2.75 for me.

After reading a book recently about Dr. Moreau, when this came up it piqued my interest, and in regards to that I guess I gt a healthy dose of the mad doctor trope. The gore & horror felt a bit gratuitous and like gore just for gore's sake rather than because it served any coherent storyline, This was short and cursory, it felt a bit anticlimactic and pointless, but it was still readable enough and the art decent enough to make this readable.

I didn’t read the back of this book before I started, as I usually don’t, but unfortunately, in this case, it’s vital information. This feels like the second volume in a comic series and not a standalone. The information given on the back adds so much to the story that’s not present on the page. It felt rushed in parts and because you’re kinda in the dark when it starts I made a bunch of assumptions about the world of this graphic novel, some right and others way off. I appreciate the ARC from NetGalley.

A disturbing, horrific good time. I loved the unexpected twist at the end, and the artwork added to the dark and terrifying vibes of Bunn’s story.

Recommended for: horror graphic novel readers

Content warning: This graphic novel includes addiction to plastic surgery, grisly surgical scenes, abduction, body horror, violence, and gore. It is not for the squeamish.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for the ARC.

There's a great idea here, some really good art, but the plot falls short. I don't mind the violence, but I wish this was longer so we could connect with the characters more. There was a little bit, but the twist ending happened pretty soon after. The ending was fairly predictable as well. It's not a bad ending, but lacked any impact beyond the gore.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6947622978

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/9fca55df-0c06-4136-aade-5e649cb2a815

Check out this review of Invasive #1 on Fable. https://fable.co/review/60ef9991-c607-45d0-b5e8-7a8d26afb798/share

Posted on Goodreads:

3.75/5⭐️

This was a quick read with a lot of gore and I liked it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Dr. Reynolds and Detective Hudgens come together to find answers regarding a series of body mutilations on people obsessed with plastic surgery. They visit these help groups but find no answers until they learn of a secret group. From here they really start learning the full scope of what is really going on and who is the doctor behind it.

There were a few unnecessary things in here but I did enjoy the premise and unlike some, I dug the ending.

Thank you netgalley, oni press and creators for the opportunity to read an arc of this graphic novel.

The art in this is incredible! It really emphasises the gory body horror taking place.

I really enjoyed the story and felt like it kept me hooked till the end, however the ending did feel a bit abrupt. I wish the arc was slightly longer but understand why it ended the way that it did.

I would definitely read more of Bunn's work!

Thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for providing me with this arc

Cullen Bunn's Invasive is an interesting body horror comic about cosmetic surgery addiction and the surgeons that do the surgeries.

Thanks to Oni Press NetGalley for the ARC.

"A 2023 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards Comics Finalist.

Beyond excess, beyond ethics, beyond science.... Enter a terrifying new experiment in pain from Eisner Award nominee Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun, Basilisk), 2023 Reuben Award Finalist illustrator Jesús Hervás (The Empty Man, ) and Federico Sabbatini (Moon Knight)!

Dr. Carrie Reynolds was a veteran trauma surgeon with a godlike mastery of muscle and bone. But outside the operating room, her rigidly ordered life spiraled into chaos when her daughter, Heather - a recovering plastic surgery addict - suddenly disappeared, only to mysteriously reemerge in a catatonic state, her vocal cords removed...the latest in a series of victims scarred by a battery of brazenly cruel medical procedures that have baffled police and left an alarming number of once-ordinary citizens maimed, mutilated, or dead on arrival.

Deep beneath the streets of Carrie's city, a new kind of underground hospital has just opened its doors...and, once inside, there are no rules, no oaths, and no taboos too deep to not to be broken. Together, a new class of surgeon has sworn to pierce the final threshold of accepted medical orthodoxy one incision at a time. The scalpel is their tool. The alleys are their operating theater. Murder is their medicine. And only Carrie can stop what they're planning next...

Collecting Invasive #1-4."

