69: Invincible Pt 9 - Robot, Monster Girl, Dinosaurus, and Everyone Dies ☠

THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE INVINCIBLE COMIC BOOK

This month's Invincible re-read episode is volumes 17 and 18 of the comic.  Also yes...the Sept episode is coming out in Oct. It's because there are 5 Mondays in Oct. Deal with it.

The Dinoasaurus epic concludes, we finally get all the backstory on Robot and Monster Girl in the Flaxan dimension, and as per usual in this comic - we get some major changes for our main characters by the end of it all.

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Original Music by Alex Productions
Show notes include some AI generated content

Transcript

Dave (00:01.782)
Welcome back to the Comic Dudes, a podcast about comic books and comic book related things. Even though we've been talking movies a lot lately, it's time for September's Invincible episode. It's the ninth Invincible episode for us. It's volumes 17 and 18 of The Trade Paperbacks. It's Ultimate Collection volume 9. And what issue numbers is it, Matt?

Matt (00:29.615)
Oh boy, you had to ask me that. Uh, it is issues 91. I didn't do it. My recap, like normal, it's 91 though, through one of two 91, 91 through 96 is issue volume 17 and 97 through one of two.

Dave (00:33.718)
You always got the issue numbers on deck.

Dave (00:40.366)
There you go.

Dave (00:46.07)
We didn't need all that detail, but thank you. Thank you. Nonetheless.

Matt (00:47.379)
Well, you got it. You got it.

Dave (00:51.221)
You get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

Matt (00:56.168)
That's what my daughter just learned at daycare, preschool or kindergarten. So that's pretty awesome. Like she literally just started coming home saying that. So that's why I had like that look that, like I just got punched on the nose and was stunned, like a punch out character. Cause like I was not expecting that to come from you.

Dave (01:12.782)
Well, as an aging professional who has a 9-5 office job, I've had to say that phrase a whole lot more often than you would think or imagine. We're not gonna get into what I do or why I have to say it, but it's unfortunately not an uncommon phrase in my life either. Uh.

Matt (01:24.518)
Alright.

Dave (01:34.606)
So anyway, if you're new here, we are going to talk about spoiler content in the Invincible comic. This will also spoil the show for you. So if you do not want spoilers for Invincible, the show or Invincible, the comic, now is the time to leave.

Dave (01:55.338)
If you are still here, we're gonna assume you're okay with spoiler content. So I go through and give a recap of what we read. And then we'll have a discussion. We'll talk about the things that we liked, the good, the things that we didn't, the bad, and then whatever else sort of falls into the controversial and or hot takes category, let's kick it. Oh, this is gonna be a lot. I'm gonna think the water on standby. I got a lot of notes. Honestly.

Matt (02:20.71)
This is a lie. This is.

Dave (02:25.014)
I left out some stuff because there's just so much and it leaves a little bit to discover for yourself if you haven't read this yet but still listen to the episode. It would be a 90 minute episode if I talked about every single thing that happened in these two volumes. Kirkman does go bell to bell on these issues, man. There's no waste of space. So anyway. If you recall, we ended...

Matt (02:26.702)
yet.

Matt (02:31.347)
We- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Dave (02:54.462)
volume 16 with Mark getting infected with the scourge virus.

He was on the Viltrumite ship on the moon. He was being nursed back to health. Dinosaurus figured out that Thragg wanted to kill Mark and I guess Nolan as well, and then escaped with Mark and almost died himself. That's where we pick up. And we pick up exactly where volume 16 Cliffhanger left off. Mark and Dinosaurus are okay.

Um, Eve, not knowing what has happened is actually on her way to the moon to confront Thrag and does so. Um, he tells her what happened. Um, Zandale, AKA Bulletproof is still invincible. Um, and then during sort of, it's like, like a classic mistaken identity type of hero fight at the end of the first issue of volume 17, um, the, the

Zandel bulletproof invincible guy and Alan and a few others are attacking dinosaurs. Mark is trying to say, hey, like, stop, like, don't do this. He punches Alan to get him to stop and he just shatters his arm at the elbow like his arm. There's also a really cool moment in this issue where Mark is explaining kind of who and what dinosaurs is and he

Matt (04:22.315)
Yeah.

Dave (04:32.37)
I love this quote. He says, he's not evil. He's just pure intelligence. I'm going to talk more about that later. Uh, moving on the next issue, the squid men attack the Pentagon. And we also learned the scourge virus may have depowered Mark completely. It's normal for a Viltrumite recovering from the scourge virus to temporarily lose their powers. They typically will get them back. There's also a chance that they won't. So Mark is sort of struggling with not having powers.

We also finally start to get the backstory on Robot and Monster Girl and their time spent in the flaxen dimension the story beats from here until Really volume 18 we kind of go back and forth between what's happening now And then what happened between robot and monster girl in the flaxen dimension, so I'm gonna jump around a little bit. I apologize for that

Matt (05:17.055)
Thank you.

Dave (05:30.97)
Moving on to the next issue, this one goes very fast. There's a lot of backstory interspersed here with Zandale and his family, his mom and dad. He's sort of covering for his brother because his parents don't know his brother is dead, his twin brother, so he just sort of pretends to be his brother. There's a whole, it's like a kind of a sitcom storyline that plays out there with the way he has to live a double life. And also this issue

The Flaxons invade Earth again. And I'm gonna start calling Robot and Monster Girl, Rex and Amanda from here on out, because this is really when the two of these characters, to me, really come into their own and they kind of get humanized a little bit too. Not that they weren't human already, but more to that coming up. Rex and Amanda cannot believe that after all the time they spent in the Flaxon dimension and all the things they accomplished there,

The Flaxons are yet again invading. At the end of this issue, Monster Girl, she's in Monster Girl form, she gets shot by an armored Flaxon at the end of this issue. The Guardians of the Globe are defeated. And then Rex sort of has this moment of recognition where he is sort of stunned to see who he sees in front of him. And the next issue, this is basically just a fight issue. It's a big fight issue.

