Summer Reading: ‘Irredeemable’ by Mark Waid & Peter Krause

BOOM! Studios, April 2009 to present.

15 Issues to date. 3 trades are now available which include 4 issues a piece.

Of the thirteen contributors that we have here at The Bunker, I have to be the least qualified to write about comics. I would not take on such a task if I did not feel so strongly about the need for this title to be enjoyed by as many as possible.

I’ve mentioned before that my growth into a comic reader has been a process, started late in life, that has become a labor of love. I read a lot of novels – probably 3 to 4 per week – and I watch a lot of movies. I don’t have time to follow many comic titles or catch up on 30, 40, 50 years of character history. Other than a smattering of random titles that I’ll pick up from time to time, the only character of which I have built a deep knowledge of lore is Batman (80s re-envisioning forward).

That being said, there are certain comics that transcend genre. Again, I am no expert and I am sure there are more than I know, but two titles I read even before I officially read comics were Watchmen and Sandman. Those are books that buck prejudice and elevate to a class of elemental fiction when compared against anything from mass market to classic literature.

Mark Waid’s Irredeemable is like that.

Waid is a prominent author who has worked on the who’s who of superhero titles; from Batman to Superman to The Fantastic 4, Flash, Captain America, and X-Men. The guy knows about superheroes and is known for thinking about the other side of the spandex and cape – what goes on inside a hero’s head.

That thought path gave way to Waid wondering what would happen if a superhero did not have the super-patience and super-humility and super-disposition to handle the stress of being the world’s savior.

Enter The Plutonian

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The Plutonian is like your everyday super-powered hero. In fact, the Plutonian is much like Superman in the scope of his powers and corn-fed all American look. Folks in Sky City and around the world enjoy having the Plutonian around – they’re used to it. They know that no matter what villain creeps up or what disaster strikes, Tony, as he is known by his close acquaintances, will be there to Save The Day once again.

Until one day he isn’t. The problem for the Plutonian is that there is no super-powered heroes handbook; No Super Dr. Phil or Superheroes For Dummies. He’s had to find a way, by himself, in a world that, like our own, is filled with prejudice and the over-valuation of self often rears its ugly head. There are other heroes, but none from another planet and none with the raw power of Tony.  The Plutonian feels pressure. The Plutonian, after saving hundreds of thousands of lives, get a little pissed off at ingratitude. The Plutonian looses his cool a little when some dipshit feels that he is entitled to complain because, although the most powerful man in the world just saved his life, he did it and destroyed a little private property along the way. The Plutonian gets fed the fuck up with humanity, its selfishness, its expectations. The Plutonian snaps.

It’s scary that we can almost understand his point.

That is where the Plutonian’s story breaks from Superman – but we come to find that their paths were divergent all the way back to the beginning. Much of the pleasure of reading Irredeemable is in the discovery of the back story and occurrences that shaped the superhero the Plutonian which shaped the super villain the Plutonian. The similarities that the Plutonian shares with Superman are dark reflections and almost like what-ifs. In this case a series of worst case ifs happened throughout the Plutonian’s life and, in only a few moments, the Plutonian reverses course and destroys Sky City – the city he had up until that time sworn to protect.

The flip side of Irredeemable is Waid and Jean Diaz’s Incorruptible. Incorruptible is a spin-off that focuses on Max Damage, a super villain who witnesses the Plutonian destroy Sky City and murder millions. Witnessing that act changed Damage from villain to hero; from corrupted to incorruptible. When asked what he saw that made him have his change of heart, Damage, now know as Max Daring, replied:

“I saw a god.”

The narrative of Irredeemable follows the Plutonian in real time as well as deeply emotional flashbacks from the perspective of Tony or one of the other heroes that he had teamed up with at one time or another. That superheroes team, known as The Paradigm, are similar to the Avengers or Justice League. The team is a mishmash of altered humans, eons old warriors, and mutants. The depth and history for all of these characters that is fleshed out in the current fifteen issues of Irredeemable is heroic by itself. These are rich and tactile characters with secrets and secret lives.

Irredeemable is also about The Paradigm and their fight to save the world from Tony while running and hiding from him – as none of them have powers anywhere near the level of the all-powerful alien. A prominent reoccurring theme present in the stories of The Paradigm members and the Plutonian is that heroes are not perfect. However, the juxtaposition is set between how different heroes deal with their imperfections while remaining heroic – or trying to, and the ancient battle between greater power, greater responsibility, and greater pressure.

The beauty and depth of Irredeemable is difficult to describe. It’s a story about a world learning to cope with the consequences of a superhero going bad. And sometimes those consequences are dire indeed.

Irredeemable is decidedly mature – it’s not a book for young kiddies – and explores emotional themes with a breadth that runs several layers deep. As great of a book as Watchmen is, Alan Moore’s penchant for the self-congratulatory juvenility of Ayn Rand and the over-simplification of themes similar to grand works by Nietzsche and Dostoevsky weighs the story down from time to time with its arrogance and close minded nature. Waid does not fall into that trap. Irredeemable is often ambiguous, and blurs the line between superhuman and human, but never cheapens the hardcoded instincts of right and wrong. That gives this completely fantastical tale a ground in what we know as a familiar reality. The character arcs, personalities, and faults of these individuals can be related to We The People all to well.

Below is the trailer that was released during the build up to publication.

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