WHAT IS INVINCIBLE?
Invincible is a monthly comic book published by Image Comics created by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker.

Before coming over to Image Comics Robert Kirkman had self-published a book called Battle Pope (subsequently printed at Image) with an artist Tony Moore. While working on Battle Pope, Robert had the opportunity to work with artist Cory Walker. Together they pitched Invincible when they were asked to create a book for Image's new superhero line. They both got their start at Image Comics when they were trying to pitch a book called Science Dog, Robert's dream project, which has yet to see print, while Science Dog the character has made several appearances in Invincible in various forms.

Invincible quickly garnered critical and popular acclaim but as the first year of publication concluded it was discovered that Walker was straining to meet the demanding monthly deadlines. It looked like Invincible might be canceled. Luckily, Robert came across another artist on PencilJack.com. Ryan Ottley had been drawing Ted Noodleman Bicycle Delivery Boy (available in TPB through Alias Comics) and various other projects for Digital Webbing. Robert liked his stuff and asked Ottley to take over the artistic reigns of Invincible. With Cory's blessing, Ryan and has been the artist on Invincible ever since. Cory is still very much a part of Invincible contributing ideas, character designs, and the occasional cover.

WHO IS INVINCIBLE?
Mark Grayson was like any other teenager in high school, except that his dad happened to be Omni-man, arguably the world's greatest superhero. His father was an alien, who looked human, from the planet Viltrum. Mark had been expecting to get super powers ever since his dad sat him down for the Birds and the Bees conversation and explained where he came from. As his powers began to develop, Mark's father, Nolan Grayson introduced him to Art "The Tailor" who made Mark's first costume.

Mark eventually met the Teen Team made up of Atom Eve, Dupli-kate, RexSplode, and Robot and began teaming up with them regularly. Mark's life of being a superhero quickly became routine as would go on missions with the Teen Team or help his father. During his first 4 months, kids started disappearing from his high school and several malls were blown up. After Mark and his dad found one of the missing students at a mall turned into a human bomb, Mark realized what happened to his classmates. Mark and Atom Eve confronted the man responsible for turning students into bombs, their physics professor Mr. Hiles. Mr. Hiles had turned himself into a human bomb as well and tried to blow them up. Mark quickly flew him to Antarctica where his explosion wouldn't hurt any one.

Mark seemed initially interested in Eve romantically but Eve quickly informed him that she was dating Rex. Mark was at home doing physics when he received an urgent call from his dad. Nolan was out with the Guardians of the Globe, the world's premiere superhero team, and didn't have a moment to stop the threat in space heading for earth.

Mark was on the job and flew into space. There he met Allen the Alien. After a brief fight Mark talked to Allen and found out he was a Champion Evaluation Officer. Allen flew to different planets in the Coalition of Planets and spared with their Champions to make sure they were up to the challenge of defending their world. Mark informed him that his planet is Earth and Allen realized he'd been coming to the wrong planet.

A few days later Mark went to check out a college he was thinking of attending with his friend William. Everything was going well when the college was seemingly attacked by a zombie robot of some sort (later we find out this is called a reaniman and the beginnings of a major subplot). Mark stopped the Reaniman and William immediately recognized Mark even in costume and called him on it. Mark told William all about it on the ride home.

Meanwhile it was revealed that Black Samson, a member of the Guardians of the Globe had been released from active service due to losing his powers. He was deeply depressed and trying to have a super suit built which was quickly stolen. Soon after, the Guardians of the Globe were on various missions of their own but were each called away for an important Guardians mission. When they arrived at their base no one had any clue why they had been called. Suddenly a mysterious unseen intruder murdered them all brutally. The Immortal, the leader of the group, saw his killer with enough time to tell them that he never liked him. Omni-man, Mark's father, was revealed as the mysterious killer but why wasn't explained just yet.