If you are desperate for top notch horror in graphic novel form I urge you to look no further than Cullen Bunn.

***I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review***

kudos to this book for teaching me a new word: invasive, noun, something that tends to spread quickly.
expect that plus body horror, and absolutely crazy doctors who need a check up themselves.

the subplot of the obsession with beauty surgeries mirrors the situation of people today perfectly. it’s harrowing that something so grotesque as surgical operations have been normalised for the sake of a so-called beauty standard.

great storyline and theme but could have had a better execution. the art style slightly changed midway so that was cool to see i guess. reminded me of <i>riddler: year one</i> <3
also why would you do that to my vic :(

underwhelming ending, though i want to know what happens next :)

x

Those was a fantastic graphic novel. Gorey and well written, with a flashy and stylistic art style to go with it.

We follow Dr Carrie Reynolds, a renowned surgeon known for her impeccable mastery of the craft. Her daughter goes missing, only to be found catatonic and without her vocal chords.

I can see what the author was going for, but it didn't quite work for me. Maybe with a longer arc I would have been better invested, but as it stands it just fell a little flat. There isn't much time to get to know the characters or foreshadow much, so the ending ends up feeling abrupt rather than having a big emotional impact.

I liked the art, but did find the artisit shift at the halfway point somewhat jarring. As the content suggests, the images are very gory and packed with body horror. Maybe give this one a pass if things like that gross you out.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for giving me a chance to preview this book.

This body horror comic is perfect for Halloween season. It’s super creepy and has a beautifully grotesque art style. I enjoyed my time with it and I can’t wait to see how it continues in the next parts of the series.

It is viscerally gorey and while at a glance the people look like they’ve been turned into zombies it’s actually the work of a plastic surgeon turning people into monsters. I can’t imagine the horror of paying someone to make me feel and look beautiful in my own eyes and instead my body becomes completely butchered.

It’s a horrifying prospect and I very much enjoyed reading. It’s a scary prospect to be the one trying to stop this maniacal doctors and the fight is a gorey one. This action horror comic is a great read!

I’m a fan of Cullen Bunn, so I was instantly intrigued by this title. I went into it blind and was pleasantly surprised by the story. What starts out as a straightforward detective story (along with a somewhat unnecessary sex scene trope) turns into an eerie cult narrative that was engaging and fast paced. The ending fell a bit flat for me, realizing this wasn’t part of a series. I definitely could have used an extra issue or two to flesh out the ending more. That being said, the art style is absolutely incredible and was an interesting take on the trend of beauty industry horror. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this for review!

This graphic novel will definitely make you question getting any plastic surgery. The drawing and story were fine.

This was such an interesting and slightly disturbing story. I liked the art style used and found it really added to the presence of the story. The character design was done well and they all seemed so different in both art style and personality. I would continue on with the series as i really enjoyed this volume!

This was just ok. Very middle of the road, not-mad-I-read-it-but-not-all-that-glad-about-it-either. I’ve come to expect a bit more from Cullen, I have no major complaints, it’s more so just that I didn’t think anything about this stood out. It’s one of those comics/graphic novels that you read and it feels like you’ve read basically the same story like 27 times before.

A bit unoriginal, if you will.

The art wasn’t particularly my style either; so where normally the art might serve to redeem a mediocre storyline, this art sorta kinda just validated my feelings, of which the prevailing sentiment was UNDERWHELMED.

It was readable tho, it managed to hold my attention Nd keep it till the end, despite it’s glaring unoriginality, so for that I awarded it a generous 3 stars.

Wow. Wow. Wow.
I loved this book immensely. It hooked me right from the start with its artwork and where it was going and I finished it in one sitting.
This runs along the idea of surgery and what people will do for perfection, however, their version of perfection is warped and twisted. Vocal cords are removed, faces are twisted, and some people are left without the ability to walk.
Secret experiments are being run by the 'doctors' to achieve this goal of perfection in their art. We have our two leads, a detective who wants to protect and a doctor who wants to save her daughter's life. I wish we had more time to see their relationship with one another develop (as friends) but the story was so wild and kept me invested.
I think this was a really great way of entering the conversation about beauty standards and plastic surgery in an extreme way that didn't make it feel like we were being preached to, and the ending was perfect for the story.

