Invincible Vol. 11: Happy Days

September 21, 2009 | Trades

Invincible Vol. 11: Happy Days
Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Jason Howard, Cliff Rathburn
Image Comics
$16.99 US (Paperback)
**** (out of five)

Mark Grayson’s got it pretty good right now.

The teen hero known as Invincible is getting lots of hot, sweating loving from fellow hero, Atom Eve; his little brother, Oliver, is quickly learning the heroic ropes as Kid Omni-Man; and he might even have found a way to move out of his mom’s house.

Of course all this is simply the calm before the storm.

There’s plenty of action in this 11th trade paperback collection of Invincible, including an enjoyable crossover with the Astounding Wolf-Man, but Happy Days is packed with foreboding.

Star writer Robert Kirkman, partnered with awesome artists Ryan Ottley and Cliff Rathburn (and one issue by Wolf-Man regular Jason Howard), mixes the great teen melodrama, humour and action that is a trademark of this series with lots of little teases of what’s to come.

The alien sequids, which travelled back with Mark and his fellow heroes from Mars a few years ago, are still out there.

Someone’s been dispatching little camera drones — that explore when you try to catch them — to watch Mark and Oliver’s house.

And what’s up with those weird-looking Invicible dopplegangers?

Happy Days also includes one of the most powerful Invincible stories ever published featuring a quasi-villain obsessed with revenge against the hero who pays a terrible price his efforts.

As always, bonus material is a lot of fun with sketches and original page art featuring lively commentary by Kirkman and Ottley, further endearing the faithful who’ve come to love one is without a doubt one of the very best comics of the decade.

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