Irredeemable #1

This is how you introduce a new universe. Contrast this to the recent Super-Zombies book, and the difference is clear. The lineup is very limited in this first issue, and the main players are introduced slowly enough to make us actually care when some of them are taken off the board. The Superman-archetype Plutonian in this is a force of nature, not a character. We don't know any of his thoughts or see things from his point of view, other than one telling panel that shows he doesn't take criticism very well. The opening sequence was pretty riveting too. It is easy emotional manipulation to kill kids (especially once you have some of your own like I do) but it really drilled down the essentials of the Plutonian. He is beyond any redemption as of page 2, even though we don't know what he did to the first hero's daughter or if she's alive or dead. Samsara seemed so sad in his attempts to talk about Plutonian, and the slow reveal of his current circumstance was handled masterfully in both the art and dialogue. Waid has created a compelling world of new heroes that are already behind the 8-ball, and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Where has Pete Krause been hiding? I loved his work on Power of Shazam and it is great seeing him putting out work again. His action scenes look fantastic, and the detail in his backgrounds is nice to see too. I didn't find any of the new hero designs to be mind-blowing, but they are unique and don't seem to be direct rip-offs of existing characters, which is nice.

There has been a lot of talk about Grant Morrison's afterword, where he gets kind of down on the Internet comic-community and how we pigeon-hole creators. I certainly admit to some of that, but I like to hope I do it for the positive and the negative, since there are many creators whose work I will seek out based on their established voice. I'm not sure Waid is the best guy to be championing either, since he does do a lot of Silver Age type work and did really make his rep deconstructing the Silver Age in Kingdom Come. I do like hearing those described as Dad-comics though! Morrison's ego seems a little bruised after the Final Crisis reviews and I can see why. Shake it off Grant, you and Waid are still tops in my book!

Good