Post by paulpogue on Aug 6, 2009 17:25:14 GMT -8
Anyone reading this?
I'm finding it highly compelling. In a lot of ways, it's the story Mark Waid has been dying to tell for years, but has never managed to quite do right. Grant Morrison writes an afterword to the first issue, dripping with contempt for the Internet (and given the content of nine-tenths of Internet comics commentary, I don't blame him) that laments how Mark was pigeonholed as "the Silver Age guy," but really, it's that very Silver Age approach that makes Waid's best work sing. And before this is over, it may really turn out to be his best work.
Okay, before I get any further, the setup: Plutonian is the world's greatest hero. Superman analogue all the way, right down to the three-way love triangle between both his identities and his girlfriend, plus an archnemesis who is by all appearances a really smart human. He's got the power of a god and he has gone COMPLETELY FRAKKING INSANE. Wiping out cities, murdering millions, butchering all his old friends, for reasons not yet revealed, four issues in. The story jumps between Plutonian getting crazier and crazier, and his former allies inthe Justice Leaguethe Paradigm, led by Smart Tech Guy, who are desperately trying to find a way to stop him before he tears the world in half.
So, yeah. Mark Waid. He's gone down this road before, with "Empire," but this is a different take. "Empire" was an incredibly cynical comic, really quite mean-spirited in the way it tried to tear apart the Silver Age tropes. Which isn't to say it wasn't good, but it sort of wrote itself into a corner with a lead character who we really couldn't ever sympathize with. In "Irredeemable," there's a lot more sympathy for the guy that we see time and again really was once the world's greatest hero.
Waid's other trope, besides Silver Age Guy, is Alan Moore Disciple. Sometimes I wonder just how much he's aware of it, and then I see the Warpsmiths lifted wholesale into "Empire." Same thing here, except he's completely embraced it. Waid has decided to pretty much go the Full Miracleman and see what comes of it, right down to the character looking like MM and acting like Kid Miracleman.
There's a certain freedom Waid seems to have allowed himself with this book; "Empire" (to which I constantly compare it to because it really is a companion piece) felt a lot of times like it was trying too hard -- he had to make the villain both despicable and likeable at the same time. It never quite gelled there, but it works very well here.
It took me a while before I was sure, but by the third issue -- when Plutonian gives Smart Guy an object lesson in what power and responsibility REALLY feels like -- I was hooked. I'm very, very intrigued to see where Waid goes from here.
Thoughts?
I'm finding it highly compelling. In a lot of ways, it's the story Mark Waid has been dying to tell for years, but has never managed to quite do right. Grant Morrison writes an afterword to the first issue, dripping with contempt for the Internet (and given the content of nine-tenths of Internet comics commentary, I don't blame him) that laments how Mark was pigeonholed as "the Silver Age guy," but really, it's that very Silver Age approach that makes Waid's best work sing. And before this is over, it may really turn out to be his best work.
Okay, before I get any further, the setup: Plutonian is the world's greatest hero. Superman analogue all the way, right down to the three-way love triangle between both his identities and his girlfriend, plus an archnemesis who is by all appearances a really smart human. He's got the power of a god and he has gone COMPLETELY FRAKKING INSANE. Wiping out cities, murdering millions, butchering all his old friends, for reasons not yet revealed, four issues in. The story jumps between Plutonian getting crazier and crazier, and his former allies in
So, yeah. Mark Waid. He's gone down this road before, with "Empire," but this is a different take. "Empire" was an incredibly cynical comic, really quite mean-spirited in the way it tried to tear apart the Silver Age tropes. Which isn't to say it wasn't good, but it sort of wrote itself into a corner with a lead character who we really couldn't ever sympathize with. In "Irredeemable," there's a lot more sympathy for the guy that we see time and again really was once the world's greatest hero.
Waid's other trope, besides Silver Age Guy, is Alan Moore Disciple. Sometimes I wonder just how much he's aware of it, and then I see the Warpsmiths lifted wholesale into "Empire." Same thing here, except he's completely embraced it. Waid has decided to pretty much go the Full Miracleman and see what comes of it, right down to the character looking like MM and acting like Kid Miracleman.
There's a certain freedom Waid seems to have allowed himself with this book; "Empire" (to which I constantly compare it to because it really is a companion piece) felt a lot of times like it was trying too hard -- he had to make the villain both despicable and likeable at the same time. It never quite gelled there, but it works very well here.
It took me a while before I was sure, but by the third issue -- when Plutonian gives Smart Guy an object lesson in what power and responsibility REALLY feels like -- I was hooked. I'm very, very intrigued to see where Waid goes from here.
Thoughts?
