Review: Irredeemable #3

Three issues in and we’re still no closer to discovering what ultimately made The Plutonian snap and switch sides from good to bad.  We’ve learned about his love life, and her betrayal of his secret identity, which makes me wonder what Mark Waid has in store for readers next.

The answer is a weird sexual fixation on his former love to the point where he goes to extreme measures to relive his sexual fantasies with other people; complete with black wig and stand in superhero.  It’s a bizarre voyeuristic kink that is really creepy and seems ripped from the pages of those hypno-sex websites.  Not that I would know anything about that…

When the world’s greatest hero switches sides, it looks like a perfect opportunity for the bad guys to cash in, yet they are running just as scared as those heroes The Plutonian is taking out one by one.  Following the murder of Inferno, the villains have converged on his secret lair in hopes of finding prize weapons and contemplating what to do with the switch in status quo.

They don’t have to wait long as The Plutonian is already there, and he makes them an offer they can’t refuse.  But of course villains being villains, they’re always going to think about themselves first, and that costs them – all of them, big time. Or, I should say all of them but one who is able to protect herself.  Her pleas convince The Plutonian to keep her safe, but his final words bring the issue full circle as his sexual peccadillo resurfaces.

This was really a brilliant way to tell the story as writer Mark Waid seems to be saying that no matter what major event happens, people are still going to follow their instincts, even if it means getting killed in the process.  If that really is the message, then The Plutonian character is even more disturbing than before, as he is the cheetah that does appear to have changed his spots.

There isn’t much in terms of character development in this issue because as soon as readers begin to identify with anyone, The Plutonian kills them off.  This make writing the dialogue very easy because all the lines become throw away lines in the end.  All except those spoken by The Plutonian, the only one readers have been able to watch from the omniscient point of view.

I’ve pondered what the big event was that caused the hero to flip, but after reading this third issue, I’m beginning to think it was a bunch of little incidents that finally built to the breaking point.  I’ve seen it happen in real life, and it wouldn’t surprise me that that is the route Waid is taking.  Of course, The Plutonian could just have mommy issues.

On the art side, Peter Krause does an adequate job, but I felt the lair of Inferno was as cavernous as we were meant to believe.  I want the art to be stellar, but simply find it be just okay.  It’s better than anything I could do, but for a title that is going doing an excellent job on the story side, the art seems off.

If you haven’t had a chance to read Irredeemable, you really owe it to yourself to at least check out the first issue.  I think you’ll soon find yourself blasting through to issue #3, as you try to find out what Mark Waid has in store next for the superhero (or is it super villain?) genre.  Irredeemable #3 earns 4 out of 5 Stars.