Invincible: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 8

Invincible #16-17

by Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley (Illustrator), Cliff Rathburn (Illustrator)

In the aftermath of the Viltrumite War, friends become enemies, enemies become allies, and Mark Grayson's future as Invincible ends here.

Collects issues INVINCIBLE #85-96

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Science Fiction

296 pages, Hardcover

First published May 7, 2013

About the author

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead, Invincible for Image Comics, as well as Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt. He is one of the five partners of Image Comics, and the only one of the five who was not one of the original co-founders of that publisher.

Robert Kirkman's first comic books were self-published under his own Funk-o-Tron label. Along with childhood friend Tony Moore, Kirkman created Battle Pope which was published in late 2001. Battle Pope ran for over 2 years along with other Funk-o-Tron published books such as InkPunks and Double Take.

In July of 2002, Robert's first work for another company began, with a 4-part SuperPatriot series for Image, along with Battle Pope backup story artist Cory Walker. Robert's creator-owned projects followed shortly thereafter, including Tech Jacket, Invincible and Walking Dead.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always think I don't really want to read the whole thing right now.
I think it has something to do with the bright covers and cartoony look that these covers have. And I'm pretty sure that's even the right way to describe it. But for whatever reason, I'm never super-hyped to start.



BUT.
Once I do grab one?
I tell myself that I'll just sit down with it for a minute. Next thing I know, I'm done with all 11 issues and I'm floored by the ending.
FLOORED BY THE ENDING!
Oh my god, what an ASSHOLE! -->
I had started to really like Rex! I feel so betrayed.



Ok, the three main storylines in this are pretty good.
The first involves (naturally) Invincible and some spoilery stuff that happens to him while trying to save the planet from an unbelievably unlikely source. There's also a new mystery involving the Vultrimites that looks like it will have some serious consequences for Mark.



Second up is Bulletproof who has quite a few starring scenes in this. He fills in for Invincible for spoilery reasons, and you get to meet his girlfriend and parents. His parents are dicks, by the way.
At any rate, I think his secret life may not be secret for much longer.

Third, and quite possibly my favorite, we finally get to find out what happened to Rex and Monster Girl.
Worth the wait, I tell you!

Good stuff! I'm grabbing the next one right now.
I promise. I promise!

[Phillip Murrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is still a winner. The Rex and Amanda history was revealed. It wasn't exactly what I predicted but pretty close. I need Mark back in fighting form. I only have about a third of the story left, yet I'm still hanging on to every word and picture.

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read quite a few of the Invincible comics. The fact that I've made it to Volume 8 of their Ultimate Collection says a lot about my liking this series. Volume 8 covers up to issue 96. It has been a good run and I have enjoyed it. But, for me, this will be the volume where I think I shall be taking a break from Invincible.

The first part of the story regarding the Viltrumites on Earth becoming the target of The Council and the conflict that arises was excellent. The Invincible and his father having to deal with Allen and Omni-Boy was really interesting as was the subplot of Invincible with the virus.

Then the story shifts to events outside that interesting story line.. We move on to a story line that I found to be distinctly inferior. Firstly there is a new Invincible. Though I'm not sure if he is invincible since he's not a Viltrumite. Ok then. Then it becomes a slightly out-there and vaguely confusing story about time travel and the indirect causality of events surrounding an overly long and detailed space-opera saga revolving around Robot Man, Monster Girl and their son.

What just happened here. I never minded threading a few "side stories" into the story arc, but was this necessary? I barely saw nary hide nor hair of the titular character who seems to now be diminished in power? He's certainly diminished in the story arc.

So the first part? 4 star material. The second? Meh. 2 stars. This will be the first Invincible to not have a 4 star story. Art is still pretty decent throughout. Instead of rushing out to by Vol 9, as I've done with nearly all the previous volumes, I think I shall take a break. It was an excellent run of a very entertaining comic.

[David Stoneking · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is pretty much the reason I read comics. This series is awesome. Amazingly written and consistently beautiful artwork throughout.

I picked this one up, one yesterday and finished it shortly thereafter. Leaving me disappointed that I read through 6 months of comicbooks in a single afternoon.

