We continue with the free agent stage of Invincible, and the pace of the narrative offers a cohesive reading between the core comic and the side comic The Astouding Wolf-man.Besides, we are entering one of the most epic, brutal and at the same time forgettable event in the entire comic.
This selection of issues serves as a bridge to a massive event, and also shines on its own by introducing new enemies who want to see Invincible dead, and some core plots such the developing of characters or the recurring crisis of the Guardians of the Globe team are also featured.In the other hand, following The Astouding Wofl-man we get to see finally Gary being taken into prission and surviving on his own.
I thought about adding Noble Causes #37 in this same selection, but since it is a spin-off (not written by Kirkman) although it does not break the continuity with the story at all, even delving into Invincible’s stage as a free agent, I decided to add it separately , so as not to ruin the experience.
INDEX
- Part 22 covering Invincible #51-#54
- Part 23 covering Invincible #55-#57 & The Astouding Wolf-man #11-#12. (Crossover)
- Part 24 covering Invincible Presents: Atom Eve & Rex Splode #1-#3.
______The Astouding Wolfman Issue 13______
Gary had been surrounded by GDA agents in the cemetery, after losing track of time while visiting his late wife. As a result of the training he received from Elder Blood, he was able to resist arrest and fight, but in the end Agent Hunter neutralized him.So now he will be locked up behind bars in some prison, awaiting trial for the crime of which he is accused.Some time later, Cecil transports himself to where Gary is imprisoned only to warn him that it is out of his power to help him from now on, any opening that allows it he will not hesitate, but in the meantime Gary will have to do for his own.
While Gary tells Cecil that he will do everything possible to defend himself with a lawyer, Cecil asks him not to try to transform since he has a necklace that blocks his super-powers.
Time passes, and the news spreads: Wolf-man: Guilty.At the same time, Zechariah begins training Gary’s daughter, who seeks revenge on her own father.
A time later, we get to see Gary finally being taken into prission.Huge solid metal handcuffs hold a few criminals aboard a truck that takes them to the Stronghold Pennitentiary, it turns out that Gary is on the same transport as the Triple Threat, the group of villains that sought to kill him a few issues ago.
Things are goingto get nasty for him in prission.
_____Invincible Issue #58______
Invincible tells Kid Omni-man that his powers are increasing enough to almost reach him when flying, both brothers eat a hamburger in Hawaii after training.
Meanwhile Eve visits Stronghold Pennitentiary, it turns out that she is looking to get her boyfriend’s job as a free agent in charge of safeguarding key points of the country.
San Francisco, base of the former team known as the Teen Team.
The members who left the Guardians of the Globe now gather at this base, and discuss what they should name the team. Rex insists that Global Guardians is an excellent proposal, even provocative, but with different arguments Robot and Bulletproof oppose this name, while Amanda simply thinks that being superheroes goes beyond the name of the team, the important thing is to save lives.
For their part, Atom Eve and Invincible have a date, but in costume, since that would be more fun, and in fact they meet Kill Cannon, Atom Eve’s nemesis, whom Invincible easily defeats. They then head to Eve’s parents’ house, where she is now living.
We also get to see a little about the Guardians of the Globe team.
And to tell the truth, the attention that the comic puts on them should not be left in the background, because since Omni-man murdered the original Guardians the team has been in crisis, various heroes have passed through their ranks but somehow Others fail to create an efficient and stable team.
Art Tailor shop.
Shapesmith goes to Artihur’s workshop to ask him to design a special suit for him, since his current suit is based on a typical Martian outfit and he is not convinced, but Arthur tells him that he cannot design anything that changes shape with him. , so Shapesmith designs his own suit.
Nevada Rocky Mountains, secret base of the Guardians of the Globe.
In the locker room, Samson meets Darkwing II who seems to be having a bad time, as he thinks that his team mates judges him for his recent actions in Midnight City, for which Samson comforts him by saying that he is no longer the same boy as in the past, that he is now a man, and he just made a mistake.
Meanwhile, Mark and Oliver appear to be preparing for an imminent threat.
