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20px-Cquote1.png Shut up!; No! Not you guys. It's my brother. Yeah. Yeah with the face.
Gaz
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Invader Zim Issue
Issue 5
STK688618
Chronology
Previous: Issue 4
Next: Issue 6
Information
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication date: November 11, 2015 (print)
December 2, 2015 (digital)
Creative
Story by: Jhonen Vasquez
Art by: Aaron Alexovich
Megan Lawton
Color by: Cassie Kelly


Release[]

Issue 5 was released December 2, 2015.

Variations[]

Issue #5 has a total of 3 cover variations:

  1. Aaron Alexovich standard retail cover 
  2. Jhonen Vasquez variant 
  3. Katy Farina variant (Hot Topic Exclusive)

Characters in Issue #5 (In Order of Appearance)[]

Synopsis[]

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

Oh no dib u shud not do that

A moment Dib will regret...

The comic starts with Gaz in her room playing a video game with virtual reality equipment. Dib enters her room, exclaiming that he has made some kind of breakthrough, wanting her to see it. Gaz tries to brush Dib's comments off, until he turns her headset off, shocking Gaz. Dib shows her video of Zim yelling at a cat, and Gaz returns to her room in a dazed state.

The next morning, Dib heads into the kitchen to enjoy some breakfast with his father, when there is a knock on the door. Dib answers it, only for the door to explode and a robot entity by the name of Lord Voxelrot to appear. Professor Membrane complies with the beings since he was afraid they would take Foodio 3000 away; when Dib complains about this, Membrane merely raves about Foodio's poached eggs. Lord Voxelrot takes Dib and explains that since he is not a gamer, he's been declared an NPC (a non-playable character) and is to be locked up in a console slot.

Im makin pictures for the zim wiki wooooo

Lord Voxelrot taking Dib to his doom

After being forced into a slot, Dib wakes up in a pixlelated version of his house to find zombies attacking him. Dib realizes he has no control over his body, and eventually the zombies eat him. Dib is then brought back to reality, where Voxelrot explains that he is being controlled by a gamer chosen at random.

Dib asks Voxelrot why he can't just leave him alone and play games as his wishes, angering him. Dib is sent back into the console slot where he enters a game called "The Binding of Beep Bloop", unwillingly attacking a monster.

Dib re-enters reality, discovering Lord Voxelrot is actually his sister. Gaz proceeds to take Dib to Bloaty's Pizza Hog, where she explains that she asked their father to build a machine capable of entering alternate realities so she could kidnap him and put him through unimaginable horrors, as payback for constantly interrupting her games to make her pay attention to his paranormal studies.

Membrane family playin games together n stuff

Gaz and Dib reconcile and play games together

Dib is taken back to the console, and this time Gaz uses GIR as a gamer for Dib. Dib is then put through numerous video games, dying repeatably in almost all of them.

After being sent through countless games, in the game "Meat Gear Solid 13" Dib asks Gaz for forgiveness for thinking that everything he does is more important then her. Gaz accepts his apology and takes him back to their reality.

Later, Dib plays a game with Gaz, actually beating her in a round. Gaz gets mad and throws him through a wall, ending the comic.

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

Facts of Doom[]

  • This issue seems to concrete that Dib and Gaz's surnames are in fact Membrane due to the fact that Voxelrot, who is revealed to be Gaz, refers to Dib as "Dib Membrane". What makes this even more trivial is that series creator Jhonen Vasquez wrote the issue and pre-comic Issue 0 has Dib written in as "Dib Membrane" once again.
  • This issue is unusual because it has an official summary, but it's highly inaccurate to what actually occurs in the plot. Most retail websites either use the inaccurate summary, or use the summary from issue 4.
  • This issue, appropriately, has many references and parodies to real video games:
    • The first unnamed game Dib enters is based off Minecraft, using the game's iconic 3-D pixel art. The zombies depicted are nearly identical to the real zombies, the only difference being their eyes.
    • The Binding of Bleep Bloop is a parody of The Binding of Isaac.
    • Though not a direct parody, Gaz confronting Dib in the Bloaty's Pizza Hog restaurant, along with four animatronics occupying the stage (with only one notable female, and the one named having an alternative name), may be referencing the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise.
    • Soldier of Doody 25 is a parody of the Call of Duty franchise.
    • Dank Souls is a parody of the Dark Souls franchise.
    • Bloatyo Kart 9 is a parody of the Mario Kart franchise.
    • Puzhole is a parody of the Portal franchise.
    • Critter Debt Simulator is a parody of the Animal Crossing franchise.
    • Angry Turds is a parody of Angry Birds.
    • Meat Gear Solid 13 is a parody of the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
  • Several posters seen in Gaz's room also reference video games:
  • This is the second time in the series Dib has been seen in the series without his glasses, the first being in "Dibship Rising". This is the first time in the comics, however.
  • Dib's cell number is 723.
  • Gaz mentions to Dib that a version of Clarence Wong ruled over the gamer-ruled alternate universe when she first got there. He was an unseen character that had a somewhat significant role in the episode "Game Slave 2", as Iggins posed as him to get the game, resulting in Gaz stalking him until he gives her the GS2.
    • She states that the two of them could have been friends, but that she had to get rid of him in order to take over, implying she either killed him or is suffering a similar fate to Dib's.
    • This issue also reveals that Gaz is capable of making friends.
  • Gaz's eyes are noticeably green in this issue, instead of their usual amber/brown.
  • This is the first issue in which Zim does not directly effect the plot. He appears briefly on Dib's computer shouting at a stray cat, and alternate versions of Zim and GIR appear.
    • These alternate Zim and GIRs appear with sandwiches for heads, as zombies, with goatees (Zim with a scar on his left eye), as babies, and as flowers (with Dib as a bee).
      Issue 5 preview

      Cover shown in previews for Issue 5

  • The other two people in pig costumes in the Angry Turds pannel are Old Kid and Pigboy.
  • The animatronics at the alternate universe's Bloaty's Pizza Hog are a singer squirrel, a guitarist walrus, a bassist potato, and a drummer octopus. Gaz mentions that their version has Gerry Giraffe as the bassist.
  • The cover shown in previews for this issue looks significantly different than the finalized cover. Zim is on this cover, suggesting that he was previously intended to have a bigger role.
    • Plus, the pre-release summary doesn't match the actual comic, "Dib wakes up in a world where ZIM rules the Earth and forces his subjects, including Dib, to perform in deadly games for his amusement. Dib's terrible at games, but... he has a sister..." so it's likely the plot was redone.
    • Jhonen Vasquez explained in a interview that Dib was supposed to wake up in a video game simulation made by Zim, but he felt that the original script for this issue seemed too similar to a TV series episode (quite possibly "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom").[1]
  • Lord Voxelrot takes Dib away in a bucket marked NPC. This may be a callback to the "crazy bucket" that appeared in "Hamstergeddon".
  • This is the first time Gaz is shown playing online games with other gamers she's apparently friendly with. This would later happen again in Issue 14.
  • This Issue is the first time that a multiverse is shown to exist in the Invader Zim universe, the second time being in Issue 32, the third time being in Issue 40, and the fourth being during the "Battle Void" arc that runs from Issue 46 to Issue 49.
  • This issue received a negative reception from fans due to Gaz acting in a perceived out-of-character way all just because Dib turned off her game, Dib getting endless tortured from various games, overwhelmingly overuse of video game references and parodies to shove down everyone’s throats, and the ending where Dib gets thrown to a wall because he wins a game fairly. The first point in particular is considered striking due to Gaz's less extreme characterization in later issues and Enter the Florpus.

References[]

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