"Invincible" by Robert Kirkman Issues 8-14 (Ep. 21)

Episode 21 is here! Ben, Antonio, and Max dive back into Invincible by Robert Kirkman, breaking down issues 8–14. This week we explore the shocking revelations that transform Invincible from a silly goofy coming-of-age story into a dark gritty superhero saga. 

Be part of the discussion on Instagram: @KickbackComics_Pod

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Kickback Comics. My name is Antonio.

SPEAKER_04 0:08

My name is Ben, and you guys are listening to a comic book podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

By two guys who have not read a lot of comics, but are looking to get involved, read some cool stories, fight our demons who may also be our fathers, and uh and and just have a good time, you know?

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Yep, that's what we're doing over here at Kickback Comics. We are we're feeling invincible. And that's feeling invincible. That's what we're reading.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

That is what we're reading.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

Yep. Issues eight through fourteen of Invincible.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Wow, this was kind of crazy. Not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

We're back again. Uh we also were joined by our friend Max. Yes. Um, which is always exciting when we when we manage to make the schedules align. Friend of the pod. Yep. Uh always good to have friends, friends of the pod along for the ride. Uh Jaden is not here for this one, but he will be back in the future. Yes. And uh it was a it was a great conversation. Yeah, we'll throw it over to the Zoom. All right, here we are, Invincible.

unknown 1:01

Invincible.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

8 through 14. Yeah, 8 through 14, episode 2. What's going on? We got the boy Max. Welcome back, Max. Max, introduce yourself. Introduce yourself again.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

It's Max Mill, MoneyGetter 445, kickball expert. It's gonna be back here talking about Invincible. We're ready.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

We're ready. You already know. Kickball expert. Put it on the resume. Yep. You know how it goes. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

This uh this is when sort of Invincible starts picking up, right? Like the these issues. I mean, not that the first like I think we talked about it a little bit in the previous episode too, but a lot of those uh a lot of those initial issues are kind of just like set in the scene. And now I feel like right at the end of this arc we just finished, it's when it's like, now this is what it's really about, and it's you know, kicks things off.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

It's gonna get crazy. I mean, this is like again, I I have not watched like any of the show so far, which is so crazy. I feel like I've I like I said I've you know lived through Invincible through memes uh so far and whatever else. And so this is definitely getting into the the crazy shit of it, and I think um I mean I'm just learning so much more backstory about like I mean Omni Man in particular, right? Obviously, uh and just what his motivations are and shit like that. We'll get into that uh pretty quick, but it's uh that motherfucker's spooky, bro. He's he's a crazy dude. What'd you think just vibes-wise, Max?

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Uh vibe-wise, it was good. I really liked it. I liked it a lot more than the first seven. Uh there was some good funny moments that were notable, and like we said, like the whole Omni Man thing, like, and you know, him going like into his origin a little more was crazy for sure. And like a lot of the scenes that I know from the show were displayed in those seven issues, so uh ready to keep going, but I'm like, yeah, damn.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

Um yeah, I guess we can also, we might we talked about doing this on the intro, but I'll do it just in case. Uh, the invincible obviously is created by Robert Kirkman. Uh the original artist was Corey Walker, and then the artist switched over actually during these eight issues to Ryan Otley.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I was gonna say, I didn't even I didn't even look that up. I was like, something's different right here. 14, the cover of 14 was where I like really, really noticed. I don't know why that was the one in particular, but like there was something about that cover that really stood out to me. But anyway.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

Yeah, so and then Ryan Otley is the artist who it actually kind of jumps back to Corey Walker at certain certain points of the series, but Ryan Otley is the one who really helms it and uh becomes a you know core creator. Also, Invincible published uh by Image Comics, which we keep talking about. We're big fans of Image, it lets the uh creators actually own the intellectual property for what they are writing, which is huge, very important. Um, and we mentioned this last time, but Invincible first published January 22nd in 2003. Uh and the final issue was issue number 144 in February 2018. Uh and most successful creator-owned superhero comic ever and ran continuously for 15 years.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

That's so crazy, dude. The fact I feel like I'm like time traveling, bro, because I'm reading these issues that are from like 2005 or probably whatever it is, or like 2007 or something, maybe. Um, and uh yeah, it's it's it's cool because it obviously shows like why it was made into like a TV show, why it's still kind of continued. Because it's like I'm reading this and I'm like, this should it it doesn't feel like dated, it doesn't feel like I'm reading something from 2000, you know, three or whatever else.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

It's maybe maybe kind of ahead of its time.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, it's crazy that I'm like what I would have been 2003, I would have been six years old. Max, I don't know about you, you probably would have been like 2006. Okay, so this is your birth year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crazy. We're time traveling, but anyway, yeah, this is these are these are super sick though. I love this. This has been so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

Also, if so uh so for some of our listeners who maybe first of all, go back and listen to that first episode. That was a lot of fun. Um definitely some basic context if you want to just rock with us from here. Uh Invincible in general is set in a world where superheroes are like super mundane. There's not mundane in a boring way, they're just everywhere. It's super normalized. Superheroes and supervillains are just a part of everyday life uh in a way that is like very much you know played with and is kind of comical, um, but also you know, serious real tragedies are happening all the time. They are. Uh and uh Mark is invincible, his dad is um Omni Man, who's kind of like the Superman of the world, and um he uh gets gets his powers, and it's kind of like a it's kind of like a Spider-Man archetype where he's in high school and he's trying to figure out how to do his powers and juggle his life, but also if Spider-Man's dad was Superman, kind of, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

But it's kind of it's kind of like the maybe you could draw a parallel to like the way that Spider-Man and like Tony Stark are kind of like in the Marvel movies, right? He kind of takes on that like fathership-esque role for a little while, right? But this is very much, yeah. Um son is a superhero, dad is a super uh I don't know if it's hero really anymore, but he's definitely super, he's definitely super for sure. He's real super, yeah, super duper, super duper.

SPEAKER_04 6:05

Um, should we jump in and and and go issue by issue and talk about it? Get into it.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Let's do it. Let's get into it. I'll do I can do the uh summary for our number eight. We're doing eight through fourteen today. This is our our little summary off the dossier for number eight here. So the Guardians of the Globe's uh funeral. This is happening, so again, this just to give some uh um some backstory, just slightly. The thing that we read just before this was when Omni Man just went through and just sliced up all the Guardians of the Globe people, it wasn't even closed. He just put them in the dirt, it was what it was. And now he's uh at the uh the funeral, and it gets interrupted when um basically Black Samson's uh suit power suit is stolen. Omni Man quickly kind of ends this fight. He's also giving the eulogy at this uh funeral, which I also thought was just super crazy. But anyway, he ends the fight quickly, keeps the issue on the focus of the fallout from the guardian's death, um, and the people kind of like trying to figure out this mystery. Um there's kind of like uh I what I love is that there's definitely like a Rorschach character in this that just keeps on popping up. But that's that's a whole different thing with his whole little Herm, whatever else. But um the Mahler twins, which are these big purple uh twin guys who always argue about who's uh the real clone, they end up actually digging up um the immortals body, who's one of the original guardians of the globe, um, and they basically end up setting up the truth for who Omni Man really is to finally come out, and this issue kind of is the bridge between the massacre that we saw of the Guardians of the Globe and this um reveal that's gonna be coming soon. So um pretty crazy. I think again, we're like it's so funny that we're seeing like this world where we as the readers know who Omni Man is and nobody else does, right? It's kind of this funny thing watching Mark and everybody else interact with him. He's giving this eulogy at the uh funeral, and we have to just sit there like listening to say this bullshit as he just like absolutely destroyed and obliterated these uh these actual superheroes that were protecting Earth. So I don't know. That was pretty crazy. What did you guys think of this issue?

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Uh I I liked it a lot. There was one panel that I actually really liked, which was right when the explosion happens behind Omni Man when the comes around, you can see the genuine fear on his face. Um, I also liked that the twins were very respectful towards the funeral. And you know, Mark was asking, he was like, Does this happen all the time? Um that was also funny, pretty funny. Yeah, it was a like you saying, it was a it was a cool read because of the fact that um, you know, obviously, you know, Omni Man just should have murked all the guardians and we're watching him try and cover it up.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah, yeah. What'd you think, Ben?

SPEAKER_04 8:32

Oh, I I loved it. I just was I just remembered something that Max uh brought up last episode, actually, where our one of our cliffhangers, right? Was Adam Eve returned to the uh what are they called? The the teen teams had a team. And she sees something crazy, and Max was like, what do we think it's gonna be?

SPEAKER_02 8:51

I was just about to bring that up. I owe you guys a dollar, I think.

SPEAKER_04 8:55

Yeah, so what we discovered that what she found was uh being cheated on with the Rexton duplicate.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Oh that's that's uh that's rough, bro. That's that's being cheated on uh by with more than one person, more than two people. I mean, it's like everybody, it's like being cheated on by uh by our good guy, our big blue guy. I can't remember his name right now. How can I not remember his name? But um it's like the same person multiple times.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Yeah, it's exactly the way she described the scene was awful.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yeah, truly, truly awful, but uh yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Yeah, but I think I don't I mean I'm looking through Yeah, Eve is like in Mark comes home and she's like crying in his room. It's like Eve, what are you doing here? Oh Mark, it was horrible. It was Rex with Kate, and there was more than one of her.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Yeah, that's pretty uh that's pretty rough. And uh but it's funny that we're getting this, you know. This is again like the kind of the whole like premise type thing. I feel like we're seeing where it's it is superhero stuff, but it's also like being in high school, being like, you know, dealing with this kind of just like regular human being type of shit. And I feel like that's also kind of like one of the real um juxtapositions that's shown here, right? Is that they're really like making it known that like Mark is like a person of earth, he's doing earth experiences, he's living the earth life, um, and that will become kind of a bigger thing as uh as we start moving forward. And I feel like a lot of this issue is also just like kind of bringing back um like one, you know, the one of the uh students that basically was taken by that crazy physics teacher that was blowing stuff up, he shows up again, and we're kind of like again, it's like the the fallout of everything that had happened previously, and where we're kind of coming back to uh quote unquote regular life for a little bit, it seems.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

Yeah, I think that's that's like you just hit the nail on the head with like the main theme of Invincible, like one of the main things that they're trying to examine is contrasting just like the mundane reality of life with this ridiculous, suit like heightened, over-the-top superhero reality. And it's constantly cutting back and forth. Like, I I think we'll we should definitely just keep pointing that out as we see it. I remember last episode we we kept doing the same thing because that's where a lot of the humor comes from, but also where a lot of the real like depth, emotional depth, and human depth comes from is confronting those things, and it's always like Mark will you know have to just be dealing with early relationships in high school, figuring out dating, figuring out people having crushes on each other, and then he'll have to go save a bunch of people out of a building who might die or whatever, and then and they also cut back and forth. Like, I don't remember if it's in this issue or maybe the next one. No, it is this issue where he's yeah, so it'll have him in in the locker rooms talking with Eve and and his buddy, and then it'll just cut to him beating the shit out of a guy in a giant elephant costume, and then immediately cut back to his dad like brushing his teeth in in their house, having a conversation with his mom, you know, so it's all of these different storylines are happening simultaneously, and yeah, that contrast is is like what Invincible is all about, I feel like.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah, you know, it's so interesting that you bring up, I mean, one of the things I was really actually thinking about um with reading all of these issues and maybe just Invincible in general, is exactly what you're talking about, where there are so it feels like you're jumping around to like different moments like pretty constantly, right? And I will say, like, there are some moments where I'm like, I I I definitely will like look at the page that I'm on and then like go back one and be like, did I like miss something like in between when they're like jumping around? But I think overall they actually do it pretty effectively. And you know, I'm looking at this this scene where uh in this issue where Eve kind of goes up and shows up with the the teen team, kind of like you were talking about before. Um, and this time she sees like Rex, um her ex hanging out with multicate or what is it, multicate, right? Isn't it duplicate? Duplicate multi anyway.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

There's another so there's another guy, her brother is multi-paul.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Oh, multi-paul, okay. Multiple, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, guys. But what I think is so funny about this scene is that it actually so much reminds me of like I was saying our big blue guy, but Dr. Manhattan, like when she comes into this and like um duplicate is like she and Rex are like macking on each other or whatever else, and then the other like duplicates are like working on technology stuff, whatever else, it gives me very much like the Dr. Manhattan moment with um with uh with uh I can't remember her name right now. Oh Silk Spectre, whatever else. Um but that's a but that's a that's a different comic. But anyway.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

Lori, right? Lori or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah, Lori. Shout out Lori, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

Lori's in this is in in Watchmen uh Max, which is super good. If you haven't I can lend you a copy of Watchmen like today.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

There are multiple references that are going on right now to that one for sure, and and you should definitely read that. But this I think that this issue is such a good, like, again, it's like normal life. I think that there's kind of a fun moment where um William, right, Mark's friend, like pulls up to his house and is like, yo, sorry, bro, like I just wanted to like chop it up with you. And also, like, since you're like a superhero now, like, do you think that maybe we could just like and he just he flies him up into the air, right? Which is just so hilarious. Um but just great. And uh yes, but we so this issue we end up wrapping it up with those two um twins who I cannot remember their names. The Mauler twins. The Mauler twins. Um basically some guys are doing some grave digging trying to um steal the skull of one of the old guardians of the globe, and the uh the Mauler twins basically pull up and be like, Hey, thanks for saving us all the time. We're gonna actually grab this, take it off your hands, and uh we'll deal with that. And that actually ends up wrapping up this issue. This issue is I feel like generally narratively pretty short, but again, it's like the whole purpose is to try and bring you away from the insanity that just happened.

