Michael May over at Blog@Newsarama, has a nice little piece about the nature of "jumping in" on continuity heavy super hero books, and how it's much less of a turn off than you'd think. He very quickly goes through a chunk of the Image super hero books currently out, including one of my favorites - Invincible:

Like Noble Causes, Invincible has a lot of unanswered questions that I need answers to. I jumped in on issue #38. So far, there’s a giant, orange, one-eyed alien who’s just found out that another character is from the same race as Invincible and wants to use our hero to start a rebellion against the other members of their race. There’s another guy who’s just learned that he’s actually more robot than human. Invincible’s girlfriend is apparently being tempted to fall for another guy and her friends are encouraging her in that direction. (It’s the old, My Secret Identity is Killing My Personal Life scenario, but Kirkman and Ryan Ottley present it in a way that makes you care just as much as you ever did about Peter Parker’s similar problems.)

There’s the Lizard League, a gang of reptile-themed bad guys who are struggling to find a leader right now. There’s Invincible’s purple, adopted brother who seems to have mysterious origins but is soaking up information at an incredible rate. And there’s the human guy in the big spaceship with all the little brain-octopi swarming around and attached to him. Who is he and why is heading towards Earth? Don’t know. Who are the Guardians of the Globe and what are all their powers and personalities? No clue. Who is Atom Eve and why is Invincible smooching her when he says he’s in love with his girlfriend? Couldn’t tell you. Yet.

Thanks to Eli, I've been reading Invincible for a few years now. The quality of the book, while always consistently tight, waxes and wanes for me. After a certain point, I seemed to have lost my enthusiasm for the story, but my enthusiasm of the characters kept me going. There were moments where my excitement for the book would peak again, but only to fall back to the inevitable low it was before.

This all changed with issue #38.

It was a moment we've all been waiting for.

Anyway, I love Invincible. It is one of the most fun super hero comics out there right now. And the way Michael May describes it, only reminds me how weird and fun the book is. After having followed the title for a few years now, I seemed to have forgotten that part. That Invincible is just supposed to be the funnest super hero comic around...

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