Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Invincible The Ultimate Collection-- Robert Kirkman-- Praise

Today, I was looking at Invincible The Ultimate Collection created by Robert Kirkman. Mark Grayson is a teenager who has a father who is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni Man. He comes into his powers as a teenager. While defending a classmate, his principal tells him that he is not invincible. That is how he gets his name and his costume.

Mixed in with family life, his mother who treats his fathers powers like a day job, high school in the beginning, and college later in the series, Mark Grayson becomes the superhero Invincible. Mark fights various villains, Doc Seismic, Komodo, a group of bank robbers and others. He meets other young superheros including a brief fling with Atom Eve and even helps out a group of young superheros.

Where it really gets interesting is when Mark Grayson's father turns out not to be such a good hero and the plot changes. His father is secretly a villain set on conquering the earth. The only problem is that everyone else is trying to take over earth so Omni Man never has time to implement his plans for conquest. The father son fights are well done.

One of his enemies, Allen Alien turns out to be a freind, and everything is not as it originally seems.

There are a lot of very nice details in the comic collection. Mark Grayson's favorite comic book is Science Dog. Allen Alien when he fights Invincible the first time is there because he is part of the "Champion Evaluation Office" to check on Urath. Invincible tells him that is visiting Earth not Urath.

I really like the artwork, it is very colorful, has clean lines, and is quite dynamic. I like to think of it as superhero artwork updated for today. The book in addition to the comic book includes sketches, concept art, unused covers, and a gallery of the principal characters. The graphic novel is a lot of fun to read. It is well plotted and one of the best superhero comics I have ever read.

I can't really say anything negative about this book. It is just too well done. This book was purchased for the young adult collection. It is very much a coming of age story.

No comments: