Invincible Vol. One TPB Review: He Does More Than Zombie Stuff

Robert Kirkman may be the king of zombie comic book writing, penning such classics as “Marvel Zombies” and “The Walking Dead,” but one of his “other” works, “Invincible,” plays with your prototypical super hero story by inserting humor in all the right places.

The complete opposite of “The Walking Dead,” the first volume of “Invincible: Family Matters” is a graphic novel that provides a sneak peak into the world of Mark Grayson. Like your average teenager, Grayson goes to school and works at a local burger joint.

However, he is a bit different.

Aside from going to Reginald V. Johnson High School, [Yes, the name of the actor who played Carl Winslow on “Family Matters.” Even the principal of the school bears a stringing reference to the former television star] his father is not only an alien, he’s also Earth’s greatest superhero, Omni-Man.

Beautifully told, Kirkman’s conversational writing style, one that has served “The Walking Dead” series extremely well over the years, is on full display here. A quick read as a result, the first volume of “Invincible” is something you won’t want to stop reading. With a story such as this, with Kirkman creating his own Superman and Superboy of sorts, so many things could have gone wrong. The series could have gone against the grain and created emotional conflict between the father and son or even taken things even further by having the younger Grayson be a villain. By keeping the story light and making it more of a coming of age tale with a character that everyone [mainly teenage boys] can relate to and enjoy, the first trade in the series shines.

While it’s not quite “Kickass,” it’s exactly wholesome either. The main plot of this trade throws around themes of teenage love, maturity, but possesses a villain that enjoys turning teenagers into live bombs, before blowing them up in public places.

Talk about balance.

Combined with the art of Corey Walker and Bill Crabtree, this series has a cinematic feel that makes it accessible to any comic book reader. Colorful, “Invincible” resembles the look and feel of a Saturday morning cartoon. With a nice combination of full-page action and semi-developed panels, many where characters’ eyes resemble black dots, it’s fair to say Walker and Crabtree enjoy the art in the “Teen Titans” cartoon. Rather than deliberately emulating however, they manage to deviate enough from the mainstream and create images that are solid. At the same time, even if they are comparable to many things we’ve seen before on TV and in the medium, it’s hard to deny that they manage to blend extremely well with Kirkman’s story.

Overall, “Invincible” is a comic book example of beauty by simplicity, the writing and art of this team doesn’t try to be trendsetters; they simply tell a story.

And a damn good one at that.

That, essentially, is what makes this trade so much fun.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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