Flashback Review: Invasion!
A few weeks ago, I compiled a list of collections that DC should put together in order to secure my hard-earned fanboy dollar. For some reason or another (most likely sheer stupidity or a hangover the size of Poughkeepsie,) I left out my absolute favorte of the large DC crossovers. That's right - Invasion!
For the uninitiated, Invasion! was a three-month blockbuster crossover that DC unleashed upon fans in the summer of 1988, which, not at all coincidentally, was the very summer I turned 14 years old. 14, it has been scientifically proven, is the perfect age to read a 240-page, three volume miniseries and most of the related ancillary comics that concern themselves with the invasion of Earth by aliens determined to keep the whole super-hero phenom under their slimy thumbs. Featuring plots and breakdowns by Keith Giffen, over-the-top scripting by Bill Mantlo, art by McFarlane, Giffen, and fledgling talent Bart Spears, and a cast of a few hundred, Invasion! is an example of a comics event that, much like Civil War, can be pitched to a layman without their having to know the last twenty-five years of continuity. This is why I think it'd be a fine addition to the same series features the Superman: Our Worlds At War book and the Doomsday omnibus - it's sellable on its own merits to people that want to see giant superhero action that doesn't require much thinking.
However, is Invasion! any good? I'd say so, even if it ranks much higher on the "Sheer Dunderheaded Amounts Of Punching And Destruction" scale than the "Quality" barometer I tend to prefer.
The rotating art kind of hurts the flow (McFarlane seemed to be having a fine old time but I suspect Marvel had just hired a trucking company to drop off an embarrassing amount of money at his doorstep) and the third act seems both overlong and rushed, but any comic series where I can say "I really enjoyed Bill Mantlo's over-the-top captions" is likely to find an audience. One of the real strengths of Invasion is the way everyone is brought up to speed quickly and in a way that doesn't cause pain to the die-hard Legion fan that knows that Dominators are really, really heinous, already. At the time this came out, I had never read any Omega Men (I think I'm still dodging that bullet) or the other science-fictiony DC titles, but I felt perfectly at ease and can still recommend this to people who like the tone and material the company was putting out at the time.
The three-issue miniseries that contains the core story should only set you back a couple of bucks each and any crossovers should be in that same range. The highlights in the latter category for me were the Animal Man, Justice League International, and Wonder Woman issues, but your mileage, understandably, may vary. Check it out when next you're staring at the bins or, hopefully, on a bookshelf in the near-ish future.
For the uninitiated, Invasion! was a three-month blockbuster crossover that DC unleashed upon fans in the summer of 1988, which, not at all coincidentally, was the very summer I turned 14 years old. 14, it has been scientifically proven, is the perfect age to read a 240-page, three volume miniseries and most of the related ancillary comics that concern themselves with the invasion of Earth by aliens determined to keep the whole super-hero phenom under their slimy thumbs. Featuring plots and breakdowns by Keith Giffen, over-the-top scripting by Bill Mantlo, art by McFarlane, Giffen, and fledgling talent Bart Spears, and a cast of a few hundred, Invasion! is an example of a comics event that, much like Civil War, can be pitched to a layman without their having to know the last twenty-five years of continuity. This is why I think it'd be a fine addition to the same series features the Superman: Our Worlds At War book and the Doomsday omnibus - it's sellable on its own merits to people that want to see giant superhero action that doesn't require much thinking.However, is Invasion! any good? I'd say so, even if it ranks much higher on the "Sheer Dunderheaded Amounts Of Punching And Destruction" scale than the "Quality" barometer I tend to prefer.
The rotating art kind of hurts the flow (McFarlane seemed to be having a fine old time but I suspect Marvel had just hired a trucking company to drop off an embarrassing amount of money at his doorstep) and the third act seems both overlong and rushed, but any comic series where I can say "I really enjoyed Bill Mantlo's over-the-top captions" is likely to find an audience. One of the real strengths of Invasion is the way everyone is brought up to speed quickly and in a way that doesn't cause pain to the die-hard Legion fan that knows that Dominators are really, really heinous, already. At the time this came out, I had never read any Omega Men (I think I'm still dodging that bullet) or the other science-fictiony DC titles, but I felt perfectly at ease and can still recommend this to people who like the tone and material the company was putting out at the time.
The three-issue miniseries that contains the core story should only set you back a couple of bucks each and any crossovers should be in that same range. The highlights in the latter category for me were the Animal Man, Justice League International, and Wonder Woman issues, but your mileage, understandably, may vary. Check it out when next you're staring at the bins or, hopefully, on a bookshelf in the near-ish future.
