Robert Kirkman is a busy man. Now that he has a second tv show in development, and his face is plastered all over teenage girls’ bedrooms (it’s true, I saw it in an issue of Chew), he’s reached a level of comic book scribe power that he can do things like outline a story and pass it off to another superstar writer, say Nick Spencer, and say “Hey, why don’t you write this comic for me. My name still gets first billing, but you do the hard work of making my concept readable.

I don’t say this is a negative criticism. I think it’s baller. And I think it should allow him to do things that many other comic book writers couldn’t get away with. For instance, stopping one of his main titles in issue format, and just releasing a trade every year. A full storyline that might be the 150ish pages that you’d get from six to seven monthly issues, might be shorter, or might be a full three hundred or so.

I think that’s what Invincible needs. It was far and away my favorite superhero comic for its first sixty or so issues. And then something happened. It didn’t deteriorate in quality. The story is still engrossing, the art is still spectacular. Kirkman still hits every beat with the mini-cliffhanger on the last page. The game is still constantly changing. So this book should still be awesome. But, somehow its become a paradox. I look forward to the issues, but I also don’t get excited when I see them. I read and enjoy them, but when I’m done, I don’t feel satisfied. Though, again, Kirkman, hOttley, and Rathburn aren’t doing anything wrong. THis comic is, technically, still awesome. It just needs…something. Not a new villain, not this new sub-Invincible, not more Vultrimites, not a crossover, not a new creative team. Just…something new.

I think changing up the format is the only solution.

This issue specifically has an incredible amount of things I enjoyed: Dr. Dinosaurus in both human and dino form, Allen the Alien, punching with unforseen consequence, perfectly shadowed colors. It’s a five star book that I only care three stars for.

I certainly don’t want it to end (though I imagine Kirkman could pull off a bad-ass grand finale) but I want it to engage me again. So, maybe after issue 100, Kirkman and his green screen should pop up on The Internet with an announcement that Invincible is going all trade.