Incorruptible vol. 1

The flip side and sister title to “Irredeemable,” as we’re introduced to Max Damage — a supervillain who decides to go straight once the Plutonian goes bad.  It’s a logical development for this world and writer Mark Waid was right to spin it off into its own title.  Trying to do this as a subplot in “Irredeemable” would’ve just cluttered things up and distracted from the good stuff already happening there.  Though the overall concept isn’t new, and the volume’s main story — about Max tracking down a supervillain with a possible way off Earth — isn’t anything to write home about, it’s the details that make me interested in seeing where this goes.

Just because Max Damage has decided to go straight doesn’t mean that everyone else has forgotten about his past.  The cops don’t trust him and he has to kidnap a police lieutenant to get some inside help in that regard.  It’s also interesting to observe Max’s single-mindedness about his reform, as not only does he wind up burning all of the blood money he has acquired in his criminal pursuits, but he won’t even use stolen cars or hideouts anymore.  Waid is clearly having fun subverting genre cliches here and artist Jean Diaz doesn’t do a half-bad job on the art.  It’s not at the level “Irredeemable” is right now, but it certainly has potential.