After four issues of building up the legend of Battle Beast, issue #5 finally pulls back the curtain on both the hero’s torment and his ragtag crew. Half of the story explores Prince Salaka’s backstory, while the other half finally gets to the meat of what drives Battle Beast forward and why his endless warpath is more cursed than calling.
Invincible Universe: Battle Beast #5 opens like an episode that wants to take a sharp detour before circling back to its real star. The first half of the issue is devoted almost entirely to Prince Salaka, the alien royal who has been tagging along since issue one. Once a spoiled aristocrat more interested in flexing power and chasing conquests, Salaka’s life took a brutal turn when Juggernaut and Colossus (no relation to the Marvel pair) tore his homeworld apart. Through flashbacks, we see the once-golden planet turned to ruin, and learn how Salaka survived a gruesome encounter that should have left him dead. His backstory is equal parts grotesque and tragic, painted in Ryan Ottley’s usual mix of sci-fi grandiosity and gut-wrenching gore.
But let’s be honest, the main draw is still Battle Beast. Once Salaka and the ship’s AI start pressing him about why he hunts battles like they’re oxygen, Kirkman finally lets loose the revelation fans have been waiting for. Battle Beast isn’t just chasing glory; he’s chasing an ending. His rage is constant, a furnace that burns him alive from the inside. The only thing that can extinguish it is death. This is the kind of tragic depth that elevates him from a one-note berserker into a Shakespearean figure wrapped in fur and armor. Ottley captures it with his usual dynamism, and Annalisa Leoni’s colors split the past and present, brilliantly golden skies for the paradise lost, dark shadows for the now.
Reading this issue is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the Salaka material drags. He’s amusing at times, but dedicating half the issue to his origin feels like a pacing mistake. He’s not compelling enough to deserve that much focus, especially when Battle Beast, arguably one of the most fascinating supporting characters to come out of Invincible, is sitting in the wings. On the other hand, the payoff when Kirkman shifts the spotlight back to Beast is worth it. That revelation about his bloodlust and desire for death reframes every rampage we have seen, adding a weight that makes him both terrifying and oddly sympathetic. If you came for action, the gore is here in all its splashy, crimson detail. If you came for character, the second half delivers.
The good news? The art team is firing on all cylinders. Ottley balances cosmic scale with intimate character beats, and Leoni’s colors separate time and tone so cleanly you could almost hear the shift in atmosphere. The bad news? Salaka’s story feels unnecessary, even indulgent, especially since he ends this issue in an even worse spot than when we first met him. It’s hard to invest in a character who feels like dead weight. Still, the tease of the “ultimate boss battle” ahead leaves the issue closing on exactly the right note.
Battle Beast #5 stumbles by spending too much time on a side character who hasn’t earned it, but when it centers its titular warrior, it soars. The tragic reveal of Battle Beast’s true motivation gives him the kind of emotional depth fans have been craving, and the art team delivers a visual feast. It’s flawed but necessary, a stepping stone toward what looks like an epic showdown.
‘Invincible Universe: Battle Beast’ #5 Reveals the Hero’s True Torment
Battle Beast #4 might not scratch the itch for readers craving nonstop bloodshed, but it does something arguably more important: it proves this series has legs beyond endless brawls.
