Invincible vol. 15: Get Smart

The title of this volume proves to be particularly apt, as Mark Grayson starts to realize that he’s not really making a difference in the world just by stopping the bad guys.  Like just about every superhero ever, he’s simply maintaining the status quo.  That all changes here.  It starts small, with him talking things out with a would-be supervillain named Gravitator, helping misguided foe Powerplex achieve a breakthrough in dealing with the loss of his family, and finding a way to free Universa and get her planet the power it needs.  Then he sees that one of his biggest foes, who achieves a stunning “Watchmen”-esque upset in this volume, was actually right and teams up with him to help save the world.  

On one hand this seems like a remarkably bad and misguided idea, but on the other, you have to admit that the man– er, dinosaur has a point and actually does have some great ideas for improving the world.  Now Mark just has to make sure no one dies in the process.  In the Marvel and DC Universes, this would inevitably backfire on our hero, leading him on a quest for redemption before he could stand with his friends again and get back to protecting the status quo.  Here, in a world that writer Robert Kirkman has complete control over, I’m not so sure that’s going to be the endpoint.  Tweaking the established conventions of superhero fiction has been a hallmark of “Invincible” since its beginning, and what better way to take that to the next level by having Mark team up with the bad guy and actually change the world for the better.  In lesser hands, I’d be worried.  In Kirkman’s, I say bring it on!

Interestingly enough, my biggest issue with this volume comes from something that I don’t normally talk about a lot here:  coloring.  Longtime series colorist Fco Plascencia is absent here, replaced by Nikos Koutsis in the first half and John Rauch in the second.  Koutsis actually does a good job here, as his colors pop off the page like Plascencia’s did, even if they seem a bit over-rendered in areas.  Rauch, on the other hand, gives things a more muted and dull feel.  It’s very noticeable and distracting, at first.  Once you’ve read more of the story with his colors… it doesn’t get a whole lot better.  His work is passable, but I miss Plascencia’s lighter touch.