In a nutshell:
Mark encounters a strange cyborg while visiting Upstate University.
Synopsis:
Mark and William visit Upstate University for a tour of the campus. While there, a strange cyborg being begins knocking people out of its path. Invincible helps who he can while the creature impales itself on a spire. When Mark returns, William reveals he knows Mark is Invincible. Art reveals someone stole a suit he was working on for a depowered Black Samson. Eve later returns to the Teen Team’s headquarters and sees something that makes her distraught.
Firsts:
We get our first Guardians of the Globe appearance with Black Samson and his butler Sanford. We’re told Black Samson has been depowered and kicked off the team.
We also get the first appearance of Rick Sheridan, a minor character who becomes a friend of Mark and William.
Notes:
Robot joins the Guardians of the Globe in this issue.
Recurring gag:
The trash from Burger Mart that Mark threw in issue #1 finally lands. We will return to this scene two more times through the series.
Interesting choice:
Charlie Brown makes an appearance at Upstate.
Review:
This is another pretty standard issue until we get things rolling. It serves one major plot thread, to set up the cyborg monster (later called a Reaniman) plaguing Upstate. Though killed in this issue, this plot will be visited again when Mark graduates and moves on to college, helping it serve as setup for eventual conflicts to come. In the meantime, we get a check-in on the Teen Team and an introduction to a Guardian before the Guardians of the Globe are brought in formally. As a result, this issue is fine for what it is, another day in the superhero life of Mark Grayson and another step in his journey.