SPEAKER_04 14:29

There's some there's a a couple things like you just you bringing up uh superhero references, that's another core invincible thing that we're gonna keep talking. We talked about last time again, and we're gonna continue to talk about is almost every character is like an amalgamation of other superheroes from Marvel or DC or other things, and that's very it's part of the deal. So we we've had you just brought up like two Watchmen references already. The guy, I think his name is like Damon Darkblood. He's like this demon guy that's investigating. He's very clearly a Rorschach reference, which is uh one of the main detective characters in Watchmen. Like their outfit is exactly the same, except for instead of having his like iconic Rorschach face, yeah. It's just like a demon guy, you know? It's and he's saying like the way his speech bubbles look, he says like Herm and has all of these uh sort of like scraggly cut-off edges. That's how Rorschach talks in Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

His his Herm, Herm is like his very like classic. Like he's like, I mean, he's kind of like a 40s detective, I feel like kind of you know, they're playing off of that.

SPEAKER_04 15:30

And it's so fun seeing like even just all of these random superheroes that are attending the funeral. It's just everyone's zany, everyone like this guy's like uh, oh, that kind of looks like Captain America mixed with Deadlock. I see, you know, or you could just all these different characters throughout the whole story.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, they're like superheroes that are similar to but legally different from uh all the ones that you know, basically.

SPEAKER_04 15:54

Yeah, exactly. And yeah, the issue, uh let's see, we have conversations with Debbie and Nolan, Mark's parents. Um that shit makes me sad, dude.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Anyway, we'll get into that, but that shit makes me fucking sad. Debbie, man. Yeah, shout out Debbie, bro. Debbie's a real one, she's a writer, she's doing her best, and Omni Man will get to you. Mm-hmm. Shout out Debbie.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Let's see, are there are there any other things in issue eight that we feel like we we want to talk about or or highlight?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Um I think that that was most of the stuff that I had written down. I think um, you know, this is again, like I said, it's it's really kind of like a setup for the next uh piece of this. We're getting um introduced to a couple of, I feel like, some kind of new characters. I mean I'm actually kind of interested in how like Derek Sanders, which is the kid who's kind of got like the metal chest now, who was taken by the the teacher, whatever else, because there are people that they're starting to show that like they're giving them enough time. I mean, maybe it's that they're giving them enough time just to again set the scene for other things, but it feels like there's something that could come in the future from just how much they're showing certain people. But anyway, that's my I don't know. I haven't watched a show, but we'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

Another funny moment you mentioned earlier, Antonio, is when Mark flies up in the sky with William, and there's another like it feels like uh feels like 2000s-y moment where Mark is like, this is so gay when he's fighting.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

That is very 2000s, that's very early 2000s, right?

SPEAKER_04 17:16

Which gets talked a lot about where it's like that's something that kind of was or was in the lexicon back then, then was something that like was not really cool to say in the middle. I think, and there's gonna be reoccurring jokes because this this existed for 15 years. Um and uh yeah, it's just it's funny to see how that is, and it's also interesting thinking about how um you know, just how we talk changing over the course of this story being told, right? Like, one thing I'll say, I don't remember if they have it happening now, but I'll just say in the show, like they make they make William gay because yeah, like they decide for his character, they're like, let's have him be a gay best friend, a homie.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Yeah, that's that's that's so funny. I mean, obviously, I mean at the very least, the way that they portray this, and and you know, when when we get to kind of like the end of these issues, uh, it seems it seems that he is not, but that's pretty cool. That's kind of fun. Yeah, but so anyway, that's that's number eight. We'll dive into number nine here. I'll do a little our our little summary here. But so um Mark's personal life is gonna keep getting kind of crazier, more complicated, whatever else. And the thing that I think is the main crux of this issue here is that Robot, who's one of the original members of the teen team, is asked to lead the new government-backed Guardians of the Globe. Basically, they end up reaching out to him and they're like, hey, you know, we were gonna make you part of the Guardians of the Globe originally. We uh, you know, obviously don't have any more, so you're gonna be the new leader of this, and you're gonna basically hold uh tryouts, you're gonna hold auditions um for the new Guardians of the Globe. And um he actually specifically asks Mark and Eve um to come to the tryouts, and Mark's like, it's so funny because Mark's like, yeah, bro, I'm like busy with school, and it's like, what does that mean within the context of like what it is that we're doing right now? But uh he says that he's busy with school, and then Eve's like, nah, I don't want to do that because I think that she probably just doesn't want to be around Rex. But so Mark refuses to join. The new team ends up forming around Robot, uh, Rex Splode, Rex, as we know, duplicate, as we know, Monster Girl, who I think actually has a hilarious scene in all this. I kind of love her character, she's very much like a Hulk type of situation, and then Black Samson and Shrinking Ray. Um, the issue ends with basically the Mauler Twins successfully reviving the Immortal, um, who's one of those guys from the original Guardians of the Globe, and then that is gonna kind of lead into the craziness that we see going on later. So um this one I thought was, you know, again, this is like the team building, like we're again, we're we're building back up, we're having this kind of like quote unquote normalcy, we're returning to normalcy, right? We're rebuilding the team, things are gonna be okay, or whatever it is after that, they hope, right? Um, and it's interesting that robot is uh expected to lead this. But what did you guys what did you guys think? What'd you think, Ben?

SPEAKER_04 19:51

Yeah, I mean, it the the plot is continuing to uh to just develop. Another thing that like the issue opens with this like funny Star Trek parody, you know, it's a one-to-one reference, and then we see our boy Alan the Alien pulls back up, there's reminding us that he's he's in the mix. Remember, Alan visited Earth and uh thought he had uh to fight Mark, they ended up having a conversation instead of just fighting the death, like Nolan kind of assumed they were gonna. Um I think another really important thing we see is Nolan thinking to himself, practicing having a really important conversation with Mark. Which is interesting. That we see him like sitting on a mountaintop going, son, we need to talk. Uh Mark, it's very important that we and you can see he's just stressing about it, doesn't feel like he has it right. Um so we can infer, you know, he's gonna need to tell Mark, hey, something. Uh you know those guardians of the globe that we just did that funeral for? Yeah. Definitely, uh yeah, yeah, yeah. So um We also there's also another mundane sorry, I didn't mean I didn't mean to cut you off, but I just saw too um like another reference with the comparing superhero and mundane where Debbie is doing laundry.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Yes, that was another one I that was one I wrote down as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Yeah, and she has to call the uh it's kind of like another in uh uh incredibles kind of a joke. Edna mode kind of rightna love Edna. Can we put this in the washing machine? Is this gonna be good?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Like yeah, yeah. It's like a running cold and then cold, which uh I feel like I rarely hear, but that's uh that's pretty cool. Um I I do like again, it's like very much and Mark also has his birthday, right, in this issue, too. And I think that you know, against it's one of these things that builds up to like a very emotional moment, right, where um, you know, Mark has watched all these movies with his friends, and then his dad pulls out um the original zombie movie for like this the kind of like nowadays iteration that we have of zombies. I think what it's it's like Night of the Living Dead, right, by George Romero. Um, and the only reason I really know as much as I do about that is because I don't know if anybody played Call of Duty Nazi Zombies, but there was a map that they had that was specifically built around that, and the big enemy was. George Romero, which is kind of hilarious. But um, but it's this moment where they're like connecting, right? It's like father-son bonding, we're people we care about each other, mom's like watching from the side, being like, Oh, that's great, like that they're bonding, whatever else, right? And we're just gonna have all that shit torn away. But it's nice, yeah. But it's nice while it lasted for sure.

SPEAKER_04 22:21

Another uh another Easter egg with that is um Kirkman, the author of Invincible, also wrote The Walking Dead, which later becomes a huge TV show and everything.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Um that's super cool. That's so I did not know that. That's so interesting.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Yeah, you guys should have seen Max's face.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

But yeah, it is cool. It's funny also to picture superheroes sitting down watching zombie movies, you know. And we're gonna get into as well that's funny is not only do real superheroes exist in this universe, there also are comics of superheroes that are fictional. Um which I think is in the next issue. But we get some forward to that. We get some we get some jokes on that too.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Yeah, so one one of the other I feel like, you know, again, this is classic high school stuff, but um, this girl Amber, right, has uh shown interest in Mark. This is like, I don't know if she's supposed to be like the popular girl or whatever it is, but anyway, all this shit has gone down, and she's like putting notes in his backpack, she's like, call me, all this kind of like, you know, cutesy like high school stuff. And she ends up coming over to do homework, right? Uh, you know, you know how it goes. Girls coming over to do homework, whatever it is. His uh Mark's mom is like, hey, I'm watching you guys, don't be crazy, whatever else. Um, but um uh Eve actually comes over to Mark's house and is like gonna, you know, probably chop it up and hang out with him, whatever. But she sees them, Mark and Amber kiss, and then she flies off all sad, you know, whatever else, right? Um, and uh tough, you know, high school heartbreak, that stuff will get you. But um, you know, this this issue ends up wrapping up with those the the Mauler twins um uh being able to revive the immortal. Actually, they're trying to use these control beacons to basically be able to control them. It does not work at all. He just wakes up and is like, fuck you guys, and just says, I'm out, and then flies off. Uh, which will lead us into issue number 10.

SPEAKER_04 24:08

But I feel like there's more, like we should probably talk about the the monster girl.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah, we should talk about the Oh please, that give us the triads.

SPEAKER_04 24:14

Yeah, so that's another another big story beat. Um, we get introduced to the lizard league, which is important. They're gonna be some reoccurring villainous characters throughout the story, and they're all references to different uh uh lizard-themed bad guys, like also G.I. Joe. I think the bad guys in G.I. Joe are all like lizard themed, if I remember correctly. I think you might be right. And they're really they're both very scary, like they really get up to some violence, especially in one of the seasons of the show. I don't want to spoil, but you kind of think the lizard league are a joke until they're very much not a joke.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Um It's funny that you bring them up too, because like I think that my brain not having the future stuff about them, I'm like, oh, these are like villains of the week, like whatever lizard league who gets a shit.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

Because they're they're supposed to be funny. He's like, you may have won this battle, but the war is far from over. The Lizard League will strike you, like they're just really goofy.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

It's another day in the office. Yeah. Um, but yeah, and they have all the all these different uh lizard-themed guys they got to deal with, which is cool. Um, like you said, Mark fumbling, Eve pulling up to his house, uh is crazy, crazy work. I mean, I guess he has Amber, but um that's crazy. And then we see the auditions for the Guardians of the Globe that Robot got put in charge of, right? He has to all these other heroes are pulling up. Uh, and then one of the major characters that that we mentioned uh is Monster Girl, who uh Yeah, why also why is Rex like Rex actually just seems like he sucks.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Like he just seems like a very annoying guy.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Yeah, he's kind of a prick. Every hero there was like talking trash about him right up until he started talking to Monster Girl, and then he immediately got humbled.