Robot shows up with a ton of drones to help with the fight. There's also a really like a one panel, like, hey, what just happened where a Viltrumite lends a hand in the fight. More about that later too. And we get even more backstory with Rex and Amanda and their time in the Flaxen dimension. We see them fall in love. We see them win this war that they were fighting against the Zaxal Royal family who was in control of the Flaxen Empire and doing...

horrible, horrible things. They're the reason why they keep invading other dimensions. And we also, we learned this earlier, but I didn't want to lead off with this, but at this point, we're deep into what ends up being 700 years that Rex and Amanda spend in the flaxen dimension. Just an inconceivable amount of time for a human to live. And that's very, very important to really what-

Dave (07:54.542)
turns into a metamorphosis of both of these characters while they're there. Obviously we've already seen Monster Girl, AKA Amanda, is grown into her body a little bit more. She's no longer looking like Amanda. And Rex is much older and this is why. Time was different in the Flaxen Empire. We already knew that. We're in the Flaxen dimension. And they were there for a very, very long time. What amounted to just several months on Earth was 700 years in the Flaxen dimension. But I'm digressing. At the end of this issue,

Matt (08:03.799)
Hehehehe

Dave (08:24.854)
Uh, monster girl is, is back up on her feet. Um, she knocks the helmet off of the leader of the invasion and he reveals himself to be her son. And the next issue, and Kirkman did a fantastic job weaving back and forth between this fight on earth and everything that Rex and Amanda were doing in the Flaxland dimension. This next issue is all backstory, uh, of their time spent there. Um, and I'm going to really just, I'm not going into detail here, but

We see what happens when power corrupts. We see a couple that is deeply in love drift apart. There's a military coup and we already know there's a child, but we also learn, um, how that child came to be. Um, when Amanda and Rex were split up during this 700 year time spent there, um, she fathers a child in monster form. Cause as a monster, she is a male. Um, she follows a child with.

one of the Zaxals, the royal family that has been deposed in the Flaxen dimension. So very, very complex, very, I don't want to call it soap opera-esque, but it kind of was. We wrap up this trade with everyone just finishing the fight essentially. They defeat the Flaxens, they defeat the Flaxen leader, they take him into custody. Mark and Eve, because Mark wasn't there, he's

She comes back to Mark to have, quote unquote, just regular sex, because he still doesn't have his powers. I'm gonna have a bit of an awkward conversation after that about, you know, sort of what it's like for him not having powers and how their sex life maybe isn't as great now that he doesn't have powers to lean on while they're doing it. Amanda also visits her son and heard Rex reconcile. But we also learned something.

Very sinister about Rex. Right at the end of this trade, there's a flashback to right before he and Amanda stepped through the portal to return to Earth permanently. He spoke to one of his advisors, and I should mention, Rex was the leader of this planet. The war that was fought ultimately put Rex into power. He spent hundreds of years perfecting this civilization. And his last standing order before leaving that dimension,

Matt (10:39.342)
Yeah, small thing.

Dave (10:53.526)
was to have the Zaxxel bloodline hunted down and executed because he was made aware of this child and of Amanda's sort of tryst with someone in the Zaxxel bloodline so a bit of a downer if you're a Rex fan not a cool thing to do man that's how we end volume 17 we kick off volume 18 with the conclusion

of sort of the Zandale, I guess not origin, but you learn his origin and he tells his parents because he walks back in the house, his girlfriend is there, his arm is in a sling and his parents kind of put two and two together because they thought that his brother was bulletproof or invincible as he's been lately and he has to explain to them that his brother was kind of evil. He was a very smart

Matt (11:27.496)
Yeah.

Dave (11:50.558)
very driven scientist who really wanted to give himself powers. He kidnapped Zandale and was going to perform experiments on him. The experiments worked, but killed him in the process. His parents did not believe Zandale, they blamed him. He has a very rough relationship with his parents, they loved his brother, they didn't so much love him. And it ends with like his girlfriend, and him accidentally murdering his parents. There's like this whole like, there's a cover up in a funeral and it just sort of like

ends. And that's it. Like at the start of that issue was just very abrupt. And then it cuts to an interlude with Mark at Comic-Con and he's meeting the creator of Science Dog and everything that the creator of Science Dog is saying about what he did at landmark issue 100 of Science Dog is really just him talking about what he just did with the whole Zandale plot line that he's been threading for the last, you know, eight months or so, which I thought was really, really cool. And there's also a really funny scene where Eve has to like

Matt (12:28.447)
Yes.

Dave (12:49.09)
fly Mark away from the con and a little Eve cube, cause he still doesn't have his powers. Alan also releases Nolan from jail back on Teleskria, apologizes for jailing him. This was, this goes back to like the scourge virus stuff when Alan and Oliver were coming to earth to release it. The Dolan's been in jail since then. It's been a long time. Dude's just been locked away and his wife, she's just been Debbie's hanging out by herself on an alien planet, I guess.

Matt (13:05.151)
Yeah.

Matt (13:10.533)
You

Dave (13:19.734)
But he gives him the mission and then at the end of this issue, Mark also gets his powers back while he and Eve are having sex. She's on top and then he sort of floats up in the air while they're doing it. Matt loved this scene so much. He actually texted me the scene earlier this week just to tell me how incredible of a writer Kirkman is. I couldn't agree more and that made me laugh. I was actually having a pretty tough day at work. I was walking down the hall when I got that. So thanks, Matt, I appreciated that.

Matt (13:34.807)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe hehehe hehehe

Matt (13:48.443)
No pun intended, that'll lift up your day. But like... You're...

Dave (13:50.926)
It did. It did. Moving on, Mark and Zandale meet up and Mark says, Hey, man, like you can just stay invincible. Mark goes back to the blue and black costume that I don't like. And he's like, Yeah, I'm just not really I'm not worried about the day to day stuff. Like, I don't really care if people see me doing hero stuff. Then he goes to see Dinosaurus because Dinosaurus has been left to his own devices. While Mark was depowered. And he finds out that

Matt (14:03.935)
Love it, dude.

Dave (14:19.67)
Dinosaur sort of went off the deep end again and tells Mark that he's doing something in Los Angeles. So Mark scrambles the Guardians of the Globe, he calls Cecil and anyone else that can help. And they think the plan is to use all these machines that are underneath the city to cause an earthquake and kill a bunch of people. That was just a decoy to distract them from what Dinosaur was actually doing, which was destroying enough.

polar ice to flood the coastlines all over the world and kill enough people to prevent permanent climate change. And it's at this point, Mark confronts dinosaurs again and says, hey, I'm like, we're done. I'm done. No more. And the next issue, Rex devises a plan to save all the cities, evacuate the humans and sort of make things right. Because you can't just put that ice back.