Mark and his father attended the Guardian's Funeral where Nolan (as Omni-Man) delivered the eulogy. The funeral was attacked by Sanford, Black Samson's butler, in Samson's stolen power suit. He had hoped to get revenge for the Guardians letting Samson go (which ironically had saved Samson's life). Sanford was quickly subdued. After the funeral two villains called the Maulers take the Immortal's body for unknown reasons. At the Teen Teams headquarters, Eve found Rex Splode in the act of cheating on her with DupliKate. She began spending more time with Mark. She started showing signs of interested but came across Mark kissing a girl named Amber. Amber had given Mark a note to call her and they started to hangout and began dating.

Robot had been selected to join the Guardians of the Globe so when the Guardians were killed Robot was asked by the government to organize a new team. After holding tryouts Rex-Splode, Dupli-Kate, Black Samson, Shrinking Ray, and Monster Girl were selected. Meanwhile, the Mauler Twins succeeded in bringing The Immortal back to life. As soon as he was revived he went to find his killer, Omni-man. The Immortal attacks Omni-man and quickly the battle takes to the sky. Mark sees the fight on the news. Unaware of whom is attacking his father or why, Mark flew to the battle to help. He arrived just in time to see his father punch through the Immortal and tear him in half. Mark stared in shock at his father. Omni-man then explained to Mark that Viltrum was not the utopia that he had always told Mark about. Viltrum was a militaristic planet bent on universal domination and Omni-man had been sent to earth to prepare it for take over.

Once Mark received his powers Omni-man began taking steps to weaken earth's defenses by killing the Guardians of the Globe. He then asked Mark to join him in taking over the Earth. Mark refused and Omni-man beat him nearly to death but before delivering the final blow he flew off into space. The US Government found Mark and gave him the medical attention he needed. Once he was back to full health Mark was introduced to Cecil. Cecil was very high up in the government and told Mark how his dad used to work for them. Cecil explained that they would call his dad when ever the Earth was in trouble and they needed someone to replace him. Mark was offered his father's old job and his first mission was to check on Allen the Alien. Allen came back to Earth as soon as he found out Mark's world was being prepped for a Viltrumite invasion. Mark told Allen all of what had happened and Allen in turn revealed that his true purpose is to find beings strong enough to stand against the Viltrumites.

Eve and William, both being worried about Mark, began talking. Eve used her contacts with the new Guardians of the Globe to find out that Mark was in government custody and alright. When Eve finally informed William that Mark was ok, they both relaxed a bit and William took the opportunity to ask Eve out. Mark and his mother (as well as the rest of the world) deal with the tragedy of Omni-man's attack. Mark slowly settled into his new job as Earth's prime defender. The New Guardians of the Globe were proving to be ineffective. The Immortal was brought back to life a second time by the government and made an independent advisor to the new Guardians in hopes of increasing effectiveness.

There was an alien invasion that caused massive destruction world wide. Cecil continued to be disappointed with the new Guardians. In time, Bulletproof was added to the Guardians line up and Robot was demoted in favor of the Immortal being the new team leader. Monster Girl began to notice Robot acting weird. Mark graduated from high school and was told the United States developed a space craft capable of flying to Mars. The popular belief after the alien invasion attempt was that if Earth had better space travel capabilities that they'd be safer. Mark is asked to accompany the space flight to Mars in secret to protect against Martians.

Once the astronauts make it to Mars they are immediately abducted by the Martians. The Martian leader told Mark that humans were highly susceptible to the parasitic slave race called Sequids. If one of them were possessed, the sequids could be connected in a hive mind and if that happened they could easily over-throw Mars. Mark promised to get the astronauts back with out any sequids attaching to them but his promise wasn't good enough for the Martians and Mark had to break them out. Mark got them back safely but one of the astronauts had been replaced by a Martian (who all have the ability to shape shift). The real astronaut was left on the planet having been possessed by the sequids.

While Mark was on Mars, William and Eve broke up. Eve had become more and more frustrated with William's childishness. Once Mark got home he found his relationship with Amber had been strained. Mark was increasingly distressed by being unable to tell Amber the truth about his superhero life. Mark as Invincible runs into Titan, a super-villain who had acted as a small time enforcer and diamond thief. Titan told Mark he was mad at his employer, Machine Head, and wanted Mark's help in taking him down. Mark accompanied Titan to Machine Head's layer but they quickly found they had bitten off more then they could chew. They were overwhelmed by Machine Head's other hired muscle and the Guardians were called in to pick up the slack. Battle beast, one of the enforcers, baldy injured Bulletproof and beat Black Samson into a coma before teleporting off. He was deeply offended that this was the best challenge Earth had to offer.

