I will never surrender my Meat Man! — Zim

Invader Zim Issue
Issue 45
Chronology
Previous:	Issue 44
Next:	Issue 46
Information
Publisher:	Oni Press
Publication date:	July 17, 2019
Creative
Story by:	Eric Trueheart
Art by:	Warren Wucinich
Color by:	Fred C. Stresing

Official Summary

The epic journey of Little Meat Man starts here! Who is Little Meat Man? Why is Little Meat Man? And why does ZIM love him so? HE LOVES HIM SO MUCH!^[1]

Release

Issue 45 was released on July 17, 2019.

Variations

Issue #44 has a total of 1 cover variation. 

1. Warren Wucinich standard retail cover
2. Cab variant cover
3. Galaxycon Variant

Characters in Issue #45 (In Order of Appearance)

Synopsis

The issue opens with the Hobo narrating the story, which begins at the Skool. Ms. Bitters is presiding over the typical "Baby Assignment" for Life Skills class, where the Skoolchildren are to treat inanimate objects like babies. For this version of the assignment, however, the students are seemingly not required to choose a 'spouse' to assist in baby care.

Since Zim apparently forgot about the assignment and has no "baby" for it, he quickly calls GIR to make him one. GIR then arrives at the Skool to deliver the result, a baby-sized duplicate of Zim made out of meat that he dubs Li'l Meat Man.

Zim quickly grows attached to Li'l Meat Man, treating it as if it really is his child. As such, he is horrified when the assignment ends and Ms. Bitters orders the students to throw out their "babies".

Refusing to do this, Zim flees the Skool, stealing a weenie car from Deelishus Weenie so that he and Li'l Meat Man (and GIR, who joins them along the way) can go on the road.

Back at the Skool, the FBI arrive, having misunderstood the situation as a kidnapping. They are accompanied by Bill, who believes that Li'l Meat Man is a "Meat-Munculus" foretold to bring about a "baloneypocalypse". Dib uses this belief to convince Bill to go after Zim, with him tagging along.

Meanwhile, Zim, GIR, and Li'l Meat Man are on a road trip across the country, which is going well until they stop at a diner and are confronted by a group of men in chicken suits. Not liking meat people, they attack and damage Li'l Meat Man, causing Zim to destroy them in response. Learning about this from the FBI while at a carnival, Bill and Dib chase after them.

Momentarily ditching the police pursuing them, Zim takes Li'l Meat Man to the beach to triumphantly show it the ocean. While there, Zim encounters a man who is likewise showing the ocean to a boy made out of bread, who causes Zim to fully register the fact that Li'l Meat Man really is just a wad of meat.

When it's then eaten by a dolphin moments later, Zim shrugs the situation off and goes home, ignoring Dib, Bill, and the FBI as he does so.

It's then revealed that the Hobo, who has been narrating this whole story, is actually a robot kept in Zim's lab. Zim tells GIR to shut the robot off, as it keeps telling the same story (implying that its events never actually happened).

Facts of Doom 

• Tak is mentioned by Recap Kid, marking the first time she's been directly referenced in the comics, rather than indirectly by relation to her ship.
  • On a related note, Deelishus Weenie briefly appears, as the place Zim steals a vehicle (the weenie-shaped car modeled after the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile) from in order to flee with Li'l Meat Man.
• This is the fifth time GIR has set foot in the Skool. The first four times were in "A Room with a Moose", "The Voting of the Doomed", Issue 19, and Issue 26 respectively.
• This issue seems to be partially inspired by the Johnny Bravo episode "Free Pokey", where Johnny gets attached to an inanimate object, a piñata, similarly to how Zim got attached to Li'l Meat Man here.
• Zim and GIR going on a road trip is similar to the Rocko Modern's Life episode "Road Rash", especially since Zim is driving a weenie mobile similar to Rocko and Heffer. Coincidentally, both Nicktoons in question have movies that were scheduled to premiere on Netflix a few weeks after this issue's release.
• The panel where Zim holds up Li'l Meat Man to show it the ocean is a parody of Rafiki holding up the baby Simba at the start of The Lion King. Interestingly, the remake of that movie premiered two days after the release of this issue.
• NASAPlace is revealed to have sadly gone defunct from lack of funding since the time of the show.
• The chicken-suited men who assault Li'l Meat Man are an obvious parody of hate groups like the KKK.
• This is the last issue released before the release of Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus on Netflix on August 16th.
• Despite being featured prominently on the cover, Minimoose doesn't appear in this issue.
• A slightly modified version of this issue's cover was used as the cover for the 9th trade paperback collection of the comic series, which it's included in. This is the only time that an Invader Zim TPB has used a cover image from one of the issues it contains rather than an original image.
• Zim shows love and care for L'il Meat Man in this issue, while in another issue he shows complete apathy for a newborn smeet after it is killed in Issue 7. This confirms Jhonen's statement that Irkens can indeed show love for other species.

References