May 18 2009
A writer’s guide to Invincible’s flaws
I'm a former assistant editor with advice about how to write novels, comic books and graphic novels. Most of my content applies to fiction-writing in general, but I also provide articles specifically about superhero stories.
I’ve read the first thirty issues or so of Invincible. A lot of it is awesome and a lot of it is an absolute trainwreck. This is what went wrong. (I’ve detailed its positives here).
Especially by issue 20, the story felt like it had ADD. The story flits around a lot; a character might be introduced for a few pages in issue 15 and he might make his next appearance a few issues later and actually matter a few issues after that. This storytelling style is often effective, but it can get grating. Let me demonstrate that by doing this review as a random series of paragraphs. Take that, transitions!
For the first few issues, the art is noticeably bad. The good news is that it improves. The bad news is that readers were subjected to pages of this sort of crap. Please keep in mind that this is a splash page– the panel has to look stunning! Instead, this looks like something I could buy for $25 on DeviantArt.
The protagonist suffers from severe Mary Sue problems. Let’s ignore that he’s easily the most powerful being in the world– after all, we could probably say the same for Superman. What really annoys me about Mark/Invincible is how much the story bends over backwards to avoid holding him accountable for his actions.
- He has a hissy-fit with his boss and quits in issue 3. His next thought is that “Dad’s going to kill me.” He sees his father in the next panel and claims that work is going well. In the very next panel, his father asks him if he’d be OK with quitting his job so that he can have more time for superheroics. Lucky break! I wish my parents were that accommodating.
- Mark fights on behalf of a nerd in issue 1 and the principal shrugs it off. “You’re a good kid, Mark.” In issue 14, the principal gets really angry with another character that is attacked by a gang of kids. I bet he wishes he got the Mark treatment.
- GIRLFRIEND: “I was completely out of line. You had every right to be pissed.” Issue 14. Oh, dear God, I wish I got the Mark treatment.
- GIRLFRIEND, whining: “It’s been weeks since I was at your house.” MARK: “Feeling happy after everything that happened with my family just didn’t feel right.” GIRLFRIEND: “Oh, Mark. I’m sorry. You’ve been through so much, and now this. I’m such an idiot.”
Other characters keep complimenting him. But he rarely does anything impressive. He’s just superstrong, and not nearly as clever as his teammates.
- You’re a good kid, Mark. Issue 1.
- “From all indications, you’re not doing too bad. Especially for being as new to this as you are.” Issue 3.
- “Damn, son. I’m impressed.” Issue 5.
- Onlookers break into applause. Issue 10.
- “You did the right thing, son.” Issue 15.
- “You did well, kid, as usual.” Issue 21.
- He gets his own parade.
- “You did good, kid.” Issue 31.
- “I remember when we met. You were so unsure of yourself then. You’ve come a long way.” Issue 41.
- “That was some impressive work back there, kid. Not just with the Martian ships, either.” Issue 41.
- “You did a remarkable job out here, son. You’ve really proven yourself.” Issue 41.
- “You did some impressive work today.” Issue 44. Even his enemies are spellbound by his impressiveness!
Everyone that opposes or disagrees with Mark is meant to seem hysterical, paranoid or otherwise nasty. This is another sign that he is a Mary Sue.
- In a drunken rage, his mother blames him for a very difficult situation with his father. There is no remotely logical way to blame this situation on Mark, and it is hard to dispute that the family is better with the father out of the picture. This scene reads like bad fan-fiction.
- Mark was a bitch and quit his job because his manager said (correctly) that he wasn’t concentrating enough. The manager shows up later just to show how nasty he is. “I’ll show you a confrontation!”
- Mark automatically fails a class because he missed 80% of the classes. That’s pretty reasonable, right? (At Notre Dame, you usually automatically fail if you miss 20% or more). Mark gets really annoyed with the prof. WTF? If you missed 80% of a professor’s classes without explaining why, of course he’s going to fail you. That’s not the professor being nasty, that’s just Mark being stupid. He doesn’t even try to concoct an explanation, even though he has a government handler that can forge documents. (Maybe Mark’s National Guard unit got called up when the aliens invaded).
The pacing gets awkward when it tries to mix dialogue and action. Mixing an info-dump with a chase scene is very questionable.
