Invincible #50 Review

INVINCIBLE #50
Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Ryan Ottley

Oh, Invincible, it's been so long since we last met. I just don't know what to do with you anymore. I'm seriously considering just dropping the book and switching to trades as the singles have been less than fulfilling. Each issue has it's moments and it's definitely a great book, but all momentum is being sapped from the title and bad issues, like the recent "let's advertise every Image title and character over the course of half the book" issue, just stick with me longer and seem to outweigh the good issues more than they should. Delays for this milestone issue #50 just add to the problem when the issue is merely good instead of incredible. Speaking of Invincible #50, that's what this review is about! I guess I should talk about it a little instead of harping on oft-delayed comics.

Invincible #50 brings about yet another new status quo for young Mark. This time, his mentor and employer, Cecil, has deigned to employ several villains Mark helped capture over the past couple of years worth of stories and we've been building to Mark finding out about this for some time now. This issue signals that confrontation and it's not pretty for Invincible.

It seems Cecil has implanted a chip in Invincible's inner ear which scrambles his equilibrium and causes him extreme pain to the point of causing him to collapse and bleed from the ears. Coupled with the army of super powered zombie robots putting a beat down on Mark and he's not fairing too well in this fight.

Now, Cecil doesn't want to kill Invincible, he just wants him to fall in line again. Mark doesn't want anything to do with him and attempts to flee at super speed. Cecil pursues him through the government teleporters and eventually catches up to him at the Guardians base, where Invincible is attempting to tell them about what Cecil has been up to with the employing of villains and creation of the zombie soldiers.

The Guardians, confused at first, don't know who to trust, but Cecil eventually just has his army attack them all, pushing the team to side with Mark. Rex manages to destroy Cecil's controller, but it causes the chip in Mark's head to go off non-stop as the robot zombies pound away on him. Robot manages to stop the signal in time, but Mark slaughters a few zombots before grabbing a hold of Cecil.

He doesn't kill him, but we get the requisite, "I don't work for you anymore and stay away from me and my family.", speech and Cecil packs up and leaves the bloody and battered Mark to his own devices.

We end the issue with the knowledge most of the Guardians will be leaving the government funded team and Invincible manages to, finally, hook up with Eve.

I was ready to write Cecil off as a completely generic and uninspired "heel turn" until I read the backup stories featuring him. They really added some much needed charactere development and managed to give me some sympathy for a character that seemed about as bland and unoriginal as could be up until this point.

The backup told how Cecil received the scar on his face and his early days as a government employee all the way up until he began heading up the Earth's last line of defense. Seems the scar is actually the only piece of original skin he has left. He lost almost all of it when some villains slaughtered a dozen or more government agents and he was the only one to survive.

However, years later, during an attack on the Pentagon, those same two villains show up to save him. In an obvious parallel to the current story, he can't believe the government is employing these murderers and, after they save him, he blows both away, just as the super heroes show up to see him do it. He ends up in jail for his "crime" and, only after some convincing, does he take over in his current position.

It was a great little back up and it even showed the lengths to which Cecil would now go to save Earth "at any cost". There was even a nice scene of Omni-Man's "first" apperance on Earth as we see the Cecil meeting up with him and requesting his aid. They ignore the fact they know he's lying about his mission on Earth and Cecil only wants to use him to save Eart and doesn't care why he's lying. Probably should have thought that one through, in hindsight.

Verdict - Must Read. I give it a Must Reat because it was a great issue, but there's times I feel I should be giving it a Check It simply because I've lost so much interest due to the constant delays. This'll probably be my last monthly issue of the title as I switch over to trades.

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