For her part, at Eve’s parents’ house she tells her boyfriend that she has gotten him a job as a private security firm, Invincible Inc, initially putting him in direct contact with Stronghold Pennitentiary.The purpose of this is so that Invincible can earn money as a free agent, and they can get their own house.
Meanwhile, at the Grayson residence, Oliver takes April to keep teach him after Mark and Cecil relationship falling apart.Oliver confesses that Debbie is not in the house because both Mark think they are in danger due to some super-villain must be spying on them, regarding the orbs they have found.
Indeed, at the end of the day Invincible finds one of these orbs again, but it explodes in his hands.As he arrives at the former Teen Team’s base, Rudy was giving Amandea device that can slow down her de-aging in monster form. Yet, Rudy can do nothing with the ashes from that orb, but warns Invincible to be aware of the threat he is about to face, because whoever is watching on him so closely could possibly be the worst threat he will ever face.
In fact, somewhere else, we get to see Angstrom Levy -wich Invincible thinks he killed in the alternate dimension where was standed throug the fight- the villain not only is alive, plus he has recruited at least 16 alternate evil versions of Invincible, and he seems to be preparing a big one, thus leading the plot into The Invincible War.
Among those evil alternative Invincibles, we get to see lots of variations of the signature costumes, but also some others rares such a fully dark and yellow with cape suit, some others in Viltrumite uniformes -one of them even using a mustache- another one wearing a Flaxan armor, other fully deformated, and one using a suit just like Omni-man´s.
_______Invincible Issue #59_____
This episode basically introduces one of Invincible’s new villains, Powerplex.-But not only does he do that, but he does it within the context of a stage in history where Invincible’s reputation has not only escalated to the point of being one of the best-known superheroes on Earth, but also one of the most repudiated by both the community and the villains. And this is an example of how an ordinary person can broke bad and turn into a villain because of an hero actions.
The origins of Powerplex are found in an ordinary man named Scott Duvall, who works at the upper levels of the Pentagon, more specifically in some area of technology development, since he has been stealing materials from work to develop the source of his super-powers.
Powerplex’s powers are generated thanks to bio-therm discs that allow energy to be trapped and concentrated on the user, making them capable of receiving any amount of damage from their opponents and returning it to them.
The thing is that during Omni-man’s fight against Invincible, Scott lost a family member, and since that day he has sworn to avenge his sister’s death, becoming so obsessed with the matter that he unleashed chaos so many times looking for the hero he wanted. He defeated Shapesmith of the Guardians of the Globe and even the heroes who left that same team.
Desperate since despite his actions Invincible never showed up to fight with him - and this is for a good reason, since Invincible no longer responded to Cecil - he decides to involve his family and make a personal threat against the hybrid, so which he comes to the rescue of the Duvall family.
Invincible would never think that it was all a trap, but when he does, also realizes that this one is the villain that his fellow super-hero friends from the old Teen Team had warned him about.
Powerplex uses his powers against Invincible in order to Invincible, but is unaware of how much damage the hybrid can take, and the shit hits the fan as the current travels through the floor, thus electrocuting his wife and baby son to death, in front of the young hero, whose hands are stained with blood again and couldn´t do nothing to help it.
Invincible is stunned.
Agian, his actions not only have not saved lives, but also in one way or another he has taken them, even though someone else directly killed those people.
Still, the hybrid manages to grab Powerplex until drains all his energy and realizes what happened, thus defusing the situation, but also he realizing how his intervition ended in this fiasco.
Stronghold Pennitentiary
An indeterminate time later, Scott lies in his maximum security cell, bound by enormous metal chains, and finally agreed to let Invincible visit him. Instead of thinking about what he has done and that he has killed his family, Scott has become even more obsessed with Invincible and warns him that he will investigate every last person who has died because of him and the In the end he will kill him himself.
Invincible hears the threat, and just stares at Powerplex.
______The Astouding Wolfman Issue #14______
Stronghold Pennitentiary
Gary’s entry into the prison is too hostile, not only is he surrounded by villains who want him dead, but because of how public his case has been, even ordinary prisoners harass him.
