DINOSAURUS SMASH! Cover drawn by Ryan Ottley
Invincible#80
Written by: Robert Kirkman
Drawn by: Ryan Ottley
Inked by: Cliff Rathburn
Colored by: Nikos Koutsis
Published by: Image Comics
Price: $2.99
After a near two month wait we finally have the latest issue of Invincible, the BEST SUPERHERO COMIC BOOK ON THE SHELVES THESE DAYS. Was it worth the wait? DEFINITELY. In fact, this is one of THE BEST issues of Invincible that I have read in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I did like the Viltrumite War story arc overall (I even had one of my letters published in an issue of the Viltrumite War issues), but it took too long for each issue to come out and most of the issues were “CRAPPER COMICS”, meaning that you could finish the comic in one sitting ON THE CAN.
Well, to my joy this issue was NOT a “crapper comic” because it took me a good 10-15 minutes to read (about 5 of those minutes were spent joyfully STARING at Ryan Ottley’s GORGEOUS art). There is a lot of dialogue in this issue, but all of it is GOOD dialogue that FLOWS VERY NICELY. A lot of it is even witty banter between Mark Grayson (Invincible) and his girlfriend, parents, and friends. There is even a scene in a COMIC BOOK STORE where Mark comments on some of the BUSINESS PRACTICES of the COMIC INDUSTRY which threw me into a fit of laughter. That scene once again proves to me that Robert Kirkman is a writer with A PAIR OF B***s.
There was A LOT that happens in this issue and after that comic book store scene I thought that it would be hard to top that, but the VERY NEXT SCENE proved me wrong. I won’t spoil it, but all I will say is that it was a very touching moment that is a UNIQUE and INTERESTING spin on the whole aspect of the ‘superhero catching the bad guy who robbed a bank’. It yet ANOTHER example of Kirkman really making this book his own spin on a superhero story. It really is something truly spectacular.
The end of the book is spent featuring the LONG-AWAITED RETURN (at least, for me anyway) of DINOSAURUS! I swear, sometimes half the fun of reading Invincible is reading all of the NEW and FUN names that Kirkman has created for the heroes and villains that he has created. Right away we figure out very clearly WHO Dinosaurus is and what his MOTIVES are and it really does make his character special and unlike your average super villain. The results of his plan are… well, BIZZARE to say the least and make for a pretty good CLIFFHANGER. Now I know I was complaining about Kirkman’s occasional misuse of Splash Pages (pages that have no panels in them) and there IS a DOUBLE Splash page in this issue, but it was done CORRECTLY and added the effect of what happened and showed readers the scale and magnitude of what Dinosaurus had done.
It seems that with each issue of Invincible Ryan Ottley’s art keeps getting BETTER and BETTER. No complaints at all for his art. It’s gorgeous.
My only complaint would be that there was an element of the story that happened in the previous issue that I was hoping Kirkman would address right away, but didn’t. Slightly disappointed, but Kirkman isn’t the type of writer who drops a story element or plot and then leaves it hanging for long periods of time, so HOPEFULLY Kirkman will explore it in the next coming issues because I’m looking forward to see how he handles it.
Overall, A VERY SOLID COMIC AND SERIES. If you guys are interested in reading Invincible I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to read it. Don’t know where to start well you can start with the FIRST VOLUME of Invincible and work your way through each volume if you are enjoying it. There are a total of 14 volumes of Invincible out so far. You can find them at your LOCAL COMIC BOOK STORE, BOOK STORE, or USED BOOK STORE.
FEEL FREE TO COMMENT AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS! The water is FRESH, so please feel free to join in on the discussion!
I would rate Invincible#80:
9 out of 10 DINOSAURS
OUT OF
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