SPEAKER_04 25:50

Right. Yeah, yeah, right. Max, you want to explain Monster Girl a little bit in some way?

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Uh yeah, so she seems actually pretty chill. Like she's like a younger, I don't know if they clarify how old she is, but Rex tries to talk to her like a little girl, and um she transforms into actually what looks like the Hulk or like the abomination, and just starts beating the ever-living hell out of him until I think Mark steps in and she decides to calm down, but then she ends up joining the Guardians of the Globe with Rex as well. But I I like her character a lot actually.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Yeah, bro. I love I love the fact obviously it's like cool to see her kind of hulk out and whatever else. Um, but I love that after she has this fight around, she's like uh Mark's like, sorry, I hate you and she's like, Don't sweat at it, you know, I can take it, it'll be more happening, whatever else. Anybody got a cigarette, right? She looks like like a 12-year-old, she's like, yo, anybody got a cigarette after I just beat this dude's ass. I thought that was pretty sad.

SPEAKER_04 26:44

So one of the one of the things we realize uh about her powers specifically is every time she turns like she hulks out and turns into the monster, it ages her backwards. So yeah, so that's one of the so she actually is older than a kid, but that's one of the issues is the more and more she uses her powers, the more she goes in reverse.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

How does she what happens when she's like pre-baby? How does that how do you do that?

SPEAKER_04 27:11

Oh shit, we're gonna find that out. Monster baby, monster baby. Maybe, maybe we see it, maybe we see it happen.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Was she originally monster woman and then she became monster girl, and therefore you're right that the next is monster baby.

SPEAKER_04 27:27

She is older. Well, I mean, I don't know, we'll we'll have to see what happens. But yeah, she was older than then this girl. That's one of those, that's why she wants a cigarette and like all this stuff. Where she um that's yeah, and she we're getting it's another cool key character introduction. And then uh the end of the chapter, like Antonio mentioned, is the Mauler twins have been trying to bring the immortal back to life, which is funny because the immortal keeps being dead. Um but they they successfully wake him up, and he just immediately on site uh probably wakes up still thinking he's fighting Omni Man and flies out of there.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Yeah, I think I think he definitely wakes up like uh yeah, as if that exactly what's going on. And so yeah, he flies off, he's ready to uh whoop some ass, and uh he's uh he's not gonna do it, but he's definitely gonna think that he's gonna do it, which is which is just as good.

SPEAKER_04 28:17

And then just to to re-emphasize the conclusion of the tryouts is the new guardians of the globe is robot, rexplode, duplicate, monster girl, black Samson, and shrinking Ray.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Also, do we ever talk about Black Samson? Like, is there any is there any other reason for calling him? I just want to understand uh as we get into this.

SPEAKER_04 28:39

Um well his character right he has like this special suit that was kept from him, which actually was something from the previous previous chapter we didn't we didn't talk about, but his butler, his butler pulls up to the to interrupt the um Right, he's the explosive funeral, and he's like, You guys don't pay attention to the guardians and respect them and whatever. Um so yeah, Black Samson is like, I think he had powers, then his powers got taken away or something, and then Oh, that's right. Now this suit now he wears this suit. So he's kind of like a veteran, like and he knows he can like be one of the team team people the team relies on or whatever, but he um he needs this suit now. He's kind of like a weird Iron Man sort of, but not because robot is more like Iron Man.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

But do we ever go over why the butler was trying to take out all the guardians? I know they talk in like the next coming chapters, but I can't remember if we clarified why.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

I don't think that it was never clarified for me, at least. We can see what his speech is.

SPEAKER_04 29:37

Let me go for it.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

I was kind of just like, sure, man, go for it. He's blowing shit up. People people like to do it. I was like, I'm trying to remember who the hell this man is. Yeah, I'm like, sure, bro, blow some shit up.

SPEAKER_04 29:48

I love that. See, yeah. So Black Samson's like, Sanford, um, did they can't be dead, not until they have my revenge. They have to pay for what they did to Samson. So that's basically his deal. Is he Samson's butler and he thinks uh Samson is getting uh they abandoned Samson, turned their backs on him when he needed the most for that, they must pay. Um so basically he and then Samson's like, old friend, what have you done? Um so yeah, I think his whole motivation was just like you guys don't take black Samson seriously enough. We gotta put some respect on my guy's name.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

That's yeah, everyone needs a friend like that butler, because that's a dog. For real, bro.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's my dog right there. That's for sure. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_04 30:27

Sick.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Alright, should we uh should we should we jump to I think that wraps up yeah, that wraps up issue number nine. We'll jump to issue number ten.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

Alright, cool. Um so here's our dossier summary for issue number ten. Mark fights Doc Seismic at Mount Rushmore while Damien Darkblood continues investigating the guardian's murder scene. The issue also gives Mark a quieter comic shop subplot with science dog creator Flip Shaff, um, keeping normal life side of the book alive. I'm excited for us to talk about that. I think they'll be funny. Um so then everything turns when the immortal attacks Omniman on live television and accuses him of killing the guardians. And then Omniman has to fight the immortal again, and Mark arrives just in time to see the truth of what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

The truth. The truth. The truth will set you free. So they say. Yeah, but this one, uh this one's uh yeah, pretty, pretty painful one. I do think, like you said, there's definitely I feel like a bunch of kind of like funny moments in here. Like I feel like the doc seismic thing where like Mark is fighting this guy and he just keeps blowing stuff. Like he I don't know if he's using like sound waves or whatever waves he's like using or just doing seismic waves, I guess realistically it is. But this dude's like blowing all the shit up, and Mark has to keep on trying to save him, and then the guy eventually falls into like this gigantic crack in the ground because he just will not stop blowing shit up and has no jetpack. Uh so right. We're starting off goofy.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

I'm uh I'm looking at the cover. Is this the one where they switched over? Artists? Let's Google that actually, because Mark is looking chiseled in that cover.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

You're so right.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

He is looking chiseled.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

He is looking for very that's the one? It's yeah, well, it's actually started issue eight, issue number eight. So hid it from us. Our first our first issue we we started is uh we're it we're officially in the Otley era. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Yeah, he definitely is moging for in that cover. That's so fucking funny.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

I'm also just noticing Omni Man on the TV fighting immortal in the background, but he's hooded up, so you can't tell.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Wow. Yeah, you're right. It's a good cover, good eye. In the comic book shop, we also have like some ladies like butt on a poster in the background. I'm like, is that is that not Kate?

SPEAKER_01 32:38

I thought it was Kate, not Kate Eve, sorry, it meant Eve. Yeah, I'm like Eve, crazy, bro. Maybe it is, who knows? Crazy bonkers.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

Yeah, so one thing I like things exactly what you guys are talking about in the fight with Doc Seismic. Like, it's funny how like Mark's, he's like, Oh, you're they're talking about Mark needing to work on his witty banter. Like, there's all these like like how they're trying to live up to the superhero archetypes. You know, he's like, Oh yeah, well, I need my my witty banter needs to get better too. Not just my that's part of my brand, you know.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

That's part of that's part of being a superhero. You gotta be strong, and you also gotta have quips, right? It's all about the quips.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Also, um, after he falls to his own doom, all the civilians clapping and being like, Oh my god, you saved our lives, and Mark is like, sure, I guess I did.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Good enough, brother. Yeah, thanks. I'll catch you guys later. Yeah, also again, this is always just like the funny thing about superheroes and like the real world, right? Is like how is anybody going to like there's there's no fixing whatever devastation just happened right now. It's just not gonna happen. And now we can't go to Mount Rushmore in uh whichever Dakota that's in.

SPEAKER_04 33:48

I think it's I think it's South Dakota or whatever it is, but uh then you we cut back to uh we get some more glimpses of home life with Mark and his dad, and we see Nolan approach him in the kitchen and and try to have a conversation with him. He's like, son, we need to talk. And Mark just assumes it's about his dating life, his high school. He's like, Mom probably told you to talk to me. I don't want to deal with this right now, blah, blah, blah. Got school tomorrow. Sorry, dad. You can't tell me about your alien life. Right. And uh, you know, little does he know, there's a a bigger conversation his dad is trying to try to broach.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Yeah, so a lot of a lot of setup with the were you about to mention the beeper? Yeah, go for it. Yeah. Oh, I was just gonna say, I mean, when I originally saw this, I was like, beeper. I'm like, again, it's like these things where I'm like, okay, why why am I being shown this? Right? It's like it seems like kind of innocuous. It's like, yeah, we know that he like runs off in the middle of the night to go do superhero things or whatever it is, right? But the beeper is indicative of things that we will learn later on as we read through these issues. Um and then we're back at school. And everybody's like goofing around, which is which again is like kind of funny. Um that also I thought it was actually really funny that um they talk about like kind of the quote unquote like nerdiness of like being in a comic shop where uh Mark's friend William is like, Me, go to a comic shop, no way I'm already enough of a geek without being seen at a comic shop. I do love Mark's response, and he's like, Yeah, and yet I'm the one with the girlfriend. I'm the dude that's pulling up to the comic shop, and here I am, brother. You gotta get with it. Um, but yeah, pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 35:16

Yeah, we get another really uh iconic comic moment here that's sort of a reference to something that I think Invincible was doing a lot of the time, where let's see, we'll just we'll just read this whole thing. Mark is standing in line to get autographs from his favorite comic author of Science Dog. So he's like, Hey, Mr. Chef, it's great to meet you. I brought a lot of stuff. You don't have to sign it all if you don't want to. And he says, Lay it on me, kiddo. You paid hard-earned money for this stuff. The least I can do is deface it with my eligible scribble. He's like, I gotta say, man, it amazed me how you get these things out on a monthly basis. It seems like so much work to do in such a short amount of time, and you're never late. And he says, Actually, a lot of times I just ref uh I just reuse art that I've already done over and over. It's good for dramatic pauses when stuff doesn't really change much from panel to panel, and most people don't even notice. And then they run like three, like six panels in a row that's just recycling the same panel, and Mark says, Don't you think it's kind of cheap? And the guy goes, Not really. Yeah, that's so great. I love that they're part of the point of that.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yeah, agree.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

And that's definitely we can notice uh they do that in they're clearly Ryan Otley's doing that in Invincible, like the the whole page with uh Nolan and Debbie where he like we just talked about, where he's getting out of bed in the middle of the night. That's like one, two, three, four, five panels where they're basically the same panel the whole time, you know. Right. Exactly. Makes sense. And it's foreshadowing for uh dialogue about the Invincible TV show where um the storytelling and everything remains incredible, but in order for the show to put out seasons on a yearly basis, the main corner that they cut is their animation. And so that's one of the biggest critiques of the show eventually, as well, is similar things where it'll be it'll show them flying, and instead of having them swoop around acrobatically and everything, they'll just have them kind of like slideshow. Yeah, just move move from left to right without really changing. Um it's it's a very uh prescient joke for them to make because that's gonna be part of the invincible legacy for you know 20 years later or whatever. PGs.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

PNGs. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, and a lot of this, I guess, early part of this issue here is also we're kind of seeing in the background like all of the detective work by Damien Darkblood and like the other people where they're basically trying to kind of like figure out what's been going on, right? How do these people get killed? Uh Black Samson goes and fight in Sanford in like the government facility that he's being held in. It's kind of funny that he's still doing like butler type things while he's in this insane like facility. But um, you know, we also get what's foreshadowing without us kind of even really realizing it when um it's funny, I can never call him Nolan. Like he just does not, like he doesn't exist as Nolan to me anymore after like seeing this shit. I'm like, that's Omni Man and whatever the hell his like uh uh vitrium or Viltrium or whatever their name is. Viltramite. Viltramite, yeah, name is and whatever else. But seeing him talk to um uh Debbie, right, uh I gotta I gotta put some respect on her name realistically. I kept on thinking of her as like Mark's mom, but I gotta put some respect on Debbie's name. But when he's when he's talking to her, um and he says, you know, this new guardians of the globe isn't nearly as effective or as efficient as the old one. You know, I've been I've had to pick up their slack, right? And what we kind of end up learning later on is like that, I think that that's kind of like I mean, realistically, it's on purpose. Like it's funny that he's like annoyed having to deal with this, but I don't think that he would want them any other way, realistically. And we'll we can get into that later, but I feel like that's kind of an interesting foreshadowing moment that we get there as well.

