Conquest: Part One
After the Earth shattering events of the previous issue, Mark and the rest of the survivor’s have been tasked with cleaning up in the aftermath. There’s a lot of rebuilding to do, but sometimes the weight of the world are too much to bear.
The bulk of this issue features the heros of the Image universe (Savage Dragon, Brit, Young Thor) trying to clean up the mess left by the multiverse versions of Mark Grayson. Most of the major cities have been leveled, and millions have died, and heroes like Rex Splode have died in the battle. One would think taking responsibility for the events would be top priority for Mark. It is, on the surface, but even during the clean up, he’s being reminded at every turn that this is in part, his fault. There’s a great moment where Youngblood, yes, Youngblood takes down a recent villain that plays off really well in this issue.
Unfortunately, Mark’s thoughts happen to be on Atom Eve, who took some major damage last issue, and is critical condition at the hospital. While this is a very tragic moment for Mark, it would be probably be more of an impact on the reader if we had seen how Eve was injured to begin with. Was it something Mark did, or one of this doubles? We just don’t know, so I don’t think readers have as much attachment to the situation – which could be a problem a couple issues down the road in issue #64, where someone dies. The cover indicates it is someone with red hair and a pink outfit, and last I checked, that’s not what Spawn is sporting these days.
The big payoff for the issue comes at the end when Mark finally gets ready to let loose on the one person he can without worrying about killing someone. The return of the Viltrumites is also somewhat troubling in the way Kirkman is letting this story unfold. In what could have been the big crossover event for Image Comics, Kirkman told the entire Invincible War in a single issue. This resulted in a lot of choppy fast action storytelling that had a lot of confusing moments. Now it looks like readers are going to get a story arc that spans four issues, and looks to be nothing but a big fight. Perhaps Kirkman is experimenting with storytelling, or perhaps he has a bigger milestone or plot point he’s excited to get to, but while the Viltrumite fight is going to be a good one, I would have rather had the Invincible War spread through a couple of issues.
But what can you do…
There aren’t a lot of titles that really show the aftermath of a major hero battle. Sure there might be a passing reference to the rebuilding period, but for the most part the big gun hero levels a couple of city blocks trying to take down the bad guy, and that is that. Invincible #61 attempts to show the effects, and in the process reveals a major aftershock moment.
Of all the superhero books out there, Invincible is one that I look forward to reading every month. Even when the story gets a little weird in its execution, I still hang on to every word and image. How much worse can Invincible’s life get is the question I am looking forward to finding the answer to, but for now Invincible #61 earns a respectable 4 out of 5 Stars.
