I didn't see a general discusion thread for this series. So a friend of mine bought the first compendium over the summer and I couldn't put it down. I wasn't floored by it but I just didn't want to stop reading. Recently he bought the second compendium and the same thing happened. My will colapsed and I bought issues 97 - 107 on Comixology which I just finished reading (I'm trying to convince said friend to buy 108). This series is really good... I love that there is no status quo. Shit happens and there are consequences. I'm not a huge fan of the rather frequent retcons but it isn't awful. I love the reuse of characters, scenes, and lines. It doesn't take itself seriously but it does. And now I'm stuck waiting for the monthly issues. Gah, I'm impatient!
I've been slowly catching up (still on Vol. 15 or so). It is easily the best Superhero series I've ever read. Probobly won't check this thread again until I've caught up though.
I've been with Invincible since issue 16 or 17. Invincible is absolutely the best comic on the stands right now. Better than Walking Dead by a huge margin.
I just got to read issue 108 today. Holy crap! I saw it coming but still! Anyone know when 109 will be released on Comixology?
And 109 was released today. Man this book is so good! I didn't guess who the monster was until is was basically told to us. Wow.
Yeah I just finaished issue 110 and I'm completely disgusted. I've been reading since issue 1, today's issue is the first time my stomche turned at the end. I seriously don't think what happened there is cool. Feel pretty weird right now, kinda let down. Never felt like considering dropping a book I considered a favourite a mere 2 hours before.
Whoa...I can't believe there's a thread for 'Invincible'. I love this series. Pretty glad my friend introduced me to it. Been reading since issue 50 myself. This is definitely the only comic that I'm still enjoying on a consistent basis. Though I just went through my latest stack only to notice I haven't read 109 yet. Guess I better get on it.
There's been murder, genocide, cannibalism, mountains of gore, social manipulation, desecration of the dead, and other atrocities, yet Spoiler rape from a brutal, strength and racial purity obsessed race gets your dander up? I'm not condoning it but this series has done far, far more atrocious things in my eyes.
Yeah, it does. I don't want to be preachy on the internet, I wrote that post at I time when I'd just finished the comic and no one else was talking about it, I went to Ryan ottly via twitter to be presented with an overly defensive dismissal on his part. Even then I was trying to be polite, I was just telling him I didn't like the direction they were going. The subject in question, I feel, has been trivialised. It's not something I want to read in a super hero comic. If a deal with the gore, etc, but this issue left me with my stomach turning and I don't like it. I'm not going to preach to anyone why it's wrong they're ok with it, that's your opinion and I'm not here to argue. I'll ask you what I asked him though, Spoiler if Mark had been a woman would this have been able to have been printed? So graphically? His clothes are torn off, she tells him to man up when she's finished, all the while him saying no. Would it shite. But hey, it's got people talking about their comic so fuck me, right? EDIT: and the worst part? The people saying they know now how it feels to have this act done to them. Because they feel sad and uncomfortable. It's wrongs and these people need to get a grip, they have no idea the way people feel after something like that happens.
I think your case has been one of the straw breaking the camel's back. Honestly I dropped Invincible a long time ago when I felt that Kirkman was just trying to find some other shocking/gory way to up his last story. It's the same reason I dropped his Wolfman book so fast too, and why I eventually just stopped reading the Walking Dead. Just couldn't stand the type of stories he was telling anymore.
I won't deny Invincible is the same book now that fell in love with back then, but I keep reading and mostly enjoying what goes on. I won't be reading it again after this, because it's not what I read comics for.
I agree with you that what happened is awful. But I'd consider gruesome murder to be order of magnitudes worse. To me, taking a life is the most attrocious thing that can be done. Yet this book is full of attrocious things and is a work of fiction. Again, I agree that it was horrible regardless of gender but it's just a drop in the bucket compaired to what else has happened thus far. Simultaneously I can accept that my cultural beliefs are not held by all cultures. Numerous cultures throuhout history have had practices that we modern people find atrocious. To them it wasn't evil it was just their way of life. So I can accept that a Viltrumite culture already obsessed with strength and racial purity would consider these events normal. A third time I'll state that I don't condone the action but can understand it.
My thoughts exactly. Anissa was engaging in a VILTRUMITE MATING RITUAL. In her head what she did was no different then when a Viltrumite kills a weak viltrumite. Remember, Nolan said that those who kill a weak Viltrumite get a medal. We only see it as rape because that is how we've been raised to think. That was a powerful scene. Mark's facial expression's versus Anissa's. It shows how vastly different the Viltrumites are. The Viltrumites are not good people. I think we've lost sight of that since Nolan has become Emperor. This act shows that their culture is really terrifying. I'm kind of shocked that people are saying they want to drop the book. Did you also drop DC comics when Sue Dibney was raped? How about Dick Grayson? Did you threaten to Boycott Mark Millar, or Alan Moore or any of the myriad of comic creators when they've done similar depictions? Also, I don't think Kirkman is trying to shock anyone. I think he is trying to paint real scenarios in comics. I think everything that has happened in the Walking Dead is perfectly plausible -minus pet tiger- or the zombies, obviously. See, this I don't get. You're fine with physical violence, but not sexual? Both are terrible acts, and I've never felt comfortable with either, honestly. Comics or in real life. I really think what Kirkman is trying to do with Invincible is try to portray superheroes as realistic as possible. Sometimes the good guys have HORRIBLE stuff happen.
I don't read DC, and fortunately enough I've never had to read a comic in which another character was raped. My point stands at this being a ploy to get people talking about a book that ain't doin to great. The constant "all new direction #1" etc. I could be wrong, but I know my comic store has gone from a mass of people ordering them on their pull list to 3. Look, you can justify it all you want, my point still stands that rape is something I, PERSONALLY, don't want in comics. This rape scene wouldn't have happened where mark female, so why is ok to have a male character placed in the same situation? That includes nightwing or whoever else has had it happen to them. Yes, I'm fine with physical violence. Most of the super hero comics I read don't go as far as Invincible, but it's a fantasy setting, and someone's head being squashed by another man isn't something that happens on a daily/hourly basis in real life. I still wince at times, it's not pretty, but it's also a higher concept of fantasy than a character being subjected to being raped.
Don't get me wrong, I respect your opinion. Do I think this rape would've happened had Mark had been a female? Probably not. There has been a ton of depictions of Male on Female rape in comics, though. I will say that I don't see a difference between one type of violence and another type of violence. I think -in the narrative- that the viltrumites are a violent race that prizes strength above all else. I think this violation speaks pretty directly to that, and feels about right to the comic. So, in my eyes, to say a head squash is "oh a higher calibar" than a violent rape is a bit odd, but I guess I can understand it. We'll just have to agree to disagree. I won't speak about comic shops. I've dropped ALL of my comics from my pull list as I don't buy physical copies anymore. I do think some of that drop off is due to that. Oh, and I'd like to give you props for handling this in the way you have. I've seen some neck beards on other boards going INSANE about this.