SPEAKER_04 38:52

Right. Do you have any any uh any things you want to talk about, Max, like uh scenes from this chapter before we get into the big the big finale that sets up our big twist?

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Yeah, I mean it kind of does correlate to what you were just saying with the panel with um Nolan and Debbie. Um is there's one part where he actually pauses right before he says, I love you, which I feel like is a big to the finale that's coming up.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

Yeah, I think you're so right. He's like, shit, man, I don't know you, you don't know me. Just for that second, he's like, Do I love you? You know, I'll I'll force this one out for like one more time. Yeah, and then that and that's I think you're you're very right actually to bring that up. That that foreshadowing of like he knows this conversation's about to happen, and so he knows that this relationship as it is is is over, basically. Um, and it's kind of like it's not only foreshadowing his like detachment, but I feel like also foreshadows his weird attachment as well. The fact that he says it at all. Like obviously he's trying to preserve normalcy, but as we see later on, it's like this decision he makes, he's going to make it, but it's not as like it's like he's like 99.9% of the way of like I'm gonna make the decision and that's what I'm on. And there's this like 0.01% where he's like, damn, do I actually kind of like care about some of the shit? But anyway, let's get into the twist us up, either Better Max, take us into the twist, and let's see what goes down.

SPEAKER_04 40:19

Yeah, so as we said, uh Omni Man ends up saving a bunch of civilians at some kind of an amusement park from like this giant purple chicken squid monster. Chicken squid, you know. Casual, normal. Um, but after he saves everybody, uh and he's like, It's okay, everyone, it's over, everyone's safe now. The immortal comes flying out of the sky and attacks uh Omni Man on site, and he's screaming, Why? Why did you do it? Um, and they end up flying off to have this uh this fight in the sky. And very importantly, all of this is getting broadcast on live television. And we see Mark sees this fight starting to go down in the comic book shop, and then has to leave to go go help his dad. And we see Debbie is back home, and uh the broadcast is also happening there. So she's saying, um, it was then that Omni Man allegedly shot out of the crater you see behind me, sending himself and the immortal into the skies where we can't see them. It's unclear whether or not this is the immortal. Uh, it wouldn't be the first time a superhero returned from the dead, but ex experts are skeptical. It is unclear if this has anything to do with the murder of the guardians of the globe. What is clear is that the attack on Omni Man was completely unprovoked and unexpected, and that whoever is behind this, immortal or not, is evenly matched with Omni Man. With the fight taken to the skies, there's no way to monitor the proceedings. We may never know exactly what's going on today. We'll bring you updates as they come. Uh, and we now return to your regularly scheduled programming. You can see Debbie's looking looking worried.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Yeah, she's also again, I love that they're regularly like you the fact that this can happen and you can return to regularly scheduled programming afterwards is just insane.

SPEAKER_04 41:57

Right, yeah, and further emphasizes our you know, our theme we keep talking about with the contrast between mundane and superhero. Uh but then we see Omni Man and the Immortal are having this crazy throwdown in the sky. Um uh the immortal saying, Why did you kill them? Uh I'll beat it out of you if I have to. Uh and then Mark pulls up just in time to see to see his dad say, 'I killed you once and I can do it again.' Uh, and uh we see him stab his hand all the way through the immortal and just rip him in half, basically.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

That shit was crazy. He's brutal, bro. He does not do this stuff for fun. Well, he does kind of do it for fun, but he's uh he's not playing around.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Yeah, he's two for two.

SPEAKER_04 42:41

Yeah, true. Two for two. The immortal thinks he's got it, and he yeah, ends up falling out of the sky, ripped in half.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Uh right as and Mark is like dad, like dad, right as he sees him like perfectly tear him in half, and and uh Nolan, sure, looks back over at Mark, kind of like again, surprising. He's like, son, right? The fact that he uh dude, and also the we need to talk as he's like flying up like covered in blood, bro, is just insane.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Two issues when we finally got that like conversation, but at this like stake. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:14

Right. He he was trying to like whatever way he pictured having this conversation with Mark, he was not picturing it cover like covered in blood like this for sure.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Yeah, he just looks like the most brutal. And again, like how I don't know how you explain this. I think what's interesting is too this, and we'll kind of get into this as as they have their conversation, this next issue, but it's like, what what did he expect? Like, did he really think that like I don't know, we'll we'll get into it, but I'm just so interested by Omni Man's like thought process. But maybe that's what you get for being raised in in you know, in the way that he was raised. It's pretty insane. Right.

SPEAKER_04 43:47

But so narratively, here we go. We we as readers ha saw Omni Man do this big betrayal and kill the guardians of the globe many issues ago. That we had all these issues where we knew that Omni Man was hiding some crazy shit and Mark. And everybody else had no idea, and now everything is about to be revealed. And Mark and Nolan are gonna have to have this uh this big truth-revealing conversation, and that sort of takes us into issue 11.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Yep, issue number 11. I'll give us our little summary here. So uh Nolan, as we'll pretend to call him for a little while, Nolan finally tells Mark the truth about Viltrum, explaining that his people are conquerors rather than benevolent protectors. That's just crazy, bro. Being like, we are the crusades, except times a billion. Um he reveals that he was sent to Earth to weaken it and prepare it for takeover, and that he killed the Guardians because they would have stood in the way. Mark obviously refuses to accept Nolan's worldview or help him conquer the planet. Um this issue ends with father and son turning against each other. Yeah, so this is I mean, Mark really is a G for this. Like the fact that you stand up to this at all, right, knowing that this dude realistically could probably just tear you in half like he just did to whoever else. Or could he? I don't know. Maybe he is called invincible for a reason. We'll see, I guess. But um, this shit is just like so I mean, this begins like a very kind of like heartbreaking couple of chapters to read for Mark, for his mom, for kind of like everybody that's been living in this kind of bubble of Omni Man for the last while. Right.

SPEAKER_04 45:14

And we get a earlier we got um Omni Man explaining the backstory of Viltrum, like a fake history is now what we're realizing, like that what and now we get the real one. And uh, I'll read some of this for us. He says, I am from the planet Viltrum, that much is true, although it is not the planet that I have told you about so many times. Viltrum was a planet that had achieved a perfect global society, but it didn't happen overnight. It was decided that in order for our people to obtain intergalactic dominance, we must eliminate the weak from our planet. When the dust settled, our population had been cut in half. But what emerged from the ashes of our old society was a fierce, unbeatable warrior race. Once our battle scarred planet had been repaired, we set our sights outward. It was proposed that we bring our new world order to other worlds, and our goal was to establish and expand the planetary empire. It was agreed upon unanimously. So crazy, crazy.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Oh, go ahead, go ahead, Max.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

I was gonna say we talked about in the first episode. I remember we were talking about like uh because the original part was described as like a utopia, and we're like, I don't know if that's fully true. So it's cool to see it like come full circle, like the actual origin of them and how they just wiped out half their population. And later on, I was actually looking at one panel, you can see when he's talking about the origin of Viltrum, you can see him taking over uh Alan the Aliens Planet as well.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Yep, yep, you're exactly right. I noticed that same thing. And what's you know, it's interesting. I mean, I have a lot of questions about the way they did this. How do you, you know, how do you f decide when you stop, right? That kind of like eradication of the weak, because once you get rid of the weak, then you know there's a new there's a new weak, right, that exists there. I don't know how they do that. But it also reminds me, this is just a random tid, but it reminds me a little bit of like I don't know, I I can't I can't remember who here's watched Naruto, but like if you remember the character Zabuza from like very early on, where like the village hidden in the mist, they did like a very similar thing where they basically like had all the kids like fight each other to the death, and then those the ones that would live through that became the ninjas for the um for that. But anyway, ran a little tip there. But this is it's crazy that we start learning I mean it it's pretty like truly dominatingly evil how bad uh the I mean they really just like go to any planet and basically are like either we take you over or you die. Um which I guess is actually nicer than our last read, Silver Surfer, where they just show up and they're like, You are going to die. But um, you know, if basically if any species or any race, whatever else says no, they just completely obliterate them and obliterate their planet. And uh yeah, it's like again that they, you know, they doubled their efforts, they basically as they started expanding more, they um as they kind of get spread uh further across the galaxy and wherever else, um they'd end up using um the people that they conquered to uh start taking over other different places and things like that. And we eventually end up learning that um as they kind of had spread out and gone through the ranks, that Mark's dad Nolan um was very high up. He was originally kind of like an analyst type person, he moved to the ranks, became kind of at the front of this, he was leading his own division, and then as things got spread out later on, after they conquered um Alan's planet, for example, like Max brought up, um they basically end up deciding that they're gonna kind of put like their strongest people at individual planets. And so um Nolan was basically given Earth, that's like his planet to um prepare for conquering. Um, and uh he ends up kind of going, and maybe you know, Better Max, you guys can talk through this, but he ends up going to Earth and he hates it originally, but over time his uh his feelings seem to, at least as he explained it, change slightly.

SPEAKER_04 48:50

Right, like he he originally is pulling up to Earth just purely in this conqueror mindset. Like it seems like Viltrum's culture or whatever is just suit, like we said, super messed up. They're just murdering each other relentlessly, they're like obsessed with perfection. It's a lot of it is sort of on some um like Nazi energy or whatever. Like we we have the we're the Nazi energy. We're in 2026, baby. Yeah, it's it's back, it's everywhere. It never left. But yeah, they embody that like might is right type thing. Like we're the strongest, so uh we we have our our culture, our society is the best one, so that gives us the right to pull up to all these other planets and and subjugate everybody. Um, but then he does sort of admit to Mark that Earth kind of was changing him a little bit, or or um uh you know, he was being forced to view things a little different, especially meeting Mark's mom, Debbie. He says, When I met your mother, I knew the only way to enjoy my time here was to actually live as a human. When it eventually came up, I told her the version of coming to Earth that you have been told since childhood, because it was clear she wouldn't approve of the real reason I was here. Living life as a human was not easy at first. Simple concepts like menial labor being required to earn a living were completely alien to me, though the act of physical love made for anything other than procreation was a welcome surprise. Uh, I soon found myself becoming a regular fixture in the superhero community. My natural Viltramite abilities made me the most powerful being on the planet. I found myself on adventure after adventure. After time, I realized that my true motives had begun to slip from my mind. I was living the lie a bit too well.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

Yeah, I think that's so fascinating that he because again, I'm like, I don't know, we'll have to see, because he does not show it necessarily in this issue in these issues, other than maybe kind of one specific moment. But he um, you know, he his like you said, his motives kind of started to change. And so I I wonder if in the future if he's really gonna be able to hold true to what it is that he had had originally decided. But um, you know, he talks about marrying Mark's mom and then uh getting kind of acquainted with the guardians of the globe. He also talks about becoming friends with them, right? And the weird thing about him becoming friends with them over time is he starts to recognize how powerful they actually are and realize that they have to be eliminated for him to um complete his mission. And so it's crazy. You sh you see this thing of him like meeting with like all of their families and all this kind of stuff like that. Like, this dude truly is like a conqueror in the deepest sense, uh, not only from his society, but just like as a person individually, uh, to be able to do it's just some evil shit like that.