Invincible might be my favorite superhero comic series of all time. This was a good one.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great twists and turns. Excieted to see where the story with Rex and MG goes next.

[gloire en espagnol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic book is getting freakierr 💀🔥I miss my homeboy Mark tho

[Richard Guion · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume starts off big with the revelation of a weapon that could end the Viltrumites for good. But it's too controversial and Mark / Omni-Man need to stop it from happening. A big battle erupts which has terrible consequences for Mark.

The last few issues feature the arc with Monster Girl and Robot, what happened when they disappeared. It's bigger than you think. You may read this story thinking, I wish we had focused on Mark. But you will be wrong...so wrong...this is all leading to a huge payoff.

[Koen Claeys · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Invincible' keeps being one of the best (if not the best) superhero comic book on the stands. Every year it is a delight to read a new hardcover of this series. Kirkman has never dissapointed me with his two main titles (the other of course being 'The Walking Dead'). I hope he can keep up producing this high quality storytelling for a long, long time. With all this praise for the writer I'd almost forget the stunning artwork by Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker. Yummie !

[Matthew J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that every time I turn the page in Invincible, my reaction is 'what? What?! ...Wait, WHAT?!' Twists, turns, gut punching emotion, gut punching, violence, stunning revelations, sad endings, and more. This volume seems to be partly about issues that seemed to be resolved, but weren't quite as wrapped up as folks believed. Where things go with Dinosaurus is interesting. Nor sure what's gonna happen there. And oh, boy. Monster Girl and Robot. Wow. That's some crazy. Anyway, if you've read Invincible, you're no doubt going to read this volume. If you haven't, don't start here. Go back and get volume one and read the danged comic. It's really good.

[Dul × Cronopio en Jaque · Rating 3 out of 5]

El final de este compendio me hizo releer partes anteriores solo por el gusto de hacerlo. Robot y Chica monstruo son dos personajes que me gustan bastante, Robot ya me llamaba la atención la primera vez cuando vi la serie, y ahora siento que me gusta todavía más. Con Mark me gusta su desarrollo, como va tratando de hacer malabares con todos los conflictos a su alrededor e intenta seguir cuerdo. Siento que aquí paso menos que en el tomo anterior, pero igualmente cada volumen logra emocionarme. Cada vez estoy más cerca del final y me emociona ✨

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

4☆

[s · Rating 5 out of 5]

thragg is so hot

[Ostrava · Rating 5 out of 5]

First half is the best this comic has ever been. Second half is good too.

[soonat · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s got that feral hook, pages flip like a heartbeat.
Mark’s arc carves deep: every blow, every doubt, every step toward unbreakable.
And Thragg? The series’ apex predator, brutal, regal, absolute King.

[Przemysław Skoczyński · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nadal twierdzę, że to fenomen. Osiem grubych tomów jakiejś rajtuzowej mydlanej opery, której ciągle mi mało. Zachwycony jest zarówno mów 11-latni syn, jak i 11-latek istniejący we mnie

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the epic events contained in Invincible: The Ultimate Collection Vol 7, I almost wanted volume 8 to just be twelve issues of Mark and Eve taking a well deserved vacation. Given Invincible's luck (and Kirkman's exciting storytelling style) I knew that wasn't going to happen. We do see Mark somewhat sidelined here, hence the Invincible on the cover that may have some readers doing a double-take.

The book leads off with Allen (the Alien) making a difficult decision in the aftermath of the Viltrumite War, and one that puts him directly at odds with both Invincible and Omni-Man. The fallout from those events combined with Mark's new outcast status as a result of his alliance with Dinosaurus (God it feels silly to type all this) lead to a new hero taking up the Invincible mantle. Towards the second half of the book we get to see exactly what happened to Robot and Monster Girl, which will definitely shock long time readers.

This is the first Invincible hardcover collection where Mark seemed like a supporting character. Kirkman focuses his attention on the huge supporting cast he's developed over the years, and I think it paid off in a big way. The series is still about Mark Grayson, but he's now far from the only reason to read Invincible. I love that there's really no status quo with this book. The challenges, whether they're extra-planetary or simply a matter of personal intimacy, keep coming, much like they do for those of us reading the series. In the end, I'm still as captivated by this series as I was eight years ago when I read Invincible: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1.