You gotta have a better solution than that because that water is going to stay up. Ultimately, his solution is he creates two artificial moons that are satellites that are going around the earth that will keep a permanent low tide. Now, I'm no scientist. I think that probably has some other implications to not having a high tide ever. But we don't need to get into that because this is a superhero comic and it doesn't really matter. While that's happening, Mark and dinosaurs fight and they are both going back and forth.

Matt (15:31.017)
Yeah, exactly.

Dave (15:44.33)
really trying to bargain with each other and they both really get to a point where they go that no one's going to budge like one of us is going to get killed. This is the only way. Also while this is happening, Thrag gathers all of the villager mites on the moon and tells them they're not to interfere.

Dave (16:03.614)
Um, next issue, while there is a, uh, a news chopper sort of showing live the mark and dinosaurs fight, dinosaurs rips mark in half and the world thinks that he is dead. However, he was just captured by dinosaurs and the explanation here is that he has teleportation technology now as well.

He had created a clone of Invincible just in case he never got his powers back but the clone never really worked. It was just like a lifeless husk. So he quickly switched while they were underwater, Mark's body for the clone, and he ripped the clone in half to make people think that Mark was dead. Also, it's sort of ingenious the way that he keeps Mark immobilized. He's figured out that the weakness for a villager might as really their equilibrium because of how much they...

fly and how fast they are and how strong they are. The only way to disable them is to disrupt their inner ear with their equilibrium and that's how he keeps Mark immobilized. There's a long conversation that's happening here while Mark is sort of trapped in his own mind. Mark appeals to dinosaurs in a way that we've been kind of building up to. There's been so many times over the course of this reread that we've been doing where we've talked about Mark wanting to use his brain more

be a little bit more impactful and bigger picture. And this is really a great example of Mark kind of bringing that idea home in the way that he has always envisioned doing so. And he ends what is probably the largest threat to the earth with his words. And by doing so, dinosaurs actually does have a change of heart. And it's kind of, I don't wanna say too much because I'm gonna talk more about this in our discussion, but...

The short version is he understands that he really can't be trusted. He's going to end up going too far again. The only option is to kill him and he asks Mark to do so. And then that issue ends with Mark walking out of their like mountain layer covered in blood. Cecil shows up, uh, kind of hangs it on Mark pretty hard, lets him know that, you know, you're kind of responsible for like hundreds of thousands of people potentially dying.

Dave (18:23.946)
So you can like work for me again, like the good old days, or you can go to prison, like it's up to you. Mark chooses to work for Cecil again, because you know, what else are you gonna do? There's a lot of Mark reflecting in this issue about his past, about his growth. And at the end, Eve tells him that she's pregnant and that they're gonna keep the baby. She doesn't wanna have another abortion. We also have a very low key return of Angstrom Levy. And it's kind of funny because he comes back to earth and then sees that.

that Mark is dead and is like sort of surprised and upset about that. I'm sure that will resolve in the next episode that we do in our next read, but for now, that's the only angstrom levy that we get in volume 18. The penultimate issue in this trade and in our reread for this episode, it's your standard post-event, post-crisis issue. It's a lot of resolving things and seeing the after effects of what had happened. They're doing a lot of cleanup.

Matt (18:54.728)
Yeah.

Dave (19:22.942)
Mark and Eve show up to help. Rex gets super pissed when he finds out that he allowed Mark to remain free after the dinosaur's failure. Remember, Mark broke him out of captivity, begged everyone to trust him after the Las Vegas incident, and it really kind of blew up in Mark's face in the worst way possible. We also get the return of Immortal, who appeals to duplicate humanity and says, hey, I need to go and help. I know we have kids, but I need to do the right thing for other people's kids. Thought that was a really cool, impactful.

Um, immortal moment and there's some growth in that character now that he's got a wife and kids. Um, Nolan and Debbie also end up staying on earth, but Cecil goes to see them and kind of, he kind of like gives it to Nolan straight. He's like, look, man, no one's forgotten who Omni-Man is. Like everyone saw what you did. You can't just be like walking around on earth. Uh, so I'm going to exile you, but you can live here in the guardians of the globe, old moon base. Like it's awesome here. Whatever you need, let me know furniture.

I got you, but please don't just live on Earth. You gotta stay here. And then Mark and Eve also get a super powered OBGYN to help with the pregnancy and the baby, which I also thought was a pretty cool Kirkman thing to do. At the end of this trade, our last issue, a lot more stuff still happening. So Thrag sees Nolan and Debbie in the old Guardians base on the moon.

He attacks, Debbie almost dies, and he tells Nolan that he is going to kill him because his bloodline is the descendant of Argil, the former ruler of Viltrum and the proper heir to the regency of the Viltrumite Empire. Nolan survives that fight because he's aided by three Viltrumites that Thragg had just recently dressed down for various reasons. One was Anissa, who just has not

Matt (21:13.751)
He he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he

Dave (21:19.79)
partnered anybody on earth because she doesn't want to give birth because she's one of the few female Viltromites. She's like, dude, you're asking me to do something way different than all these other guys, like I'm not signing up for that. And then the other two male Viltromites, they're in love. They're, they're doing the thing that Nolan had said we should allow to happen because the way that earth and humans changed me, I know can happen for the rest of my people and we find out that Nolan was right.

Matt (21:20.414)
Yeah.

Dave (21:48.886)
So those three actually intervene and save Nolan and Thrag sort of, he kind of does like the, fine, I'm gonna take my ball and leave, and just flies off. And this issue ends with Nolan actually taking control of the Viltriman Empire. He is now the grand Regent of Viltrim. He addresses the people, Mark is there, Mark comments about how it's like super weird that his dad just is the ruler of Viltrim now, which yes, that happened very, very quickly.

Matt (22:12.96)
Yeah.

Dave (22:19.15)
And then the trade and our last discussion point potentially is Mark proposing to Eve. And she does him a solid by using her powers to create her perfect engagement ring because he was about to propose with no ring. Rookie mistake, but thankfully Eve is pretty awesome and helps my man out at the end.

Matt (22:45.371)
I feel like, well done. I feel like some dad at T-ball, when you got to the last issue, you're almost there. I went like round the bases, and you're almost there, Dave, keep going. Very, very well done, recap. Very insightful as always. So I'm sure you probably don't wanna keep talking. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you don't wanna talk anymore, but.

Dave (22:59.007)
Thanks.

