[Updated on August 1, 2024, with improved readability]
The 90s brought many creative works to people worldwide. Most people think of television with Power Rangers, Batman Beyond, and X-Men dominating Saturday morning airwaves. However, the 90s was also popular for introducing many notable written works. Now, one of those franchises is making a comeback, with the wildly popular Animorphs series returning in a new format.
The Animorphs: The Invasion graphic novel by Chris Grine releases on October 6, 2020, and retells the classic 90s story to new readers. Grine scripts, draws, colors, and letters the series himself. The graphic novel shares the same name as the first book in the series. Furthermore, the story seems to be a bit darker and intentionally ambiguous, giving the feeling that the events of the story could be happening anywhere.
The Animorphs began in 1996 with Animorphs: The Invasion, the first in a series that ran along 54 books and 10 side stories. The series was written by K.A. Applegate, who was the pen name of husband and wife duo Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant. Six teenagers fight an intergalactic war against a parasitic alien race known as the Yeerks. However, the human race doesn’t realize that an invasion is happening. Therefore, the Animorphs are on their own.
The Animorphs possess the ability to morph into animals they come into physical contact with. Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco, and Ax use their powers to battle the alien invasion. However, they must work in secret as anybody could be a Yeerk agent. Each character takes turns giving their own accounts of the team’s adventures in each book. For example, Jake narrates one book, with Rachel narrating another, and so on. Though Animorphs uses young protagonists, it is renowned for its themes of war, freedom, and responsibility.
