Issue: Invincible #83
Release Date: October 5, 2011
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Ryan Ottley
Colors: John Rauch
Letters: Russ Wooton
Cover: Ryan Ottley (Colors: Fco Plasencia)
Publisher: Image Comics
The last time we saw Invincible, he was finally getting on such friendly terms with his former government handler Cecil that the latter felt it was time for a moment of truth — revealing all the multi-dimensional-evil-Invincibles-turned-reanimen. [Lost? It’s okay, it’s pretty complicated to explain, but just imagine that a bunch of evil yous got turned into cyborgs. If that doesn’t help, there’s a nice bit of dialogue explaining the situation.] The following exchange between Invincible and Cecil shows how much Mark has grown as a person since the Viltrumite War. He’s calmer, more mature, and able to see that the world is not as black-and-white as he once thought.
From this point, things shift over to a meeting between crime lord Titan and the B-level thugs known as Magmaniac and Tether Tyrant. After a brief reference to the Guarding the Globe mini-series, we get an ominous moment of Titan claiming he’ll give the two villains a chance to prove themselves before switching to Mark and Eve’s home life. Since Mark’s mom Debbie went into space with her ex-husband and ex-villain Omniman, they’re setting up the house to be their own and Mark is realizing what every man does after he movies in with a woman — you get no say in decorating the place.
Next up, we get a Guardians of the Globe party where all the male team members are admiring how Monster Girl has, um, grown, shall we say. Rex/Robot looks wistfully at her, still looking haggard from the last issue and not giving us any idea how their relationship turned sour. Before the party resumes, we get a brief moment as Magmaniac heads out and we get an interesting new piece of information about Tether Tyrant’s, well, tether, then it’s back to the party where Rex isn’t the only one reeling from the end of the relationship.
Post-party and back at home, Eve asks Mark to do something that would weird some of us out (as it does Mark). Meanwhile, Magmaniac and Tether Tyrant bust in on Machine Head, where things go badly until Tether Tyrant makes a decision he can’t undo. I won’t spoil what happens next, but it ends up bringing the bad guy up a level. Back at Guardians HQ, more awkwardness between Robot and Monster Girl leaves a question hanging in the air of what really happened on the world the two ruled, a question that will have to wait until next issue….
Ever since the Viltrumite War, things have been a bit easy for Mark Grayson (not counting what happened in Vegas, but you know the saying…). One wonders when Kirkman is going to start cranking the action up a notch and building towards the next big storyline. Ryan Ottley’s art is as impressive as always, and it’ll be nice if he stays on the book for some time longer. His work is certainly part of what makes Invincible a great read and he is just as inseparable from this book as Kirkman.
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
About the Author
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about John Rabon:
John got started on the path to geekdom thanks to his brother's collection of comic books and Star Wars toys but was cemented into the geek class forever when LeVar Burton took Reading Rainbow viewers on a backstage tour of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A love of Monty Python soon followed, and it wasn't long before he was starting to collect his own comics. The rest, as they say, is history. But really, who are they to say something?
Since discovering the BBC some years ago, John has become an obsessive Anglophile. In fact, he even likes the food they serve over there! As such, some of his favourite programmes include: Doctor Who, Primeval, Coupling, QI, The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, and Shaun the Sheep.
Upon choosing a university, John enrolled in the University of South Carolina, which was nice enough to give him a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Master's in Teaching. Feeling that he hadn't been put through enough academic torment with student teaching, John decided to enroll in law school at Campbell University.
Hobbies, when he can find time for them, include: writing, video games, reading, and wasting time in the pub.