Dave (23:03.314)
We got more where that came from. Yeah.

Dave (23:10.742)
Yeah, you're definitely gonna start us off with the good because I need a break. How long have I been talking? I'm sorry if you don't like my voice, everybody. 20 minutes, good lord.

Matt (23:14.9)
Okay, I'll give you a slight break. 20 minutes. Yeah. Dude, there's a lot there, like you said. All right. So the good. I honestly love doing these listening to what Dave has to say because he breaks this stuff down. But thank you, Robert Kirkman for writing. What's

Dave (23:23.52)
I know.

Matt (23:43.307)
with this whole the whole issue the whole volume 17 he is read richards but written properly he falls into his work constantly he takes over this empire he's a king he is neglecting his wife and his wife goes off and has a little tryst as you said uh with someone of the what was the

Dave (24:09.678)
The Zaxle. The Zaxle's.

Matt (24:12.319)
the female Zaxel and apparently they have a child. And I like, this was like, I appreciate Kirkman writing. He humanized all these characters, like you said. Like, that was like the first thing I thought of when I was reading volume 17 was like, we have like 50 years of Marvel comics and if we treated Sue like this in real life, like Sue would leave him. There's no way she would go along with this dude like burying himself in his work.

Dave (24:36.558)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (24:39.831)
constantly at all times. And I mean, I'm sure I know I've done that and in previous careers. And I noticed that when I had a career change and I was like, I can't be that guy because you end up losing people that are special to you. So like that really like resonated with me that like, yeah, dude, you can't just always bury yourself in work. Dude, this whole thing, like I don't even, yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

Dave (25:02.446)
Hold on, hold on, real quick, stop, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Do you remember what's coming at all? Do you remember anything about

Matt (25:10.283)
Dude, I- okay. Uh, Rex, yes, I do reme- Yeah, no, I remember the big- Slightly remember the storyline. I know what happens, yeah. Yep. Well, I-

Dave (25:14.9)
Don't say it, don't say it, but... Okay.

Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, no worries. Yep, you know what I'm saying, okay. I just, I'm excited for you to walk back what you just said in a few months. That's all.

Matt (25:29.415)
Okay, yeah, so we're walking back.

Dave (25:31.626)
It's not, he's not going to be Reed Richards written right for long.

Matt (25:35.375)
Oh no, for sure. Um, well, you just brought up another point. Like, do you remember anything? Dude, I don't know how I didn't remember any of this dinosaur stuff. Like when you were like, Oh, just wait, it gets so much better. Like, like a month or so ago, dude, I didn't remember any of this. So like reading this again, it, this whole art to me, uh, the whole theme that I got from it was just this mentality that

I've fallen into sometimes, but I'm not really in a crazy position of power. But like, this is the definition why you can't have an ends justifies the means mentality going into things because like they ultimately think they are right. And, and thinking about it more as you're doing your recap, I think if Mark was there, dinosaurs wouldn't have went off the deep end. Like that's why you need like good counsel and other people to surround you and people in leadership positions that aren't just yes men.

Dave (26:26.41)
No, you wouldn't have.

Matt (26:33.535)
But when dinosaurs is left to his own device, devices, it's catastrophic. Like I remember the Las Vegas thing, but I do not, I did not remember this entire archive at all. So this was, this was a lot, man. And I was thinking about it today.

I mean, the Viltrum arc, the Viltrum Night War, that's something I could just pick up at any time and kind of read. This death leading up to the issue 100, this is also something that I could just, hey, I'm having a bad day, let me just like pull this off my bookshelf and read it. Like that's how entertaining it was to me. I really enjoyed it.

Matt (27:15.304)
Uh, I the comment that we both said that I had about Mark defeats dinosaurs with his logic and not just his fist like we love that stuff. Um Cecil man Cecil I said it last time Cecil was right dude. He's been right this whole time as much as we hate him and he's slimy We we need the government. We need the government. We need it. We need it dave. We need we need that oversight. Not really but

We really don't need the government.

Dave (27:45.346)
Do you remember there's a thing that Cecil said that just like it was extremely satisfying. I've worked with villains before. That was very satisfying, but it was also kind of a bummer to be forced to look at Mark in that light. You don't wanna see him that way.

Matt (27:51.938)
I've worked with films before.

With a wake, he had the big old smile on his face. He was...

Matt (28:04.143)
Yeah, like he really, dude, he really, he really is, man. Um, uh, I mean, on that part, like to the lead up to that, Kirkman and the, well, I'll save that for my hot takes portion, if I remember, but the real relationships in this book, I'm telling you, as someone who, and people that have been in this situation

Those pages where Eve tells Mark that she's pregnant, that's legitimately what my face looked like during that. When I found out I was having children for the first time, was that I wrote down the emotions, but it's like, you're stunned, then you're really happy, and then you're like, oh shit, what did we do? Are we prepared? That's literally like Kirkman, map that out to a T.

Dave (28:58.062)
Hehehehe

Matt (29:03.363)
So that's happened to me twice. So I know what that definitely, uh, that definitely feels like. And I appreciated that. I called that the dude cycle when you find out and you go through those three emotions. Um, the dude cycle, man, it's just, if you get it, you get it. And then ultimately my favorite, my other good point that I really liked, Nolan, man is like, he's really just like becoming a great character.

Dave (29:14.715)
Dude's like

Matt (29:33.655)
And he was right. Cecil was right. And Nolan was right. He said, let's give these Viltrimites an opportunity. I think this planet's going to change them. And yeah, like that whole, I feel like those two issues, I wanted more of that. It was like just really abrupt. Maybe that's a bad thing, but I just wanted more of that. And it was just really cool to see that he's justified. And

You know, I know Dave likes to paint and we talk about humanity that we're like, you know, it's a bunch of bad people, but you know I'm the really optimistic one. And this for me, this is like humanity to me. Granted, and I'm with like Dave, like people aren't gonna change overnight. Like it takes time. If people really wanna change, it's going to take some time. But ultimately just...

Dave (30:13.312)
I know.

Matt (30:30.279)
Staying optimistic and hoping people can turn around. I think it's the appropriate way to go. But then you got to thrag and he's not gonna change. So, you know, it is what it is. But that was my good. I know you lay it on me, lay it on us.

Dave (30:47.878)
I got a few things that are different from yours a little bit. I'm not going to go in any particular order. Depowering Mark. Loved that. Loved that because...