Meanwhile, a man named Angstrom Levy with the power to travel to different dimensions had been collecting inter-dimensional doubles of himself. He enlisted the help of the Mauler Twins. He hired them to help him copy the knowledge of all his doubles to his own mind. With this knowledge he hoped to more easily transverse the multi-verse. Mark got ready to start college and before he did Amber came to visit him at his school. Amber and Mark were walking around campus when a Reaniman attacked again. Mark changed to Invincible to quickly deal with the situation. During the fight, the Reaniman forced Mark to drop him causing it to be destroyed. When Mark found Amber again she was angry with Mark for abandoning her. She left for home unaware that Mark just saved her life.

William and Mark began hanging out with Rick Sheridan, a student who they met when they toured campus. Rick was knocked out by his roommate, D.A. Sinclair, who was the one creating the Reanimen. D.A. realized that the reanimated corpses wish to remain dead and so resolved to use live subjects in his Reanimen project. He hoped to sell his design to the military. Mark was called in to investigate several murders in Midnight City supposedly committed by Darkwing. Darkwing was one of the Guardians of the Globe who should be dead. Mark investigated and found that the Darkwing' seen around the city was actually Darkwing's protege trying to take his place. He had gone a bit crazy choosing to kill the criminals he found.

Mark went to talk to Amber after a lot of thought. He resolved to tell her that he was Invincible. He was called away before he could do so but Amber spends some time thinking about it and comes to the realization that Mark is a superhero. When he came back he tells Amber of his secret life as Invincible and told her that he loves her. She told him that she loves him as well and for the first time they sleep together.

Allen the Alien headed to the main planet of the Coalition of Planets where he reported about Omni-man and Invincible. The Coalition was pleased to hear about the news of a Viltrumite abandoning their post and a Viltrumite in open opposition to their own Empire. Allen was having dinner with his girlfriend when he was attacked by 3 Viltrumites. They had heard of Allen's report through a mole and tried to get more information out of Allen. Allen, ever the hero, refused even in the face of death. The Viltrumites viciously beat Allen and partially dismembered him. He was left for dead. Allen's body was retrieved and treated. He would live and would be able to heal completely. Allen's superior, Thadeus, told Allen to only report to him now and to deliver fake reports to the Council to trick the mole.

Angstrom Levy continued to work on his project to have his doubles memories implanted in him. Cecil and his crew of world watchers saw the Maulers in their attempt to help Angstrom and closely monitored them. When the time was right Mark was called in to put a stop to what the Maulers were doing. There he found Angstrom in the middle of the memory transfer process. Angstrom summoned several of the Maulers inter-dimensional doubles to deal with Invincible but told them not to kill him, just to keep him from interfering. When the Maulers didn't listen, Angstrom attempted to interrupt the memory process to save Mark's life but the machine exploded. The explosion killed everyone but Mark, and without Mark's knowledge, one of that dimension's Maulers and Angstrom Levy. Angstrom was left badly disfigured and highly demented. He sought medical treatment in another dimension and vows vengeance on Invincible. The lone surviving Mauler left disfigured and alone retreated to safety.

Mark and William continued to worry about what happened to Rick Sheridan who that hadn't seen in a month or so. Mark remembered that he was supposed to have lunch with his mom. Shortly after he got home, Science Dog showed up on his doorstep. Science Dog was supposed to be a fictional comic book character so Mark was immediately on the defensive. After briefly insisting that he was actually Science Dog, the stranger revealed his true form. He was an mantis looking alien from another planet. He told Mark that his race was in grave danger and that they had been watching Mark for some time and were requesting his help. Mark agreed to help against Cecil's wishes. Mark said goodbye to his mom and girlfriend and left. His trip took several weeks. When they arrived at the alien world Mark was taken to their leader who was revealed to be his father, Nolan. Nolan explained that Mark had been right about him. Nolan's time on earth had changed him but it took his fight with Mark to realize how much. Nolan left Earth and sought out a planet to conquer hoping that when his fellow Viltrumites found him that they would be merciful.

