Invincible #129

[history79]

Comments

[coldfury]

Man, I'm really far behind on this book. It left 'status quo' behind a long, long time ago, didn't it?

And yeah, saw that outcome coming for Mark. Can't believe she named him after him, though. Oof, that's a gut punch.

I can't figure out how I feel about this storyline. Is it progressive to show this kind of storyline front and center, or does the fact that it centers around the male diminish the story?

Like... I want to like the themes its exploring, but I don't want to fall into an MRA/Red Pill style trap? Does that make sense?

[flash_fan]

I can definitely see the concern for the whole MRA mentality. In the context of the comic industry though I think it's better that they are exploring the subject of rape through a male character. Mainly because of how often rape is used to make female characters have a darker edgyer backstory or as an excuse for male characters to feel rage about it as an injustice. You kind of avoid all that in this book by making it happen to its male protagonist instead of his mother or wife.

[cyberghostface]

Why would it diminish the story?

[shadowpsykie]

yeah... i could see what they mean. everyone knows men don't get raped...

sorry maybe that came out too... angry... It's just... the Problem with MRA thinking is they proliferate this type of idea... that men can't get raped... this story is being played out like a rape, not a crazy woman who is trying to get a guy pregnant (by having sex with him, as he is willing, but by being off the pill) in order to entrap him. MRA ideals come from a place where the entrament comes after a male has sex with a woman who knowingly trys to get pregnant to "commit" him. Mark was unwilling, hence rape. MRA philosophy would have him willingly have sex with her, but be pissed and insist the kid isn't his because she was "a slut and the baby could be anyone's".

[astrakhan42]

Anyone else getting shades of the Mist in Starman and her kid with Jack?

[randyripoff]

Yes.

[apintrix]

Oh yeah, bigtime.

[obsidianwolf]

Every time this book pops up I'm reminded of how much I feel like it has simply gone on too long and that I now find these characters and their situation tiring. I mean this is like the what fifth or sixth time Mark and Eve are working things out and determined to make things work. I mean the back and fourth is bad enough in comics where the status quo is permanent but in a book where years are advancing and the plot is supposedly always changing to keep seeing it gets old. At this point I have long sense stopped caring if they have a happy ending or not.

And while I'm glad this story line is once again being given some prominence and thing its inclusion can be a good thing I still have issues with how it started and the handling of it. I mean the issue where the rape happened was at least 50% of the issue being the assault shown on panel drawn in typical comic style where if you dropped the dialogue making it clear what was happening it would look almost soft core ish. Then it was promptly dropped out from the title except for brief mentions once or twice until post time skip.

And now comes the almost inevitable predictable child by rape plot line that has been done many times in various media.

[silverhammerman]

Right there with you on Invincible having gone on too long. If it had wrapped up after 60 or 70 issues it would be a true classic, now it's just a case of ever diminishing returns.

Obviously it's hard to question Kirkman's business success (just look at the Walking Dead), but I really do feel that an inability to finish things is his biggest weakness as a storyteller (just look at the Walking Dead again).

[obsidianwolf]

Another obvious issue of Kirkman's imo is escalation every storyline/threat has to be bigger and more dramatic to the point where you almost don't care how a situation is resolved because the next one is going to be bigger and even more dramatic.

I mean that's a problem throughout the industry but it is especially jarring in a book with only one writer.

[silverhammerman]

Yup, right there with you.

It's an interesting case with Invincible because I actually think that the escalation of violence throughout the series has been one of Kirkman's rare business missteps. There was a time when it really seemed like Invincible was the perfect character to start showing up in cartoons and become a multimedia sensation, but the gore porn elements basically scuttled that.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

"There was a time when it really seemed like Invincible was the perfect character to start showing up in cartoons and become a multimedia sensation, but the gore porn elements basically scuttled that."

That reminds me of a scene in one of his issues. Mark and Eve start making out, and the narration moves away from them, with the box saying that 'This is a family book!'.