Even on his first day in prison, Thrill-Kill tries to murder Gary after his check-in, but instead he murders a guard, splitting him in half and generating even more tension between Gary and the prison guards, who indirectly blame him. of the murder of his companion, for which they retaliate by harassing him and ends being beated and isolated in a dark cell.
After three days isolated from the other prisoners, but at one point another guard shows up, so Gary warns him that if he is subdued again he will contact his contacts ‘in high places’ -most likely Cecil and the GDA- and He will inform the warden, but this guard warns him that since he is classified as super human, the guards can get away with anything, that even the warden does not have much to do with the prison, that things are handled here by another individual, who precisely can’t wait to meet Gary.
That same night Gary is taken on a nighttime walk through the prison yard, a sign of the influence of this mysterious character who claims to be the one pulling the strings at Stronghold Pennitentiary.
This mysterious character tells Gary that the problem is not escaping from the prison, since - as you can see - it works practically under his command, he is comfortable there and has a few ways to escape, in the short or long term. one will do. The problem is on the outside, his status as a fugitive limits him from a lot of things, that’s why he needs Gary’s help, since a person with his status out there could help him get things going after being beaked out.
The thing is that his objectives are directed towards the county domination, so Gary simply refuses, even though he is aware that the entire prison would turn against him.
A few days later, Gary receives a visit from Dunford who tells him that his daughter, Chloe, is gone.Shocked, Gary asks his old friend and assistant to find his daughter, but the guards isolate him again.It turns out that Chloe is being trained by Zechariah, who has turned the entire Actioners team into vampires.
Some time later, some guards break into Gary’s cell and tell him that The Face has given him an ultimatum, either help him or they will execute him. He agrees to meet the villain again.
Once in the yard, The Face blackmails him with the information he has about the disappearance of Gary’s daughter, so he agrees to do anything if it gives him the opportunity to go out in search of Chloe.
The Face orders one of his giardias to remove the necklace and deactivate it, so Gary can access his werewolf form again, but this happens just on the first night of the full moon, so he ends up transforming without being able to control his will, and kill the guard.
______The Astouding Wolfman Issue #15______
The Wolf-man goes on a rampage, killing all the guards present, from the common ones to The Face’s personal guard, and then engages in combat with him, which causes a mob of guards to flock to the place.
Not only that, but now the warden himself is present, and he gives The Face the points since he lets him take the reins as long as it brings peace to the prison, but this looks more like a mutiny. Meanwhile, the wolf-man is completely defeated by the guards and his electric batons, to the point that they knock him down and he reverts to human form, and they return him to his cell.
The next day, The Face finally prepares to leave the prison, but first he goes to Gary who tries to explain to him that he experienced the moon rage, and that is why he killed his men, that this was not intentional. The Face understands this, but considers him unstable to assist in his escape, but even so Gary knows that this only happens once a month and they can isolate him so that he does not put anyone at risk.
_______________________
Since the rest of the events featured in Issue #16 takes place within The Invincible War event, those would be featured in a future part of the re-read.
Killcount:
- Wolf-man: At least three prission guards.
- Thrill-kill : One prision guard.
- Powerplex: His wife and baby-son.
_____________________
Curiosities
- Atom Eve defeated Kill Cannon alongside her two superhero then-boyfriends.
- We can see The Immortal and Kate who seem to be taking the first steps in retiring from the Guardians of the Globe, both are looking to buy a house, even Kate plans to have children.
- Shapesmith’s inappropriate behaviors are currently some of the funniest scenes on the TV show.
- We see Rudy´s second workaround to assist Amanda and her de-aging her.
- Black Samson more than once is in charge of restoring morale to the team, his charisma is a sign of his participation with the original team of the Guardians of the Globe.
- Invincible indirectly caused the death of some from the Duvall family.
- Gary was into punk rock, he liked bands such as The Clash, Black Flag, Misfits and Dead Kennedys.
- Powerplexs desing was leaked through season 2 production of Invincible TV Show, alongside some Thraxan persons designs.