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Dib
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Invader Zim Issue
Issue 8
INVADER ZIM 8 WITH LOGO AND EVERYTHING WOW
Chronology
Previous: Issue 7
Next: Issue 9
Information
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication date: March 23, 2016
Creative
Story by: Eric Trueheart
Art by: Aaron Alexovich
Megan Lawton
Color by: Warren Wucinich


 Official Summary[]

Dib wears the wrong pants... WITH DEADLY CONSEQUENCES!! Can the Earth survive an invasion from the waist down?[1]

Release[]

Issue 8 was released on March 23, 2016

Variations[]

Issue #8 has a total of 2 cover variations. 

  1. Dave Crosland and Warren Wucinich standard retail cover 
  2. Moss Lawton variant cover 

Characters in Issue #8 (In Order of Appearance)[]

Synopsis[]

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

The issue begins with Zim and GIR standing in the rain on the edge of town, awaiting a reply to a transmission. They are going to make an alliance with some very organic looking pants aliens.

Dib mobile but no cool pants

Dib arrives at skool on his Dib Mobile

We then cut to Dib, who is driving to skool on a segway which he has named the Dibmobile. He is narrating his thoughts via a "Paranormal Investigation Log", and is blissfully unaware of the fact that everyone around him is wearing fleshy-looking pants. When he arrives at skool, everyone begins to shout at Dib for not wearing the pants and say that his legs look stupid. Dib is cornered in the hallways, and only truly begins to understand the gravity of the situation when they try and force him to wear the "mind-altering biopants". He ends up in a broom closet, trying to formulate a plan.

However, while he's unaware, an egg like pod enters the closet via an air vent. It hatches and attacks Dib, and despite his best attempts to fight it off, he is overtaken. We briefly see what all the pants-zombies see - a day dream world where the wearer is frolicking through pants. Dib is saved by Groyna, who electrocutes (and kills) the pants using a "shockpack" that she had made. She leads him back through the air ducts and into the skool's laundry room, which the pants apparently avoid.

Pants disguise

Dib and Groyna disguise themselves by wearing dead pants

It is revealed that the streets are filled with the pants-zombies, and even Groyna's best friend Sheather has been taken by the pants. The two of them decide to disguise themselves by wearing dead pants, and try to find where the pants are coming from. They find a department store-esque place where the pants originate, complete with a cashier, who turns out to be Sheather. Groyna becomes emotionally compromised, trying to get her best friend to remember her. Groyna begins attracting too much attention from the pants zombies, so Dib abandons her in order to find the pants-hive.

Dib finds a basement filled with pants-eggs. He comes into contact with the pants queen, or the Ubertrouser, who is able to speak with Dib telepathically. It assumes that Dib is the leader of Earth because his head is so big. The Ubertrouser tells Dib about what the Space Pants are, where they come from, and why they are here. Zim had promised them that he would share the world with them if they worked together. Dib is shocked, and shows the Ubertrouser that Zim will end up betraying them. They decide to team up and stop Zim's plans.

Battle of the pants

ZIM and Dib going head to head and pants to pants

Dib climbs into the Ubertrouser and they go to confront the Irken, who is currently creating a "pants-jammer" that is supposed to destroy the pants' nervous systems once they've eliminated all the humans. Upon seeing Dib, Zim calls for his "Anti-Pants Battle Legs". Ubertrouser is able to fight using its ancient pants-based martial-arts that generates psychic bursts of energy. They fight for 14 hours in a battle known as "Pants Pants Revolution", but ultimately Zim's pants begin to overheat and Dib comes out on top. Zim's battle pants explode, and Ubertrouser begins to thank Dib - without Zim, the pants will now be able to envelop the legs of all the remaining humans. It had no plans to stop the pants' invasion, and they will still take over the Earth.

Zim uses his pants-jammer and saves the day, unintentionally. The humans are free from the pants, and Groyna and Sheather are reunited. Zim and Dib part ways, saying that after the whole ordeal they will probably just see each other tomorrow.

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

Facts of Doom[]

  • At the beginning of the issue, it's raining and Zim is not in any sort of pain, this can be due to the fact that he may be covered in paste.
  • This issue's story idea is based off of the unfinished episode "When Pants Ruled!", and is the first issue to be based off of one of the unfinished Invader Zim episodes from its animated television series.
  • At one point, while Dib is running from the pants-zombies, there's a brief appearance by a possessed teacher who looks exactly like Donald Sutherland's character in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  • During the climactic fight, Dib and the Ubertrouser fight Zim and his mech-pants is a traditional fight called "Pants Pants Revolution", which is clearly a parody of the video game series Dance Dance Revolution
  • Dib narrates parts of the story in a paranormal log, but is at no point shown to be writing down or otherwise recording his notes. This would suggest that he's merely thinking his "log" rather than actually having one. 
  • Zim had previously mentioned Space Pants in issues 1 and 7. However, in both cases, the context suggested actual articles of clothing, rather than the species which were introduced in this issue.
  • The Anti-Pants Battle Legs make a cameo appearance in Issue 25

References[]

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