Invincible vol. 13: Growing Pains

After the world-shattering events of the last volume, writer Robert Kirkman dials things back for the latest one.  Of course, “dialing it back” by “Invincible’s” standards involves the title character being forced to square off with an all-powerful alien amazon while the sequids decide to unleash their long-gestating plan to take over Houston… and then the world!  While this is happening, Mark grapples with his resolution to start killing bad guys, which will prevent them from becoming recurring threats like Angstrom Levy, but also has him crossing a line that scares his friends and himself.  He also gets to meet his girlfriend Atom Eve’s parents and she finds out that she’s pregnant with Mark’s kid.

So it’s really the same level of intensity, just coming from different angles and with lots of humor to keep the mood from becoming too dark.  Such as the heart-to-heart that Eve’s dad has with Mark is truly priceless, as is his expression after the fact.  It’s all rendered expertly by artist Ryan Ottley and while it’ll be a while before he tops the “done-in-one-crossover” issue from the last volume, he still does some of the best superhero art in the business.

We also get to check in with Mark’s dad Nolan and Allen the Alien as they travel the cosmos to find the keys to defeating the Viltrumite Empire as detailed in Nolan’s books.  These include, but are not limited to poison plants, carnivorous aliens encased in ice, Tech Jacket, Space Sharks, and the Space Racer — who was buried in a cave-in caused by Nolan over a hundred ago and is VERY upset about it.  It’s a lot of fun seeing the two characters work together as they have some great chemistry to their interactions, and it makes what could’ve been tedious setup for the upcoming “Viltrumite War” genuinely entertaining.  These two issues also feature art by original series artist Corey Walker, and while I can see why Ottley has so much respect for the man, I’m still glad we have the latter as the regular artist on this book.