Invincible (Mark Grayson)

Invincible (Mark Grayson) is an Image Comics superhero. Created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Cory Walker, the character first appeared in Noble Causes: Family Secrets #3 (December 2002).

Invincible is the teenaged son of Omni-Man, an extraterrestrial superhero of the Viltrumite race, recently revealed to be more than he seems. Invincible inherited his father’s superhuman strength and ability to fly and he has sworn to protect the Earth. He has had trouble adjusting to his newfound powers and coping with the reality of his origins.

Invincible was a debut title in Image's new superhero line, one reminiscent of the Golden and Silver Ages of comics, as opposed to the more modern and dark comics, such as Spawn and Savage Dragon, which Image is known for. Several well-known heroes in the Invincible universe are based on popular Marvel and DC characters, with Invincible himself featuring many of the powers of Superman and personality traits of Spider-Man.

After several months of attention from the comics media, Invincible became the most popular and best-selling title in the Image Comics line since Spawn. Wizard: The Comics Magazine has given the book its coveted Book of the Month award for best monthly comic. Invincible has recently been picked-up by Paramount for a possible full length motion picture and Kirkman recently announced on G4's Electric Playground that he has been writing the screenplay.

Creators
While Robert Kirkman has been the sole writer of the series, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley have contributed the art. Cory Walker co-created the book and provided art from #1 to #7. Ryan Ottley assumed art duties with issue #8 and has been pencilling since. Kirkman has provided back-up space for a few aspiring comic creators, most notably Benito Cereno and Nate Bellegarde.

Character Biography and Synopsis
Mark Grayson is a teenage superhero who calls himself Invincible. He was a normal high school senior with a normal part-time job and otherwise normal life, except his father Nolan is the superhero Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet. At the age of 17, Mark begins to display superpowers, which come from his father being a member of the Viltrumite race, who, according to Nolan, pioneer the galaxy on a mission of benevolence and enlightenment. As Invincible, Mark begins working as a superhero, with his father acting as his mentor, and meeting other heroes. Mark worked occasionally with a superhero team called the Teen Team, where he met and flirted with heroine Atom Eve, who eventually quits superhero work.

Everything changes when the Guardians of the Globe, Earth's premier superhero team, were all killed by Omni-Man. Omni-Man soon reveals the truth to Mark: instead of bringing peace, Omni-Man is supposed to prepare the earth for the coming invasion by the ever-growing Viltrumite empire. After Mark refuses to go along with his father's plans, his father nearly beats him to death, but then suddenly abandons the fight and flies into space.

Mark Grayson is now in college, while also working for a clandestine government agency under Cecil Steadman, who was formerly his father's liaison with the government. He is currently dating his high school girlfriend Amber Bennett who knows he is Invincible. His roommate/best friend named William is also aware of his superpowers. His mother is working towards a Real Estate license.

While Mark works with Cecil to stop various threats, a man named Angstrom Levy, a genius with the power to teleport between dimensions, devises a plot to assemble every version of himself in other dimensions in order to absorb all of their knowledge in order to benefit mankind. He is aided by the Mauler Twins, recurring villains in the series, to build the device. Upon the completion and start of the machine, Invincible intervenes due to Cecil receiving information that the Mauler Twins were operating in the vicinity. During the fight with the Mauler Twins (and every version of the pair from alternate dimensions), Angstrom pleads to not kill Invincible while removing himself from the machine, causing it to explode due to interupting the process. Mark is rescued from the rubble by the Guardians of the Globe. Only one Mauler from this dimension survives to discover Angstrom Levy, who claims that the process was a success although it left him hideously defigured. Before escaping to another dimension for medical treatment, Angstrom vows revenge on Invincible, "the one who interfered" (although Angstrom doesn't remember that the malfunction was his own fault).

Later, when meeting his father on another world, Mark learns he has a little half-brother and that his father has moved on. When a contingent of Viltrumites arrives on the planet, he and Nolan fight them to the best of their abilities. In the aftermath, Nolan is taken prisoner. As he is taken away Nolan tells Mark to read his books. The Viltrumites who take Nolan give Mark the assignment that his father had, believing he will fulfill it due to his heritage. Mark has a deadline of 100 years. Cecil has suggested this could be a trick to lure them into a false sense of security before an impending Viltrumite invasion. Mark also brought his half-brother to Earth (at the insistence of the baby's mother), and Mark's mom has agreed to raise him.

Mark takes Amber to visit Eve in Africa, who has been using her powers to help the locals while learning more about them. Eve is annoyed by the fact that Mark brought his girlfriend with him as she had been hoping to get closer to him, and even tries to convince Mark that Amber is not right for him but he remains oblivious to her motives.

