Mark Waid's Irredeemable published by Boom Comics is the story of a Superhero who decides to become a villain.
Imagine Superman one day deciding that the rest of the world is beneath him and he starts punishing the populous for making so many demands on him, while they never understood the sacrifices he has made. This punishment is doled out in extremely violent ways across the globe. Also who needs friends, so lets start killing off everyone on my superteam as well.
Mark Waid is one of my favorite writers, he did one of the most amazing runs on The Flash years ago and created the "speed force". He is known for being a fanboy writer and has extensive knowledge on comics. He uses it well in this new series, utilizing many archetype characters that seem very familiar but fresh at the same time.
The main villain "The Plutonian" reminds us of Superman of course, but a superman gone wrong. Some people would say this is Superman if he was bad, that over simplifying the story. You see Superman could never go wrong, many writers have built up a back story, a history a moral upbringing that would not allow it. However The Plutonian we find as we read on, did not have the happy childhood Superman had, and therefore the seeds are planted.
The art work is done very nicely and I really appreciate the flashback scenes which pay homage to Curt Swan.
I would not say Irredeemable is a really great comic, I mean it's really good, and I look forward to reading each issue. However, it seems like ground covered before, not the whole premise, but the dark violent tale.....so 80s. I had hoped seeing the trend in comic in the past few years that grim and gritty was done and over.
Can I recommend this........not to everyone, I mean it seems that if your going to go down that grim and gritty path, do you always have to have some type of rape scene. See I am a big fan of Garth Ennis, so I have read violent books, but in this case, sometimes the violence is done I think for violence sake. I think it should be done to move the plot along, character development or sometimes just outrageous humor. In this case it seems forced.
However, that being said, I find myself finishing one issue and picking up the next.....because I still want to see whats going to happen next. The first trade is out, it's selling on Amazon for 9.99 so what the hell, might as well give it a whirl.
