Volume 1 was shocking, so very shocking, except for the part where I ended up reading Vol 2-5 before volume 1, so I knew what was coming.Really, what this series is all about is extended character studies with fight scenes and horror thrown in, and this volume focuses more on the fight scenes and horror than digging deep into the characters. Good, better than good, but not up to where I thought the rest of the series was. So keep going :) With Irredeemable, Mark Waid asks the question of what would happen if Superman went bad. Not in the old Silver Age sort of way where he gets hit with Red Kryptonite and puts on a crown like the Pope's miter and demands wealth, but a really bad guy who razes the city he calls home, killing most of the inhabitants while going around and frying people with his heat vision, starting with a Batman-like hero and the poor guy's family, and then moving on to the rest of the Justice League, none of whom have the kind of power to even slow the guy they know nothing about down, and even lobotomize a functionally immortal sidekick for reasons that aren't explained yet.Indeed, much of why the Plutonian is doing what he is doing is left unexplained. We get hints in this first volume, showing how superhearing can pick out desenters in the crowd, how the more adult motivations of people can make life a lot more complicated than anything most comic book superheroes need to deal with. This is a setting where the Superman expy will try to propose to his Lois Lane while sharing his secret identity only to have her break up with him for being a secretive liar. This is a story where the incredibly judgmental former hero will commit an act of what could be termed genocide for no good reason aside from not liking a UN ambassador's heartrate. It's ugly and there doesn't seem to be much of anything anyone can do to stop the guy...yet.
What do You think about Irredeemable, Vol. 1 (2009)?
5/5, brilliant, you simply have to give this a try. I'd also highly recommend Incorruptible.
—Justling
I should have gotten more than just the first volume!
—bstockmn
