Incorruptible #1
Reviewed by Russell Burlingame
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Written by: Mark Waid
Art by: Jean Diaz
Publisher Name:
BOOM! Studios
$3.99, Color
First of all, Heroes be damned-if Tim Sale's alternate cover to Incorruptible #1 isn't just about the ugliest comic book cover I've ever seen, I don't know what is.
That said, Mark Waid's follow-up to Irredeemable, in which the world's most dangerous supervillain decides, in the wake of the Plutonian's rampage, to go straight, is a page right out of the Irredeemable playbook. If you didn't know the setup of the story when you opened it, it took you a few pages to get right onboard with it-but really who in the comics community didn't?
Jean Diaz's art is nice-not entirely as impressive as Peter Krause's work on the companion book but in the same vein, which is important when the stories interact so closely. In the final pages of Incorruptible, you learn that Max Damage didn't "find Jesus," but "saw the face of God," when he narrowly avoided being killed during one of The Plutonian's rampages. It was then that he went underground (his disappearance has been referenced in Irredeemable a handful of times) and started formulating a plan to defeat his old nemesis-by going straight.
He makes his first grand gesture, though, not by simply rescuing some people from a natural catastrophe or facing off against The Plutonian with their normal roles reversed. No, he takes down a couple of his own flunkies, who have appropriated some experimental weapons from his armory to stick up a diamond exchange. There are a pair of guys who end up going to jail and Damage's girlfriend-"Jailbait"-who flees the scene only to throw her arms around him when he returns (with a cop in the trunk) to their hideout. Apparently his moral compass has so completely reversed its polarity that he's unwilling to be physical with the girl, which should raise some interesting issues of its own down the line. Furthermore, I have to wonder if once the book really gets rolling and we start dealing with plot points that don't directly relate to Irredeemable, if we'll get a flurry of old Jailbaits, who have aged out of the role and now are hurt that their lover spurned them in favor of next year's model. I'm calling my shot now, that he'll end up in a relationship with one of them if they start to appear.
This issue sets a lot up and promises a lot, but it's largely an extended action sequence, much of which takes place on a suspension bridge (hey! Just like in Kingdom Come!) with the cops and Max facing down his old sidekicks. That said, the characters are compelling enough, and Irredeemable has been good enough, to bring me back next month regardless of the actual plot of this one lacking some punch.
Take A Look Inside
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Reviewer Bio
Russell Burlingame is a journalist and columnist living and working in New York City. In high school, Russell interviewed Elliot S. Maggin for a review of the Kingdom Come novelization, and since then has worked consistently in and around the comics industry. He interned for Wizard magazine, and has freelanced for Wizard and Newsarama, in addition to a number of non-comics publications, Russell is currently working on a graphic novel based on Cap'n Internet, the comic strip that ran in his college newspaper; and a graphic biography of folk singer Phil Ochs with artist Marion Vitus.
Currently, in addition to his freelance work and his comics projects, Russell writes a number of columns for ComicRelated, including Conscientious Sequentials, The Gold Exchange, What's Perhappenin', Closing Statements, Reflecting 'Pool and To See or Not To See.
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