the art of invincible cannot be denied, and obviously this was a particularly gut-wrenching “stuff happened” issue. but to be honest, i wasn’t terribly blown away this month with the issue as a whole.

invincible has always been a series that tossed a lot of great elements together – family drama, teen romance, old-school superheroics, science-fiction, humor, and probably a few more. in recent months, though, the same sort of note has been struck over and over again – a sort of larger-than-life, hyper dramatic flavor that feels a bit vanilla when it comes to superhero books. there’s been a lot of punching and a lot of grimness, at the expense of all the other things i liked. i’m not saying there isn’t a place for it, i’m just saying i don’t love it as the dominant flavor of the book.

finally, i’m not prudish when it comes to the unbelievably graphic displays of gore that come in invincible – they’ve been a nice part of the equation since the early issues. that said, the cover is a bit of a turn-off to me, and the blood loses its impact when i see it week in and week out. i’m becoming desensitized, and so this didn’t quite have the impact it probably should have.