Prepare yourself now, because the final trade of the long-running superhero masterwork, Invincible, is going to make you cry. Spoilers ahead!

I’ve been a fan of Invincible since I picked up the first issue some 15-odd years ago. In that time, writer Robert Kirkman has developed his main character, not just as a superhero, discovering his powers over time, but as a person. What’s kept me coming back for 144 issues is that Mark Grayson is much more than his masked persona. In a universe where you’re either a hero or a villain, Mark has been both. He’s helped the enemy to engineer a better moral outcome. He’s helped those who he thought were on the side of right, only to find that opposite was true. He’s made mistakes. What’s more, Kirkman has allowed him to make mistakes. Invincible has had some major successes, but he’s also done things that would break lesser people (and that have, literally, broken him).

This final volume begins where so many issues of Invincible have – on the opposite side of a cliffhanger, where everyone’s life is hanging in the balance. Things come to a swifter resolution than I expected, but that’s the key aspect of Volume 25 – there’s no time left to draw out plot points. Kirkman can see the finish and his pace, which can be cruelly protracted at times, picks up considerably.

That doesn’t mean the emotional connection we’ve come to expect from Mark, Eve, and their family is left behind. When he needs to, Kirkman takes his foot of the gas and lets us linger. It’s like a safari ride at an amusement park, where the driver speeds you through the transitional bits, only to pause briefly as you reach your destination. The death of Mark’s father, Nolan (Omni-Man if you’re nasty), is one of these. He’s been everything to this series, from superhero, to rogue, to supervillain and the relationship that’s built between him and Mark over the years is all the more rich because his fractured journey mirrors Mark’s own. Something that doesn’t go unnoticed by Invincible in a particularly gutting scene.

After Nolan’s death, there’s no time to spare as Mark takes up the mantle of Viltrumite Emperor and fulfills Robot’s prophetic prognostications by invading Earth. He’s not there to conquer, however, but to do what he should have done back when Robot took over the planet, liberate it. Things are better under the dictator’s rule, but a peaceful world society cowering under the threat of a metal-plated fist is still flawed. Even with his contingency plans, Robot ultimately succumbs to the might of the newly-formed Viltrumite Empire. It’s a satisfying resolution to one of the series’ more pernicious dangling threads.

This wrapping up of old storylines is something that Kirkman revels in as he pushes the pedal down even harder. We blow past old villains like the Mauler Twins, Angstrom Levy’s son (!), and a handful of others as we see hints of plots that could have been, sketches of future story arcs that probably occupied a paragraph or two in a notebook somewhere and only get the briefest of nods before they’re left tantalizingly unfinished (he had a fox named Chainsaw! It’s criminal that we didn’t see more of him!).

Even better is that, as the clock gets sped up even more to wrap up the story of the Graysons, we get to see the next generation of heroes in the form of Mark’s daughter. It’s a frustratingly brief glimpse at what could have easily been another 15 years of comics as she takes down villains (some rather familiar) and grows out of the superhero business to use her powers for more humanitarian pursuits. Mark’s son also gets a turn in the tights (and has a fight that will be very familiar to long time fans). The last few pages reminded me of the end of Majestic as we follow the functionally immortal Mark and Eve as he is able to finally realize what he’s wanted all along – a Viltrumite empire that is a bastion of peace instead of a force of fear. It’s a promise to his father fulfilled and it’s heart-achingly satisfying to see.

So rarely do we get to see superhero stories brought to any sort of conclusion. Heroes and villains die, but we know it’s only “for now.” Titles last far past their prime as creative teams change, plotlines are recycled, and characters shift with each retelling. It’s like a game of Telephone, except no one knows where we started.

Invincible has been a constant and Kirkman’s steady hand and clear vision made this comic the greatest superhero story ever told. It’s been simultaneously Earth-shatteringly epic (literally) and still personal enough to leave you in tears. Ryan Ottley’s art in this final volume are a large part of that – his vision of the Invincible universe has been as important and influential as Kirkman’s during its 15-year journey.

I will be sad to see it go, but I can’t wait to be able to introduce the finished saga to someone new.

Thanks for everything Robert and Ryan (and Cory!). It’s been a blast.

(Also, thanks for not killing everyone.)

You can pick up Invincible, Volume 25 for just $12 over on Amazon. Thanks to Image for providing a copy for this review.