Mark was angry with his father but still loved him and asked him to return. Nolan was deeply sorrowed by what he did but knew he could never go back to Earth. Nolan said the Viltrumites know where he is and that they were coming for him. He asked for Mark's help, hoping to take the Viltrumites by surprise. He showed Mark that he had remarried on this world and had a baby. The Mantis race had a much shorter life span (only about 9 months) and so Mark's half brother looked a few years old already. The 3 Viltrumites, who attacked Allen, showed up on the planet and began destroying the city. Nolan instructed Mark to take his wife and child to safety in some caves far from the city. Mark flew them there but was confronted by Lucan, one of the Viltrumites. Mark sucker punched Lucan while he was distracted and toke Nolan's wife and child. They tried to out run Lucan in the air but he gained on them quickly. Mark thought they were done when Nolan appears pile driving Lucan out of sight. With Lucan left for dead by Nolan, Mark took Nolan's wife and child back to the caves. Mark and Nolan regrouped in the main city of the bug world and face off against the remaining Viltrumites. Nolan was more brutal then previously seen. Mark was barely surviving the attack. When Nolan finally inflicts what looked like lethal blows on the two remaining Viltrumites, Lucan came from above breaking Nolan's back. Lucan's intestines were spilling out of his gut and he wanted revenge before dying. All the combatants lay bloody on the ground when a Viltrumite clean up crew appeared. They saw to everyone's injuries, including Mark and Nolan. They took Nolan away to face trial and charge Mark with preparing earth for take over. They gave him a 100 year deadline. Nolan's final words to Mark were to read his books.

Mark began helping the Mantis with the process of rebuilding their home for about a month. Andressa, Nolan's wife, thanked Mark for his help but begged him to leave and to take his new half-brother with him. Mark initially refuses but Andressa explains that he will have a more normal life with Mark and would out live her by decades. As well Mark and his brother reminded her to much of Nolan. Mark accepted and returned to earth with his half-brother.

Back on Earth, there was an attack by an inter-dimensional being called Omnipotus. It took the combined efforts of nearly all of Earth's heroes to repel him. They constructed a portal to send him back but the battle left everyone too drained to push him through. All seemed lost when Black Samson was teleported in. He had woken from his coma more powerful then he had ever been and pushed Omnipotus through the portal resetting all the damage that had been done. The remaining living Mauler had gone back to his laboratory where he created a new clone. The new clone immediately thinking it was the original began to claim such but the original Mauler pointed out its extensive scaring which the clone lacked. Knowing for certain which one was the clone; the original Mauler began ordering him around. The clone subsequently poisoned the original killing him and made a new clone. Since both Maulers looked identical they could continue not knowing which was the newer inferior clone. They began to wonder how to fund their plans and are hired by Robot for help before they have a chance to even think about it.

Meanwhile, Mark visited Amber who was very upset over Mark being gone so long. She, in tears, told Mark she's wasn't sure about their relationship and if she could handle it. Once Mark got home, he started to get back to the life he left behind. At school, William started giving Mark a hard time for his inaction to find Rick Sheridan. Mark told William he isn't good with detective work and wouldn't know where to start. Mark received a call from Eve who invited Mark to come visit her in Africa where's she been using her matter rearranging power to give humanitarian aid. Debbie, Mark's mom, had agreed to adopt and raise Mark's half-brother at Cecil's suggestion. Cecil and the government agreed to arrange for a tutor and falsified adoption records as well as holo-graphics to make Mark's brother's skin color more natural looking.

All the while, Robot and the mystery individual in the tank continued working with the Mauler Twins. The man in the tank paid the Mauler twins to clone him a new body. The Maulers cloned a new body based off of Rex-Splode's DNA and then transferred all the man in the tank's memories into it. The new clone was only aged to around 12 or 13 years old. Per the decision they had made, the new Rex clone removed the man in the tank's life support allowing him to die. The Rex clone informed the Maulers that he would not be paying them what was owed. They were about to attack him when Robot came out to stop them. They fought and the Maulers eventually destroyed Robot. The Maulers again turned their sights toward the new clone. The Rex clone explained that Robot was only an automation. The real Robot was the man in the tank and by extension the new Rex clone. He told them that he has plenty of automations to defend himself with. Just then, a huge version of Robot came from another room and subdued the Maulers.