Matt (30:58.47)
Ooh!

Matt (31:02.059)
How does it feel?

Dave (31:05.278)
It's, you know, one of the joys of this comic for a new reader and one of the things that got me into it was how special Kirkman made it feel when Mark got his powers. And he got to sort of go on this ride with Mark of new superhero, like excited to be like his dad and all this stuff. And then he gets that taken away. And you know, you've, the...

Marvel and DC have depowered their heroes over and over and over again. But their depowerings are never really as, they're never as real as what happens to Mark. There's shots of him, he questions his sexual prowess. He questions his place in the world. He's sitting and watching this huge invasion.

Matt (31:52.523)
Yeah.

Dave (32:01.59)
by the flaxen's happen on his couch. And like Eve leaves him there to go and try to help. Granted, she doesn't make it in time because she can't fly fast enough and it's in London. I just thought that was, it was a nice change of pace. We got another different take on Mark's psyche. And I don't know, I just really enjoyed it.

Matt (32:10.687)
Hehehehe

Matt (32:26.727)
Now he knows how Debbie feels when she got left behind all the time.

Dave (32:30.302)
Yeah, yeah. The entirety of Rex and Amanda in the flaxen dimension. That was, at this, it was just so good. This was Kirkman at his best. One of the things that he excels at is writing.

very

The content that he writes, he sets comics against zombie apocalypses and insane dimensional things like an oblivion song and what's his horror book? I never remember what it's called. I read like half of it. Yeah. Like the exorcism book. I can't outcast. You've got the horror backdrop of outcast. You've got the really over the top superheroing.

Matt (33:14.935)
Kirkman's War Book?

Matt (33:22.158)
Oh, I have never even read that one.

Dave (33:27.806)
of invincible and I'm really just speaking to Kirkman stuff that I've like read well enough to be able to speak about, but

Matt (33:35.463)
I really like Firepower. It's got a great family dynamic. I know you haven't read that, but Firepower is well too.

Dave (33:39.646)
Yeah, well, I mean, but that actually, that reinforces my point, because the thing that he does the best is to write really human, relatable content in very extreme, non, quote unquote, real scenarios and settings. And, you know, I could gush about the Rex and Amanda thing for an entire episode probably, because I just, I love it so much.

Just sitting and I found this is my third read of Invincible in the last, well, no, sorry, second read in the last three years. And just sometimes I would just sit and think about, while I'm reading, I would pause and you think about what it would be like to live with someone for 700 years. And you barely age during that time.

Matt (34:19.702)
two years. Yeah.

Dave (34:39.702)
the things that they saw and did and learned and experienced. And Rex says it in one of the issues. He says, you know, we've experienced something that no human would ever experience or should ever experience possibly. And they even try to cover that up when they're going back. He's like, hey, we need to like return the way we left and no one can know how long we were really gone because no one would understand. And it just wouldn't be good. And I'm sure he's right.

Um, but I, you know, I want, I'm going to talk more about this later, but man, that that's, it's, it's such a great human story, um, that also has really, really far reaching implications for the comic. And, um, again, I'll talk more about it later. Uh, this one's not so in depth, but that, that Viltrumite showing up during the flaxen fight, like

the one panel cameo during the Flaxen fight. I love it. I love that kind of stuff. It's like when the trash bag lands in Paris that Mark threw when he got his powers, like 12 issues later at the beginning of the comic. Yeah, like those types of things, it's just, you know, I can't help but tip my hat to Kirkman with that kind of stuff. It's just so cool. And you know, the reason why he did it, you learn later, because it's one of the Viltrimites that Thragg dresses down.

Matt (35:40.116)
Hehehe

Matt (35:48.811)
I forgot all about that.

Dave (36:08.15)
because of whatever they're doing, not doing, what they're not supposed to be doing. And he says, one of my mates was in danger, I wanted to protect her. And he was like, isn't that what you want us to do? Have kids, I had to protect the kid. And Thraak was like, no, they're meaningless, who cares? Just go knock up another one. Another thing that I have in the good, I just love that.

Matt (36:18.911)
Yeah.

Matt (36:28.82)
Yeah.

Dave (36:36.978)
when Amanda turns into Monster Girl, who we now know is a dude, not a girl, when a monster has got fully functioning male sex organs and can father a child with a species that is totally different from a human. It's like one of those things that it sort of answers the how does Superman have sex with Lois question. Like

Matt (36:47.155)
Yes. Yeah.

Dave (37:03.718)
you have those types of you hear about those types of conversations where you're like, how do these superheroes like, do it with regular people? Like, how does this stuff work? Like, how do they not die? And like, this is sort of one of those types of scenarios where like, okay, well, yeah, I mean, I can see how that could work. I just thought it was really cool. It was a very interesting thing.

Matt (37:21.971)
to quote Dr. Ian Malcolm, I think, nature finds a way from Jurassic Park. Life finds a way, life finds a way.

Dave (37:26.742)
Life, life finds a way. Come on, man. If you're gonna show up and quote JP, you gotta come correct.

Matt (37:33.935)
Oh, I know you're there. I know you're there. You got my parachute. It's all good. You know what I meant. You know what I meant.

Dave (37:37.662)
man I did life finds a way uh then my last thing in the good um we didn't get a lot of Oliver in these two trades we did get a very important Oliver scene and that was him showing up and apologizing to Mark and owning that he fucked up with the virus with the scourge virus I mentioned it I think last episode in the episode before that the ship is turning slowly

Matt (37:50.013)
It's not a good thing.

Dave (38:07.694)
on Oliver and I'm, I'm on team Oliver now. And this is another step in the right direction for Oliver while he grows up and stops being an annoying child. I was a big fan of that.

Matt (38:20.267)
The annoying child arc is back. Reserving theaters for yourself is back.

Dave (38:26.092)
No, he's, it's not back. He's, he, we're on, we're on team Oliver now.

Matt (38:30.519)
That's good. All right.

Dave (38:34.513)
I do have three bad, but I'm gonna pass it back to you

Matt (38:37.483)
bro I'm not even going to front I don't really have a lot of bad I only have like one nitpick thing I know you love that whole monster girl and Rex thing I feel like it could have been maybe like two issues shorter and my only complaint my real my only real complaint I hate I hate just time jumps in general but like whatever I could follow it

Dave (38:44.112)
Okay.

