Skybound has declared next March as Invincible Month, which will coincide with the fourth season of the Invincible animated series on Amazon Prime. So far the publisher has announced two projects to help celebrate: a reprinting of an intercompany crossover and the return of Battle Beast.
Let’s start with that crossover. Back in 2005, Robert Kirkman was writing Marvel Team-Up and having a pretty good time with the title — while at the same time writing Invincible. Issue #14 of MTU turned out to be a very special issue for Kirkman fans, as he and Cory Walker brought their creator-owned character to the Marvel universe, teaming him up with Spider-Man (and the Avengers). It came at a time when Marvel wasn’t doing a lot of intercompany crossovers, so it was unexpected and fun.
The comic hasn’t ever been reprinted and was never collected by either Marvel or Image, for obvious reasons, but that changed earlier this year when Skybound introduced their “blind bag” variant cover program for Battle Beast #1 — and boy, these blind bag variant things have really taken off, haven’t they? Seems like just about every comic publisher is doing them. Anyway, Battle Beast took an interesting approach, not only offering variant covers, but also mixing in a few original comics for a few lucky fans who happened to buy the right bag — including the second issue of Battle Beast and copies of Marvel Team-Up #14.
So, if you missed Marvel Team-Up #14 the first time around and haven’t been able to find an affordable back issue, you’ll be able to buy it in comic shops on March 4. And you even have your choice of variant covers to choose from by several former Spider-Man artists — Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Ryan Ottley, Mark Bagley and Alex Saviuk:
And speaking of Battle Beast, Skybound has announced it will return to shelves in March with its seventh issue. The comic by Kirkman, Ottley, Annalisa Leoni and Rus Wooton will feature the return of The Viltrumites, as Battle Beast faces his two toughest foes.
“Between season 4 of the show and the events of this Battle Beast series, 2026 is all about the Viltrumites!” Kirkman said. “It’s so cool that readers are finally getting an inkling of what this series is actually about. Arc one was really just the taste of the chaos to come as we dive headfirst into how exactly Battle Beast ended up in that Viltrumite prison!”
Skybound shared more on what to expect from the new storyline: Even in a universe of mighty Viltrumites like Invincible and Omni-Man, it seems that no one may be able to stop the galaxy’s deadliest warrior…unless he does the unthinkable. A new story arc begins as Battle Beast continues his quest to find the one being who can defeat him in battle and end his life.
“Did Thragg say CONQUEST at the end of issue 6?” asked Ottley. “Does that mean… this series will have… Battle Beast fighting Conquest?! Could it be?! Well, that’s just too much excitement to contain in one press release! All that and a Todd McFarlane cover on this issue?! Bless my biscuits!”
Battle Beast #7’s main cover is by Ottley and Leoni, while it’ll also sport variants by Todd McFarlane and Leoni, Chris Burnham and Brian Reber, Rossi Gifford, Edwin Galmon and Matthew Roberts.
It’ll arrive in stores March 18.