Hey y’all,
Welcome back. Sorry for the little break, but I think we both needed it. But now that I’m back I’m loaded for bear. At least for today. And what we’re going to hunt is a beast I’ve purposefully avoided talking about for a bit— superhero comics.
Well sort of.
See much as I have written and recorded about the heavyweight comics of the past— I doubt you’ll ever here me rant much about the state of “mainstream” comics or pine for the glory days of yesteryear. Yes, like most of the creators who spent formative time reading and working in corporate comics, I do sometimes sit around and play the “What would I do/what is wrong with this series?” game. But honestly, these days I only keep lightly abreast of that stuff. Mostly because there’s always the chance that something inspiring will screech through my study window in the pitch of the night.
Unfortunately my latest once-a-month-or-so perusal of the new superhero comics bakery turned out to yield a particularly stale batch. So I committed that most heinous of comic reader sins and decided to look for superheroes on TV instead.
All of which is a long-winded way to say I decided on watching the animated INVINCIBLE: ATOM EVE special on Amazon— and went to bed with my sweet tooth more than sated.
If you don’t know what INVINCIBLE is I don’t know where you turned to end up here, but in the simplest of terms it’s one of the rarest things in modern comics— a successful creator-owned superhero. If you’re skeptical of the importance or difficulty of that, I get it— But I assure you, that this day and age of Marvel and DC being ubiquitous media and licensing properties has not quite proved that trickle-down economics works. Maybe because most of the superheroes birthed outside of print end up feeling more Go-Bots than Transformers.
More: “Why hello fellow kids. Have you heard of the Street Sharks?”
Yes, to get to an INVINCIBLE tv show that both honors the totality of the comics and dominates AMAZON’S streaming services took sugar daddy Bezos buying in. Yes, the acceptance of the sex and violence of THE BOYS adaptation probably helped. And yes, yadda, yadda, yadda… THE WALKING DEAD.
But INVINCIBLE has only survived because it navigated the treacherous minefield of the direct market to produce a whopping 144+ issues of creator-owned comics.
Now for full disclosure— I was around lurking in the periphery of Image Comics as the series first came together. Hell, before it did. Back in the comics message boards era, where a young Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley, and I basically all went to the same online comic book trade school. So you might think I’m really biased, or about to heap praise on their comic and show as a way to cement my own importance.
Well, maybe just a little. But largely no. Because if I’m being honest, as much as I did want the success of my peers to be a rising tide raises all boats kind of thing— there was a little bit of insecurity and personal jealousy that made me want to put a tiny little asterisk on those accomplishments. Add a little “BUT” to every bit of praise tossed their way.
So sure, INVINCIBLE is big and bold and risky and immaculately designed and drawn in a way that at times makes it feel more potent than nearly any Big 2 comic…
— BUT—
Isn’t it just other superheroes with the serial numbers filed off?
Isn’t it the kind of comic that maybe anyone COULD do?
(Y'know if they stooped to letting themselves or whatever.)
—WELL—
The obvious and undeniable counterpoint is a floating Pacific garbage patch of failed comics that have come and gone in its wake. In a landscape littered with the carnage of failed genre pastiche— INVINCIBLE somehow remained, and remains, bulletproof.
(Still working on the ATOM EVE piece above, but doing so reminded me that Benito Cereno and Nate Bellegrade brought her origin to comics. Faithfully adapted on the show.)
As a friend of mine recently said— the difference between the most boring American superhero fare and the excitement of good manga is not rocket science. It’s simply that Manga is more considered. That it has required more investment. Most Manga artists own a real stake in their work. Reputationally. Financially. Spiritually. Even the most robust Manga IP is treated as something that can change or end. It belongs to the people who make it, and reflect and celebrate that.
INVINCIBLE succeeds because it has that kind of authorship. An authorship earned from a complete investment. An investment that grants it stakes. That requires risk.
It is much riskier than it seems to toss a baby superhero universe out into the cold, jaded, overly saturated multi-media multiverse. It’s risky to be the OTHER Spider-Man. The OTHER Superman. But with the right balance of care— that risk can grant a certain freedom.
In both comics and animation Kirkman and Walker and Ottley and company have cared about every stone they’ve laid. Even replicas of the old monuments and tropes are imbued with scale. With importance. Treated like wonders of their world.
Because they care it matters when they tear things down. When they let that work lie in rubble. Or when they try to build something new from the wreckage. No matter how familiar or imperfect it could or might feel or be— it matters. Because it matters to them first and foremost.
And in a story about the growth, destruction, and reconstruction of relationships— one in which your hero literally smashes your image of him with a fist to your face—
What could be more fitting than someone actually caring?
That’s more or less all of it for this time.
To get you through the weekend, here’s a comic that decided it was coming out of my head and hand whether I liked it or not…
Party on Party Court. More soon…
-j
Brilliant pieces; never saw the gorgeous Atom Eve before; new? Thanks for the shout-out to Nate Bellegarde; his under-appreciated 'Nowheremen' is one of THE Comics of the century. I believe he's working on the Invincible TV show; which is a relief that his talent isn't wasted. In case your still 'missing' comics; at the moment I'd recommend Image's 'Petrol Head' (touch of the Bellegardes), Fegredo's 'Giant Robot Hellboy', Gabriel Walta's 'Phantom Road' and Kirkman & Lorenzo's 'Oblivion Song' was brilliant.