The artwork is, as always, absolutely stunning. Ryan Ottley is a wonder, and we even have some issues drawn by Cory Walker for the first time in a long time. Massive fights, bloody mayhem or just two people sitting at a dinner table - these guys make every image come alive, and the stellar inking and coloring only enhances that. As usual, the hardcover is loaded with sketches, cover artwork and other goodies to make it even more worthwhile (not that it needed it).

As popular as Robert Kirkman has become with the success of the Walking Dead (and rightly so), I really think his work on Invincible is his crowning achievement. It's one of the absolute finest superhero series available, and puts most of the "big name" books to shame. Now we just need that multimedia push to make Invincible the next pop culture phenomenon.

[Bryan Stoffel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eight volumes in and Invincible continues to be a strong super hero series.

Right off the bat, an important thing to know about this volume is while the series is called Invincible, our main Invincible hero is not the main focus. We start off following Nolan and Debbie as they head back to Telescria after the Viltrumite War. The two are back at it as though nothing has happened between them the last 8 volumes of this series, which I found to be a little unbelievable. I understand that they still loved each other, but Debbie was portrayed as way too forgiving at first. It wasn’t until she sees his battle with Allen that she starts to turn and question things again, which seemed more natural for the character.

We get original artist Cory Walker back for these first two issues, and while he’s improved immensely since volume 1 and I’m enjoying his art a lot more than I did, I can’t stand how he draws Oliver. He gives him a giant overbite that just makes Oliver look stupid. In the sketchbook in the back of the volume Walker even comments how he never got the character down, and I fully agree.

Aside from that this arc was great. We see Nolan and Allen switch their usual roles, with Allen being more of an antagonist in this arc, while we are more siding with Nolan’s views. The fight gets brought to Earth where Allen and Oliver plan to take out the a Viltrumites once and for all with the scourge virus, which could take out the rest of the planet in the process. This sets up an epic battle that results with Mark losing most of his powers, and the story unfortunately starts to highlight some of Kirkman’s weaknesses in his storytelling.

Kirkman loves to set up arcs and situations for characters, but he sometimes gets too impatient to build up the payoff, and it really shows in this volume. I used Nolan and Debbie as the first example in this volume, and Oliver’s character arc comes next. There’s always been something off about Oliver’s lack of compassion, and it reaches its climax when he releases the scourge virus on Mark. Afterwards he gets real upset that he almost killed his brother, which is a complete change of heart for him. Hopefully we see more inner conflict and development with this, but for now it felt like a drastic change.

Next comes with Mark. Volume 7 ended with him teaming up with Dinosaurus and becoming a fugitive in the government’s eyes. We see a glimpse of what the ramifications for Mark’s decisions could look like, but then he loses his powers, and that story arc is either put on hold or was very quickly wrapped up. I wanted to see more of Mark struggling to change Dinosaurus, more consequences of being a fugitive for his recent actions and decisions, and Mark questioning his new course of action. Until Mark gets his powers back, this story arc is all but done.

Which brings us to Mark’s replacement, the new Invincible, which happens to be the former Bulletproof. While it’s interesting for a writer to bring a different character into the lead role, this was extremely rushed due to lack of character development. Bulletproof has always been a background character, with almost no development before this. So when we’re suddenly thrown into his world as he’s thrusted into the spotlight it gets a little unstable for the audience. It also doesn’t help that Bulletproof has been given some traits that are not very likable. I get that the intent is for us to like Mark more than Zandale, but it makes this transition of the character harder to accept. Had we had more time and development with Bulletproof, this wouldn’t have seemed so sudden of a move.

