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Irredeemable #1 (2010)

by Mark Waid(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

8467903244 (ISBN13: 9788467903249)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Norma Editorial

review 1: A neat take on a stubborn question about superheroics - namely, why do we assume that just because you have a lot of power that means that you're psychologically able to deal with it? Rather than be a story about a man who is powerful and decides it's more fun to rule the world, this is a story about a thinly veiled Superman who apparently has an stupidly bad day and goes south, murdering a whole mess of people in the process and leaving his former allies to figure out what went wrong and how to stop him.Mark Waid is a consistently strong writer and his concepts here follow up rhetorically on the work he did on Kingdom Come a few years back. The only real barrier isn't in the writing itself, it's in trying to muster up a lot of concern for characters that we don't really k... morenow well. It's hard to appreciate the world-turned-upside-down-ness that most of the allies feel considering that we haven't been in this world as readers. It left me really wishing that Mark Waid could have just told this story as a "what if" using established DC or Marvel characters that we know, thus giving us the emotional heft that we need to appreciate how dangerous things have gotten. Also somewhat less than enthralling is the art itself, although it it's a little less grand than we're used to with Waid's words, those are just kind of the dues when comparing anything to Alex Ross's style.
review 2: The sub-genre of superhero fiction where superheroes, or usually a Superman-type character, goes off the rails is unusually fertile ground for comics writers. Alan Moore’s “Watchmen”, Garth Ennis’ “The Boys” and Mark Millar’s “Superman: Red Son” have all explored an alternative to the heroic figures presented to us in comics and all are exceptional works of art. Added to this field of subversive superhero stories is Mark Waid’s “Irredeemable” which posits the idea of a Superman-type superhero called the Plutonian who becomes disenchanted with humanity after years of saving them from themselves. He slowly becomes bitter and hateful with the way they view and treat him to the point where he goes from hero to villain over the course of several years. This idea of superheroes acting as tyrant leaders to humanity has been explored in superhero comics as diverse as Warren Ellis’ “The Authority” and more recently in the hugely popular series “The Boys” by Garth Ennis. But with Waid’s Plutonian, the tone of the book is far less bombastic than Ennis’ work and much more tragic. Waid writes the story like a character study with friends and colleagues from the Plutonian’s past revealing glimpses of the man he used to be while in the present he wages a horrible war on humanity borne of resentfulness and disappointment. It’s a highly effective storytelling device as it keeps the Plutonian in the spotlight without ever giving the reader full view into the Plutonian’s head, retaining the mystery of the character. Battling the Plutonian is a cadre of lesser superheroes and villains banding together in a last ditch effort to stop him from destroying the world. This underground resistance desperately tries to gather information on the Plutonian’s heretofore unknown weaknesses while avoiding his omniscient presence in this newly fearful world of a wrathful god awakened. But time is running out and the Plutonian appears unstoppable... where is the Lex Luthor-type character when you need him? I’d seen “Irredeemable” on the shelf for a couple years now but never bothered to pick it up for some reason. I’m so glad I finally got around to it. It’s a brilliantly original, utterly compulsive read which will appeal to all fans of superhero comics who enjoy alternative approaches to the archetypal characters found within this genre. After an astonishingly good first volume, I’m fully committed now to reading the next 9 volumes - that’s how impressed I was with this book. All fans of “The Boys” should do themselves a favour and check out “Irredeemable”, you won’t regret it. less

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Reviews (see all)

gab

A good start for the series with an interesting idea: "What if a superhero turned and became a super villain ?"The Plutonian was the best of them, the better and kindest of the superheros. And he seems he was the most powerful. But inside of him he was just as human as us, acting and feeling like a human with the effects and the consequences that came afterwords. But people thought he was a god, perfect, the image of good, the best in us but not the worst in us. They thought they knew him. Until the day he turned evil, unexpected to all but maybe conceivable if they would've put together the pieces. It was a process, maybe a slow one, maybe from his childhood even. That what his teammates want to find out. What pushed him to do this, what were his motives, what was his past that they never knew about. This while he destroys cities and hunts them to kill.The art is ok, a so-so for me.A good start of a series.

kathryn

Mark Waid subverts the common superhero trope that the superest super guy has to be always good. No matter if you were born on an alien planet, you're still all too human with human urges and concerns. The pressures gets you.Now you've got a superman with no known weaknesses holding the world hostage, and his former compatriots are racing against time to dig this guy, dig him deep and figure out what makes him tick, and how to throw a wrench in these works. Writers should be psychologists. Well, maybe not, because we all can be a bit self-absorbed, but the way they experiment with personalities are often good enough to be real, even in impossible situations. Mark Waid begins an interesting experiment that I look forward to finishing.

cspt12

This looks greatjust twisted and well thought out

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