Dave (38:59.587)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (39:01.807)
Otley arc, man, it's just jarring. It's just jarring when it's anyone but Otley, and then we all say it like every volume, but it was just... It made sense here because it was like a different time. So I get it, like that would be a good application of how you would use an alternate artist. But once I'm just once you give me the Otley, I don't want to go back. Like volume 18 was straight Otley and I loved it. So I don't know. It was the

The past storyline with Rex and Amanda was good. Like it was very well written and you brought up some really good points. I do think it was maybe a couple issues too long, but that's just me.

Matt (39:44.831)
That's it. That's all I got. I really enjoyed this art, but yeah.

Dave (39:49.834)
Yeah, me too. Me too. I mean, I only have a few quote unquote bad things. And they're really like, they're not necessarily things that I didn't like about.

story or what we read but for example there's a one of the bad things was rex really pretending to change to win amanda back and then him ordering the erasure of the zaxal bloodline i think that was a that's a bad thing because that is a that is a portent of ill omen for the entire cast of this comic and that's all i'm going to say

Matt (40:19.374)
the bait and switch.

Dave (40:34.35)
That's all I'm gonna say, but didn't like that. Wasn't a fan of that. Not because I think it was something that shouldn't have happened or that it was dumb. I just know what's coming. It made me feel bad. My bad is really more about things that made me feel bad, not necessarily things that I thought were bad about the comic. Comicsology guided view sucks again. There was a bunch of things that like, I was skipping panels, like it was like really like.

Matt (40:51.563)
Got you. No, that's okay.

Matt (40:56.791)
Oof. Hey.

Dave (41:02.89)
skipping around before going to the next panel, like lots of problems with guided view this time, particularly in volume 18, not as much in 17.

Matt (41:12.211)
Have you, so you're using comicsology, have you noticed that the covers are blurry as hell, but the comics are normal looking?

Dave (41:15.66)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (41:21.512)
Doesn't happen to me.

Matt (41:22.815)
Huh, okay.

Dave (41:24.958)
Are you reading on your desktop monitor or? Really? Oh.

Matt (41:26.739)
No, I'm on my iPad, on my iPad. Like the covers are like, they look like they're in SD. And then when you go to the actual issues in the pages, the interior pages, they're in high definition and they look great. But I don't know, take a look one time maybe. Are you reading the trades or are you reading single issues? Okay. I have, well, you know me, I have them both. Digital trades and single issues. I'm talking about the single issues, but.

Dave (41:42.766)
Okay. Trades.

Dave (41:53.126)
Okay, I don't have any single issues to look at so Yeah, could be I don't know. I mean who knows you'll never know cuz common psychology sucks and Amazon doesn't care

Matt (41:54.815)
Maybe that's why.

Matt (42:03.455)
Glad we got that in.

Dave (42:07.602)
And then my last bad and this is again things that made me feel bad. And I may end up soapboxing a little bit here and if I do I apologize. Dude dinosaur's death. That shit was sad.

Matt (42:27.535)
Yeah dude, it's pretty sad.

Dave (42:29.666)
And that character, I think that, I remember reading the comic when it was first being published and I'd get the single issues and like the first appearance of Dinosaurus, I was like, what is Kirkman doing? Like, this is so corny. Like, I don't get it. And then, you know, you get this, you get this really complex and unlikable character, but also,

Matt (42:45.95)
Yeah.

Dave (42:59.062)
The way that Kirkman writes this guy, man, it's also really easy to feel bad for him. And I don't know why, I can't quite put my finger on it, but this is, to me, this is like a really tragic character. It's somebody that, and I mentioned this in the recap, where Mark is like, he's not evil, like he's just pure intelligence. And intelligent people, like really intelligent people, people with very high IQs, we're talking genius level people.

Oftentimes those people struggle with human connection, with just everyday interaction, with relating to people, relatability, all of those things. They're just mentally they're on a not necessarily a higher level, although in some cases they are, but it's a different level of existing when you're that smart. And a lot of the time people like that.

fall victim to their own intelligence. And Dinosaurus is sort of one of those types of characters for me. And it just bums me out, man. I just like, you root for the guy to be doing better. And part of that, I think is because Mark is so bought into being able to redeem and control Dinosaurus. And because we spend so much of this comic rooting for Mark at all times, it causes you to root for Dinosaurus as well. And...

Matt (44:22.615)
Hey, Cosine's off for him.

Dave (44:24.914)
Yeah, and the culmination of all of that is us having to watch Mark come to terms with his own mistake and then have to kill this person who he thought of as a friend as well, despite the fact that he got mad at the end and realized that what he did was wrong or maybe he could have prevented had he not lost his powers or whatever. We don't get into that, but it's gotta be really damaging for Mark to have to go through that. And you can see it.

the way that Ottley draws him walking out of their mountain base. And the fact that the death happens off panel, you don't see him kill dinosaurs, that makes it even heavier and sadder. And man, it was just, it's weird because every time I read this, it hits me harder. And this time was the worst. It really bummed me out. I had to pause for a second before I kept reading. It was tough.

And again, it's in the bad, not because like, not because I thought it was poorly written or silly or dumb or didn't belong in the comic, it's just because like, it really made me feel bad. Like it made me feel some kind of way. I wanted to just, I want to talk about it.

Matt (45:30.164)
Hehehehe

Matt (45:38.963)
No, I think like, one, he didn't ask for these like power. Like he didn't do anything to get these powers. Like he's just a guy.

Dave (45:44.502)
Yeah, it's just some dude who has like no idea, you know, who dinosaurus is or like, you know?

Matt (45:49.671)
Yeah, it's like the Incredible Hulk, but like intelligent and like, you know, high intelligence, very sinister. And I also think, like you said, like, you know, I like a good Mortal Kombat where they show all the violence, but it does hit you like that this death was off panel. It reminds me of if you've ever had to put a dog down, like or anything like that, like it was, it was a mercy killing. Like at the end, he did kind of come around. He's like, dude, you're right. Like it

Dave (46:15.246)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (46:18.951)
It's one thing when you're conquest and you're ripping people's intestines out and you're going through mountains and like, whatever, you kill this character and like, yeah, dude, I'm kind of bummed Conquest died because he was an awesome character. But like, Dinosaurus is like, there is a strand of good in it. There's more than a strand of good in there. And like you said, it's like, he's a victim of his own intelligence. And we know people, I interact with people like that every day in academia that like, you're just like way too smart for your own good sometimes.

