WIBR: Invincible vol. 12: Still Standing

For future rundowns of my ten favorite comics in a given year, I think I’ll have to set aside one slot solely to determine which was the better Robert Kirkman title of the year:  “Invincible” or “The Walking Dead.”  While vol. 11 of “The Walking Dead” did a great job of smacking genre conventions upside the head earlier this year, this latest volume of “Invincible” due to the sheer scope, brutality and overall insanity of its action while laying the groundwork for some potentially fascinating stories down the road. 

Things open up with the army of alternate universe Invincibles that Angstrom Levy has gathered laying waste to the Image Universe and all the superheroes that occupy it.  It’s a fantastic done-in-one crossover issue, but that’s only the warm-up for the arrival of Conquest, the Viltrumite agent sent to check on Invincible’s progress in assimilating Earth for the Viltrum Empire.  Their multi-issue fight is easily one of the most brutal fights I’ve seen in comics as it comes down to Invincible using the one part of his body that isn’t broken to try and win the fight. 

Almost as interesting is the interplay between Invincible and Cecil, as they still don’t like or trust each other, but are forced to work together to save the world.  I’m also looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen when Cecil’s “use the enemy” schemes finally backfire on him.  They will, because there’s no way that his latest catch (as seen in the volume’s almost-final pages) is going to want to play ball.