SPEAKER_04 51:22

Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, the we keep cutting back and forth from sort of this flashback as he's describing his past, and then eventually into the conversation that him and Mark are having, like up in the sky. And the sk the sun is uh we can talk about some colors here in the storytelling. The sky is turning like blood red as the day is sort of ending, which everything is sort of getting more ominous. And he says, I can read some more of these passages. Um, he says, and now it's time for you to join me and help me prepare this planet for its imminent takeover at the hands of our people. I know this is um hard to take in at once, but over time, if you give it a chance, you'll begin to understand. Uh and he's saying, No, that this can't be true, this doesn't make any sense. You love mom, I know you do. He says, Son, stop, listen to me. Do you have any idea what our lifespan is? The older we get, the slower we age, and we can't live among these fragile things. Your mother is a little more than a pet. Viltramite DNA is so pure and complete that you are nearly full blooded. I could mate with nearly any alien being of comparable evolutionary development and produce a similar offspring. This means you will eventually be as strong as me. You could potentially be stronger, and you will live for thousands of years. Uh, everything you know and love will be gone before you look 30 years old. You do not belong here. Do you really want to watch your world die around you? Um, which is pretty, you know, a heavy reality. Like, obviously, Mark is being confronted with all of this, and his dad is like, these are these are bugs around you. This is a planet of bugs. You you're you you gotta, you know, it's a lot to grapple with. A lot is being dropped on Mark. I killed the Guardians of the Globe. I'm actually here to take over. Everyone you know is gonna die before you before you're even 30 years old. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 53:08

I don't even like your mom.

SPEAKER_04 53:10

Yeah, your mom is your mom is my pet. Yeah, I knew that.

SPEAKER_01 53:13

Yeah, he's a villain. I feel like once once he said that, I feel like, you know, that I feel like also specifically pushed Mark over his head. I don't know, Max, if if you were gonna say something else there about that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 53:23

But well, I was actually I was gonna talk about Mark's reaction, was um pretty, I mean, it was intense and impressive, honestly, because in that situation I probably find myself just not saying a word. But he actually retaliated, smacked his hand away, and was talking about don't touch me. Um, no, I will not come down. This life is uh this is my life, and these are my people. Like, you know, he I mean he's standing for what he knows. He's been a human all his life, you know, and now he's just a human with powers, but the whole even the aging concept, like that's something big to take in. But I was honestly proud of Mark for standing up for him and his people.

SPEAKER_01 53:59

Yeah, I I totally agree with you, bro. I think and I think that again, like exactly what uh kind of dialogue you mentioned, I feel like really does show where Mark stands, right? He says, These are my people, like this. You may be telling me all the story, and even if all that shit's true, bro, those are not my people, and those are not even the values that I agree with, right? And I think I mean it's pretty crazy. You see um Omni Man's uh you know face start to change from this kind of like pleading with him to like being like, hey, you know, he says, son, you don't understand what you're saying. I you know, I can't let you interfere, right? And I I love that Mark again responds, being like, I know exactly what I'm saying. He's like, dude, I will fight you right now, right? And Omni Man says, so be it with the you know his bloody fist, um, you know, pointed basically directly at Mark. And I think um it's crazy. I mean, these these issues, like I feel like this last one, this one we just are talking about now and the one previous, right, are feel like pretty short. I feel like overall they're very much like to the point of what it is that we're trying to get to, and it's about to get absolutely bonkers getting to this. And it's funny, I was I was waiting for like the meme moments to show up in this next issue, and uh I don't know. We could we could probably just hop. Is there anything else you guys want to touch on before we move on to this crazy shit? Yeah, do you have any any other thoughts, Max? I think I think we I think we went over it pretty well.

SPEAKER_05 55:16

I think I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 55:17

It was great. All right, all right, bro. Let's get into this crazy shit. All right, invincible number 12. We're getting there. Omni Man, bro. I actually wrote in my notes I said it, I said Omni Man beats the ever living fuck out of Mark right now. So Omni Man brutally, brutally beats Mark across cities, crowded areas, he beats him into like the subway area. Um trying to force him to accept that humanity is weak and temporary. He's basically yelling at this whole time, being like, look around, bro. Like they can't do this shit. They're we're killing thousands of people just by having this conversation. You know, what what is it, right? So Mark keeps rejecting Nolan's logic, even as he's completely outmatched. When Nolan asks Mark, you know, what will he have after everyone he loves is gone? Bro, this is like, yeah, after everybody loves is gone, what would I have? And Mark says, I would have you, Dad. Nolan breaks, and yeah, he spares Mark, right? This is the thing where like, again, that like 0.01%. He spares Mark, leaves Earth, and we see him also in tears, right? Which I think is like he's probably never cried in his entire life before this. And so, you know, I think that that is just so um, I don't know exactly what's in it it's indicative of yet, but um pretty important to see that he does he hold a soft spot, even if it's not for Mark's mom, he holds a soft spot for Mark in particular, um, which I think is something that even he did not expect.

SPEAKER_04 56:31

Yeah, I mean I think we got to start with just the the cover of this issue is literally Mark just like splatted on the ground. We have not seen him in a state like this. His limbs are all broken, his goggles and from his mask uh are are shattered, uh, and he's covered in blood. It's uh we haven't we haven't seen our boy in a state like this yet.

SPEAKER_02 56:52

Yeah, one thing I was gonna say was um in one of the first panels, as you see the city like blowing up, you can see Mark, I which I think is his he notices his first draw of blood drop of blood from I think any fight that he's been in so far.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

You're so right. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, it's at the very least, he kind of is acknowledging like the seriousness of the fight that he's in, because I think you're very right. Like, even if he has bled in some way before, like seeing any blood from him is indicative of there being like a serious fight going on. You're right. He like wipes his nose and he like pauses and looks at it. Um there's levels to this shit for sure, as as they level like four buildings in one go.

SPEAKER_04 57:35

That's the tone of this changes because so much of Invincible so far has been kind of like witty, tongue in cheek, like goofy silly, fun time with the with the serious stuff thrown in there. But this is just the first few pages are are silent, except for the the sound effects, like uh, you know, bra cow, like we getting all these really cool lettering, creative lettering things. Um, but yeah, they're leveling skyscrapers, and we just see everybody looking up as the skyline's collapsing, like it's like a you know, borderline 9-11 type event just on this father-son fight. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:10

And uh it's crazy, yeah. Timing-wise, it maybe even made sense. But you know, and I there's a lot of like kind of important dialogue here, too, with um, you know, just again, we get to see Omni Man's thought, you know, one punch from our people, and thousands lose their lives. Can't you understand that? These people are beneath us, their lives are insignificant at best. This place has nothing to offer you to any of our kind, it is here to be conquered and improved, left to its own devices, it would be a complete waste. And Mark says, you know, how can you say these things? How can you say that about mom? You love her, I've seen it. And Omni Man just looks, again, we get this panel of him just stoically looking at Mark and saying, Your mother means nothing to me, right? And also interesting, I can't tell exactly yet what it is that is making these speech bubbles be circles versus some of the other like they're perfect circles and they're colored around rather than the like even in the higher part of this this group of panels, his words are not like that, and we get this red ring when he says this thing, and then a green ring around something else that he says later on. But I love that you know, Mark again, Mark is not like just being in this fight, like taking the punches, like just dealing with his dad. He throws a punch at his dad actively and hits him and knocks him back, and then Omni Man, you know, flies at him again and basically says, you know, I'm telling you the truth for the first time in your life in that green uh speech bubble, which I don't understand yet. But crazy. You know, Mark is uh again showing this is these these are moments that build a character, right? This is what creates the character Mark as we know him, right? Being the one who stands up against this evil shit.

SPEAKER_04 59:40

It's almost as kind it's actually a really good point you just made. Like this kind of is like Invincible's second origin. You know, like so far it was like, okay, learning to be a superhero, learning the witty quips, getting his costume, high school, whatever, the teen team, and now it's like no, like it's you you fighting your dad for the fate of Earth all of a sudden, you know, it's like a whole thousands of casualties every time they're like exchanging a punch. Uh like the whole the whole stakes and scale of what's going on and what Mark is fighting for and how hard he has to fight for it is just like like from this chapter on, it's a you know, the game has changed. It's it's really uh it's a pretty big switch up. And I imagine at the time when this was coming out monthly, like in the early 2000s, this would have been shocking for people who had been waiting issue to issue, like what's gonna happen, what's gonna happen? It's like I bet it'd be interesting to go back and and experience what that because I'm sure at the time people at the comic book shop are like, Have you checked out Invincible yet? Like, it's gonna, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

It's gonna be crazy. I read it ever since they sent it in early. And you know, interesting, I just gotta bring this up about the speech bubble thing again because all of these colored ones, and I haven't noticed, I guess there's probably ones earlier in other issues that maybe I didn't even notice, but Omni Man has the first couple of them, and then after they have this fight, they kind of go into the subway, it starts collapsing. Omni Man also quote unquote saves Mark from that, which I think is interesting too. But Mark says, get off me to Omni Man, and his speech bubble is now a perfect circle and colored. So I don't I don't yet fully understand what those I mean. Do either of you guys have a thought on what those are for?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:20

Well, I I think it might be really when he's like trying to get something off, because in the last issue when Mark is like talking about how Earth is his people, they were also green, and he was like, get off me, that was also green as well. Um, so maybe it's just when he's like really yelling or emphasizing, but I see what you're saying here.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

Yeah, it's interesting. No, you're definitely right. Yeah, so it did show up before, and yeah, Mark it had them, and then I guess his dad has them at certain points too. I wonder, I don't know, Ben, do you have any thoughts on what I mean? I think that you're probably right. It's definitely emphasis for sure. And maybe that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:52

Yeah, I think I think Max has it. I think it's I think it's just emphasis. It's not in some other books we've read, they use the speech bubbles to really differentiate who's talking. They don't seem to do that as quite as much in Invincible so far. Um, and you're right, it does feel like okay, like Omni Man and we see Omni Man have a green speech bubble and a red speech bubble on the same same couple of pages here, right? Even just same panel. So I don't I don't I don't know exactly what they're getting at with the what red versus green means, but it definitely is uh it's just highlighting how emphatic their conversation is.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

Right. I think you know, another kind of interesting piece of dialogue here as they're going through this fight is um when uh you know Omni Man says, you know, I'm tired of this game. If you choose to stand against me, you can die with them, right? And then he says, I can always produce more offspring, right? Basically trying, and it's funny because it's this is like a facade that I feel like he's trying to hold the board. He's like, I don't even give a shit about you. Like you could die right now, and it's not a problem. Um, and then Mark also socks him in the face again, and then Omni Man just sends him through the fucking ringer, just beating the absolute hell out of him.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:54

But um This is a crazy scene to see in the comics, but also when they eventually translate it into the show. I'm sure you guys have seen a bunch of memes and clips of this fight, but it's kind of all these action beats happen, but even m more drastically like rated R. Like in this uh subway scene in particular, Omni Man holds holds Mark up at to the oncoming train and lets hundreds of people like burst on Mark. Um yeah, so he just yeah, so it's he's like showing like four like having Mark's body kill hundreds of people, uh just holding him in place, and they're like it's it's crazy. Yeah, like it's a bad guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:33

I'm starting I'm starting to think he's a bad guy.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:35

I don't know. Uh I think you're on to something. I think you're onto something. Um yeah, are there any other moments? I mean, they just keep having it's it's really I think the action beats are really well paced with their dialogue. Um, we get these really cool shots now. We have these beautiful sunset pages, honestly. I think everything is purple and pink, like we get this cool gradient of the sky. Um and yeah, it's interesting. I mean, really, it's uh Mark's dad is just trying to convince him, like win him over. I don't think it's working, I don't think he's doing it in the way that Mark is receptive, but he's not just trying to beat him up, he's like he's beating him up to prove a point, to try to show him you have no choice, you gotta join the Viltramites, basically.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:19

I think Mark is truly showing the indomitable human spirit in this. And I was I was looking right now at the part where they start fighting underwater, and this is like the second or third time the Omni Man spares him. You know, you see Mark get like one little flimsy hit off on him, and he's about to let Mark drown, and then he decides not to, and like throws him back on land before beating him up some more, and then throws him into a mountain.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's like just he's taking him cross country, cross-earth, like throwing him just like all over the place. And I think, you know, the big thing um that uh shows up at the end here, right, is that kind of quote that I had talked about, right? This this moment that I had written down was Mark saying, you know, I won't let you enslave these people, it isn't right. Um Omni Man's like, why, why, why do you resist? Why is it you think or what is it that you think this world has to offer? And he goes on to say, Whatever you're fighting for right now will be gone before you have time to enjoy it. You know, you're fighting everything so that everything around you can die. And he says, Oh, think. So this part where he says think, Mark, this it doesn't show up like this in here, but this is the one where it's the meme where he's like putting his fingers to his temple and he's like, think, you know, uh the older you know that we we get, the slower we age, all this kind of stuff like that. What will you have after 500 years? And this is where Mark, even in his most in his like obliterated state, is like, you dad, I'd still have you. And then Omni Man's about to basically like lay into him and maybe kill him, maybe whatever else. And Mark says, Dad, and we see this moment of the hesitation, right, of Omni Man, and then he just shoots off and goes away. And I think the other thing that shows again Mark's character here, right, and how true he is to like the life he's lived and to being like who he is, right, is he never stops calling him dad. He calls him dad even after he's like Beat the absolute shit out of him. Um, and then we get this moment where Omni Man is flying away with his hands covered in blood, but he's actually crying, flying away from Earth, which is just um crazy, dude. I don't know. I just why are we doing this? Why are we fighting, bro? What's going on?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:18

