Invaders #1 (2019) Review
Marvel's war-time group return with a whole new team.
There has been an excellent storyline sneaking around Marvel since the latest NOW wave, focusing on Namor once again becoming King of Atlantis, growing his forces to once again go to war with the surface world. It was prominent in The Avengers ongoing, a major factor in The Best Defense one-shots, and gets a whole new dimension in Invaders #1.
The Invaders was the name given to the war-time Timely Comics characters, featuring Captain America, Bucky, The Human Torch (the android not Johnny Storm), and Namor the Sub-Mariner as the most famous members and those four are who we see introduced in this story.
Right off the bat, this is a Namor story first and foremost. The flashbacks to World War II are about the heartbreak the Sub-Mariner felt when losing someone he was close to and a brilliant scene of Captain America needing to give him a talking to. The present is all about Namor unifying the seas and his march to war, while Cap readies himself to have a talk with Namor while Jim Hammond - the android Human Torch - does research into Namor’s history for his biography on the Invaders.
Many writers have done good stories with the character but it has never felt so much like there’s actually more than one dimension to Namor until this story. The Invaders represent a time when Namor was fighting alongside humanity to stop a greater threat instead of just being the entitled jerk he is generally characterized as. It is a book worth reading solely because it makes Namor even more interesting than he usually is, and Chip Zdarsky deserves particular praise.
The art by Carlos Magno and Butch Guice is also great. There’s a stunning detail to their work, especially when you see Captain America in his scale mail armor or the line work when Namor is surrounded by the Sea Blades. The characters are all unique and there’s also some really subtle coloring by Alex Guimaraes to distinguish flashbacks more distinguishable.
Five stars!