Dark and weird, twisted and disturbing. This graphic novel is a brutal exploration of the underbelly of wellness culture. There is a lot of subtext to unpack. Fast paced and thought provoking. Great narrative art that propels the story and mirrors the horror of the events.

I was hooked right from the start.

Just a heads-up. There is a lot of blood and gore in this graphic novel, as well as potentially triggering topics: plastic surgery addiction, assault, self-harm, body mutilation, dismemberment, and death. I wont be surprised if this one actually gives me nightmares.

Invasive takes the very basic notion of a group of sadistic surgeons preying on those addicted to body modification and transforms it into a gory mystery/thriller. Our main characters, surgeon Carrie Reynolds and an ex-detective, join forces to avenge the lives of their loved ones which were ruined by back-alley surgeons.

My main criticism is that I wanted to know the ex-detective more and care about what happened to him prior to meeting Carrie again. With everything that happens, I would've liked to be closer to his character.

I liked the artwork. Both illustrators really collaborated well on conveying a specific aesthetic and style.

Invasive is a quick horror short which has a deeper message which will stick with you for a while.

Cullen Bunn is the writer of comic books such The Sixth Gun, Shadow Roads, The Damned, and Helheim for Oni Press. He has also written titles including Harrow County (Dark Horse), Uncanny X-Men, and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe(Marvel). Cullen claims to have worked as an alien autopsy specialist, rodeo clown, pro wrestling manager, and sasquatch wrangler. He has fought for his life against mountain lions and performed on stage as the world’s youngest hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime and he'll tell you all about it. His newest graphic novel is Invasive, illustrated by Jesús Hervás and Federico Sabbatini.

Invasive follows the tale of Dr. Carrie Reynolds, who is a skilled surgeon. However, there is a new type of “hospital” in town, one that will perform the most horrible surgeries. Her daughter, Heather, is addicted to plastic surgery to the point that she is now comatose and hospitalized. She’s not the only one, as the police are currently investigating a series of murders and mutilations, all of which are linked to this unknown hospital and its doctors. Dr. Reynolds and the police pursue their leads to the end, discovering a cult of surgeons who believe they can remake the world, one incision at a time.

This is a violent and bloody graphic novel. It reads like a noir plot, with lots of intrigue and false leads, but the bulk of the book is based around the simple idea of addiction to surgery. These addicts are portrayed in ways meant to both shock and horrify the readers, drawing parallels between current addicts and the way they’re ignored and marginalized by society. The socio-political critique is thick in this book, and Bunn examines not just the medical ethics behind plastic surgery but the effects it has on patients, their ideas about themselves, their body images, etc.

This plot is evocatively illustrated by Jesús Hervás and Federico Sabbatini. The images are very stylized, with the scars and infections visible and on display. This is meant to be splatter or body horror, and lots of red ink was used to color these pages. But nothing is so over-the-top or bizarre as to be inconsistent or unreasonable, which is what makes this book so much more terrifying. There is nothing in this book that could not happen. There are no fantastic monsters or aliens, simply human beings caught up in their own egotistical madness, and the results of their insanity are gorgeously, but disturbingly, inked and painted for readers to thrill over.

Cullen Bunn is no stranger to inventive horror and graphic novels, so it should be no surprise that this novel is equally as impressive. The psychological horror of this book, rooted in the nature of addiction, is disturbing. The layers of body and splatter horror, expertly illustrated, simply add to the discomfort for the reader. Ultimately, this is disturbing graphic novel about surgery addiction, and horror readers will absolutely want to check this out immediately.