This chapter gives us or issue gives us so much to think about, and I think Nolan, the character Nolan Omni Man, obviously, I mean, I'm not gonna really spoil it, but there's there's a lot of story left. We're on issue eight out of 114 or whatever we said there are, right? So um or 140, I don't I don't remember exactly what it said, but regardless, um we see, I mean, especially him flying off crying, hit him uh explaining his time on Earth, also the other chapters that we've seen him nervously talking to Debbie, practicing how this conversation is gonna go with Mark. It's like to to what extent, to what extent does Nolan really believe all these things that he's saying? Like how much inner conflict is he having about his identity uh as a Viltramite, all these things, right? So there are all these hints. Um and to uh it's not just like some you know super evil for obviously he's doing all this super evil stuff, but it almost part of me feels like this conversation is he's convincing himself of this too, as he's trying to convince it to Mark, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:23

Yeah, I think that I think you're super right, and I think the other thing to acknowledge about Omni Man is I don't think he's not part of the original Viltramites who like do that whole kind of cleansing thing, right? Like he he's also bred into this, isn't he? Or is he original?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:40

I don't know. Uh I can't comment on the specifics of it. They get I think they I think we learn more about it. We certainly learn a lot more about it in the show. And it may change things. So I I've watched the um the most recent season pretty recently. Um so yeah, I mean I don't want to get too much into spoiler territory. I think we're gonna we're gonna learn a lot more about the the Viltram Empire and we're gonna meet a lot more Viltramites as we go. Um But yeah, I mean we could uh at the very least he had a ridiculously traumatic upbringing, regardless being raised on this planet, how insane it is. I mean, like some of the little throwaway comments from the previous issue where he was like it was crazy to learn that people have sex not just for reproduction or whatever. Like he has to learn, he doesn't know about love. Like these are all new concepts to him. Um so regardless of exactly what went down, he's a pretty messed up individual.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:34

That he is, and we'll see a little bit more as we get into issue number 13.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:40

Alright, I'm gonna stop the recording. I'll also record too. There we go. Um, bro, real quick, uh low-key, go uh go on TikTok. I sent you I sent you a the scene, the subway scene. Max and I just watched it real quick.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:56

Like just uh just watch that like 30 seconds. That's funny. I I opened TikTok and my first thing was somebody, some dude who was a Spurs fan screaming about the play. Not he's gonna hold him through the middle of the train. Yeah. That's a bad dude, bro. Also, like the thing with this, I don't know if I'm calling him dad after this one, bro. I don't know what to call you, but I don't know if I'm calling you that, bro. I don't I just I don't know. That's crazy. Wow, that was terrible. Nolan. That was terrible. Nolan, yeah, Jesus. Nolan Nolan, no, no Christopher.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:41

It's a cool example how like I feel like the show sort of across the board is the same thing where it it's it's honestly such a good adaptation where they do they they really follow the story, but they're like let's just ramp it up, like the same idea, and let's let's like take it to 10.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:58

Take it to eleven. All right. All right. Should we jump into issue number 13? Let's do it. You want to give us the summary for this one, Beth?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:06

Sure. Um, let me go. Le dossier. The dossier, indeed. Okay. Uh Invincible 13. So Mark is recovered by medical teams and wakes up from a two-week coma after the fight with his father. Cecil Steadman begins positioning Mark inside of the larger world of government superhero operations. Uh, Debbie, Eve, William, and Art all react to the trauma of Nolan's betrayal and Mark's near death. This issue is mostly aftermath, letting the emotional cost of the Omni Man reveal settle.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:40

Yeah, man. I mean, the first like two panels of this are literally the medics finding Mark just absolutely obliterated. Um, you know, blood, his costumes torn up, all this whatever else. And then we see, yeah, one by one, everybody reacting to the news, right? Like they're all watching it. And uh, I mean, what's even crazier, actually, I don't even think it's this issue. We'll talk about it when we get to the next one. But I mean, Mark's mom get every bit of this, which is just I mean, Debbie's everybody's going through it, but Debbie Debbie honestly might be going through it the worst. I don't know, bro. She's like definitely she's like, she lost just about everything. Yeah, literally just everything. And so we see, yeah, like you said, like Mark is in this coma. Um Cecil, it's kind of funny. Cecil talks about just being like the highest up person in the government that we've like ever seen. He's like, Yeah, bro, the the head of the CIA doesn't even know I exist. Like, I am I am omnipotent as far as the government like goes. Um what's weird is that he almost seems like a in some ways or another, like nice enough guy. Obviously, there's kind of an impossibility of that being the case, which how much power he has, but um also random thought here as I'm thinking about Cecil's conversation with him. When he is talking to Mark and then he stops and he says another time, then is that Mark just like uh falling asleep almost because he's coming out of a coma, or is that just him like zoning out, being like, This reality I'm in is just so terrible that I have to just like zone out for a minute?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:10

I I I think it was just ran all over his face, but I didn't even like catch that he might be asleep actually. But I think I I feel like that was just Cecil being like, Oh, this is like he's still a kid at the end of the day, like let me give him a second. Like, he's a superhero with superpowers and he just went through like some crazy tragedy, but you know, he's like probably what 18, 19 in this. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:30

Or he's or yeah, it works either way, like he might as well, he's so he's so messed up, he might as well be kind of unconscious. I don't know. One uh uh one Scott throwing it to our Scotty Boy, Scotty Boy concepts, pillars. Um, we see a lot of cool scene to scene panel transitions here to to start the chapter, right? Where we're going panel to panel and it's just showing the same moment in time jumping from all these different people with no dialogue, um, which is cool storytelling. And we we like Antonio sort of ran through it earlier, but we see uh Mark's body getting recovered by the medical team to Debbie watching on the TV, to William watching on the TV, to Eve watching on the TV, to um what's his name? Art, the costume maker who is friends with Nolan, uh drinking already. He's already he's already gone through a bottle. Yeah, he's he's like uh you know, and then we cut to Mark in the hospital with Cecil and his mom, and then we cut to Eve in high school looking over at where Mark is supposed to be sitting, like next to her, um, and then cut to William going and knocking on the door trying to check on him.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:41

So And all the packages and newspapers are out in front showing that they haven't been there in a long time.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:46

Right. So that's that's just another a cool you know, I I want to try to call out those um those examples. It's just two, it's just two pages. That's the cover of the comic, and then two pages, and there's no words, and it's done a lot of scene setting and storytelling just with very simple art. Um and it's very, you know, it's very cool. We like to try to try to highlight when when people are um when the artists are really doing their thing like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:11

Doing their thing, absolutely. Yeah, and we get what's interesting, we also get this moment where William and Eve uh run into each other talking about Mark and and that leads us into some other things later on, but um interesting that they I mean they both realize that they both know that Mark is like a superhero, you know, that he's you know, oh you know, yeah, yeah. William is not the guy to hold a secret for sure. Uh yeah, he's giving them away. Um, yeah, and then we get this whole kind of dialogue between Cecil and uh Debbie. And I mean, Cecil, again, he's like, you know, as far as the public is concerned, your husband died, right? So they're basically this kind of Nolan uh character, Nolan Grayson character has died in this world that they've created. Um he's now a superstar. The books are selling like crazy. They're gonna take care of all the financial stuff, they're gonna make sure that that mark goes to uh college. Um it's also crazy that they're like, yeah, bro, we had like our holographics decision or division like put out a version of you that's like talking to the uh you know to the press and like whoever else. So don't be worried if you see yourself on TV. All this, I mean it's so crazy. He's like, you know, I'm like bending like the financial markets, like the buying trends of the public, so that you will be set for life and all this kind of crazy stuff. Um, and it's interesting because he kind of takes responsibility for some of this stuff because he's like, Yeah, I'm supposed to be like the guy for doing like shady shit, and somebody was doing shady shit right under my nose, and I just didn't even notice. So um, and he goes on, yeah, to say, My power is vast. I don't even want to know how powerful that dude is. It's kind of like it's spooky, but yeah, he's he's like the deepest state.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:45

Yeah, yeah. He's kind of reminded me of like the Nick Fury of this universe. Right. He's not just boy for like everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:53

He is that boy for everything. That's that's real for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:55

That's a perfect analogy, honestly. He very much is a Nick Fury type guy in the Invincible world. Um, let's see what else we have going on. We we cut to the teen team. They're not the teen team anymore, they're the guardians. What are we talking about? Um, Eve is pulling up, robot uh is doing some stuff. Rex tries to talk to her, and she's like, We're not we're still not talking. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:17

I kind of love that shit, bro. She's she's standing on business for sure. She's like, what gave you the impression that we're talking again, bro? Nothing. Right? But she's basically asking robot because they don't know where Mark is. She's like, hey, robot, can you keep an eye out? It's also interesting that robot did not know. Uh, because it's been on TV and whatever else. I guess maybe they've just been tinkering whatever stuff that they got in there. But um, you know, Robot's gonna help her try and find him, and so he goes to the Pentagon. I also kind of love that they've got United States Pentagon parking in rear classic.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:43

Right, that's a bit every time they should they're gonna show that every time. It's so funny. The little sign, yeah, parking in rear. Uh every time we cut to the Pentagon. It's also this is now there's sort of the government plot with Cecil and uh his his like number his go-to guy is this guy Donald. So we've already seen them as characters before, but they're gonna be they're now coming way more to the forefront, right? And we're getting this conversation between Donald and Robot, uh, which is kind of like a performance review low-key, and it's not going well for Robot. Um, Donald basically has to tell him Um, you know, look, your handpicked guardians of the globe are struggling. The response time of your team leaves much to be desired, and while you haven't outright failed on a mission yet, the top brass is not happy. All eyes are on you. You need to make sure you don't mess anything up in the coming weeks. You're more or less on probation. So it's kind of you just saying, Robot, you gotta you gotta step it up. You're about to lose your you're about to lose your uh your position as the leader here.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:37

Yeah, and I mean what's interesting about this too is that like robot, you know, the way that he responds is says, I see, understood, right? So he understands, or I guess I don't even know, robot, he, they, whatever else, but like understands that um, you know, they need to improve, right? The whole team needs to improve all these things like that. And my my the thing that comes to my mind immediately is like, okay, I expect that robot can improve this team. What happens when they get to the level of the other guardians of the globe, and Omni Man is I assuming at some point like coming back, right? He's he's off in the outer space, whenever else right now, but Robot is gonna get them to be as good, and so I feel like there's a fight that is brewing with the fact that he I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:19

There's a couple people smiling at me right now that have seen the show, so I don't know, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:24

Yeah, we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:26

Uh, one thing I was gonna talk about is this next conversation with Cecil and Mark is the first time reading it, I actually did not realize that the whole room that they step into goes white. Like I was so locked in on the dialogue, because there is a lot of dialogue here. I was locked in on the dialogue that I didn't even realize the background was white until Mark pointed it out. Um you know, they talk about like the water, like the tap water having chemicals in it, so like he only certain people can see it. And you know, the con as the conversation is going on, you know, Mark is questioning like why he can see Cecil and stuff like that. But also the whole voice recording thing was interesting. The first thing I thought of was about it like um that voice recording being leaked and right.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:08

