Cover: Cory Walker

Invincible #1

Jan 2003 · Image · 2.95 USD; 4.50 CAD

📊 ~10,751 copies sold its debut month

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★ 1st appearance — Atom Eve★ 1st appearance — William Clockwell★ 1st appearance — Titan

About this Issue

Invincible #1 (January 22, 2003) is the founding document of the most enduring creator-owned superhero universe to emerge from the post-Image boom, introducing Mark Grayson / Invincible, his father Nolan Grayson / Omni-Man, Debbie Grayson, Art Rosenbaum, William Clockwell, and the villains David Hiles, Mister Liu, and Titan — all in a single issue that also planted the seeds of one of comics' great long-game betrayal narratives. Where most independent superhero titles of the early 2000s folded within a year, this series ran an unbroken 144 issues through February 2018, making it a benchmark for what a creator-owned monthly superhero book could sustain in terms of both quality and longevity. Kirkman's structural choice — opening with a flash-forward to a battle-damaged Mark four months in the future, then snapping back to an ordinary morning at the Grayson house — immediately distinguished the series from contemporaries by grounding superhero spectacle in recognizable domestic texture. The series' eventual adaptation as an Amazon Prime Video animated series beginning in 2021 confirmed the issue's status as the genesis of one of the defining superhero franchises of the modern era.

writer, letterer Robert Kirkman · artist, inker Cory Walker · colorist Bill Crabtree · cover Cory Walker

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $102

CGC 9.8 · 1128 in census $631

CGC 9.6 · 713 in census $440

CGC 9.4 · 437 in census $440

CGC 9.2 · 250 in census $423

CGC 9.0 · 138 in census $308

CGC 8.5 · 107 in census $308*

Show all 18 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 58 in census $308

CGC 7.5 · 24 in census $308*

CGC 7.0 · 26 in census $308*

CGC 6.5 · 5 in census $308

CGC 6.0 · 9 in census $155*

CGC 5.5 · 2 in census $103*

CGC 5.0 none in existence

CGC 4.5 · 1 in census $55*

CGC 4.0 · 1 in census $47*

CGC 3.5 none in existence

CGC 3.0 none in existence

CGC 2.5 · 1 in census $27*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

NM $9.99 Foil $19.99 Virgin $20 NM · Foil $22.99 NM+ · Signed · Virgin $23.95 Foil $23.99 Virgin $24.94 Foil $24.99

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History

Robert Kirkman and artist Cory Walker conceived Invincible while responding to a call from Image publisher Jim Valentino, who wanted to rebuild Image's superhero line away from the grim-and-gritty aesthetic the company was associated with at its 1992 founding; the two had already been working together on a SuperPatriot miniseries when they developed the pitch. Kirkman recruited colorist Bill Crabtree to complete the creative team, and the issue arrived in comic shops on January 22, 2003 — shortly before Kirkman and Tony Moore launched The Walking Dead later that same year. Walker illustrated the first seven issues before scheduling demands forced a changeover to Ryan Ottley beginning with issue #8, a transition that proved permanent for most of the series' run. The original first printing included a bonus pin-up by Tony Moore, and a five-page preview of the issue had previously appeared in Savage Dragon #102 and Tech Jacket #1 in late 2002, generating pre-launch visibility for the new series.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearances of: Mark Grayson / Invincible, Nolan Grayson / Omni-Man, Debbie Grayson, William Clockwell (Mark's best friend), Art Rosenbaum (secret superhero tailor), David Hiles (physics teacher / villain), Mister Liu (seen on a TV screen), and Titan.
Written by Robert Kirkman; interior art and cover by Cory Walker; colors by Bill Crabtree; lettering by Robert Kirkman. Published by Image Comics, on sale January 22, 2003.
Issue was part of Image's early-2000s superhero initiative, overseen by publisher Jim Valentino, intended to re-establish superhero books at an imprint better known at the time for creator-owned genre titles.
The first five pages of this issue were previewed in Savage Dragon #102 (cover-dated August 2002) and in Tech Jacket #1 (November 2002) before the series launched — a source of ongoing collector debate about where Invincible's 'true' first appearance resides.
The original first printing included a bonus pin-up page by artist Tony Moore, not present in all later reprintings.
Issue #1 content was later collected in the trade paperback Invincible Vol. 1: Family Matters; the story has also been reprinted in an Image Firsts edition (2010), a Free Comic Book Day edition (2020), an Amazon Animated Series Promo edition (2021), and a facsimile edition issued for the series' 20th anniversary in 2023.
Science Dog — the in-universe comic book that Mark is reading in the bathroom at the story's opening — makes its first appearance here as a visual character detail, later becoming a recurring Kirkman meta-fixture.
An Amazon Prime Video animated adaptation launched March 25, 2021, with Steven Yeun voicing Mark Grayson and J.K. Simmons voicing Omni-Man, bringing the characters introduced in this issue to a global television audience.