Invaders #10: Tangled Up in Blue

As Invaders appears to be moving toward its conclusion (if December’s solicits are to be intuited as such, which, given Marvel’s track record with axing books with the twelfth issue and then restarting their numbering the next month, isn’t a huge stretch of the imagination), writer Chip Zdarsky isn’t even remotely letting off the accelerator. The conflict between Captain America and the rest of the Invaders versus Namor continues to be a thrill-a-minute ride, and issue ten is no exception.

Turning Cap and Bucky into Atlanteans is seemingly a fun novelty at first, but then turns into a crucial plot point once Cap has to venture to the surface and can’t breathe without a special device. (A “plot” device, as it were, but cool nonetheless…) It all leads up to an epic confrontation between Cap and Namor (complete with dramatic red lightning for effect!) that gets cut short for reasons I won’t divulge here, but needless to say, the endgame calculus just shifted drastically.

It’s interesting to see the competing philosophies between Cap and Namor, which in a way is what this series has been about from the start. Namor has been the big-picture protectionist guy, willing to do whatever – no matter how heinous – to defend his people. Cap, meanwhile, is willing to risk it all for the sake of his friend’s soul, no matter what heinous thing he does. Big scale versus small. The forest versus the trees. No matter how far gone Namor becomes, Cap always believes in his friend’s inherent goodness, and his own ability to pull him back from the brink. Everyone else is caught in the middle to a certain degree: Bucky will back Cap’s play no matter how much his soldier’s instincts cry out in protest; Jim Hammond and Toro are perfectly willing to go against Cap regardless what he wants. And then there’s Machan: Namor’s id made manifest, willing to destroy everyone in his lust for power. It’s a complicated beast of a story, without a clear antagonist to root against out of the original Invaders, despite the story’s initial set up.

Butch Guice isn’t given much to do this issue; a handful of pages set in 1943 and the bulk of the heavy lifting done by Carlos Magno, who’s aces as usual. Their contrasting styles work perfectly, as Guice’s is more suggestive of an older wartime setting and Magno’s is modern and sleek, heavy on the details in a way that would make Gene Ha or Bryan Hitch proud. (Full confession: as much as I love Magno’s art, I wouldn’t mind an entire issue set in World War II so that Guice gets a chance to shine. It probably won’t happen given the title’s seemingly-imminent departure from shelves, but I can wish, right?)

In the end, the heart of Invaders is Captain America desperately trying to save his friend’s soul. It’s a big, expansive story spanning decades but has a decidedly small-scale narrative at its core. This is perhaps a book that isn’t burning up the sales charts right now (or as well-hyped as Zdarsky’s other red-hot books), but it deserves far more attention – and accolades – than it’s getting.