting robbed, and the group of criminals walks outside to drive away, but they are greeted with Mark, or Invincible, rather, in his new blue and yellow super suit, ready to fight them.
Chapter 2
The second chapter of Invincible: Vol. 1 opens with a bit of backstory on Omni-Man and his people: the Viltrumites. After he tells younger Mark about how he ended up on Earth, he tells Mark that he will eventually gain superpowers. The Mark of the present reflects on his words and decides to fly outside during the night, to which he encounters a blue-skinned, strong villain stealing a large box of important electronics. Mark engages, but then a group of young heroes named “Teen Team” arrives on the scene and takes care of the situation with the help of Mark.
At school the next day, Mark notices one of his classmates, Eve, and realizes that she was part of Teen Team the night prior. After school, the two of them make their way to the Teen Team base, where they discuss the whereabouts of Mauler, the villain from the night prior, with Robot, the leader of Teen Team. All three of them travel to Mauler’s base and rough him up. Elsewhere, a student from Mark’s school awakens in a mall, confused as to where he is, and finds a device strapped on his torso with a timer on it. All of a sudden, a huge portion of the mall explodes…
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 of Invincible: Vol. 1 starts at school, where Mark’s principal gives an assembly, discussing the loss of the student who exploded by the bomb vest in the mall. After, Mark and Eve walk with each other, with Eve stating her worries about the situation.
That evening, Mark works his shift at Burger Mart but suddenly decides to quit his job due to the verbal abuse from his boss. Mark worries about what his parents will think, but Omni-Man believes he should spend most of his time trying to be a hero. Mark and Omni-Man fly around together, helping people out and discussing Mark’s future. Eventually, Omni-Man gets paged for a mission that he needs Mark’s help with.
When they arrive, they immediately start combating with a whole army of aliens coming from a strange portal. After fighting them off for a while, Mark realizes that the aliens get older the longer they stay on Earth, so the aliens retreat. They both fly off again and Omni-Man almost immediately senses something bad in a nearby mall, so they book it towards there.
They find yet another student with a bomb on their body at the mall, but before Omni-Man could get any answers out of him, the timer was near zero, so Omni-Man throws the kid into the sky, where the bomb explodes. Before any of them could process the situation thoroughly, Omni-Man is abducted by the aliens that they just fought off into a portal that opened and closed almost instantly…
Chapter 4
The final chapter of Invincible: Vol. 1 begins with Mark visiting Robot at Teen Team HQ, where they discuss the bombings of his school’s students, so Robot decides to look into it for Mark the day after. At home, Mark and his mom talk about his father’s safety, but Mark reassures her that he’ll be alright. The next day, at school, Mark and Eve talk a lot about the bombings, even talking during class, to which their teacher, Mr. Hiles, yells at them for disrupting. They eventually head out of school, and Eve gets a call from Robot, saying that while researching a bunch on the bombings and the materials involved, the person responsible is Mr. Hiles.
The two of them get their suits on and make their way to his house later on and are greeted by him. He knows both of their identities but doesn’t seem to make any threats. In fact, Mr. Hiles directs both of them to his basement, where another student is found, but with no bomb on them. It is then revealed that there is a bomb on Mr. Hiles himself, and he really wants to explode the two heroes!
Mark acts quickly by grabbing Mr. Hiles and flying as far up as he possibly can. He then throws Mr. Hiles in the air, and he explodes, which is where the very beginning of Invincible: Vol. 1 previewed for us readers. Mark returns to the ground, and Eve tells him that she has everything covered. At home, Mark changes, and Omni-Man casually joins them. At dinner, Mark and Omni-Man discuss their hectic days. Invincible: Vol. 1 ends with Mark’s mother saying,
“That’s nice. Who’s ready for dessert?”
The Substance
It might just be me on this one, but I have a small gripe with the writing of Invincible: Vol. 1 when it comes to pacing. The story is fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but I felt like it was rushed in so many portions. Take the first few pages of the volume, for example – Mark is at home, gets through school, and gets his powers all within the span of three pages. Perhaps this was intended to be this way to show that Mark’s life, beyond the fact that he has both superpowers and the world’s strongest superhero as a father, isn’t all that interesting.
Typical superhero stories delve deep into the lives of these heroes when they AREN’T heroes, but it would seem like Invincible: Vol. 1 is trying to do the opposite, focusing more on Mark’s life as Invincible rather than his personal life. Since Mark recently got his powers, this would make the most sense, seeing as the early stages of becoming a hero are the most important (at least, that’s what comics have taught me).
The Minutiae
For 2006, Invincible: Vol. 1 delivers an interesting art style, to say the least. Other comics from around that time period adopted styles that reflect the late 90’s comics, trying their best to be something unique, but Cory Walker’s art style in this volume is sleek and unique.
The art style has this incredibly modern feel to it, where looking at it makes you think, “Oh wow, this art style does NOT look like it’s from the mid 2000s!” With this art style, Walker brings Invincible to life, giving Mark and each of the characters so much depth and bold color.
The Verdict
Although Invincible Vol. 1 felt a bit rushed in some aspects, the story itself was amazing, so much, in fact, that I feel like binge-reading the entire series in one sitting just to see what happens! I would definitely recommend this comic series to any comic fan that absolutely adores tons of action and a slight touch of mystery. I wouldn’t recommend this comic to anyone who doesn’t like excessive amounts of blood and gore because it is chock-full of it. Nonetheless, this series is quite addicting so far, and I can’t wait to find out what happens next!
