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Invincible #110 – Is This The New Miracleman #15?

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Do you remember where you were when you first read Miracleman #15? By Alan Moore and John Totleben, published by Eclipse Comics, it portrayed a superhero/supervillain fight through a populated city that started with people having been tortured and eviscerated to get Miracleman's attention and the death count just started to raise through the roof. In many ways, it's what people expected would have happened in the Superman/Zod scene in Man Of Steel but we never actually saw. It's the logical conclusion of having superheroes fight in cities that Marvel and DC had just never taken at that point. Though that would come later.

It became legendary, going further than comics had before and for years would become the impossible to track down issue of the series as its reputation grew.

We might be seeing something similar happening with Invincible #110. There's certainly a lot of fuss.

Every so often Robert Kirkman shakes up the world — the very universe — around Mark Grayson and leaves readers aghast. "Invincible" #110 is one of those issues. – CBR

Some have seen it as highlighting the issue of women raping men,

Perhaps it has to do with the superhero genre itself. Most superheroes are constructs to masculinity, hyper buff, ultimately destined to save the day. They're seen as being invincible. So the idea that a monument to strength, the subconscious representation of the ego of men, could be overpowered and molested is practically absurd. This is why it almost never happens. In censoring itself, the comic book genre is also silently reinforcing the notion that men don't get raped. – IMGUR

Some see it as too much.

My gut reaction is that I feel like this has gone too far. Writer Robert Kirkman has previously jokingly come close to breaking the fourth wall in Invincible to remind everyone that it's his comic and he's perfectly fine with having increasingly controversial events take place. I sincerely hope that this isn't intended to be seen in the same way those events were, to the creative team's credit I really don't think it is. But this has really pushed the limits of the type of content that's expected in Invincible. – Panels And Pixels

For some, the momentousness of this issue is sinking in.

Beyond the obvious incident, there's an incredible theme of racial purity being upheld that I think might be undercut, but is definitely present and makes the whole thing EVEN MORE uncomfortable and despicable. I'm going to come out and say that this is an important issue of an amazing comic, and not just from the plot's standpoint.  – ComicVine

Others are just repulsed.

Then Kirkman rapes Invincible.

No, that's not hyperbole or an example of that tired fanboy moan of "such-and-such raped my childhood!". In the pages of "Invincible #110," Kirkman literally has Mark Grayson be raped by a female Viltrumite.

I don't know why I was surprised. For over a decade this has been a go-to trick for the bigger publishers. If a character feels as though they're getting stale, you either murder their significant other, rape them, or have them become a villain. Kirkman delivers a slight variation on the theme in having the act perpetrated against the book's protagonist, rather than a supporting character. He also extends the scene far beyond the usual panel or page into a nine-page sequence whose ultimate end is obvious from the moment the rapist says "Do you honestly think I don't realize how much you'd enjoy this?". The scene is lengthy, brutal, and entirely disgusting. – Capeless Crusaders

The Outhousers have been sounding off….

Summarises what I always thought, that Kirkman's just a more successful Mark Millar.

I remember when Kirkman was a fun writer, I really do.

This book used to be fun but now it's shocking just to be shocking. I'll miss Ottley's art.

I'm so done with this book!

Kirkman talked to MTV about his motivations.

It's very unfortunate that rape has become a go-to thing in superhero comics. There has been other female on male rape in comics, there's been an insane amount of male on female rape in mainstream superhero comics. And it is a very strange trope that's worked its way in.

"Invincible" is a creative exploration of, "okay, this is a very weird thing people are doing in superhero comics. Let's see if we can do it in a different way, and hopefully a better way." That's always the attempt.

Here, we are trying to explore these familiar tropes that come in, but it's important because fiction is always a place you can explore things that are very uncomfortable in real life; and especially in superhero comics where the world is so unreal, and strange, and alien.

To creep in with these very real moments that are these things we don't like to talk about, and don't like to analyze in real life, to make the stories powerful.

And to CBR, saying,

It's just another attempt to bring something that's a bad part of real life into a superhero world and analyze the ramifications of something like this happening to someone in superhero comics. It's a great medium to be able to deal with real-world issues against a fantastic backdrop that is completely unreal and see how those differences in the situation change how characters behave. It's really all about exploring Mark's character, and I can say it's a very hard scene to read, and it's meant to be that way.

When Alan Moore was asked about the frequency of rape in his comic, he pointed out how, in life, rape occurs far more than murder, and yet no one blinks at murder being portrayed in comic books. It's more than just whether you write these kind of scenes of course, how they are portrayed is a factor, as are consequences for a character.

But, since this is an American comic book, there's really only one way its success can be judged. And that's by the free market.

I'm told by a number of stores they sold out their ordered copies straight away on opening and put in orders for more immediately, and it was one of those retailers that gave me the tirtle for this piece, comparing the reaction, from men and women, to that of Miracleman #15. A second printing of Invincible #110 is no doubt expected soon. And because on eBay, a copy of the comic, raw, has just sold for $40Copies are being offered for sale for $100.

On Wednesday morning everyone could buy a copy at their local comic store for $2.99. But that was then.

Miracleman #15 currently sells for $150, raw...


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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