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Invincible is such an incredibly good series that after writing a review for the first volume, who could resist writing about Invincible: Vol. 2? Like the previous volume, Vol. 2 was written by Robert Kirkman, and illustrated by Cory Walker.
The Story
Invincible: Vol. 2 begins with Mark Grayson on his floor, doing homework. All of a sudden, Mark gets a call from his father, notifying him of a creature headed into Earth’s orbit, so he wants Mark to take it down. Mark does not hesitate at the opportunity and suits up. In space, Mark looks around, but doesn’t see anything… that IS until the mysterious alien punches him from behind.
Chapter 1
The first chapter of Invincible: Vol. 2 starts in space, where Mark is met with the alien foe his father warned him about prior. As they exchange blows, it is clear that the alien has a bit of the upper hand, showing no signs of pain or fatigue from Mark’s attacks. After a bit of mid-fight chatter between the two, it is revealed that this alien, Allen, is part of something called the Coalition of Planets, and his role is to gauge specific planets to see if they have inhabitants capable of defending them. It turns out, Allen had spent the past 15 years monitoring Earth when he really should have been at another planet named Urath, so Allen makes his departure on seemingly good terms with Invincible. As Allen flies away, Mark turns to the Earth from the moon and glances in awe at the beauty of the view.
When he returns home, Mark informs his parents of the events that just transpired, and they feel very proud of him. Mark’s mother notes how differently Mark handled the situation compared to his father. Mark decides to head to bed, but as soon as he enters his room, he realizes he still has homework to do, so he reluctantly works on it.
Chapter 2
Invincible: Vol. 2 continues in the sky, where Mark and his father play catch with a baseball, discussing the events of when aliens kidnaped Omni-Man. At the time, Mark accidentally screamed “Dad” very loud, causing a few people around to take notice. Omni-Man mentions that it’s dangerous for him to do things as that, and Mark apologizes. William shows up at the Grayson residence to pick up Mark for a college trip, so Mark quickly gathers his things, and they depart. While Mark is away, his parents decide to take advantage of their time alone, so they get a little intimate and head to the bedroom.
In the Teen Team headquarters, Robot makes a sudden announcement that he will be trying out for the Guardians of the Globe, the world’s most elite superhero team. Since he won’t be able to remain on Teen Team, he wishes them the best and they return the sentiment. Elsewhere, we are introduced to a figure, sitting in the shadows, talking to someone named Sanford on the phone. The man expresses his desperation towards a particular suit, saying that he needs it immediately, since his powers have disappeared and the Guardians won’t wait too much longer for his return.
The story returns to Mark and William, who arrive on campus and begin their tour of the facilities. With each tour guide came a remark from each of them about William preferring to be called William rather than “Will” or “Bill,” which got on William’s nerves, but he let it slide eventually. While discussing their thoughts on the school so far, their conversation is rudely interrupted by a cyborg monster of some sort. Mark quickly changes into his costume and begins to fight the cyborg, only to realize that it is a bit more challenging than he initially thought.
Their “fight” eventually concludes after the cyborg jumps directly into a sharp sculpture, almost as if it WANTED to take its own life. In the midst of all the chaos, William discovered Invincible’s true identity and brings this up to Mark after the cyborg impaled itself. Mark returns home to find that his parents were engaged in very promiscuous acts and decides not to talk further about it. Invincible and Omni-Man travel to their tailor’s, Art’s, shop, only to find that the super suit that Black Samson, the figure in the shadows from earlier, requested, is now missing. Art’s first thought is that since the Guardians gave him so much pressure, Samson might have stolen it, and Art feels guilty. Meanwhile, in the Teen Team headquarters, Atom Eve flies in to see if anyone is around, but finds something disturbing, causing her to break down in tears.
Chapter 3
Invincible: Vol. 2 shifts the focus a bit from the story of Mark Grayson to expanding on the Guardians of the Globe. The chapter first focuses on Darkwing, the Invincible Universe’s Batman, who is found beating up on a couple of criminals. After doing so, somewhat brutally, he receives a notification that he is needed at Guardians HQ. The next Guardian is Red Rush, the speedster of this universe, who is seen stopping a robbery, capturing an electricity-based villain, and rescuing a cat from a tree, all in the blink of an eye. He is then seen returning to a picnic with his wife, who dislikes the fact that he left to be a hero while she was mid-sentence. Red Rush insists that he cares a lot about her and suddenly receives a notification to report to Guardians HQ, so he heads on over.
In a Boston apartment, we are introduced to War Woman, one of the Guardians, who was attacked while her girlfriend was making her a nice breakfast, so she made quick work of the foe. According to War Woman, the thing she just fought was something sent by her mother, whom she does not want to associate with. Then, she receives a notification from her pager, and she heads towards Guardians HQ. Deep in the ocean, we find a fish-man who sits on some throne in Atlantis. The man seems quite bored, half-asleep almost, but his pager goes off, and he excitedly swims to Guardians HQ. In space, we are met with Martian Man and Green Ghost, who are currently engaged in a battle with an alien spacecraft. They end up destroying the enemy craft and head down to Earth.
They shapeshift into their human counterparts until they are paged to report to Guardians HQ immediately, so they shapeshift back and make their way towards HQ. The final Guardian we meet is The Immortal, who is seen battling against a villain similar to The Vulture from Marvel. The villain begins to go on about how his doctor told him that he didn’t have much time left due to cancer developing in his lymph nodes, so he wants to go out with a bang. Immortal grabs him and chucks him into space, which is a funny, yet, dark way of defeating a villain. He then gets a notification on his pager to report to Guardians HQ, so he departs.
