Invincible on Amazon and Why it Made Me Read the Comics
As the latest person on the planet, it may not surprise you to learn that I have not read Invincible.
Well, not seriously at least.
At some point in the past I worked my way through the first 13 issues, but other than the plot details, the experience hadn’t stayed with me.
With Invincible hitting Amazon a few years ago, followed just recently by the release of Season 2, the Image series that started in 2003 has never had more eyes on it.
One of the television series’ best decisions was to pick and choose moments from the books to craft a story made for the new medium.
The best television does what comics do, keep us waiting and wanting the next chunk of the story. After season one, I was content to wait for whenever the next offering came.
I got what I came for out of the first season, the same way I had with those first 13 issues all those years ago.
But between then and now, something else happened. I became a comic book collector, learned a bit about Tyler Kirkham, and worked a sales table at C2E2 in Chicago, IL in 2023.
Among the throngs of cosplayers and funko-pop seeking funsters, a few arduous collectors perused the comic book tables searching for the key of their dreams at the right price.
There, I saw issue #1 of Invincible and its asking price. Somehow, it had evaded me that this series had not only wracked up such a huge following, but that the series itself spanned 144 total issues.
Wading into Spoilers, Reader Beware
In the first 13 issues we danced with Kirkham to his Justice League stand-ins and the meta-commentary on comic books. It was fun.
But it felt like a trick that couldn’t last for more than the first arc. How many more stand-ins could comic book nerds be excited by?
After Omni-Man’s heel turn and Mark’s beating at his hands, the stakes of the series skyrocketed in an odd direction.
If Mark couldn’t take Omni-Man, and there was an entire planet of beings like him — or more powerful — the trajectory of the series seemed relatively predetermined.
It felt like a story trapped in a corner of its own twist. I’d gotten what I came for — an interesting subversion of a familiar comic book universe — and that was enough.
So What Changed?
With the first four episodes of Season 2 now released, I was shown the next part of the story that I had forgone in the comics.
The show has done a good job of using some of its air time to infer larger sentiments about the universe and how large it actually is.
Combined with the new knowledge that Invincible runs for 144 issues, it seemed clear Kirkham had more to say than his initial twist implied.
Now that the show has dug into the Viltrumite Empire and begun to establish more world-building lore, I found myself wanting to learn more about these characters before they appeared on the show.
With that, I found myself on wiki’s picking future plot points out of the internet abyss and trying to piece them together into a coherent narrative.
But, nothing can fill you in the same way that reading the series does.
If you’re like me, you’re digging into back issues while we wait for the next drop of Season 2.
Byline:
Bio: Just Buffalo teaching artist BENJAMIN BRINDISE is the author of the chapbook ROTTEN KID (Ghost City Press, 2017), the full length collection of poetry Those Who Favor Fire, Those Who Pray to Fire (EMP Books, 2018), and the short fiction micro chap Secret Anniversaries (Ghost City Press, 2019). His poetry and fiction has been published widely online and in print including Maudlin House, Buffalo Spree, and The Marathon Literary Review. Find him on IG @benjaminbrindiseauthor