Like that's just it. You need to have a little bit of country boy and you're like way too smart for your own good and like, yeah, he just accepted his own fate and that just makes it even more depressing.

Dave (46:53.433)
Yeah.

Matt (47:05.559)
I'm sorry, you had to go through.

Dave (47:07.822)
That's okay. That's one of the things I love about this comic. There aren't many pieces of media left, and there surely aren't many being created that can really get you to feel something, like really feel something. Like they can, there are things that can elicit emotional responses. Like Guardians of the Galaxy 3, you get emotionally manipulated in that movie, and you are...

Matt (47:10.475)
the emotional ride.

Matt (47:15.549)
Yeah.

Dave (47:35.802)
elicited to feel something and what they want you to feel is sadness. But it's not the same. It's not the same as what this is. This is a little bit different than that because for me what I feel is a much it's on a much deeper and real more real level than

Dave (48:04.691)
amounts to animal abuse in the movie.

Matt (48:07.339)
Yeah, I think it's because you're spending so much time with this as well too. And the story is ultimately, it's about kind of like the human condition. It's about the funny stuff. It's about me texting you, this man's got his powers and he's getting one off and they're having a great time and his powers are back. And then you come from that to a mercy killing. I mean, it's like this, I mean, for me, it's Walking Dead Invincible Saga and like the Last of Us video game series. Like that.

Dave (48:17.965)
Mm-hmm.

Dave (48:22.454)
Hehehehehehe

Dave (48:27.327)
Yeah.

Matt (48:36.027)
I think about, still think about The Last of Us at least once a month. Like, it's just like that, they hit home with you. You know, it's just, it's crazy. So good.

Dave (48:38.774)
Ugh. Yeah. Brutal. Yeah.

Yeah.

Dave (48:49.246)
Alright, I got some hot takes. You got some hot takes?

Matt (48:51.563)
I got like, well, we talked about my one. I have one that the most important issue in this whole, both of these books was issue number 97. I did not like the first time reading this through. I did not like Zandell at all. I thought he's a piece of shit. I really liked issue 97 that was just kind of like little interlude, filled in his story.

Dave (49:11.646)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Matt (49:20.319)
His origin story, obviously artly art, so I loved it even more. I will tell you as, I might get on my soap box a little bit, you know, me, Mr. Diversity and Inclusion, which I'm not always, but like, I really appreciated someone knowing how to draw a black character properly, because we, trust me, we don't always get that, especially someone who can draw like black hair properly. We don't always get that. We don't always get a good representation.

Dave (49:40.674)
Hehehehehehe

Matt (49:49.291)
So I appreciated that as well too. But it was like crazy, the origin story. I'm sorry. I had way more pity for dinosaurs than I did his parents. Like his dad, especially, like his dad sucked. His mom sucked too in that issue. But like his dad really sucked the whole time. So when his girl popped him in the, or popped his mom in the head, like I didn't feel sad for them people at all. They were pretty awful to their son. So I-

Dave (50:01.203)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dave (50:16.97)
Honestly, man, I don't know how hot that take is. Like, I agree with you. That's terrible.

Matt (50:20.119)
Okay, just like, where's, alright. Your dinosaurs part one and part two are like, eh, it justifies the means, whatever. Yeah, they're pretty awful people, but uh, I really like, that was a good... I like that, obviously the arcs that we got were good. I really enjoyed that issue. And then the last two issues, I was just like wanting more of that. Like, we kind of said earlier, the whole uh, general thrag and Emperor Nolan now. Uh, I wish we got a little bit more.

Dave (50:24.782)
Yeah. Heh heh.

Dave (50:47.967)
and region.

Matt (50:48.875)
Grand Regent Nolan, I wish we got a little bit more of that. And then the other hot take was Cecil was right, but we already talked about that. Why we need Mr. Govment, the G-men. That was probably two hot takes.

Dave (50:55.832)
Yeah.

Dave (51:02.254)
Okay, okay. I have three, although one, two, two of them I've already heard discussed, so we won't spend a ton of time on them. But I will just reiterate a couple things. So hot take number one, the time spent in the Flaxen Dimension by Rex and Amanda is directly responsible for one of the worst things

to ever happen to Mark and a lot of other characters in this comic.

Matt (51:32.455)
Oh, when is it?

Matt (51:37.13)
This is 10.

Yep. I'm like, volume 10, it's going down. I can see it already. There's Rex's on the back. It's going down.

Dave (51:44.526)
Yeah, yeah. Hot take number two. And I've already spoken to this as well. But I had some thoughts written down. So I'm just gonna say them again. I'm just gonna reiterate how I'm feeling here. Because I do think this one is kind of a hot take. I think a lot of people probably don't really feel this way. But I think, again, more dinosaur talk. I think that he's a very complex character.

in the guise of something very goofy and what appears to be on the surface, very evil. But at times I feel really bad for him. He's misunderstood, he's misunderstood. He's trying to do right, but approaching it the wrong way. And that is an extremely, extremely relatable problem for anyone that has lived life.

Matt (52:24.555)
This really...

Dave (52:44.262)
As an adult, if you're an adult, there would be more than one opportunity for you to try doing the right thing and end up approaching the problem from the wrong way. Ranted, it's a much different scale in the comic, but there's a complexity to this character that is both infuriating and makes me pity him. And I love that. It makes him one of the best characters in the comic. Full stop.

Matt (52:56.933)
It.

Dave (53:11.97)
hot take, I think. I don't know many dinosaur lovers.

Matt (53:13.051)
I feel like you need to write. Can you still write a letters page? This really messed you up. This really messed you up. You need to write a letter.

Dave (53:22.386)
I mean, you know, maybe if you reread Invincible in a year from now, if you read it twice in two and a half years like I did, maybe you'll feel a little bit differently about the guy. I don't know. Also, you know, sometimes when you read something, and I think it was actually you that said this in a recent episode of Invincible. What you're going through at the time and some of the things that you've gone through in life are really gonna change the way you react to some of the stuff that you're reading in the comic.

Matt (53:28.848)
That's true. That's true.

Dave (53:52.002)
time so you know I don't know what that says about me but I'm on team Dinosaurus I guess my last yeah we need our dinosaurists

Matt (54:01.683)
I don't know, man. Maybe that's why global warming's happening. I wonder if...