And then the issue ends with a character, literally, having their brains punched out.

Family time, everyone!

[shadowpsykie]

ummm if i remember correctly (and like you said, this WAS a WHILE ago...) i wouldn't agree with the softcore ish ness... he looked pretty damn unwilling... he wasn't smiling, he was not enjoying it at all... it was straigh up rape... even without dialogue....

also when did she become so... docile...? this doesn't seem like the same woman that came at him and forced him into sex all those years ago... she was much more... well like Maxima... without taking no for an answer...

[jmacq1]

In the context of these pages she even seems...nice. Something drastic had to have happened to her, and I suspect it'd have to be a lot more than "She had a kid, and then maybe had another kid with a human(?) guy."

Though I suspect this will add up to her getting killed and Mark then having to deal with an unexpected child.

[obsidianwolf]

I said almost softcorish refering to the panels focused on her expression. Tracking down scans of the issue again show that it isn't anywhere near as bad as I remember it. Though I have seen someone actually post just the silent portion mislabled before.

Based on the reappearance and history of comic writers tackling child by rape sub plots I don't have any faith that this will be handled well at all. Most likely outcome is as someone else said she'll die and Mark will get stuck with an unwanted kid.

[silverhammerman]

I've been checked out of Invincible for a longer time now, but I really do hope that this villain actually faces some real retribution. Both Tom Strong and Nexus covered similar ground, and I think both wound up being weirdly and problematically wishy-washy with regards to the rapists.

[espanolbot]

There are several mainstream superheroes who have been attacked by supervillainesses in similar ways, but later writers tended to have... iffy reactions to it.

For example, when Nightwing was raped by Tarantula the writer at the time said "it wasn't rape, it was just nonconsentual"... which... yeah. And all the writers around the time treated it as if Dick had cheated on Barbara Gordon in this case.

Ditto when Mirage had sex with him while pretending to be Starfire, which even caused Dick's TEAMMATES to tease him about it. Ditto with Oliver Queen and Shado, who straight up admitted to Black Canary that Ollie was high on painkillers at the time and thought she was Dian, which had people act as if Ollie was cheating on her in some way.

[shadowpsykie]

which is why i kinda like the depiction here... there were never any IFs about it being rape...

OH and the who "it was just non consensual" thing REALLY urked me... especially coming from a female writer! (i not saying female writers are infallable... but when a non comics fan can look at those panels and say... "Oh yeah... THATs rape...." you know there was some missteps there....

[hot_pie]

I checked out of Invincible around issue 90 for the reasons mentioned above.

1. Endless whining from Mark
2. Massive carnage, people die, big repercussions.... and then they come back to life.
3. Kirkman's inability to show real emotion or nuance and instead has to have every character explain in great detail their emotions (see: Rick from Walking Dead)

[beyondthefringe]

My problem with this issue was the pacing. Thanks to the five year gap following the "Reboot?" storyline, we've skipped over so much of what was going on in the meantime. And as we saw at the end of last issue and start of this, there was apparently a major war between Earth and the Technicians (Me: who? Googles... oh yeah, some extradimensional threat from like, 5 years ago that hasn't been referenced or explained since) and it gets brushed over like no big deal in a page.

And Mark goes back to Earth, just like that. And not only do we deal with Eve's fling in this issue, we deal with the woman who raped Mark and apparently bore his child as well, and it's just so rushed.

In Invincible, Kirkman never seems to play the long game for very long. He crams a lot into small spaces, changes status quos at the drop of a hat, and never seems to fully explore what he's set in motion. He's very "Ooo shiny" when it comes to his storytelling, and in issues like this, it shows.

I also hate to say it, but the art doesn't work all that well here, either. The return of Cory Walker only demonstrates how integral the other guy (Ottley?) is to the feel and development of the title. Anissa doesn't look nearly as hard or formidable as she should, even if you assume motherhood has mellowed her.

I like this title, but it always seems to fall short of its potential.