1. Invincible, in killing Conquest, was injured and is taking months to heal while Nolan (Omni-Man, his father) and Oliver (his brother) watch over him. Meanwhile, the war with Viltrumitess is waged by the remaining resistance members.
2. I love taking these major players off the board early in the Viltrumite War. It keeps the epic war behind the scenes, allowing it to build in importance until, climatically, the heroes return. It’s actually a trick out of the Dragon Ball Z book of storytelling, but done particularly well here.
3. Did anyone think Invincible was dead after last month’s issue? Of course not, but that wasn’t the point. The point here was to see how the war could go and if it could be won without our titular character.
4. The scenes with Oliver and Nolan bonding are excellent, from the eating of the gross bug things to the training, it just feels like an organic evolution of their relationship.
5. Tech Jacket and Allen the Alien, on the other hand, are meant to be buddies, comrades in arms fighting the Viltrumites, but it never comes off. Tech Jacket, while great in his own book, has fallen apart here as it feels like he’s being forced into the Spider-Man teen hero in over his head role, while Allen has been far less quirky than usual. It isn’t working.
6. The flashes to how the war is going, however, are working. The growth and escalation until the late in the game betrayal is well-played and makes Mark’s impending return seem urgent.
7. Battle Beast and Space Racer are the other two alliance heavy hitters, but we get nothing of them! I want more Battle Beast and Space Racer! We need an Invincible Chronicles to go more in depth about these characters.
8. The art in this book is perfect, from everyone’s expressions to the backgrounds and monsters, to Mark’s healing… the art is tone and character pitch perfect. Ottley might not have created these characters, but it sure feels like he physically owns them at this point.
9. Guest Thought by Grey Scherl: “It took four months for Mark to heal, which sounds about right. Took him longer after Omni Man beat the piss out of him. But now I’m just thinking to myself, ‘how long is the war going to last?’ And more importantly I ask myself ‘Is Mark going to come back to Earth and have his super baby already be born? Because that would be awesome, what with skipping the pregnancy in favor of super baby.”
10. Rating: 8/10 – An intelligent plot trick to take out the main characters has allowed for a ton of character development. A bit more showing and less telling on the Viltrumite War front would go a long way, but witht he pending betrayal, we should be getting that in spades.
