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Multiversity Comics Countdown: Top 10 "Invincible" Moments

By and | November 2nd, 2010
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Tomorrow, the 75th issue of Robert Kirkman’s “Invincible” is coming out, and we couldn’t possibly be more excited. Matt and I will be putting together a Battle Review of that very issue on Thursday, so look forward to that, but for today’s Multiversity Comics Countdown, we’re counting down our ten favorite moments of this series. It’s a series that features the line “The Best Superhero Comics Book in the Universe” at the top of every issue, and to be perfectly honest, I do not think Matt or myself are going to disagree with that statement.

This really is the best superhero book out there.

To find out what we picked as our favorite moments of this fantastic series are, click through the jump, and let us know what your favorites are in the comments.

9 (tie). Omni-Man Kills the (original) Guardians of the Globe

Matt says: With just one issue, everything changed. I’ve read about this issue before, and actually find it simply to be one of the most interesting of the initial twelve. Kirkman had the challenge of creating a group of characters that he could introduce and kill within the same issue and make us care. He did that by recreating the JLA archetype from the ground up, with each original Guardian member having an analogue with characters we vividly recognized. Then to have our epic hero of the story, Omni-Man, show up and end it all in a bloody massacre left everyone shocked, because nothing would ever be the same for our heroes again. Invincible had his first true villain, and it was his own father.

9 (tie). Mark Grayson Throws Trash Into Stratosphere, Realizes He Has Powers

David says: Sure, this isn’t a major moment. It’s not something that was intense or powerful or anything of that sort, it was just incredibly awesome in its simplicity. Taking place in the very first issue, you had Mark at his day job at the Burger Mart performing the simple act of the taking the trash out. When he lifts it up to throw it in the dumpster, he lets go and the trash bag flies off into the stratosphere, never to be seen again. The way Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker present this simple moment is both massively entertaining and very awesome. Which, you know, the whole book is. Sometimes to be the best, you have to know how to make the simple things soar. They managed to do that very well.

8. Crazy epic fight between Mark and Nolan and a slew of Viltrumites

Matt says: Ryan Ottley had assuredly proven to us his mastery of the comic art form throughout the various pages of Invincible time and time again. Ryan breathed a brand new form of life into this book after an astounding opening run by Cory Walker, and he made it his own in a way no one expected. While the book certainly has it’s large-scale moments (especially recently), one of the first and most epic featured Mark and his father against attacking Viltrumites on an alien world. I love this splash page because it features everything that a comic can be. The splash page shows us just what Ottley is capable of, and just how big the book had become as we brought Mark into space and faced him against impossible odds. Of course, this sequence would then be mirrored against further epic events in the Invincible War and the Viltrumite War.

7. Invincible Kills Conquest

David says: Conquest, in many ways, is the greatest enemy of Invincible. This Viltrumite warrior is the worst of the worst, and he brutalizes Invincible, his girlfriend Atom Eve (apparently killing her at one point), and the Earth at one point. When the Viltrumite War begins, he and Invincible have the single most intense battle in the history of the comic, which artist Ryan Ottley depicts in its full glory. It’s gruesome, as Invincible literally chokes the life out of Conquest while Conquest tears into Invincible’s insides. It’s a shockingly destructive scene, and one that you find yourself cheering for your hero even as you cringe to what is happening on the page.

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5 (tie). Mark and Eve Finally Get Together

David says: From the very beginning, Mark Grayson obviously belongs with Samantha Eve Wilkins…aka his fellow hero Atom Eve. Their frequent team-ups and constant tension make that apparent to everyone besides the two of them, and it takes a trip to an alternate dimensions future for Mark to finally realize he needs to tell Eve that he loves her. When they finally do, it becomes one of the core aspects of the book, and something Kirkman handles incredibly well. With Eve back on Earth, pregnant with Mark’s baby (he is unaware), this will provide some serious follow-up tension after the Viltrumite War is over.

If Mark manages to survive the war, that is.

