Comic Info
Comic Name: Invasion!
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Keith Giffen/Bill Mantlo
Artist: Todd McFarlane/Keith Giffen/Bart Sears
# of Issues: 3
Release Date: 2008
Invasion #1
Reprints Invasion! #1-3 (December 1988-February 1989). The Dominators have a plan for Earth and its heroes. Teaming with the Durlans, Thanagarians, the Gil’Dishpan, the Daxamites, the Okaarans, the Citadel, the Psions, and the Khunds, they have vowed to overtake Earth. The heroes of Earth are Earth’s last chance but also the target of the attack. As a battle for control occurs, the invasion could only be the first threat that could destroy Earth’s heroes and villains forever.
Plotted by Keith Giffen and scripted by Bill Mantlo, Invasion! was an oversized three issue limited series. The “maxi” series crossed over with most of DC’s titles and served as a jump-on point for new readers. The three oversized issues featured art by Todd McFarlane, Keith Giffen, and Bart Sears and helped launch Justice League Europe and L.E.G.I.O.N.
Invasion! is a little intimidating. It isn’t an intense story, but each issue is essentially four issues. I started reading the individual issues of Invasion! multiple times and put them down because I got bored (or tired of the story). Plowing through Invasion! now still feels a bit like a chore, but it isn’t necessarily a bad comic.
DC’s mini-series always seemed very weighty and Keith Giffen was the weightiest of writers. Each page of his Legion of Super-Heroes always was just loaded with text and Invasion! as a result carries on this trend. When you think back on Invasion!, a lot of what happens in each issue really ties into other individual series issues…some of which hadn’t even been published at the time (like a L.E.G.I.O.N. reference in the second volume which previewed the upcoming title).
Invasion! #2
DC was kind of in a weird period at the time of this book. It had gone through Crisis on Infinite Earths which reshaped the whole universe and realized the power of the mini-series. Legends and Millennium had been moderate successes but not up to the level of Crisis. This is also true of Invasion! It is by no means bad, but just doesn’t feel as important.
The art for the comic is also all over the place. This was early work by Todd McFarlane before he exploded on Amazing Spider-Man. The art is quite basic and not as experimental as his later work and you can see a lot of Giffen’s influence in the series. I prefer consistency in a series, and I’m not a fan when multiple artists work on one title.
Invasion! isn’t the best or worst series. It is very long for what it is and it would have been nice to see a secondary collection (or two) with all the associated titles since they tie into the series so you could get the whole picture. I will say that opposed to series like any of DC’s “Crisis” series, that Invasion! is pretty straight forward…which isn’t always a bad thing.