There’s a fair bit of creepiness. Let’s see. Horny twenty-somethings in twelve year-old bodies. Anthromorphic dogs. Tongue-to-tongue alien kissing. Fishman sex. Humanoid/anthromorphic insect sex. Alien sex. Cross-dressing. Lesbians. Anthromorphic wolves. The characters are put in awkward situations so often that “this is so gay” is a recurring punchline. I’d really appreciate if the author would cut down on the gay fan-service.
Haha! You’re right.
I think you could also say it suffers because it seems to bring in ‘guest characters’ for no real reason, and drawing on the Image Universe list of characters is never going to bring interesting characters into those kinds of stories.
Another drawback, especially later on is the gratuitous gore in some of the fight scenes. I think that’s because of Kirkman’s fascination with zombies, but I don’t think it’s needed here.
BTW, I love the Invincible comics, but they aren’t perfect. Good, shiny fun.
I agree with you about the crossovers. They feel gratuitous both from a storytelling perspective and an economic perspective. Marvel puts Wolverine on everyone’s cover because he sells.
I’m torn about the bloodshed. On the one hand, I think that blood underscores the brutal elements of the plot, and of the Vitrusian empire particularly. That said, sometimes the gore gets creepy. Characters lose eyes so often that I have a tally going. (So far I’m up to 4).
There’s a lot I really like about Invincible. In fact, so much that I felt I needed to do a separate article to fit it all. More on that later.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.
I’m thrilled that you’re reviewing Invincible, because I love it. I never noticed Invincible’s Mary Sue-ish tendencies before this, but they seem a lot clearer now. Also, Robert Kirkman’s characters tend to be very talky. Not as talky as anyone written by Brian Bendis, but still sometimes distractingly verbose.
Can’t wait for the “good” review.
I agree that there’s a lot of talking, but I regarded that as more of a plus than a minus. I think the talking was the only reason I made it past issue 2. The art was pretty bad, the action was banal, the characters sounded mostly boring, and the backstory– or what we had been told about the backstory, in any case– was hopelessly trite. Thankfully, the story made remarkable improvements on all of those fronts.
For example, here’s the cover for Invincible #1. It’s a kind of boring angle, nothing is happening, and the quality of the art is distinctly subpar. There’s no personality.
Here’s the cover for #56. Much, much better. The pose is interesting, the shading and anatomy are solid and removing the image of Invincible from the upper-left hand corner was a good call. This has much more emotional impact and says something about the character. I’m not a fan of his ripped muscles, but I can live with it.
Yes, I think the change of artist with issue 7 was a good choice all around. Incidentally, seven is my favourite issue of the series. Say what you like about the amount of supporting characters, but I find myself caring about each and every one of them.
I think the supporting characters are great too, even the villains who appear for a single issue (or single page – single frame – sometimes). I just don’t really like the walk-ins of other Image characters for no real reason.
I’ve never read Invincible, but I have no tolerance for comic books involving sex.
Why does it populate so much of our fiction? It seems that most comic books have sex, but isn’t it supposed to be an embarrassing subject? It does not strengthen your plot or characters, and all it does is appeal to sleazy teens who shouldn’t be encouraged. And for every person against it, there are a million saying, “git over it luser itz a fact of life!!” So’s going to the bathroom. Nobody wants to read about that.
When did lust win over love?
…Oh, gosh, I wish I hadn’t written that…
Would you like me to erase or edit it? Not that I think it’s necessarily embarrassing, but I wouldn’t want anyone to feel embarrassed by something that they had written.
Personally, I find sexual pandering annoying because it implies to me that the writers/artists think that comic book readers are so sex-starved that they need their comics to be mmsexy. Long-term, I don’t think that’s a winning approach to convince readers that reading comic books is a mainstream activity. Oversexing comic books makes comic book stores feel creepy. I suspect that’s the main reason that women are much, much more inclined to read superhero novels than comic books.
Not that there’s much sex in Invincible.
So far, I can think of five instances of sex (two with Invincible and one each with a fishman, Mark’s mom and Allen). Also, there was an interspecies tongue kiss. I think that it’s fair to say that there is more than a bit of sexual content.
Novels aren’t strictly comparable to comic books, of course, but James Bond only gets laid about once every 150 pages. In Invincible, someone gets laid about once every 8 issues (184 pages, right?). James Bond scenes get into more detail, though.
Is Invincible a younger Superman?
I remember watching the motion-comic of issue#1 of Invincible, it was okay. The only thing I remeber is that he was trying to find a superhero outfit and his dad fought a dragon in Asia.