Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Zach are discussing Invincible 103, originally released June 19th, 2013.

Patrick: Invincible is a series that resits being discussed on any terms but its own. Robert Kirkman has built up such an extensive cast of characters, and such a rich history, that nearly every new thing that happens can find its origin in previous issues of this series. There are three different editors’ notes in this issue, the first refers me back to to the Death of Everyone story (which I actually read), but the next note refers to issue 37 which came out seven years ago, and the other to the spin-off series Guarding the Globe. I always used to get the feeling that an editor’s note was in place to be helpful, assure you that there was some precedent for the thing that was happening. Failing that, the editor’s note was just trying to sell me some related material – a slightly-less-altruistic kind of helpful. Invincible editor Sean Mackiewicz uses them for another reason altogether – to identify moments of fan-service. It’s like Kirkman writes in all these winks and nudges to his long-time readers, only to have Mackiewicz let us newbies know how clever he’s being. Continue reading →

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Invincible 101, originally released April 24th, 2013.

Drew: Big reveals can be a lot of fun, but they often have the effect of retroactively making everything leading up to them seem patently absurd. The very notion of “spoilers” bears this out — sure, knowing Bruce Willis was dead all along removes the impact of the reveal, but the more lasting effect of knowing is that it draws your attention to how hard the movie works to never explicitly show that he’s alive, ruining what would have otherwise seemed totally innocuous. Once you know he’s dead, he can’t credibly be seen as not dead, which makes the whole movie kind of dumb. As a newcomer to Invincible, the big reveal in issue 102 feels a lot like that spoiler, shifting our perspective on a character so drastically that I find it hard to believe we could have ever thought anything else. Continue reading →