Invincible 2: Eight Is Enough

Comic Info

Invincible #7

Reprints Invincible #5-8 (June 2003-January 2004) Mark is settling in as his role as Invincible when he’s forced to make his first journey into space to face his one of his father’s opponents. Mark also finds himself prepping for college and dealing with trying to keep a secret identity around his friend William Clockwell. Meanwhile Atom Eve discovers her boyfriend Rex Splode is cheating on her with another member of the Teen Team, and Mark finds a potential new girlfriend in Amber Bennett.  When the Guardians of the Globe are slaughtered by an unknown assassin, Invincible doesn’t realize that the danger could be in his own home.

Written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Corey Walker with Ryan Ottley stepping in for Invincible #8, Invincible Volume 2: Eight Is Enough follows Invincible Volume 1: Family Matters. Invincible 2: Eight is Enough is also included in the larger omnibus Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 1.

Invincible 2: Eight Is Enough is really what establishes the series. With the first volume, Mark and his family are just being introduced and you don’t have much of a feel for the characters or the flow of the story. Here, Kirkman starts to flesh out how the series will work and how the characters interact…it also establishes Kirkman’s obsession with TV family sitcom/shows with the titling of the books.

Invincible #8

Invincible’s second volume shows how little incidents make up the story. The comic functions a lot like a soap opera with little events in one issue coming up in future issues. A trash bag thrown up in the air by Mark when he discovered his powers in the first issue, crashes down in London, a slip of the tongue during a battle with the aliens in issue exposes Invincible as Omni-Man’s son, the classmate transformed into a bomb in issue four makes a return in issue eight, and a college visit by Mark and William introduces Rick Sheridan…a future supporting character who just happens to be named after Marvel’s Sleepwalker’s secret identity (another Kirkman obsession).

Another theme that becomes obvious in Invincible is the idea (or stupidity) of a secret identity. Mark’s friend William “Don’t call him Will” Clockwell learns Mark’s identity because it is pretty obvious. The secret identity issue continues to come up and is often played for jokes within the series.

The big shocker of the first issues occurs at the end of Invincible #7 (December 2003). When the premiere superhero team the Guardians of the Globe (which is a thinly veiled Justice League of America) is summoned to their mountain base, an assassin kills them all. The killer is revealed to be Omni-Man himself, but in classic Invincible storytelling, you have to wait to see if it is really Omni-Man, a shapeshifter, or an illusion.  This reveal makes a big change in the story and sets up a trend by Invincible for shocking story shifts.

This collection of Invincible is part of what makes Invincible one of the more interesting series around. The first collection established the characters and this collection really starts to give them dimension. I still am not a huge fan of Walker’s minimalistic art (I don’t like how he does faces), but it does work with the series and Ottley’s takeover is unnoticable. Invincible Volume 2: Eight Is Enough is followed by Invincible Volume 3: Perfect Strangers.

Preceded By:

Invincible Volume 1:  Family Matters

Followed By:

Invincible Volume 3:  Perfect Strangers