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20px-Cquote1.png Oh my bloop, Zim thinks the garbage isn't garbage.
Almighty Tallest Purple
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Invader Zim Issue
Issue 4
IssueFour
Chronology
Previous: Issue 3
Next: Issue 5
Information
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication date: October 14, 2015 (print)
October 21, 2015 (digital)
Creative
Story by: Eric Trueheart
Jhonen Vasquez
Art by: Aaron Alexovich
Megan Lawton
Color by: Rikki Simons
Mildred Louis


 Official Summary[]

Zim receives a mysterious delivery from the Almighty Tallest! Then mysterious orders! Then totally different mysterious orders that will probably hurt a lot! Is this the most important assignment of his invader career, or are the Tallest just really, really bored?[1]

Release[]

Issue 4 was released October 14, 2015 in print and October 21, 2015 on digital.

Variations[]

Issue #4 has a total of 3 cover variations. 

  1. Aaron Alexovich standard retail cover 
  2. Jhonen Vasquez Variant 
  3. Foo Swee Chin Variant (Hot Topic Exclusive) 

Characters in Issue #4 (In Order of Appearance)[]

Synopsis[]

SPOILER WARNING OF DOOM: This section or article may contain spoilers!

Zim thing

ZIM receives the "secret weapon" from the Tallest

The comic begins in newly acquired Irken space, which has been named the "Tallest-Purple-Is-Cool Nebula". Recap Kid is floating through space, talking about the Almighty Tallest and how they blew people up and hate Zim. They're then sucked into a vent of the passing Massive.

Inside the Massive, Irken Engineer Skrang is telling the Tallest about the Subquantum Wormtunnel Enactuator, which is a device that can send any object to any Invader at any time.

The Tallest ask if Invaders can send stuff back, but Skrang informs them that it's just a prototype and that function is not working yet. If they did try to send stuff back, it could cause half of the universe to explode - most likely their half. Almighty Tallest Purple has been eating a bag of "Nacho-Munchins" and tells Skrang that he doesn't want to eat the last one. Since the garbage can is too far, he orders Skrang to open a wormhole.

Meanwhile, at Zim's base, Zim is demonstrating his newest invention of "nano-naise", when a wormhole opens up and dumps the Nacho-Munchin that Tallest Purple didn't want on Zim's head. Zim immediately calls the Tallest and thanks them for "entrusting" him with the cheese puff (although he doesn't know what it is.) Tallest Purple pulls a prank on Zim, telling him that it's a secret super weapon of theirs. Almighty Tallest Red then joins in on the deception.

Zim thing2

Zim recharging the Munchitronic DeathSkrang.

They tell Zim that the weapon is called "Munchitronic DeathSkrang". Zim asks how it works, and the Tallest tell him that it isn't charged yet. Zim is about to send it back to have it charged, but the Tallest quickly stop him. They tell Zim that he must charge it, and ask him if he's up to the task - and gullible Zim obviously is.

He tells the Tallest he would do anything it takes to charge it, and the Tallest decide to take advantage of this. We cut to GIR playing with some holographic friends (a donut and a mushroom) in a holo-chamber. Zim tells GIR that they have a mission and to get out of the holo-chamber. GIR tells his friends goodbye and turns them off "forever".

Zim and GIR have the cheese puff disguised as a baby in a baby carriage at the park. Zim recalls the Tallest's first order in recharging the "weapon": To get a "bio-signature of the humans", and that he won't get a good scan unless he smacks the humans really hard with the cheese puff. He goes up to an old lady and then smacks her in the face with it. Zim thinks this isn't enough, and smacks some more people with it - he ultimately ends up getting chased by an angry mob.

The Tallest inform Zim that there are more ways to recharge it: We cut to Zim wearing a hat and sitting on the "weapon" on the second floor of the Mall. Still astride the cheese puff, he leaps over the edge, flopping to the ground. Later, he is in Skool and tells Ms. Bitters that his "friend" (the "weapon" disguised as a person) needs him to pull a hair from her head. Ms. Bitters gives him an angry look and, in the next panel, Zim is bruised and beaten up on the Tallest's computer screen as they laugh at him. Red tells Purple that Zim could get really hurt if they keep going with the prank, and they both agree to never stop.

Zim then asks the Tallest if the weapon is ready yet, but Red claims that there are yet more steps, more dangerous than before, and asks if he can handle them. Zim says yes, and the story cuts to him riding GIR through the air, with the "weapon" strapped to Zim's back... only for them to be struck by a plane. Next, Zim tells a worker at MacMeaties that he's going to immerse himself in a vat of boiling special tuna sauce, and he tells them to not even try and stop him. The worker doesn't care at all and allows the Irken to dump himself in the sauce.

