Several years ago I was introduced to the intriguing Image comic book Invincible. The book presented itself as a quaint story about the teenage son of the world’s greatest superhero learning about his own powers and becoming a superhero himself. Several issues later, I learned that I was wrong and that Robert Kirkman, of The Walking Dead and Outcasts fame, was a dirty liar. From there on I was hooked.
Through the years Invincible has been the home of some of my favorite characters in all of comics. From the titular Invincible to his alien accomplice, Allen the Alien, and even his complicated home life, Invincible has been both delightful and heart-breaking. However, today it has broken my heart one more time. In an open letter to his fans, Kirkman announced that he will be ending the series in 2017.
“As I began plotting out the issues that lay ahead of us over the next year, I started to realize I was reaching a… conclusion,” Kirkman writes. “The Big Viltrumite epic, which began with Nolan Grayson going to Earth and fathering Mark, and kicked off with their confrontation all those years ago in issue 11 … was coming to an end. Everything was converging in this one story, and looking back, I realized I’d been working toward this the whole time.”
Invincible has always been driven by a strong narrative, so it only makes sense that it will finish with a definitive conclusion, rather than continuing on eternally, as most of our iconic superheroes are wont to do. It seems doubly appropriate that the final issue (Issue 144) will conclude the arc titled “The End of All Things.”
This final arc will begin in November of this year and is slated to run for 12 issues. If previous issues can be any guide, expect this to go out with a bang rather than a whimper.
See the complete letter from Kirkman here.