When Immortal arrives, all of the Guardians are gathered, confused as to why they were called. They assumed that Immortal was the one to congregate them all, but Immortal tells them it wasn’t him. Before any of them could wrap their heads around the situation, each Guardian, except for Immortal, is brutally murdered by an intruder. Immortal sees who did this and asks them why and tells them he never liked them anyway. Before he could get an answer, his head is decapitated, and the final panel reveals that Omni-Man was the one that murdered them all…
Chapter 4
The final chapter of Invincible: Vol. 2 begins with Nolan (Omni-Man) being questioned outside his home by Damien Darkblood, a devil in search of the truth. Inside the home, Invincible finds Atom Eve in his room, in tears about Rexsplode, who cheated on her with Dupli-Kate. Mark tries his best to comfort her, but his mom suddenly walks in and begins scolding them, misinterpreting the situation. Nolan enters the room, informing the three of them that the Guardians of the Globe are dead… At school, Mark and William go about their day until a girl comes up and gives Mark her number. Not only is Mark surprised by her, but he is also surprised to see the kid he saved that had a bomb vest on from the previous volume. Mark welcomes him back to school, and he thanks him with a smile.
Eve joins the two of them, making the situation awkward because she doesn’t know that William knows about Mark’s powers, and William doesn’t know that Eve is Atom Eve. After school, Omni-Man finds Mark defeating an elephant-man villain, and they rush home to get ready for the Guardians’ public funeral. While Nolan is getting ready, Debbie mentions Mark’s birthday, but Nolan admits that he forgot and makes the excuse that there is so much going on at the moment, and she forgives him. Invincible: Vol. 2 then shifts to the funeral, where a copious amount of superheroes, and even the Mauler Twins, gather to pay their respects and listen to Omni-Man’s eulogy.
While Omni-Man is speaking, the funeral is suddenly crashed by Sanford, Black Samson’s butler, who has revealed to have stolen the super-suit being made for Samson. Sanford mentions that it wasn’t fair for Samson, so he wanted to kill the Guardians himself. Omni-Man makes quick work of Sanford, and the funeral continues. After the funeral, Atom Eve returns to the Teen Team HQ, where Rexsplode is seen being very lovey-dovey with Dupli-Kate, so Eve yells at the both of them and storms off. At Mark’s house, Mark opens the letter he was given, revealing the number of a girl named Amber.
Outside, William begs Mark for a quick flight around the town, and Mark reluctantly agrees. In his parents’ bedroom, Debbie notes how distant Nolan has been, to which Nolan tries to use the excuse of the Guardians’ death to justify his behavior. Debbie continues on the subject, but Nolan insists that he’s fine, so she drops it. The kid Mark saves from the bomb vest is found at a nearby cemetery, beer in hand, cursing at the man who took him hostage and strapped a bomb onto him. He then begins to urinate on his grave, clearly very emotional about what happened. Elsewhere in the cemetery, a pair of teens hike towards Immortal’s grave, with one claiming that if they drank out of Immortal’s skull, they would supposedly gain eternal life. The last few pages of Invincible: Vol. 2 show the teens digging into the grave, then the Mauler Twins show up, thanking them for doing the hard work for them, leaving the readers to wonder what the Mauler Twins want with Immortal’s corpse…
The Substance
Invincible: Vol. 2 offered a great story in terms of writing, including many elements of growth and mystery. These moments of awe and ambiguity provide readers with a great reading experience, especially since this particular superhero comic thrives when it utilizes both correctly. Mark’s character transforms from a mere rookie, like in the first volume, to a somewhat skilled hero, burdened with the responsibilities of life while also trying to juggle the life of being a hero, as we see in Invincible: Vol. 2. This growth is honestly super fun to see, especially since it’s the perfect amount of growth to be expected from one volume to the next.
One character that definitely deserves a lot of credit for being incredibly written is Omni-Man, who leaves readers with the biggest “WTF did I just read?” in their minds. Omni-Man suddenly becomes this character that, all of a sudden, makes people question whether or not they should trust him. Personally, the classic trope of thinking one character is “good” until they turn out to be “bad” is a favorite, and the way Kirkman wrote this into Omni-Man’s character in Invincible: Vol. 2 was absolutely amazing AND unexpected.
The Minutiae
The first thing about Invincible: Vol. 2 that stood out was the art style. Although no one other than Walker drew it, it seemed like a significant change in the style. Around 50 or so pages into the volume, it is evident that the art style shifted to a more bold line, less detailed type of style, which didn’t do a lot of the volume justice. Now, I’m always all-for simple art styles, but the issue I have with Walker’s style is that it felt like Walker was shifting between his normal style of drawing and the simple, almost rushed style. It doesn’t add anything good for the comic or story; it feels like those pages and panels felt like just that: rushed. Thankfully, the parts of Invincible: Vol. 2 that “mattered” weren’t burdened with the rushed art style. One scene, in particular, was Omni-Man’s attack on the Guardians. Other scenes like Mark’s battle with Allen the Alien and him looking towards the Earth were also spared from such a cruel fate.
Later on in Invincible: Vol. 2, particularly in Chapter 3, the art direction shifts to a more “old school” style, most likely taking inspiration from older superhero group comics like “Justice League” or “The Avengers.” Here, the style not only makes sense because of what it is believed to be inspired from, but it also adds this feeling of “this comic looks like it can be its own stand-alone story.” Although not all of the Guardians’ introductions were illustrated this way, it was still a nice touch to the overall comic from an art standpoint.
The Verdict
The fact that Invincible: Vol. 2 piggybacks off Vol. 1 so well WOULD make it a great stand-alone volume, but it does have its flaws. Invincible: Vol. 2 offers a more compelling set of plot points compared to the first one, so you won’t get bored with any of it. Much like the previous volume, the air of mystery is present in Invincible: Vol. 2, even more so, rather. I definitely recommend this to any Invincible fans out there who haven’t already checked it out!
