Invincible #79 & Super Dinosaur #1

Well, here it is, my FIRST all Image review post. You can all thank DC for sucking so hard lately for my recent foray into the worlds outside Marvel and DC. I've managed to read every issue of Invincible(except for that damned issue #72!!!), so I am psyched to start reviewing Invincible on a regular basis. As for Super Dinosaur, it's written by Invincible scribe, Robert Kirkman, and the owner of the comic shop I frequent convinced me to give it a shot, so if I wind up liking it(say a score of 6 1/2 or higher), it'll probably be making it's way on to the old pull list. Okay, intro over, reviews begin!

Invincible #79:

Summary: We begin with Invincible(Mark Grayson) heading to his tailor to get his costumed tweaked... Again. However, instead of something new, he goes back to the original Invincible costume, complete with dumb kneepads... Personally I loved the black and blue costume. From there Mark heads to the home of his plumper than usual girlfriend, Atom Eve, who is pretty self-conscious about her weight. Mark keeps trying to reassure her, but to no avail. While with Eve, Mark gets a few calls to deal with super-villains, and we get several sweet, sweet panels of Ryan Ottley artwork as Mark takes care of business. Mark heads home and finds his mother talking to Eve, which kind of freaks him out. It seems that while Mark was out in space, Eve and Debbie bonded. After some uncomfortable moments for Mark, he leaves with Eve to visit the Immortal and his wife, Dupli-Kate. Mark and Eve enter the house and Eve is immediately uncomfortable when she sees Immortal and Kate's twins. The two couples have dinner(during which Immortal regales his guests with tales from back when he was Abe Lincoln... I love this comic!), and after dinner Kate takes the twins in for a bath. Eve goes with her, but freaks out when Kate asks her to hold one of the babies, running outside in tears. Mark follows and asks what happened, and Eve finally drops the bombshell... While Mark was in space she aborted the child she was pregnant with, since she didn't know what else to do. This issue then ends with the two sharing a tearful embrace.

Thoughts: Well. The beginning parts of this story were kind of slow, but after the breakneck action that took place during the Viltrumite War, that's really no shocker. Hell, I wouldn't be that surprised if Robert Kirkman deliberately pulled back on the action a bit as a breather after the past several issues. But honestly, the first 15 pages or so weren't important. It was Eve's reveal that I've been waiting to hear since... Oh, issue #70 or so. What did I think about the reveal that Eve aborted her and Mark's child? I think it was genius! Seriously, that may just have been the BEST move Kirkman could have made here! It leaves SO many doors open for the future... If Eve actually DID have the abortion(and who knows, maybe she was lying for some reason), the fetus could have been collected by either Cecil Stedman or some villain(Angstrom Levy, anybody?). That way the child could show up later on as either an ally or(more likely) an enemy of the parents who didn't want him/her. Then there's the possibility that Eve was lying to Mark for some reason. When Mark walked in on Eve and Debbie, it sounded like they were talking about babies, and Eve wasn't crying, she was laughing at a joke... Could Eve have given the child up for adoption? Is she hiding it from Mark for some reason? Then there's Eve's weight gain. If she had aborted the child before the third month(which is most likely), she would have had over seven months to have gotten back into... um, super-hero shape. The fact that Eve is so self-conscious about her weight would lead me to believe that she didn't want to have those extra pounds on her, and as such would have lost them. Now if she HAD the baby, that would mean she was just one month removed from delivering the child, which WOULD explain the extra weight. Then again, what do I know? I'm a guy. Anyway, as I said, the abortion angle was probably the BEST possible move Kirkman could have made, since, as I stated, it leaves the most doors open. All in all, this was yet another great issue from this series, which is quite honestly, no surprise.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Ooo, pretty...


Super Dinosaur #1:

Summary: We begin with the obligatory introductions... Right off the bat we meet the main protagonists of this series, Super Dinosaur(who is a talking dinosaur! I know, who'd have thunk it?!) and Derek Dynamo, his preteen best friend. Derek and SD spend most of their time battling against Max Maximo, who has an army of evil talking dinosaurs working on his evil behalf. In case you can't tell, Max is EVIL! After a quick skirmish with a pair of Max's evil dinosaurs(who were trying to steal the ultra rare and ultra powerful mineral, Dynore), Derek and SD head home, where SD's harness needs some repairs. There we meet Derek's father, Dr. Dexter Dynamo, who is(was?) a genius, but has been having memory lapses lately. However, Derek usually manages to fix/finish anything his father was working on since Derek didn't want anybody to know(including his father) that his father was slipping up lately, since their entire organization could be shut down. The government sends a husband and wife team of scientists(as well as their two daughters) to live at Dexter's base, the Dynamo Dome, in order to assist with any repairs SD's harness might need. Derek doesn't like this since the outsiders could see that his father wasn't doing that well, which could get them shut down. Anyway, the scientists meet Derek, Dexter and SD and before long, some alarms go off meaning some dino-related crisis was going on. Derek has to leave without SD since his harness was still being repaired by the two scientists and Dexter. Derek meets the mysterious Tricerachops, who used to work with Max before they had a falling out. Derek attacks Tricerachops, all while waiting(and hoping) that SD's harness would be fixed up so he'd have some back-up. Back at the Dynamo Dome, the scientists manage to fix the harness, but without any help from Dexter, who seemed kind of confused the whole time. SD gets into the harness and joins the battle against Tricerachops, which causes Tricerachops to retreat from the battle and escape in a giant spacecraft. Upon arriving home, one of the scientists confront Derek about Dexter's confusion concerning SD's harness. Derek admits that he had been doing many of his father's duties, unbeknownst to his father, since he didn't want the government to shut down SD's operation. The scientist promises to keep Derek's secret, but Dexter managed to overhear the whole conversation, and while he is overjoyed by how intelligent his son is, he's a bit depressed over his own shortcomings.

Thoughts: This is like the PERFECT comic for a younger kid. You know, like a 5-11 year old. It's kind of a great starting point for a kid just getting into comics... Unfortunately, I'm not quite in that age range anymore. I mean there wasn't anything wrong with this comic, it just didn't do anything for me. It was a quick and simple read, with easy to identify characters, each with easy names to remember. Will I be picking up issue #2? That's a good question... Here's the thing, I actually didn't like Derek. He was a real know-it-all sort of kid, you know the type, the kid who would always correct the teacher, or try to force his knowledge on people. In other words, the kind of kid you'd want to smack around! So yeah, I'm very undecided on whether or not I'll be picking up issue #2... I guess we'll find out next month.

Score: 6 out of 10.That dinosaur isn't wearing any pants!!!