How is that even how is that even possible? Again, it's like this you know, the CIA director doesn't even know that this guy exists, and now the the recording of this happening has been leaked, like it doesn't really track. Um and so there's gotta be some other shady I mean this is the the captain of shadiness, but there's gotta be some other shady shit that's going on, and who knows? Maybe he's uh using that uh he's probably trying to get Omni Man to come back in some ways or some shit like that. Like there's something that they're doing where they're like they wanna I mean, realistically they probably want to talk to him again. I I can't imagine that that is a good idea, uh unless but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:41

I was also gonna say I feel like with the whole like the microphone chip thing, I feel like Omni Man is way smarter than that to say all of that, but like while knowing he's being recorded both ways.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:53

Right. Uh you know, I think the same thing, and I guess who knows? I mean, I don't, but neither do I. Yeah, but we'll see, we'll see what ends up going on. But yeah, they kind of play off, I feel like, some like classic like conspiracy theories here where they're like, oh yeah, by the way, there's stuff that we're putting in the tap water that stops you from seeing certain frequencies of light or whatever else.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:13

But um Yeah, I mean that's all all these questions are are valid. Like this is supposed to how we're this is how we're supposed to be feeling reacting to the introduction of Cecil, right? Like all it's like he doesn't seem as far as we can tell, he doesn't have any superpowers, but he def his power. I mean, he has a pretty super power, you know. He can make snap his fingers and and make it so that nobody can see things. You know, uh he has control, like you were talking about, all this control over the government and the financial markets and uh the tap water and hologram appearances in front of media. So we're sort of getting getting an idea. We also see they they've recovered the immortals' body, they're doing some kind of experiments on him. Um so and they're talking, you know, Cecil's talking about your dad had the earpiece, it's how I communicated with him. I'm trying to give you one, Mark, so we can, he's sort of recruiting Mark in a certain way, um, trying to bring him into the fold of uh government, government-related superheroes. So um, because as you remember, some of these teams are operating independently, some people are just doing their own thing for their own moral code, and then some people are uh government-contracted superheroes, which is um very interesting implications. Also something that happens in Marvel a lot, right? With the whole uh that's like what Civil War was about, like this, the what do they call them, Sergovia Accords or whatever. That was the whole beef between Iron Man and Captain America, where it's like we need to regulate this so that we're not just causing international incidents, and to what extent do we cede control of ourselves? You know, it's all uh interesting, interesting questions about how superheroes would actually work if it was real. Like, what would this really look like?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:53

You know? Yeah, very true. And we get um, you know, after Cecil and Mark have this conversation where Mark says, Yeah, you know, I'm in, let's let's do this. Um we get again kind of this funny uh jump back where Eve is meeting up with William and uh she basically is giving him the news that Mark is like, you know, they've got him and that he's healing up, and then William, you know, he's he's got some game what I was. He's like, You want to get something to eat to, you know, like celebrate or whatever else, right? And he was like, Okay, okay, William, I see you, right? And uh and I think that they you know go out to to get some stuff. But so Mark and then uh Debbie, his mom also uh end up returning back to uh back to their house, and Mark ends up asking, you know, if she's okay, right? And she's like not even close. And we just see kind of the well, we see like the breakdown obviously of of just what's going on in their home life, but then we also see kind of how complicated this is within like the superhero space where Mark is like sitting there, you know, feeling awful, whatever else, and now he's starting to get the pages from the beeper, right? That he has to go even throughout all the shit that he's dealing with, he still has to go and do the superhero shit um and hear from Cecil and whatever else.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:01

It's funny to think about the beeper like pagers being uh that was like cutting-edge technology back in the early 2000s, I remember. Like I remember my dad had one of those where it would like that's how they would get in contact with him. Like you just have this thing beep, and then you'd go get on the phone or whatever instead of just getting the text or the call.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:18

Is that better or worse than a text? I don't know. Yeah, I'll take a beeper.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:22

Yeah, you have a beeper, hey, let's give us some. I can decide if I respond to the beeper, right? That's true. You don't know if I'm online with the beeper.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:29

Again, very Nick Fury as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:31

Right. Yeah, and that's that's what he's saying. He's saying, um, all right, so the beeper goes, he's like, What do we have, C Sol? He says, first off, never say my name. Uh second, uh, are you wearing your costume? He says, Not yet. So he says, never activate the headset until you're in costume. The beeper is your cover. You can always use that as an out if you're with people. You need to get in the habit of not activating the headset until you see um until you are on costume, so people never see you activate the headset. Whatever. He's basically explaining all these new guide rule, uh, guide rules for how um the relationship between Invincible and the government is gonna work going forward, right? How they're gonna call him to action, that type of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:05

Right, and he's getting called up because our boy Alan is back out in outer space trying to see what's going on. Also, yeah, who is the um like dead guy in space? I mean, I know it's like it's kind of looks like vulture. The vulture, yeah. Yeah. It's a callback, and and like I think the first issue we see omni man yeet that guy. Okay, that's what I thought. That's what I thought. I knew it was somebody that got yeeted earlier, but that dude is looking pretty disheveled up there in space.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:28

They call him like they call him like the hang glider or something. Uh it's not that, but it's something it was like a throwaway moment. Maybe it wasn't Omni Man, but yeah, they we see him get yeeted off screen, and now we see just how far he got he got sent.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:42

Yeah, that's a tough one. But so yeah, our boy Alan is back. Um, he and Mark start having this conversation, and um basically we learn that um the coalition of planets, uh, you know, now that they know that this is Earth, he's like, oh shit, they you know, you've got a Viltramite living among you, right? And again, that they know how bad that is. Um and Mark, you know, admits that he knows that. He ends up telling Alan the kind of the whole story. Um and it's and it's so funny again because they're just sitting having this conversation like on the moon or whatever it is that they are. But um, you know, Alan seems like a nice guy, right? And he also acknowledges that um this again, uh character building moments. Alan Alan acknowledges who Mark is, kind of just being like, you know, it seems like the fact that you kind of like r resisted this at all is pretty crazy. And Mark also says that he's sorry about the Viltramites taking over Alan's planet, right? And Alan has the moment where he says, you know, Dopey, you didn't have any, you know, part in it from the sounds of it, um, uh you know, anything like that. But again, Mark is showing like kind of who his character is, um, and uh just being a I don't know, nice guy, which is interesting in comparison to his dad, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:50

Yeah, and this is big news for Alan and the coalition of planets, right? Like they're they're like the Viltramites are conquering the galaxy, and this is all of a sudden like, oh shit. Mark is a sympathetic Viltramite? Like, is this a Viltramite that is fighting the Viltramites?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:07

Like, this might be a first this might be a unique situation. Yeah, and also the unique situation of the fact that he says, you know, Voltramites are so strong individual that they're virtually unstoppable, but no one has ever heard of a Voltramite abandoning his post or one that defies the empire altogether. So both not only is Mark a different one, but so is uh Nolan Omniman, which is pretty interesting too.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:28

Yeah, and this issue concludes with another just beautiful panel of uh Mark and Alan sitting on the moon having this conversation surrounded by the stars, and you see Earth distance. And uh again, we're circling back to our our core theme about Invincible here, where Alan is like, in the meantime, uh, you know, what about you? With your father gone and all that's happened, what are you gonna do? Um, and Mark just says, finish high school, I guess. Yeah, which uh that is such a great, such a great panel.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:57

Yeah, that's my favorite one so far, probably. And it can't encapsulates really everything that we've been talking about. But so I don't know. One day at a time. Maybe yeah, one day at a time. Maybe he'll finish high school, one planet at a time. Get them grades up. Yeah, for real, get them grades up. Um and that wraps up issue 13. Diving into our last issue for this episode, number 14. Number 14. And so this is Mark returning to action alongside Adam Eve and the Guardians. Basically, we kind of see that they're basically helping out. This is a flaxen invasion. We've seen them a little bit before, they were kind of like aging super rapidly on the planet. Now it seems like they're not. Um, and uh they've been you know preparing for a long time to fight back. They've got these little like we end up learning that they've got these little wristbands that are supposed to be keeping them alive. Uh they don't work very well because they get destroyed. But so anyway, after that fight, um the immortal ends up warning Mark that he's gonna be watching him super closely. Um, and we also learned that the audio from Omni Man basically telling um Mark everything about um his history and whatever else has leaked. To the press, which honestly adds so many convolutions to just the way that that world works, because they'd also put out a story that you know Nolan was just like this regular guy who died, and they I mean, I guess they know they don't know on the same, yeah. I don't know how that works. There's definitely some secret identity, right? In this universe, the YouTube videos definitely have some conspiracies on who that dude is for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:24

Um but the thing in this is like they all the heroes, it's not like Marvel where they like everybody knows Tony Stark is Iron Man. That's part of the joke, too, is like like Adam Eve doesn't even wear a mask, but when she's in her pink Leotard, everyone's like Adam Eve, and then when she's in high school, her name is Eve, and like no one even puts it together, right? So there's some things that are just kind of like the secret identities are uh different. They also differ, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:51

They talk about it when um when Cecil comes in, they're talking about it on the exact details on why they don't know that it's Nolan or Omni Man, because uh noan was name-dropped, which I thought was actually pretty good writing.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:03

That's an interesting point. That's a great point that you make there, too. Um so I guess the wrapping up the summary, this issue shifts the series into a new status quo with Mark trying to move forward under the shadow of his father, yeah, which I think is very true. Um, but so diving into this, I mean, like we have this again fight. I think I think it's interesting. I guess it's kind of to show that like Eve and um and Mark are like kind of becoming part of the guardians of the globe. They're not maybe official members necessarily yet, but they are kind of always there to help out fight against these guys. I mean, I'm assuming that these um flaxons will probably come back in some form again after this. They're maybe not the villain of the week, but the reoccurring villain of of whatever else. And it's hilarious that their their thing that stops them from aging is literally just like a little wristband, which like accidentally gets destroyed by some like random shrapnel or something like this on this guy, and he just starts melting. Um but pretty funny, goofy stuff, and again, uh funny to just see that uh uh monster girl turn back into herself, whatever. She's like, I've got a date tonight, which is also crazy. Somebody keep an eye on that motherfucker who's going on a date with her. I don't know. Or keep an eye on her, I don't know. Somebody's gotta have a good eye at that. Yeah, both ways. Questional parties, yeah, questional parties involved, but that's a different story. Um, but so they fight through that. Um, and then uh yeah, we get this crazy moment where um I keep on wanting to call him also invincible. What is his name? This uh the immortal, right? So he's he's immortal, this is invincible, but basically immortal's like, you know, I know that you say that you're this good guy, but the the apple rarely falls far from the tree. I'm gonna keep an eye on you, and if I see you changing at all, I'm gonna kill you, right? Basically, and uh what's funny is like I don't even know if that's really even like possible like that. I don't know, I don't know what level also like the immortal is at, right? Like he's called the immortal, it seems like he's kind of different in one way or another. Like, why is he the one who's brought back? Supposedly there's something special about his skull. I don't know. What's who is he in comparison? Like, where does he fit in this kind of like Mark Omni Man, other superheroes pyramid, uh multi-sided shape, something?