5 (tie). Mark is Told He’ll (Probably) Have Powers

David says: This is another remarkably simple moment from the book, but one that always stood out in my mind when I thought of the series. I mean, what comic fan hasn’t fantasized of being told they are going to have powers when they grew up? The way that Cory Walker and Robert Kirkman depicted this was both really entertaining but also hilariously ties in to number four on this list (in the way Cory Walker speeds this page up from a production standpoint). It’s super awesome, and another one of the simple examples as to why this book is so awesome.

4. Mark Meets the Writer of “Science Dog”

Matt says: I think that this was the first moment of the book that really solidified to me how much I really loved it. This was well towards the end of the first major arc of the book with Omni-Man, but it was the first moment that really held that “relatable aspect” to it. The book already benefitted from featuring one of my favorite story-telling tropes: a young superhero still in high school balancing his school life and hero life. Sending Mark to meet Brian Bendis the Science Dog writer, and allowing for a bit of a 4th wall breaking moment, simply solidified how much there was to get out of the book.

3. Mark Grayson vs. Cecil Stedman

Matt says: One thing I love about Invincible is that with every 25th issue, you can expect something huge. Issue #50 was enormous for a lot of reasons, one of which was of course that Cecil – the man who had been helping Invincible be a hero in the same way that Nick Fury was helping Ultimate Spider-Man – had betrayed Invincible’s trust, and he’d had enough. This was one of those moments in the book where Mark really begins walking a dangerous line based on his lineage, but he comes out of a much stronger character. While Kirkman is killing people left and right around issue #50 of the Walking Dead, he instead builds Mark up to an incredible high as he finally overcomes his last “obstacle” and moved from simply being a boy hero to a true man. And little did he know it, but just as quickly as he had gotten to this high, things were about to go dangerously downhill.

2. Conquest “Kills” Eve

David says: Given that I knew #1 was coming before I read it in trades (when I had heard it hyped up, I’d heard the major twist), this moment, in which the evil Viltrumite Conquest apparently kills Atom Eve right in front of Invincible by punching a hole through her. It was the most shocked I’ve ever been while reading a comic and I honestly think that it will forever earn that rank – it was that shocking. I responded so intensely to it that I immediately got on Twitter and informed Robert Kirkman that I thought he was sick.

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Then, the very next issue he brought her back, but I digress.

In a period of the book that featured the Invincible War, Angstrom Levy nearly taking the Earth out, and Conquest nearly killing everyone all on top of each other, this was the sick, sordid cherry on top that nearly broke me as a reader. When reading a Kirkman book, you come to accept the fact that anything is on the table…any character could die at any given moment. Yet, when Kirkman had Eve killed, it was like the heart of the book and yourself was ripped out. That means he did an incredible job of developing the character, and perhaps an even better job of taking her out. It all wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if it weren’t for Ryan Ottley’s brutal yet touching depiction of the events and the aftermath. Bravura work, and one of the most haunting scenes I’ve ever read.

1. Omni-Man Revealed as Traitor, Fights Invincible

Matt says: This is one of the biggest and most unforgettable moments in the entire series. While Omni-Man had somewhat started as a Superman analogue to our Invincible, a hero from a far off planet who had come to protect us. It turns out that everything we knew was wrong, and that Omni-Man is our greatest villain. With the Guardians dead, it’s up to Invincible, a hero barely able to stand on his own two feet and the only one who can stand up to Omni-Man.

While Kirkman is an author who frequently keeps us on our toes, he certainly wasted no time in throwing us and our hero to the wolves. With the final three issues of Walker’s run on the title (#10-12), we had not only the most devastating reveal with Omni-Man’s confession, but one of the most moving scenes as Omni-Man eventually flew tearfully into the stars, to be seen for another year. It was a scene full of mixed emotions, and it ushered in a new era for Invincible with a new artist and a whole new set of interwoven plot lines. The end of the first year and the first real turning point of the book, Omni-Man’s betrayal of the human race – and most importantly his family – is the most unforgettable moment of the book yet.


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David Harper

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Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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