The night before they plan to leave, Mark receives a threatening phone call and rushes home to find his mother and half-brother in the clutches of Angstrom Levy. Levy uses his powers to plunge Mark through a series of dangerous alternate realities in the hope of weakening him enough to be able to kill him (it is at this point during the storyline where Invincible is teleported to the Marvel Universe and meets Spider-Man and the New Avengers in Marvel Team-Up #14). By the end of these events and seeing the injuries Angstrom has inflicted on his mother, Mark is so angry that he brutally assaults Levy as they fall through various dimensions, ultimately killing the villain, leaving Mark in shock as he believed him to be stronger, and able to take such punishment. Stranded in a wasteland, Mark is discovered by a version of the Guardians of the Globe from 15 years in the future who have traveled back in time to rescue him.

It has also been revealed that Robot of the Guardians of the Globe, is in fact a drone to a deformed being who has been gathering DNA from the Guardians in order to create a new body for himself with the aid of the Mauler Twins.

Non-superpowered

 * Debbie Grayson: Mark's mother
 * Oliver Grayson: Mark's alien half-brother
 * Amber Justine Bennett: Mark's girlfriend
 * William Francis Clockwell: Mark's roommate and best friend
 * Cecil Stedman: Government liaison
 * Donald: Cecil's assistant, Guardian of the Globe contact, and robot/ ex-superhero
 * Art Rosenbaum: Superhero tailor and family friend

Superheroes

 * Omni-Man: Mark's father, former greatest super-hero of Earth, and current political prisoner
 * Atom Eve: Former classmate of Mark's and member of the Teen Team; currently working in Africa
 * Allen the Alien: A Champion Evaluation Officer who works for the Coalition of Planets. He travels on a tight schedule and tests the skills of various powered heroes on each planet in order to determine if there is a suitable "champion" to defend that planet.
 * The Guardians of the Globe
 * The Immortal: Unkillable member, and later leader, of the Guardians of the Globe
 * Black Samson
 * Robot: Former leader of the Teen Team and leader of the Guardians of the Globe until replaced by the Immortal
 * Rex Splode: Former member of the Teen Team
 * Dupli-Kate: Former Member of the Teen Team
 * Bulletproof
 * Shrinking Ray
 * Monster Girl
 * The Shapesmith: A Martian, disguised as human Rus Livingston, who uses his metamorphic powers to change his shape

Enemies

 * The Mauler Twins: An evil scientist and his clone, whom both continuously argue as to which is the original. After both Mauler twins die, it is then argued who is the first and second generation clone.


 * Angstrom Levy: A disfigured genius with the ability to leap across dimensions. Accidentally beaten to death by Mark.


 * The Viltrumite Empire: Invincible and Omni-Man's people. Initially, Nolan told Mark that the Viltrumites travel the galaxy, helping to improve other planets, when in actuality, they conquer planets.


 * Titan: A thug who formerly worked for Machine Head. Helped Invincible defeat Machine Head, then secretly took control of the crime organization. Titan can encase his body in super-strong, nearly invulnerable rock.


 * Battle Beast: One of Machine Head's several henchman. Notable for putting Black Samson into a coma after fighting him, and nearly killing Invincible and the Guardians of the Globe, until he left due to becoming "bored". Even Cecil was shocked by his power.


 * The Flaxians: Aliens from another dimension, in which time passes at a dramatically higher rate. This causes them to physically age what appears to be several decades in only a few minutes when they enter our dimension. First seen in Invincible: Family Matters, where Mark and Omni-Man fight off their invasion. When they returned, having developed devices to counteract the rapid aging they experience in this dimension. Mark and the new Guardians of the Globe fought them off, with considerably less ease. Once the anti-aging secret was revealed and exploited against them, the Flaxians began to age even more rapidly than before, and they again retreated. While individual soldiers seem to give heroes no particular trouble, the strength of Flaxian invasion forces seem to be based in their almost limitless number of soldiers.


 * Machine Head: A crime boss with a robotic head. Titan and Invincible arrived to take him down, but were defeated by six super-powered henchman, including Battle Beast. All seemed lost until the new Guardians of the Globe arrived and assisted. Battle Beast, after defeating Black Samson and Bulletproof, deemed the people of this world no challenge to defeat and simply left. About this time, all the other henchman were defeated and Machine Head was brought to justice. Machine Head's assistant was Isotope, a sleazy-looking business man with the power of teleportation, who abandoned him and then sided with Titan in the aftermath.


 * D.A. Sinclair: A reclusive scientist at Upstate University, is the creator of the "Reanimen", robotic zombies intended to be "the soldiers of the future". He is responsible for kidnapping Mark's friend, Rick Sheridan, and has turned him into the first living Reaniman. Taken into custody, he is now in the employ of Cecil Stedman.


 * Rus Livingston: An astronaut accidentally left on Mars, he's been attacked and made a host of the psychic Sequids. Livingston and the Sequids have set their eyes upon Earth.