SPEAKER_04 1:31:09

Well, we did see, I mean, Omni Man ripped his head off and he got buried, and then the And then tore him in half. Mahler twins dug him up, brought him back to life, and then tore him in half, and then Cecil was able to put the halves back together. So he definitely seems to be able to uh even if he's not winning these fights, he uh he can get put back together.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:27

Yeah, yeah, Immortal to a certain extent. Kind of reminds me, maybe in some ways, of like not to go back to Naruto, but uh Naruto Shapun Hidan, if anybody knows who that is. Yeah, right. Reminds me anyway, shout out Naruto, my my people. Anyway, shout out Shikumaru. Yeah, shout out Shikubaru for sure. Um but uh uh yeah, wild. So it's interesting that they, you know, even on Earth, right? It's not uh not even even on Earth, but there's more politics going on within this than uh even were going on before. Um and we also learned that uh Cecil um, you know, this is where we learn that the audio is entirely leaked. We also learned that Cecil can teleport. Uh it costs the American uh taxpayers five million dollars every time that he does it, which is pretty hilarious and on brand too. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:12

Yeah, it is. I mean, it's just it's building the stakes, right? Like uh the the sort of Cecil intrigue is building. Um he's saying the entire recording, everything from the encounter with the mortal to him leaving the planet every single second, completely unedited. It's all out there now. Um, it's being aired in a special, one of the network stations, um, but excerpts have been running in the news and promos for the special all day. Um, so he's still trying to help Mark um help him maintain a secret identity. So we're getting the immortal doesn't trust him, the immortal is pulling up and basically openly threatening him, saying, I'm watching you. Cecil can invade his privacy, teleport into his bedroom, and saying, Oh, everything got leaked. Don't worry, I got your back. But, you know, there's Mark is sort of feeling um all these different parties uh watching him and and um having an eye on him. Then Art, the the costume designer, pulls up to check on the family, and we just see uh Debbie watching the special, hearing everything that Omni Man's so depressing. Uh your mother means nothing to me. I'm telling you the truth for your first time in your life. Um yeah, so Debbie's confronting that she was uh supposedly a pet to Omni Man this whole time, or more like a pet than a partner, whatever, at the very least.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:26

Um what a sack of shit. Seriously. Art is that boy though. He came that's his name, right? Art. Yeah, he came back with another another bottle ready to drink.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:37

But he said, I got you, girl, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:39

Yeah, it just shows the like that he's more than a coworker.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:44

That's true. That's a good point. Yeah, yeah. And then we're back at uh Reginald Vell Johnson High School. Again, I'm gonna bring it up again. I just think that's hilarious because like I said, Reginald Vell Johnson is like an actual person. Like he's like the guy who I mentioned family matters before, but he's like the dad in family matters, he's the cop in um in uh what is that damn movie that people talk about? Yeah, diehard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout out Reginald Vell Johnson. Hilarious. But anyway, we're back at school, and we also see um Derek, right? This guy again, he's the so this is why I think that he I don't know how much he's gonna get involved moving forward, but he's basically like this like metal guy after being um attacked by that physics teacher way back when, and he's fighting against all of these people. Also, Mr. Keen. I don't know who dad is, but they point him out very specifically, which makes me think that there's some shit that's gonna be going on there in the future too.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:37

Um but anyway, I was gonna say um they kind of not like super intently, but they kind of like there's a new friend in the group that I feel like we hadn't have we seen him before. Um I don't know if they drop his name, but all of a sudden he's hanging out with Eve and William. He's talking about like, oh, like me too, like I feel bad about your dad.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:59

This is true. That's that is a very that is very true. Yeah, they did kind of like add a friend to the friend group, and so I wonder how he's gonna show up later on too. Right. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:08

And we see Amber, Amber comes running over and uh immediately smooches him uh in this big like painting. And he's like bro, he like forgot she existed during this time, which is kind of crazy too. Yeah, it does, it does kind of feel like that. And then he has to have a whole uh meeting with the in the principal's office, uh, where basically everyone, you know, everyone at school knows that his dad died, supposedly, mysteriously. So we're just we're building out the uh you know the life of Mark in high school further.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:36

Um uh I was also gonna say one thing that we might not have touched on was um that William and Eve are dating.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:43

Yeah, right. And William is a fucking idiot with the way that he says that shit originally. Like he's like, oh, you know, I didn't even know you guys, uh Mark's like, I didn't even know you guys spoke. And then um William ends up saying he's like, We're going out now, we're totally a couple, and I've got you and your dad to thank for it. And Mark's like, what? And then William, yeah, and Mark, yeah, Mark, he pisses off Mark so bad, and I can't even blame him, bro. That shit is so dumb. You're hanging out with this girl that like I didn't like, but I like, I mean, we were hanging out, bro. Yeah, you can't slide on Eve like that. Yeah, William.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:12

When I'm in a coma, bro, you can't even talk to me about this shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:15

Like, you're doing it while I'm asleep, bro. That's like that's like when Drake was doing whatever with Lil Wayne's like girl when when when Wayne was in jail, you know what I'm saying? Exactly. Yeah, crazy. This is a Drake type maneuver. William is Drake confirmed.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:27

William has to get a face tattoo now.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:29

Yeah, for real, for real, for real. Um, I also think it's hilarious when Mark is in the uh principal's office and uh the principal's like, I have a really good judge of character, and your dad was like a nice guy, yeah, for us, which I think is just funny. Um But yeah, I mean a lot of this, I think kind of like towards the end here, we also it's like again, this juxtaposition of normalcy, right? Like Mark goes back to the burger joint that he quit. Um, and then I don't know where this like manager like gets any balls to like talk shit on Mark like after all the stuff has like gone down and whatever else. But it does take a moment for like it shows that William at least at the very least is willing to stand up for Mark. Uh you know, uh even though he's Drake, he's you know, he's willing to stand up for uh for Mark in this uh in this moment and basically just like uh fight against this um manager at this burger joint or whatever else.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:18

Yeah, and it's saying, you know, they're talking about William sort of pissing him off for uh starting dating Eve, and um he's saying basically he's apologizing, he's saying you have every right to be pissed, and then Mark says, that may be true, but the thing is we're all too young for any of this stuff to be happening to us. We've got no experience dealing with these situations. I can't really blame you. I don't know how I should be ha-acting either. This is all new to me. And that's in reference to the high school drama and the supposed storyline of his dad dying in a freak accident or whatever. So, which is and then on the flip side of this, he's dealing with outer space conflicts uh and other crazy stuff going on. So it's just another example of the the story doing a good job showing that real life is difficult, superhero life is difficult, when they connect, it's extra difficult. It's extra, extra difficult, yeah. And Mark super difficult, it's super difficult. And it's all hard. Mark is having to face uh um all these challenges simultaneously. Um, which again, go calling back to the sort of Spider-Man archetype, right? Like that was one of the things that um Stan Lee and Ditko, when they when they first came up with Spider-Man, that was sort of the there hadn't been a superhero yet that was like a young high schooler and had to be dealing with struggles in his daily life. I think that was also one of the defining things for Marvel from DC was the DC heroes were all these like god-like figures that were super removed from everybody. And then the Marvel, Marvel superheroes were um more relatable in a real-world everyday uh kind of way. So friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Exactly. So Invincible obviously is not Spider-Man, but um part of that sort of energy, energy and uh story, story archetype is um you know, follows through. And that's part of why we I think relate to these, like relate to them in some ways or just like understanding their stories, because um there's stuff we can all sort of you know, anybody anybody could be Spider-Man.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:17

Anybody can be Spider-Man. Um anybody could be invincible, I feel like. Yeah, maybe not. Maybe not. Um and so we we started getting kind of towards the end of this issue where we we kind of get thrown into the government facility. Donald is talking to Robot. Um, we get this new person introduced to the Guardians of the Globe because they're still seemingly falling short. This guy, new guy, bulletproof. Um, he's fast as the Red Rush, almost as invulnerable as uh Omni Man, and the guy makes a joke, but not nearly as evil. Um so they've got they've got more people than the original Guardians of the Globe. Um, and then they also are gonna be having a new consultant. So this is gonna be um uh I cannot. Thank you. Jeez, I every time I think of it, I'm thinking of the invincible, but the immortal. Um and so now, and it's interesting, robot again is a robot, but you can see he's not super pumped about being like having like a partner for being the leader of this stuff. He's like we have this moment where like everything is like I mean, obviously there's some black, whatever else in the in the background, whatever, but there's this moment where he's like, you know, uh after he learns that he's gonna have this new consultant of the immortal, there's just like this panel of robots just in silence, like with the blackness behind him, just like that dude's that dude's pissed for sure. Uh I believe it.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:33

Uh one thing I wanted to ask you guys actually was because we've been talking a lot about comparisons with other heroes, uh, bulletproof, who do you guys think that is a comparison to if there is one?

SPEAKER_01 1:40:43

I almost think of I mean this the boys is obviously way after this, but I think of like A-Train. But um but who would it be at the time? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:51

Yeah, I mean it does say that's that's a really good question, Max. He he doesn't seem um as much of a like a one-to-one parody as some of these guys, right? I mean, like you just read, what does it say? Bulletproof. He was at the auditions you held. Um didn't make the cut. Red Rush. He's as fast as Red Rush, and he's invulnerable as Army Man. He can also uh he can also fly, something your your team sorely needs, I think it'll make a fine addition. So we're gonna get to know him more over time, but yeah, he's another um you know superman adjacent. Yeah, combo guy. Um yeah, but it's it's again it's showing like the as these stakes and and conflicts are getting bigger, the and and you're talking about all this pressure on robot and his leadership with the team. They're like, the team's not up to snuff. We gotta bring Immortal in here for leadership, we gotta bring Bulletproof in here to give you guys some more power. Like, this is not uh also robot's not that good of a robot.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:48

I don't know. Something something's going on with the whatever algorithms he's got going on. But um we get through this and then we get kind of the the the culmination of this issue here where Mark gets home, he's looking for his mom, and he finds his mom basically crying on the ground. Um, and she basically ends up saying that she started making dinner for three, right? Forgetting that Omni Man that Nolan was not gonna be coming home and Mark's there, and then bro, she says some of the most insane. I mean, again, she's very emotionally distraught. I understand where it's coming from, but she says, Why did you have to fight him, Mark? Why did you have to drive him away? Right, which is just so like it is like heart-wrenching in like every direction at once. Like it's like she's obviously hurting, which is why she's saying this in the first place. Mark has to fucking hear this, being like, bro, I just stood up for like all of us against arguably one of the most powerful beings in existence, and and he's my dad, and now my mom hates me for doing that, right? Like, that's it's really gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, heartbreaking feelings that are going on here.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:49

Yeah. I think I mean that's a crazy, it's a crazy place. It leaves us there. At the at the that's the end of uh end of issue 14. It's Mark Mark just holding his mom. Started we see some tears starting to come down his his face too as he's just holding the weight of everything that's happened to him. Um and here we go. It's we've we've set up this new, the new, the next invincible arc.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:12

Next invincible arc, and he's gotta go to school tomorrow. Tough. He's gotta graduate high school. Yeah, yeah. The fact that the principal's like, I mean, it's cool that the principal's like, well, help you out, but the fact that he still has to like actively work to graduate high school, even though he's got a scholarship, yeah, it's gonna be tough. But those were issues eight through fourteen of Invincible. Um crazy, crazy what we're getting into, and it's uh only gonna get crazier, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:38

Concluding thoughts, Max.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:40

What'd you what'd you think, man? Uh amazing. We get to see a lot of Mark and Nolan development and um poor Debbie. Poor Debbie. Poor Debbie. Um, I hope she gets better, honestly. But yeah. Uh I love Cecil as well so far. Yeah, I I like the ongoing teleportation thing. And uh I feel like we're fully we're fully in it now with how much these past seven chapters have set up. So I'm I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:06

Yeah, I totally agree. We're we're in it now. Uh I I think you're right, bro. The the statement I'm put on this is poor Debbie for sure. Um, and uh yeah, we're gonna get into some serious shit. I think um I was surprised with the original twist, surprised as I could be with knowing what I knew at least beforehand. But now that I've got the backstory twist for Omni Man, that was definitely a big one for me, for sure. What about you, Ben?

SPEAKER_04 1:44:30

Yeah, it was great. I'm just having I'm having a great time reading this. Uh great time chopping it up with you guys about it. Um I'm glad we're doing this. Um I gotta go watch the show. Yeah, seriously. The show is so good, the book is so good. Um we're yeah, we're just we're just lucky we we got an abundance of cool stories. Um, absolutely. And that's like my you know, I think like one of my literally one of my favorite things is engaging with engaging with media and then talking with friends about that media. So I'm just a happy camper. We're we're doing this.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:02

Yeah, bro, we're happy camping. Facts. Um but anyway, yeah, we are all happy campers. Um, but we're uh we'll wrap this one up here. Thanks as always, Max, for for joining us. Uh if you want to give another shout out to the people, let them know.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:16

Shout out to Debbie. Um, yeah, thank you guys again for having me. It's always a pleasure, genuinely.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:20

Absolutely, bro. Same to you. And we'll wrap it here. This has been invincible eight through fourteen kickback comics. Look us up at Instagram on Instagram at kickback comics underscore pod. Um, and we'll be here next time too. So we'll see you then. Peace everybody. Later,