Dave (54:11.602)
You know, I know no hate to anyone that might listen to the podcast that lives in Las Vegas, but The dude was on to something there Let's give you all time to evacuate first and then turn that shit to glass that's the right thing to do Yeah, I know man, right real My last hot take and I know this one is going to be a hot take and I have a feeling you're gonna

Matt (54:25.579)
I'll take some cheap energy. These energy bills are going up. I'll take some solar power.

Dave (54:38.422)
You're going to take me to the mat on this one. In fact, I know you're going to.

Dave (54:45.914)
The Rex and Amanda story where they're living in the flaxen dimension and all of the things that they do there, their entire 700 year story that we get distilled into, you know, probably like three, four issues, the top three arc in this book.

Matt (55:10.611)
I can't say that yet, because I don't like...

Matt (55:16.363)
I mean, I would put Viltrum War above it. The second arc of this I liked.

Dave (55:17.058)
There's this

Dave (55:22.098)
There's tons of stuff that's amazing in this comic. But if you were gonna make me force rank stories told, I would put the Rex and Amanda in the Flaxen Dimension stuff in the top three. And I'll tell you why, even though you haven't asked. Gonna tell you anyway. So.

Matt (55:27.93)
Yeah, for sure.

Matt (55:42.688)
Let me talk to you.

Dave (55:49.918)
It goes back to the way that Kirkman does such a great job, eliciting an emotional response. And I sort of touched on it earlier and I was talking about how, you know, I just spent some time like reflecting on what that would be like to live with someone for 700 years.

Dave (56:12.466)
It's, it, the things that they've probably gone through would be enough to break somebody. There's one part where Rex is kind of getting on Amanda about, you know, like, Hey, you could like, try to learn the language here and maybe you wouldn't feel so isolated because I speak the language and I'm doing fine. And she's like, dude, I'm not like a genius. Like you are. I. I tried for.

Matt (56:41.552)
I tried for three, yeah, 300 years.

Dave (56:42.198)
decades to learn the language and I can't do it. How long?

Matt (56:47.103)
said three, I think she said like 300 years. Yeah. She's like, I try.

Dave (56:50.19)
300 years. Just think about that for a second, man. Think about trying to learn a language for 300 years and failing, and there's only one person out of everyone that you encounter where you live for 300 years that can speak the same language as you. That must be the most isolating and depressing feeling at times.

Matt (57:13.695)
Yeah, and the person's like, figure it out.

Dave (57:17.182)
Yeah. But there's also someone that you've fallen in love with. You think you're going to spend the rest of your life with. And I mean, you spend about a hundred lifetimes with, um, and it's all said and done, it's just, man, it's just such a unique, it is such a unique and interesting way to tell their story. And he resolved so many things.

Matt (57:19.273)
Yeah, that's...

Matt (57:28.425)
Yeah.

Dave (57:46.458)
We fixed Amanda's aging problem. She's no longer getting younger in body as she uses her powers. We thought we solved the problem with the Flaxons invading Earth every few months, which was decades in between for them, but just a few months on Earth. There's just so much stuff that has been

leading into that. And then again, it's like the stuff with Mark throwing the trash bag and like, they left what like in comic, in monthly comic terms, they were they left like two years prior in monthly comic terms. And we didn't find out what happened. Like they came back relatively quickly. But we didn't find out what happened to them for a while.

Matt (58:29.299)
Yeah, that was a hit.

Dave (58:44.394)
And again, that's exactly what Rex was talking about. Hey, we've only been gone a few months to them. They don't know how long we've actually been here. And that's what he gave us in the real world time as this comic was being published. They were only gone for a few months. And then he made us wait so long to find out that they were there for 700 years. Dude, it's a masterclass in writing superhero comics. It's a top three arc.

Matt (58:50.361)
to them. Yeah, yeah.

Matt (59:12.663)
This is like the crossover when he's in the Spider-Man comic, like things like that, just taking your game to the next level, like craftsmanship like that.

Dave (59:16.702)
Yeah, exactly. Like, yeah. Yeah. No one's doing stuff like this, man. And no one probably ever will. And if they do, dude, they're just a copy of Robert Kirkman.

Matt (59:27.999)
Hehehehehehe

Dave (59:30.338)
Sorry. He did it first and probably did it better and is probably still doing it better.

Matt (59:40.175)
I could see it. I can see it. I remember the last arc being really good too. The the Rex arc as we'll call it too is very good.

Dave (59:41.078)
That's it.

That's my last hot take.

Dave (59:50.026)
Yeah. So we do have coming up, we have three more invincible episodes. We've got October, November, and December. At some point, we're going to have to do a plus up because there are seven volumes of the trade left and we read two a month and we have three months.

Matt (59:58.494)
Yeah.

Dave (01:00:18.754)
So the math ain't mathin' unless there's one month where I read three trades. So this isn't so much for our audience as it is for you and I, but we're gonna have to talk outside of the recording here and figure out which month we're gonna do a triple header. Any parting thoughts on our ninth Invincible episode before we sign off?

Matt (01:00:19.304)
Okay.

Matt (01:00:40.415)
Just stellar as always, looking forward to cracking into the next issues. We might have to do three next month so that we can get rolling on it. Get rolling on it immediately. But no, just epic. Just want to read more, so.

Dave (01:00:48.642)
Hey man, I'm with you there.

Dave (01:00:55.23)
I think I have to go back and look at all my notes, but I think that this month we both had the fewest amount of bad things to talk about. Not many complaints this time. Not many complaints.

Matt (01:01:03.347)
Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I killed it. I only have like one thing. Yeah, there really wasn't. I don't know.

Dave (01:01:13.47)
If any of you have complaints, you can find us on Twitter or find me on threads. The way to do that's gonna be in the description of this episode, either audio or visual, whichever your preference is. And if you like the podcast, please give us a review on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Share with a friend, share it on Instagram, whatever social media platform you prefer. But the growth helps us, the more we grow.

easier it is for us to keep you in the podcast. We like doing it so help us keep doing it. All that being said we'll be back in I don't know when. This is the Invincible episode so it doesn't come out on the regular cadence. Who knows when this is going to drop but we'll be back in an indeterminate amount of time probably a week maybe two but until then take care of yourselves everybody.

Matt (01:01:52.147)
So focus up.

Matt (01:02:04.236)
Peace.

Dave (01:02:06.294)
Bye.

Matt (01:02:07.744)
Bye.