Invader Zim is back to try and conquer Earth once more.
Awwwww Damn... I love it! Invader Zim is revived from the purgatory of a TV series hiatus. Well he is brought back to us within the pages of a comic thanks to Oni Press and Jhonen Vasquez. On review this time: the "Invader Zim #1" comic book.
(You can already tell it's gonna be insane!)
For those who don't know, I loved Invader Zim when I was younger. It embraced funny and insane in a oh so entertainment way. It was like watching an evil version of Spongebob Squarepants that was meant for a crazy audience.
A clueless alien with an even more dim witted, but undeniably cute and funny, robot minion is sent to Earth to cripple it from within and prepare it for an alien invasion. In his way stands his, over paranoid and equally as inept, rival, Dib Membrane and his gamer addict sister Gaz. This is the main formula of the story but sprinkle in a generous dose of insane situations like Zim's burning reaction to rain, a virus that turns Zim and Dib into giant sausages or even Zim trying to collect human organs to pass his medical examination. This is what made the TV series so enjoyable. You never know what they're gonna pull out of their hat next.
Sadly, Nickelodeon cancelled the TV show and Zim fans around the world clamored to get him back. We finally got our wish when the comic book dropped from the sky and onto our comic book shelves.
The comic book featured the original creator of Invader Zim, Jhonen Vasquez, and writers from the original TV show. So it was pure Zim moments from the get-go. They look and speak like the way they're supposed to be. The story is just as crazy and ridiculous as it should be. They even add a nice tie in as to why the series was in a stand still for so long.
For those who are new to Invader Zim, I think it would benefit you better if you were to watch some of the episodes. It does a fine job of not making it too confusing for new readers with the help of the "Recap Kid". However there are treats for long-time fans of the show such as Tak's Irken ship, Zim's Robot Parents and Gir launching a poodle into space (it wasn't from the show but he did launch a sandwich into Dib's face then too....).
The art is straight out of the TV show as well. The backgrounds are awesome to look at in their own simplistic but ridiculous designs. The random-ness of the universe itself works well in the comic the same way as Adventure Time's Land of Ooo as well.
If there is one thing I do miss and unavoidably missing from the comics, it's the voice acting. Zim and most of the characters yell a lot of nonsense at each other a lot and not hearing the voices of Richard Horvitz (also the voice of Dagget from The Angry Beavers) and Rikki Simons leaves a hole in the heart for me. However since the voices were so hilarious and iconic you can just hear them in your head while reading their speech bubbles which isn't as hard as you think if you have heard them in the TV show.
All in all, I'm so glad to have this crazy thing back in my life and viewing pleasure. It's my hyperactive insane child candy and I've been itching for a fix in the longest time.
So I give this comic the coveted "WHAT ARE YOU HIDING DOG MAN?! TELL ME! TELL MEEEE!!!" out of ten.
On a side note, I love Invader Zim so much that it gave me inspiration to my own comic book series: "Point Break Mall". A mall cop in charge of keeping the peace in a crazy unpredictable mall.
(Pez and Tik meet Scottie from Target Toys)
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