There's a moment early in Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley's Invincible where the book quietly tells you it's going to break every rule you think you know about superhero comics. A training exercise between father and son turns into something far more brutal than anything a Saturday morning cartoon would prepare you for, and suddenly a book that looked like a fun coming-of-age riff on the genre reveals its teeth. That's the whole series in miniature: it lulls you into thinking you know where it's going, then it doesn't just subvert your expectations, it dismantles them.
If your only exposure to this world is the animated series, it's time to go back to where it all started.
A Superhero Book Built to Question the Genre It Loves
Plenty of comics have tried to deconstruct the superhero mythos. Fewer have managed to do it while still delivering everything that makes the genre worth reading in the first place. Invincible follows Mark Grayson, a teenager who inherits the powers of his father Omni-Man, one of Earth's most powerful heroes. What starts as a fairly straightforward legacy story becomes something much stranger and much darker as Mark discovers exactly what his father actually is, and what being "invincible" really costs the people who try to live up to it.
The book doesn't flinch. Characters die and stay dead. Victories carry consequences that ripple across dozens of issues. Ryan Ottley's art, all barely-contained motion and sudden, gut-punch violence, makes every confrontation feel like it actually matters, because in this universe, it does.
Kirkman and Ottley Built an Entire Universe Worth Following
What's remarkable about Invincible is how far its influence has spread. What began as a single ongoing series has grown into a sprawling shared universe, with spinoffs and event books like Invincible Universe expanding the cast of heroes and villains that made the original run so unforgettable. Reprints and facsimile editions of the earliest issues have also made it easier than ever for new readers to jump into Mark Grayson's story from page one, without having to hunt down decades-old back issues at convention prices.
And the momentum hasn't slowed. Between the ongoing animated adaptation pulling in new fans every season and Image Comics continuing to expand the print universe with new arcs and exclusive variants, this is a series that's still very much building, not just coasting on nostalgia for where it started.
Where to Start
We've got a run of Invincible and Invincible Universe issues in stock right now, including facsimile reprints of the original first issue and limited exclusive variants from artists like Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley, and Tiago da Silva. If you've been meaning to find out what all the fuss is about, there's never been an easier entry point.