Invincible (Fall 2003)

Ah, ''the talk'' -- when Dad sits you down to say that as you get older, your voice will change, you'll sprout weird hair, you'll probably get superpowers. Puberty is different for everyone, but for Mark Grayson it involves flying into battle against alien marauders with his superhero father. Played with touching deadpan humor by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Cory Walker, ''Invincible'' is a charming antidote to the histrionics present in so many fights-and-tights books. And it's got the strongest female character seen in many a moon: Mark's stoic mom.