Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 2 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 2 created and written by Mark Waid and art by Horacio Domingues

Max Damage's original partner Jailbait (real name: Terri) goes AWOL since he's changed from a villain to a superhero. The only problem with her plan is that every enemy of Max will be gunning for her. Max saves a kidnapped woman only to find out it's not Terri. The woman's name is Annie. Annie is grateful to Max for saving her so he has her impersonated Jailbait long enough for him to find Terri and get her to safety. The plan does not go well, leading to more action and drama.

The story takes an interesting turn as Max realizes his impact on others. Annie gets enough story to make her an interesting character and to force her to join forces with Max. A new artist was brought on. The new visuals are a bit more cartoony which didn't bother me much. The art does play up the sexiness of Jailbait much more than in the first volume which I liked less. It's not bad enough for me to stop reading.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 1 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 1 created and written by Mark Waid and art by Jean Diaz

Max Damage is a super-criminal in Sky City, the home of superhero The Plutonian (a Superman knockoff). Max's newest problem is The Plutonian losing his mind and turning into the worst supervillain ever (see Irredeemable). After spending a month thinking about the situation, Max has decided he needs to step up and become a hero. He has a hard time convincing people like his sidekick Jailbait (an underage female who likes the wicked lifestyle) and the police commissioner. Max starts off by letting the police know about his gang's next job, leading to their arrest. Also, he gets rid of all his ill-gotten gains. That includes torching his vault with 4.2 million dollars in it. The commissioner and Jailbait have a really hard time with that one too. Max wants to be on the up-and-up. He starts working his way through problems as they come, like an ex-associate who is profiting off of his "get superpowers quick" experiments that don't work so well but are easy to market to the desperate populace.

Max is a very interesting character. While Irredeemable told the story of why a Superman-like hero would turn to evil, this book takes on a more interesting and, to me, plausible challenge...how would a villain turn over a new leaf and become a hero? Even after a month thinking about it, Max still makes some mistakes here and there. Turning himself 180 degrees is not easy, especially when everyone thinks he's playing some sort of game or lost his mind. The reader has an easy time rooting for Max, especially when he does the right thing in little situations like not sleeping with his underage sidekick anymore. The story is a nice twist on the hero's journey.

The art is not the best. Max's face sometimes looks different from issue to issue. The book has some nice splash pages for big scenes, though the rest is fairly standard comic-book fare. Even though Jailbait has a skin-tight outfit and wants to be exploited, the artist treats her with more respect than she has for herself, so there are good aspects to the art. 

Recommended--this is a more intriguing premise than the original series.

Book Review: Irredeemable Premier Edition Vol. 4 by M. Waid et al.

Irredeemable Premier Edition Volume 4 written by Mark Waid, illustrated by Peter Krause, Diego Barreto, Eduardo Barreto, and Damian Couceiro, colors by Andrew Dalhouse and Zac Atkinson, and letters by Ed Dukeshire

See my review of the last volume here.

After a lot of wild jostling around, the Plutonian's mad rampage has gotten him into an insane asylum in the heart of a star (with the usual "science is magic" explanation for how the prison works). On Earth, former Plutonian ally Survivor is trying to restore order though he has become as monomaniacal as Plutonian. The other heroes reluctantly go along, though they are starting to make plans to deal with him and all the criminals to whom Survivor has promised amnesty if they help fix things.

Plutonian starts an escape, which leads him deeper into the prison planet which gets weirder and weirder. Along the way, he picks up some other prisoners who are aliens and want to escape. Meanwhile, Qubit and Modeus (Plutonian's greatest enemy) have teamed up to find him. Modeus has realized he's in love with Plutonian because being his greatest enemy makes him his greatest admirer (if that really makes any sense). The two manage to teleport to the heart of the prison just as Plutonian's gang arrives. After a brief fight, Plutonian escapes back to Earth while Modeus and Qubit are stranded. Plutonian resumes his mad rampage, now with alien super-criminals on his side.

Survivor has been trying to fix all of Earth's problems and generally failing. The criminals are not good at civic order and harmony. The other heroes' schemes to bring down Survivor are paltry and do not deliver what the Earth needs. Meanwhile, the acting president of the United States meets with some Asian leaders who have their own plan to deal with the return of the Plutonian. They have some super-powerful beings who should be able to bring down the wayward hero. The only cost is a huge nuclear blast that frees those beings, creating a cloud of radiation that will kill a third of the people on the planet.

My misapprehensions about where the story was going once Plutonian was taken off as a prisoner in space have been confirmed. His storyline becomes more or less bat-poop crazy. The revelation of Modeus's affection for the Plutonian also seems forced and false. And there's a surprise twist with Survivor that does not make sense with what has come before, like a murder mystery that brings out a brand-new characters in the last twenty pages who should have appeared much earlier. So many disappointing parts, what happened to the writing?

Not recommended.

Book Review: Irredeemable Premier Ed. Vol. 3 by M. Waid et al.

Irredeemable Premier Edition Volume 3 written by Mark Waid, illustrated by Peter Krause and Diego Barreto, colors by Andrew Dalhouse and Nolan Woodard, and letters by Ed Dukeshire

The Plutonian's mad rampage of destruction has stopped now that his old partner, Samsara, is back from the dead. He doesn't realize that Modeus, his greatest foe, has secretly had himself transferred into Samsara's corpse as a way to protect himself from Plutonian's wrath. What better hiding spot than in the faithful sidekick? Unfortunately, Modeus can't maintain the facade forever.

Meanwhile, Plutonian's ex-teammates are still looking for a way to take him down. One member, Cary, has combined his powers with those of his dead twin-brother and now is as powerful as the Plutonian. He's reimagined himself as Survivor. When the team discovers a plan to remove the Plutonian that actually works, Survivor takes on the role of world restorer. In his monomania to be the new greatest hero, he makes an awful lot of promises, like allowing super-powered criminals to help out in fixing the Earth, thus gaining a pardon for previous crimes. The planet may have traded one crazy ex-superhero for another.

The story takes many wild turns and twists, some enjoyable, some smart, some disturbing, some disappointing. I still appreciate it enough to finish the story with volume 4 but I find it less and less recommendable.

Book Review: Irredeemable Vol. 2 by M. Waid et al.

Irredeemable Premier Edition Volume 2 written by Mark Waid, illustrated by Peter Krause and Diego Barreto, colors by Andrew Dalhouse, and letters by Ed Dukeshire

After a mad rampage of destroying things and people, including some of his ex-teammates (they were called the Paradigm), the Plutonian is laying low because one of those ex-teammates, Cary, had his power boosted when his brother was killed. He's now a seeming equal to the Plutonian, so the team is making plans to take the Plutonian down. Unfortunately, the U. S. Government is initiating a panic-driven plan to take down both the Plutonian and the other superheroes since they clearly can't be trusted. They teleport in a demon who gave the Paradigm a very hard time in the past. Judging by his behavior, he's still a villain. More of the Plutonian's dark secrets come out in this issue, showing just how delicate his mental state was.

The plot developments are interesting but I can't help feeling the Plutonian is clueless about human psychology at some very basic levels. The backstory in this issue describes him as always trying to contain and suppress his powers, though he is also clearly dishonest with himself about how he uses his powers and what impact they have. No wonder he eventually cracked under the pressure. The rest of the team is not faring well--Cary is developing a monomaniacal stance very similar to the Plutonian's; Bette Noir admits she had an affair and she knew of a way to take down the Plutonian but didn't mention it because of the affair; other team members wind up in jail or banished to other dimensions. A lot of action is shown but also a lot of pessimism.

My interest is waning but I will continue with another book to see where the story goes.

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.