Mark picked up Amber and they flew to Africa to stay with Eve. Eve wasn't happy to see Amber there with Mark, but kept it to herself. Mark and Eve spent some time catching up alone. Eve told Mark about experimenting with her powers and Mark told Eve about seeing his father on the insect planet. Amber woke up and short thereafter they discovered a stampede near by. Eve flew off to handle it and Mark quickly flew Amber to safety and then back to help Eve. Amber, out of breath from the speed of Mark's flight, became angry with Mark. Once they all got back, Eve received a call for Mark, it was Angstrom Levy. Angstrom Levy warned Mark to be back at his house soon or his mother and brother would die. Mark flew back to his house as fast as possible.

There his mother and brother were being held captive by Angstrom. Angstrom revealed that he discovered Mark's identity by investigating Invincible in every dimension. Mark admitted that he didn't even know Angstrom's name until then. Angstrom threw up portal after portal trapping Mark in various dimensions. Mark wasn't weakened by the dimensions picked out, as Angstrom hoped. Mark, at super speed, caught Angstrom by surprise. Mark tackled Angstrom as they dropped through dimension after dimension. Their last stop was a bombed-out lifeless version of earth. Angstrom told Mark that he had surgically been given super strength so he could kill Invincible with his own hands. Mark either not caring or over estimating Angstrom's strength knocked him to the ground and punched continuously in a blind rage. When Mark stopped, there was nothing left of Angstrom Levy's head. Covered in Angstrom's blood, Mark had no one to get home.

Robot, in his new clone of Rex's body, introduced himself to the Guardians of the Globe and explained who he really was. Although Rex-Splode was initially unsettled, he, Cecil, and the rest of the Guardians were willing to accept Robot's situation. Robot took up where he left off with the Guardians. Robot took a moment to explain to Monster Girl that he was interested in her, at least on a friend level. He further explained that part of the reason for his younger appearance was so they could spend time together without receiving any odd looks. Monster Girl seemed to feel a little awkward about the idea but she quickly became comfortable with it.

Eve flew Amber back to Mark's house as quickly as she could. The trip was drastically slower then Mark's by several hours. Mark, meanwhile, was still stuck in another dimension feeling very disturbed from killing Angstrom. A bright green light appeared in the sky and an older version of the Guardians of the Globe appeared consisting of Bullet Proof, Robot, Atom Eve, Knockout, and Kid Thor (the last two being from the current day Capes, Inc). They told Mark that they had been looking for him for 15 years and would transport him to his own dimension and time. Before Mark could leave, Eve's future-self blurts out that she loves him, that she had always loved him, and that he needed to tell her present day counter part how he felt about her, good or bad.

Mark left and Robot pulled off his head to reveal Rex's face (showing Robot from the future to be a suit). He reprimanded Eve for risking damage to the time stream by telling Mark what she did. She promptly retorted for Rex to shut up, leaving us to wonder if this was Rex or Robot's cloned body of Rex. Mark returned home and met up with Amber and Eve at his house. He was contacted by Cecil and flew to a facility where his mother and brother were being looked after and patched up. Later, Mark visited Art "The Tailor" to ask his advice about Amber and Eve. He told Art that he loves Amber but he has feelings for Eve and wondered if they might be more compatible. He eventually, with Art's advice, decided to stay with Amber.

Mark then asked about his father's books. Art told Mark that his father use to write Sci-Fi stories that were rather unpopular before switching to travel books. Luckily, Art had kept copies of all the Sci-Fi books because he enjoyed. Mark began to read them and realized that they detailed his father's mission to chase down threats to the Viltrumite Empire. The message Nolan seemed to be trying to send was how to beat the Viltrumites.

Meanwhile, Amber ran into a young man at college while looking for a book. He helped her find it and let her know he needed it too but would be willing to share it. He got her phone number and seemed to be interested in more then studying.