It seems that the superhero series The Walking Dead. Series' writer and co-creator of both comics, Robert Kirkman, gave his zombie book a tip of the cap with one particular set of villains.
Invincible largely follows the life of Mark Grayson, a teenage boy and son of the world's most powerful superhero, Omni-Man. After spending years wondering when his powers would kick in, Mark finally developed the same abilities as his father, allowing the young man to become the hero Invincible. However, Mark discovers that Omni-Man is actually a member of an invading alien race, the Viltrumites, putting Mark down a bloody path to discovering his true destiny as a hero. The comic was critically lauded and eventually adapted into an animated series on Amazon Prime that was also very well-received.
While Invincible was a popular title for Image Comics, it isn't the only thing in the publisher's library that Robert Kirkman worked on. After all, Kirkman was also the co-creator of the massively popular series The Walking Dead. Though the two series focused on very different subjects, Kirkman would occasionally have minor references to one another. In Invincible, Mark Grayson comes up against a villain known as the Walking Dread, the name obviously a reference to Image's zombie series co-created by Kirkman. The Walking Dread is a gargantuan, reanimated corpse, which acts not unlike the walkers in The Walking Dead. And that's not the only time Kirkman's other property was referenced via Invincible. A variant cover for Invincible #20 shows Mark fighting the Reanimen, with the caption reading "Walking Dread: The Return of the Robot Zombie". Not only that, the cover is shown in black and white, much like The Walking Dead's color scheme.
Why Reference The Walking Dead In Invincible?
Superhero references are quite common in Invincible. The entire story is a tribute to the superhero genre, so it’s only natural to see parodies of the Justice League or various other comic book superheroes or villains. It’s a bit less common in the series to see references to other genres, especially zombies. But The Walking Dead does come from Invincible’s writer, so it’s not the most out-there idea for Kirkman to sneak at least one reference to his other popular series.
Invincible and The Walking Dead may be two completely different series, but they both share mature themes and feature quite a lot of gore. The Walking Dead is undoubtedly one of Kirkman’s most popular series, if not the most successful comic from Image. He likely knew that readers would get a kick out of seeing his other ongoing series reference the growing cultural juggernaut. Invincible and The Walking Dead might not be the most obvious companion pieces, but they’ve got an interesting connection to one another thanks to their shared co-creator.