And our last arc follows Robot and Monster Girl and their time with the Flaxans, as the consequences of their actions spills into our world. Cory Walker covers the art in the flashback scenes that are intertwined with the current day invasion being drawn by series regular Ottley. While this sounds like it could be jarring, it actually fits this arc very well. And while seeing this backstory with Robot and Monster Girl wasn’t really necessary, it was nice to spend some time with our supporting characters, and to flesh out why these two who were inseparable when we last saw them are no longer together. However, this is a double-edged sword, because seeing the fallout between Monster Girl and Robot makes their reuniting feel a bit rushed and slightly unbelievable. It’s like Kirkman likes to put his characters in situations of conflict and development, but is too impatient for the characters’ journeys and quickly puts things back how he and the audience wants them to be. While this isn’t always a big issue and isn’t always a constant thing, it’s all over this volume, and left me not enjoying this volume as much as I wanted to.

In the end, I continue to enjoy this series. The story and the art continue to be some of the best in the comic book genre, which make the slight missteps more noticeable, especially when they are as frequently as they were in this volume. All that said, I still enjoyed this volume enough to give it 4 stars, and I would still recommend this series to any and everyone.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allen the Alien is now the leader of the Coalition of Planets and wants to take a hard line with the remaining Viltrumites on Earth, much to Nolan and Mark's dismay. Oliver, who feels no love for Earth, sides with Allen but everything comes to a stalemate when Thragg learns of their mission. But Mark gets hurt in the melee and has his powers dissipate which then ties into Bulletproof having to wear Mark's costume to keep up appearances on Earth. Mark utilizes Dinosaurus in some long-range plans but underestimates how they can truly work together. Nolan and Debbie have reconciled, and they reconcile over & over & over again if you get my drift. Poor Oliver gets an earful one night and there is a funny visual of him covering his ears the way Nolan had to in a previous book when staying at Allen's.

However, the most epic storyline is Robot and Monster Girl's as we finally find out what happened to the duo when they went through the portal during one of the semi-regular invasions by the Flaxans. On Earth, they were only missing a few months, but in the Flaxan dimension, they were there 700 years and led a coup against the corrupt government there. When they came back they told team members they were there 12 years, but so very much happened while there including love, betrayal and trauma. A nasty surprise is revealed during the next Flaxan invasion on Earth, surprising the pair who thought they left the planet in a peaceful state. But that surprise is nothing compared to the last page that divulges an ugly secret and what you thought about one character's motives is completely upended.

Ottley's and Walker's art is better melded in this book, as Ottley draws the Earth scenes while Walker drew the Flaxan scenes. Amanda (Monster Girl) has a cool Queen Amidala vibe going, with elaborate hairdos and outfits while she is the Queen Consort with Rex. Awesomely drawn fight scenes and weird monsters, villains and aliens remain a strong suit in this series.

[Scott Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome to the Invincible collection that's about everybody except Invincible. Mark is missing from the first two issues, which focus on Allen the Alien, Omni-Man and Oliver on Talescria, Then he's present for two issues before plot events take him out for all but one other issue in the volume. He's essentially a guest-star, and a minor one at that, in his own book.

That said, Kirkman has clearly successfully built an entire world surrounding Mark--as evidence by all those titles he's publishing that take place there--and built it well, and there are some great stories here. This volume particularly focuses on Rex Robot and Monster Girl, detailling what happenes to the two of them during the time they were living on the Flaxan homeworld, while watching their current tensions play out. It also gives a fair amount of screen time to Bulletproof. The character work on all three is strong, and Atom Eve also gets some nice moments, I just miss Mark. The book is Invincible afterall, not Invincible's wonderful friends....

[Freddie Domaille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh.
Kinda underwhelming, but not for a lack of trying.
I struggle to care about the Dinosaurus or Bulletproof storylines, the Allen switch-ups were distractingly unconvincing, and somehow, out of the staggeringly enormous cast of characters, barely any of them are likeable anymore.
At least the Rex and Amanda flashbacks and the Viltrumites-on-Earth stuff was interesting.
It's hard to place where the source of the problem is, because the comic's still largely fine, even good sometimes, but recently the story, characters and themes have all felt lacking and directionless.
Unfortunately, story, characters and themes are the three things that make fiction.
Fortunately, it's a comic, so at least it can rely on the art until the series figures out what it's about again.
I've made it sound worse than it is; it's fine.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There wasn't a lot of Invincible in this book and I think it finally gave us a chance to see the support cast take the lead, they didn't disappoint. The biggest issue I have with this series is the apologies and the easiness of the characters speech, all of them speak the same. It's I'm sorry I didn't mean to take it out on you, people in general lack this strength so why do we have to go through every melodramatic beat to keep other characters up to date. I liked the other dimension storyline with Rex and I can see that opening into something bigger in the next few books. Overall this was a vast improvement over the previous book but not enough to warrant a 5, not sure this series will ever get there.

