Longbox Review

Here’s a comic chosen at random from my collection.

Irredeemable #33 by Mark Waid, Diego Barreto, Nolan Woodard, Ed Dukeshire, Matt Gagnon, Shannon Watters, and Dan Panosian (cover)

“Redemption, part 3”

I loved the idea of this series and its companion, Incorruptible. It’s What If Superman turned evil and took over the world (and in Incorruptible, what if the bad guy, because of what the “superhero” did, becomes the good guy?)?

This issue is part 3 of a cross-over event, but the story is really an examination of the Plutonian’s upbringing as he learns the truth of his origin (namely, aliens are his parents — how did Mark Waid not get sued over this?). Plutonian goes from tantrum with his parents, to wanting to leave Earth with them during the course of the conversation, but in the end, his parents tell him him that “epiphany is not the same as absolution” and seemingly are going to imprison him when former ally and antagonist Qubit and Max Daring, respectively, show up to free him.

As I said, I really dug the premises in both the series, though I dropped both before they concluded and before they got to this cross-over, and I did not resume the series’ after this event. Both ended shortly after and I have been very curious where both sets of books/characters ended up. In this story, I liked how Plutonian quickly goes from fighting to acceptance, inverting the usual superhero trope. Plus, it’s always fun to see an interesting take on the Superman mythos, at least to me. The artists do a good job of showing the various emotions of the characters, from the smug righteousness of Plutonian’s foster father, to the rage of the titular character, and the brief moments of sadness and happiness. And this is a small thing, but there are panels where the background is pure black with the ghostly images in that realm being a kind of glowing teal that I really like.

There is an omnibus of the series scheduled to be published, but who know what will happen given the current COVID-19 crisis, but you can also find this issue and the rest at Comixology.