The Pact #4

“Dig Now, Die Later!” - January 2006

In this issue of Image Comics’ Teen Titans analog, Invincible, Firebreather, Shadowhawk, and Noble Causes’ Zephyr team up to fight some lava men and Invincible also-ran villain Doctor Seismic. It’s a fun story, filled with the sort of (somewhat) melodrama free and (somewhat) more realistic character moments and interactions that mark most of writer Robert Kirkman’s work. In the Pact, for example, Kirkman is more than comfortable portraying some of his characters as openly freaked out by others, insecure and unsure of their roles in the super-heroic world (one character wonders if a mayor should be ordering them around), and acting in a pragmatic manner that may not be traditionally “super-heroic” (Invincible punches out an evil senior citizen even though the threat he poses isn’t very immediate). It’s a fun story enhanced by Jason Howard’s angular and cartoony art style. Still, the real draw here is the tongue-in-cheek supplemental materials that include campy, Silver Agey covers that have nothing to do with the story, short PSA strips about the dangers of smoking (You smoke… You die!) and the need to duck and cover when a hero fights a nuclear villain (or you’ll end up a glowing green skeleton like the kids in the last panel), an impossible crossword puzzle that includes clues like Invincible’s grandmother’s weight, a “which of these two pictures are the same” game with an answer key “for stupid kids,” and, best of all, a Pact Babies comic that features Invinci-baby soiling himself on panel.