Book Review: Irredeemable Premier Ed. Vol. 1 by M. Waid et al.

Irredeemable Premier Edition Volume 1 written by Mark Waid, illustrated by Peter Krause, colors by Andrew Dalhouse, and letters by Ed Dukeshire

Superman-like hero The Plutonian flips from being the greatest superhero on Earth to a murderous psychopath. He is slowly killing off members of his superhero team the Paradigm. They are hiding out and searching for any information that will give them an edge in stopping him. The leads are slim--an ex-girlfriend and vague details about his family. As a hero, he's kept his private life a secret even from his teammates. Can they maintain the balance of being in hiding and getting one step ahead of him?

The Plutonian is also destroying cities across the globe with complete disregard for human life. Millions of people are dying and governments have no idea what to do. Should they band together to stop him? Should they recruit him as leader of their own country before anyone else snags him? The Plutonian's combination of bad mood and overwhelming superpowers makes the response especially tricky.

The set-up is slow but intriguing. Readers don't see much of the situation from the Plutonian's point of view till at least half-way through this volume. The flip from boy scout to megalomaniac is extreme and not entirely convincing on the surface. The story presents many dark secrets and obsessions along the way, revealing the Plutonian's heroic character as more facade than fact. By the end it's not so surprising that he'd turn.

When this series first came out, I wasn't interested in it. The "superhero turns evil" story has been done before and those haven't been my favorites. This story does have more depth than I expected, so I may continue. The story also has a limited arc (37 issues, of which this volume includes the first eight), making it more appealing to me. It's nice to read the beginning of something that will have an end.