Irredeemable vol. 5
One thing I didn’t mention in my review of vol. 3 was that vols. 3-5 were a late Christmas gift from some good friends of mine. I’d been planning on picking them up at some point in the future because while I’ve liked the series, the price for “four issues and a preview of Mark Waid’s other work for BOOM!” has always been a little steep for my tastes. After vol. 5, that’s no longer going to be the case because the series has finally hit its stride.
The fight against the Plutonian takes some surprising twists in this volume as Tony is faced with the possibility of undoing the event that turned him into a villain. On the other side, Qubit makes the case for why he spared the man’s life previously. I do like the fact that Waid dives headfirst into this problem in the second issue here as Qubit’s deflecting of the bullet struck me as more of a way to prolong the series than an act of mercy. His reasons, as they’re laid out here, do make sense and reinforce the man’s character as the kind of person who always finds a way to solve problems without killing.
Even more surprisingly is how he ties the idea of finding a way not to kill the Plutonian into the story of how the Hornet, the street-level hero killed in the very first issue, found that very way. While his efforts to infiltrate the lead ship in an alien invasion lead you to believe that he’s going to find some cool, Batman-esque way of defeating them, the end result is far from what you’d expect. The story plays against your expectations nicely and is quite disturbing without spilling a drop of blood.
As for the parts that involve the Plutonian himself? They provide the most twisted fun yet in the series. Particularly in his rationalization of his relationship with his archvillain, Modeus, who is currently inhabiting the mind of the superhero’s mostly-dead sidekick. The psycho-sexual undertones he describes are all the more creepy because they’re so plausible. Then there’s the incredible look of glee the Plutonian has when he fries off the face of Sam/Modeus and then eats a Snickers bar. It’s delightfully wicked and you can really imagine Waid cackling to himself as he wrote that scene.
But wait! Did I say “incredible look of glee” in describing a series whose art I’ve regularly criticized? Yes. Yes I did and I’m pleasantly surprised to report that the three issues that regular artist Peter Krause took off before returning with these four did him nothing but good. The man’s no Stuart Immonen or Bryan Hitch, but all of the awkwardness that plagued vol. 3 is gone here, replaced by some truly memorable emotional moments. The five descending panels illustrating Tony’s revelation at the end of the second issue are things of beauty in how they build up to it. Same goes for the reveal on the last page which shows that the menace of the Plutonian has been contained — for now.
It may have taken four volumes to get to this point, but you can believe that I won’t wait for my friends to buy me the next volume of this series. I know it’s not meant to run indefinitely, but that’s a good thing as I can’t wait to see what kind of ending Waid has in store for the characters and world that he has created here.