I know we talk about how great Robert Kirkman is a lot on Comic Impact, but I just can’t stress that enough. I really am grateful for a writer as good as he is. The guys has this insane talent for writing something that is funny and it seems like it’s just a parody, but at the same time it really is a good story. Who else could write Battle Pope? This week for Trade Tuesday we’re going to be taking a look at one of (if not the) most recognizable books from Robert Kirkman, Invincible. Specifically Volume 2: Eight is Enough, which collects Invincible number five through eight.

These four issues are pretty important to the series, it introduces a lot of characters including The Guardians of the Globe and also Allen the Alien. Issue eight also brings in the fantastic art of Ryan Ottley who is still drawing the book currently. The story is really good and we also really start to see that Invincible’s father isn’t all we were thought to believe.

The book starts with Mark at home when his father, Omni-Man calls and tells Mark he needs to suit up and head out into the Earth’s atmosphere to fight a “Major Baddie.” Mark gets into his Invincible suit and meets Allen the Alien, Invincible throws a couple punches, but the fight doesn’t go too well. So then he starts talking to the guy and it turns out Allen is a Champion Evaluation Officer for the Coalition of Planets. His job is to go from planet to planet and test out each world’s champion. Problem is Allen is a little confused and he was supposed to go to Urath, not Earth. Realizing his mistake Allen takes off for Urath.

The book continues with an introduction to The Guardians of the Globe, we get a short introduction to each member and oddly enough every member bares on odd resemblance to someone from The Justice League. The Guardians are called to their base for an emergency and when they get there every one of them is swiftly murdered in a pretty brutal fashion. At first you think they’re being killed by a former member named Samson who was kicked out when he lost his powers, but then we see they were ripped apart by Omni-Man, or maybe a guy that looks like Omni-Man? No I’m pretty sure it was Omni-Man.

The last part of the book features the funeral for The Guardians, where we get a special appearance from The Savage Dragon to give us a reminder that Image is all one universe. The funeral is attacked by Samson’s butler who stole a super suit to get revenge for his employer, which shows that Samson is innocent of the murders. Later that night The Immortal’s grave is dug up by a couple of random miscreants who intend to drink from his skull to become immortal. But before they get to the skull they get interrupted by a couple of Baddies who showed up at the funeral.

So obviously I’m a pretty big supporter of this book. It’s got great art from Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, it’s funny, it’s got some great action, in general it’s just a really good comic book. I just recently started reading Invincible and I look forward to reading all the trades. And I can’t say it enough times, Robert Kirkman is a great writer. Amazon sells this trade for only $10.39 and if you bought the four issues separately for three bucks each it would be twelve, so the trade is the economic way to go on this one. Plus the trade includes a forward from Erik Larsen, and some really cool sketches with notes from Robert Kirkman. It’s a really good purchase for the money and now I’m gonna go read Volume Three.

Ken Zeider
Ken@ComicImpact.com