[Brandon Ibarra]

The book collection was alright but i don't think it was the best this time its just about vultrimites having kids some care about them because its there first time having a family and mark he died because it was a clone then he was alive dinosaurs killed him then mark killed him at the end but dinosaurus was a good person the government that he was evil because his daughter saw him wth the corpse of his mom with him but he just saw her dead like that looking for the person who actually killed her so her daughter thought that he killed her so she called cops and when mark discovered him he told him the truth and he decided to help him even tho it would get him in trouble but he took it and now people think he is dead

[kami · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think this volume is my least favorite. its not bad or anything, but it really feels like plot fill. it was interesting learning about rex and amanda's time in the other dimension, but besides that, the whole virus thing and the back and fourth between thragg is annoying. i now understand why people love dinosaurus, idk if he's gonna betray mark in the future but he's like the less annoying version of oliver. i also liked general kregg actually LOVING humans bit at the very end, could be foreshadowing for the future. we pretty much like 65% done with invincible atp, so im interested to see wazzup. also mark getting nerfed and bulletproof stealing invincibles whole identity is just crazy bruh

[Daniel Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This continues to be an entertaining and unpredictable run, though an uneven one. My favorite part of the story is Dinosaurus, by a long shot. The story of Rex and Monster Girl is great, too, though Monster Girl's motivation, as with most women in this comic, is awfully written: their fight actually starts because Rex was too busy trying to rule a complex alien society instead of looking at her tits, for crying out loud. She also couldn't learn the language after living there for centuries? C'mon.

I'm not a fan of Bulletpproof becoming a new Invincible, either, but I guess we'll see where that goes.

[Mario Mikon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's the truth: Kirkman copied the coolest things Marvel and DC put out in the last... 20 years.

It's something like this: what if my own character would encounter all of this crisis and interplanetary wars? How would he react? And that's how Invincible fared up until now.

And it's incredible.

Hats off to the artist, Ottley. He started good... but now he's reaching monster levels (at least for my tastes). All, ALL the colorists that workd in this book up until now are crazy good, no exceptions.

[XOX · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the war, there is a new big bad.

The dinosaurs is threating Earth. His motive is strange as he want to restart Earth and allow it to be a better future. The problem is, Mark is trying to come to a peaceful solution with dinosaurs. He freed him from prison and become an enemy of the state.

Allen now is also a peace keeper. He discovered a virus that could kill Viltrumite. But as the genetic of human is so similar, Mark is against using bio weapon. Oliver thought otherwise and make the brothers at odd with each other. The outcome is disastrous.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are superhero and science fiction serial stories that have certain beats they want to hit, so in order to do that, they incorporate time jumps. For example: DC's One Year Later event, or the second season of Young Justice.

I know that at one point this series gets better, but it's not in this collection, so don't read it. You have better things to do with your life than read bad comics. And this volume of Invincible is Terrible.

[metimoteo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 8 is filled with personal stories--some quite tragic--interwoven with all the brutal action readers have come to expect from this title. All the major players have intimate moments, and the book opens with the escapades of Omni-Man and his wife Debbie. It's interesting to see Eve's maturation. The book is not the best anthology of the series, but it's an enjoyable read.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d read a whole series about Monster Girl and Robot in the parallel dimension they were in for seven hundred years!!! The virus plot here finishes kind of tepid for all of the build up we’ve gotten (like if 99.99% of Viltrumites died), but the moral conflict with Oliver was well done.

[Willie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to stop writing individual writeups for this one because from 8-12 its just an insanely good roller coaster that gets better and better. I read them all so quickly I didn't have time to rank them one at a time. Truly a masterpiece.