Kirkman's superhero universe
In 2003 and 2004, Image helped Robert Kirkman publish several other superhero series, namely the ongoing Tech Jacket cancelled at #6, 3-issue Capes and three oneshots starring Brit. At first shown to barely coexist in the same universe, the characters have since been reintegrated into Invincible's book. Tech Jacket was a manga ongoing series pencilled by E.J. Su that tied into Invincible in #27. Mark Englert pencilled Capes have been supporting characters seen mainly in large superhero battles Invincible participate in, eventually evolving to the status of standard back-up since the very same #27. Tony Moore-penciled Brit had even less substantional role, appearing a couple of times in the previously mentioned brawls, although the three oneshots have been colored and published as a collection a new one is said to be in the making.

Connection to Image's superhero universe
Invincible along with Firebreather and other new Image superhero characters debuted in an issue of Savage Dragon, since appearing with them in the Pact mini-series. Robert Kirkman has written a Savage Dragon God war mini-series and two Superpatriot mini-series, establishing the friendship between Superpatriot's wife Claire and Invincible's mother in the pages of Invincible #13 and later. Savage Dragon connection is mostly downplayed and Invincible follows it's own continuity, tied mainly with previously mentioned sattelite Kirkman characters.

Trade paperbacks

 * Vol. 1: Family Matters (ISBN 1-5824-0320-1 collects Invincible #1-4)


 * Vol. 2: Eight is Enough (ISBN 1-5824-0347-3 collects Invincible #5-8)


 * Vol. 3: Perfect Strangers (ISBN 1-5824-0391-0 collects Invincible #9-13)


 * Vol. 4: Head of the Class (ISBN 1-5824-0440-2 collects Invincible #14-19 and Image Comics Summer Special)


 * Vol. 5: The Facts of Life (ISBN 1-5824-0554-9 collects Invincible #20-24 plus #0 and the origin stories from the back of #25)


 * Vol. 6: A Different World (ISBN 1-5824-0579-4 collects Invincible #25-30)


 * Vol. 7: Three's Company (ISBN 1-5824-0656-1 collects Invincible #31-35 and The Pact #4)


 * Vol. 8: My Favorite Martian (upcoming)

Hardcovers

 * Invincible Ultimate Collection Hardcover Vol. 1 (collects #1-13, plus extras)


 * Invincible Ultimate Collection Hardcover Vol. 2 (collects #14-24, #1/2, #0, parts of #25, plus extras)


 * Invincible Ultimate Collection Hardcover Vol. 3 (upcoming)


 * The Complete Invincible Library Vol.1 (collects #1-24, #1/2, #0, parts of #25, plus extras)

Other Collections

 * Invincible also appeared in Marvel Team-Up Vol. 3 #14, which was collected in Marvel Team-Up Volume 3: League Of Losers ISBN 0-7851-1946-9. This story occurs "between the pages" of Invincible #33.
 * In November 2006, the Official Handbook to the Invincible Universe will be released. This two-issue series will tell the origins of all of the characters seen in the book so far, and will be done in the style of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, including similar covers.

Trivia

 * Every one of the trade paperbacks is named after a sitcom.
 * In the first issue on page 20, the first panel features the street outside the Savings & Loan about to be robbed. Walking on the street is a man wearing the jacket Kaneda wore in the movie Akira, (red jacket with a blue/pink pill on the back)
 * Steve Urkel, (a character from Family Matters)  made a guest appearance in the first trade paperback as Steve White, a combination of Steve Urkel and the actor who portrayed him, Jaleel White.  Mark Grayson's alma mater is Reginald VelJohnson High School, named after the actor who played Carl Winslow on Family Matters. The principal of the school (B.H. Winslow) bore a resemblance to VelJohnson himself and shared his character's last name.
 * In the 3rd comic, on page 5, there is a boy in the background of the middle frame. The boy closely resembles Bill S. Preston Esq. of Bill and Ted and is wearing a "Wyld Stallyns" cap. "Wyld Stallyns" is the name of Bill and Ted's band. In the next panel, a background character can be seen wearing Ted's smiley face jacket from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
 * In Issue Two, on page 21, two characters closely resembling Jay and Silent Bob are seen next to the boy on the bench. In addition, a young, bald kid can be seen with the t-shirt that Charlie Brown wears in the second and third panels. This scene take place in the Twin Pines Mall, named for the mall featured in Back to the Future.
 * In issue 9, Allen the Alien helps a ship in distress. The ship's crew bears a strong resemblance to the crew of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, though with altered skin colors. The Picard double even says "Make It S...", before being rescued. He does not get to say "So".
 * When Mark and Eve meet in their "alter ego" state at their school, as Eve turns to look at Mark, a teenager in the background is seen wearing the logo of Superman in alternate-universe story Red Son (Superman's shield, with the Soviet hammer and sickle).
 * Damien Darkblood, Demon Detective, bears a remarkable resemblance to Rorschach, one of the main characters of Watchmen. This extends to his mannerisms, including repeatedly making a "hurm" sound and speaking with text boxes with wrinkly borders, perpetually wearing a trench coat and fedora hat, and even having a similar theory regarding a "mask killer." The similarity ends, however, at Darkblood's face- instead of Rorschach's distinct "inkblot" mask, Darkblood's face is that of a fanged demon with red skin, surrounded by white.