My backlog is out of control. I got this as a gift for my birthday in July...of last year. My friend bugged me for the entire year, asking me what I thought of it. Well, here is the answer:
INVINCIBLE ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOL. 1 (Image, Third Printing, 2008; Hardcover)
Collects Invincible Nos. 1-13 (cover dates January, 2003- May, 2004)
Invincible is a modern take on the superhero. Robert Kirkman's writing is pretty decompressed, with lots of wasted pages and plenty of filler. There was 5 or 6 issues worth of story padded out to 13. Kirkman has good ideas, but is lazy with his writing. The artwork and coloring are both decent but not mind-blowingly good. I know that this predates my favorite Kirkman series, The Astounding Wolf-Man, but I read that one first and prefer it to this. SPOILERS Kirkman seems to follow the exact same formula in AWM that he laid out in Invincible. Guy becomes hero. Older, more seasoned veteran comes along and helps show him the ropes, only to reveal that the mentor is really the villain. Gasp! What shocked me in AWM came off as oh, that shtick again? here in Invincible. Again, that reaction should be reserved for AWM, but I read that title first. I have only read the first 11 or 12 issues of The Walking Dead, so I can't say if Kirkman employs this trick there as well. All in all, this was a good read, and I am more than a little curious to see what is going to happen next.
On the production side, this is a beautifully made high end hardcover, with luxurious paper and sewn binding. There are gobs of DVD-style extras in the back, from character sketches to thumbnails to cover roughs. This is an impressive package that is worthy of having a home on your bookshelf.
Collects Invincible Nos. 1-13 (cover dates January, 2003- May, 2004)
Invincible is a modern take on the superhero. Robert Kirkman's writing is pretty decompressed, with lots of wasted pages and plenty of filler. There was 5 or 6 issues worth of story padded out to 13. Kirkman has good ideas, but is lazy with his writing. The artwork and coloring are both decent but not mind-blowingly good. I know that this predates my favorite Kirkman series, The Astounding Wolf-Man, but I read that one first and prefer it to this. SPOILERS Kirkman seems to follow the exact same formula in AWM that he laid out in Invincible. Guy becomes hero. Older, more seasoned veteran comes along and helps show him the ropes, only to reveal that the mentor is really the villain. Gasp! What shocked me in AWM came off as oh, that shtick again? here in Invincible. Again, that reaction should be reserved for AWM, but I read that title first. I have only read the first 11 or 12 issues of The Walking Dead, so I can't say if Kirkman employs this trick there as well. All in all, this was a good read, and I am more than a little curious to see what is going to happen next.
On the production side, this is a beautifully made high end hardcover, with luxurious paper and sewn binding. There are gobs of DVD-style extras in the back, from character sketches to thumbnails to cover roughs. This is an impressive package that is worthy of having a home on your bookshelf.
I thought the first few issues of the series were pretty dreadful, mostly because of an apparent lack of a good editor, but after that I began to enjoy it quite a bit. I had a lot of problems with the hardcover itself, though, which has a ridiculous number of embarrassing errors; the back cover of the edition I read (which was the third printing!) even had the main character's name spelled wrong. But who knows what printing they're on now, and maybe they've fixed some of that stuff.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing your review of this years birthday gift in the year 2013 because your backlog isn't getting any smaller. Let's go to Green Brain and find more books to backlog!
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