I wasn't a kid who grew up with Invader Zim. I only started watching around high school, but safe to say I definitely see why this show left an impact. Even if honestly, there were some things that definitely still kinda grate on me. The almost constantly bleak atmosphere and relentless shock factor(Bad Bad Rubber Piggy, anyone) make certain episodes hard to watch, and Gaz as a character sometimes came off as frustratingly one-dimensional and pointless. But then again, I was a more emotional and anxious kid, so i'm now able to look back with a more nuanced lens, and while certain things about the show still are grating, it overall holds up as a fun Sci-Fi toon.
But as for the comics, most of them are really hit or miss. A big part of this is that they don't feel much like a natural progression of Zim's story, so much as one-off episodes the creators didn't get to make episodes. And it definitely feels very Early-2000s, for better or worse. A lot of characters you thought would be important(Skoodge, Tak, The Resisty) have pretty much been dropped in favor of goofy random one-offs that more adhere to silly "random" humor.
But the mean-spirited aspect of the show also exaggerated in certain issues. Dib's arrogance and stubborn fixation on Zim usually make his failure inevitable, but it's also clear he's not an awful person, just someone who doesn't know how to choose his own battles. With these comics however, you'd be forgiven for thinking the writers absolutely hate'' him. Several story arcs solely exist to make him suffer, usually in the cruelest way possible. He gets to fly his ship into space? LOL nope, he gets humiliated and mocked by the entire universe. He turns off his sister's game? Clearly this means he deserves to be tortured in an alternate universe where he has to die multiple times. Infiltrates Zim's base? LOL fuck you, it's all for nothing and he gets called a fraud again. (Don't @ me with "oh he's just as bad as Zim, so he actually deserves all of it")
In hindsight this actually kind of hurt my viewing of Enter the Florpus, especially since it uses the set up of the same storyline where he gets put down harder than ever. Dib's spent so much time being the universe's toilet bowl that even getting good moments with his family feel insignificant.
As for the rest, it's entertaining at best, but many issues are honestly kind of forgettable and fall into formula, with Zim and Dib both being Flanderized in some areas. It's telling that most of the better issues (Pants, Burrito King, Multiverse-Recap Kid, the quarterlies) were penned by Eric Trueheart, one of the show's head writers.
ComicBook Almost exactly like the show-but in some respects that's not always a good thing
I wasn't a kid who grew up with Invader Zim. I only started watching around high school, but safe to say I definitely see why this show left an impact. Even if honestly, there were some things that definitely still kinda grate on me. The almost constantly bleak atmosphere and relentless shock factor(Bad Bad Rubber Piggy, anyone) make certain episodes hard to watch, and Gaz as a character sometimes came off as frustratingly one-dimensional and pointless. But then again, I was a more emotional and anxious kid, so i'm now able to look back with a more nuanced lens, and while certain things about the show still are grating, it overall holds up as a fun Sci-Fi toon.
But as for the comics, most of them are really hit or miss. A big part of this is that they don't feel much like a natural progression of Zim's story, so much as one-off episodes the creators didn't get to make episodes. And it definitely feels very Early-2000s, for better or worse. A lot of characters you thought would be important(Skoodge, Tak, The Resisty) have pretty much been dropped in favor of goofy random one-offs that more adhere to silly "random" humor.
But the mean-spirited aspect of the show also exaggerated in certain issues. Dib's arrogance and stubborn fixation on Zim usually make his failure inevitable, but it's also clear he's not an awful person, just someone who doesn't know how to choose his own battles. With these comics however, you'd be forgiven for thinking the writers absolutely hate'' him. Several story arcs solely exist to make him suffer, usually in the cruelest way possible. He gets to fly his ship into space? LOL nope, he gets humiliated and mocked by the entire universe. He turns off his sister's game? Clearly this means he deserves to be tortured in an alternate universe where he has to die multiple times. Infiltrates Zim's base? LOL fuck you, it's all for nothing and he gets called a fraud again. (Don't @ me with "oh he's just as bad as Zim, so he actually deserves all of it")
In hindsight this actually kind of hurt my viewing of Enter the Florpus, especially since it uses the set up of the same storyline where he gets put down harder than ever. Dib's spent so much time being the universe's toilet bowl that even getting good moments with his family feel insignificant.
As for the rest, it's entertaining at best, but many issues are honestly kind of forgettable and fall into formula, with Zim and Dib both being Flanderized in some areas. It's telling that most of the better issues (Pants, Burrito King, Multiverse-Recap Kid, the quarterlies) were penned by Eric Trueheart, one of the show's head writers.