Zim thing3

ZIM is pursued by an unknown enemy.

Meanwhile, the Tallest are playing cards on top of a table-headed service drone, expecting Zim to report in soon and wondering what to make him do next. Just then, Zim calls in, but Tallest Red has just thought of an idea. Zim says that his squeedlyspooch has burst, but is cut off by the Tallest pretending to be in a panic. Red and Purple warn Zim that an enemy is coming for the weapon, and that he must protect the Munchitronic DeathSkrang at all costs. They tell him that this may be the last time Zim hears from them, and that Zim definitely should not call them.

Back at the base, Zim thinks that there's an enemy coming for him, and calls upon the help of GIR. GIR comes, but Zim wonders if he can trust GIR or if his systems have been infiltrated by the enemy. GIR reveals that there is a chipmunk in his head, and Zim orders the computer to eject it from the base. Paranoid, Zim thinks the enemies may be outside, and orders his defense gnomes to destroy anything that moves. The gnomes' motion tracking detect the other gnomes' movement, and so they shoot each other. Zim thinks this means that he is under attack, and locks down the base.

Zim believes the base is now secure, but after seeing a bird in a vent, freaks out and commands GIR to secure all the vents. The Irken hears GIR clunking around in the vents, but begins to question it, thinking that it might be the enemy and that the enemy is made of clunks. Zim feels that no place is safe, and retreats into his safeness room, then inside his safeness box, then digs himself a safeness hole. He thinks that every weapon-stealer in the galaxy is trying to get the Munchitronic DeathSkrang from him, but they will never get it because he will never move from that hole.

Just then, a Girly Ranger persistently rings Zim's doorbell. Zim angrily answers the door, and the little girl informs him that she is selling cookies. Zim thinks that the cookies are a ploy, and so uses GIR to shoot the treats into a nearby park, injuring bystanders with delicious but painful cookie shrapnel.

The angry Girly Ranger knocks on Zim's door after he has gone back into his house. When GIR asks why she is so mad, she describes how Zim took her cookies without paying. GIR agrees this is messed-up, and angrily pounds on the door. Zim thinks that the enemy has turned GIR against him, and begins to freak out. Wanting to protect the Munchitronic DeathSkrang, Zim begins to build something.

Aboard the Massive, a servant informs the Tallest of an incoming transmission from Zim, but they let it go to voicemail. Zim tells them that in order to protect the Munchitronic DeathSkrang, he has reverse-engineered the wormhole and will now send it back to them. After that, he will set his base to compression defense mode and wait until the situation is safe. The Tallest hurriedly try to call Zim back, but it's too late and a wormhole has opened up on the Massive.

Mixed reaction

"Tell me something new news!"

Zim's house is then seen compressing, leaving a stunned Girly Ranger with GIR. Zim sits in a box, thinking that he's done well. Then the news reports about the cookie theft, and that the cookie thief's house collapsed into a metal cube.

They also report that half the universe has exploded, but luckily not their half. The comic ends with Dib watching it in a shocked state with his sister Gaz... who couldn't care less.

End of Spoilers: There are no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.

Facts of Doom[]

  • In one panel, Dib is seen sitting next to Zim in Ms. Bitters class instead at the end where he sits in the series. It's unknown if they just change seats or if this is a mistake the artist made.
  • It has been confirmed that "Tallest Purple" is his canon name. It's likely the same can be said about Tallest Red.
  • The Tallest flip a coin to decide who names stuff. This is odd, as neither of them have thumbs.
  • The Tallest's fingers are colored grey in this issue. This may or may not be an error, as they appear this way throughout the entire issue with the exception of one instance, where they are colored fully black.
  • The apparatus attached to Skrang's back and head is filled with Vortian brains.
  • This is the first issue in which Dib is not directly involved in the plot.
  • During the opening recap, Recap Kid comments on how they've been in space a long time. This references how both Issues 3 and 4 open with Recap Kid floating in space.
  • Issues 3 and 4 are also, to date, the only issues where Recap Kid is actually in the world of the comic rather than merely observing it. Issue 40 is technically all about Recap Kid, but as they spend the story in an inter-dimensional space rather than in the comic's main universe, this doesn't count.
  • The scene where Zim falls through the air while riding the "weapon" and wearing a cowboy hat is a reference to an iconic scene from the movie Doctor Strangelove.
  • There's a running inconsistency in this issue regarding the Tallest's respective colorations, making it hard to keep track of which is actually speaking.

References[]

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