Superhero Media: Invincible

Invincible advertises itself as "probably the best superhero comic in the universe", and damn if I'm not inclined to agree. Following Mark Greyson from the day he discovers his powers through to his ascendancy to an alien throne, Invincible finds uniqueness through combining tried-and-true genre conventions and tropes with a dash of postmodernist storytelling and metafiction. Mark is a combination of Peter Parker, Goku and Clark Kent, with just enough youthful enthusiasm to get into trouble, but enough humility to learn from his mistakes. The son of Superman-analog named Omni-Man, Mark discovers that his father's backstory is a lie and that they are both Vilturmites, the most feared race in the universe and near-immortal, pitiless, killing machines bent on conquest. Mark must struggle against his heritage and his own people to keep the Earth safe and prove himself the planet's greatest defender. The artwork is beautiful, evoking a classic, Silver Age, Four Colour aesthetic, but with modern technology and clothing, and punctuated by the occasional scene of extreme violence. 

The brutal fights Mark gets into against foes like Battle Beast, Thragg and Conquest don't shy away from the damage that super-powered foes can do to each other, with some characters dying horribly throughout the series. And then there's the characters, this article could just be a list of the awesome heroes and villains in the series like Allen the Alien, Atom Eve, Rex Splode, Monster Girl, The Immortal, Brit, Oliver, Dinosaurus and countless others. Invincible takes place in the broader Image Comics Universe, so guest spots from Savage Dragon, Witchblade and even Spawn can be seen, though the focus is on a more traditional Marvel/DC superhero setting, with a few jabs at their rivals along the way. Have I gushed enough about Invincible yet? You should be on Book Depository in another tab getting the first couple of volumes by now. Did I mention it's written by Robert Kirkman, of The Walking Dead fame? Except Invincible is probably the better comic, from my reading, but I do have a bias for superheroes. 

The series is practically bookended by the quote "After five hundred years, what will you have?" which speaks not only directly to the experience of Mark's own long life, but that of an ongoing comic and sequential storytelling. One of the best things about Invincible is that it ends and that it tells a whole story; yes, there are stumbles and bits I really don't like, but taken as a whole, this epic, superhero, space opera, human drama is one of the best things available to read in the genre. At the time of writing, there is an Invincible animated series in development, with the great JK Simmons cast as Omni-Man, which I hope gets up, but one day I'd like to see Invincible adapted for the big screen, even if it's just a trilogy about the Viltumite war or similar. Characters like Mark, Allen and Eve really need to get bigger exposure and more fans, and it seems only live action cinema or television can break many of these ideas through. It's a big commitment, but Invincible is well worth the investment of time and effort to get through, it's a hell of a read and I give it a go at least once a year.