The Complete Insufferable

The father-and-son duo of Nocturnus and Galahad were once the pride of St. Barrington.  Fighting against the many villains who inhabited the city, they gave hope to a terrorized populace.  This was the case until Galahad got fed up with his father’s controlling nature and revealed their identities on national TV.  From there, the son embraced the life of a celebrity crimefighter while Nocturnus embraced his identity as a solitary crimefighter.  They’ve rarely spoken or worked together since, but a new case is going to force them to do just that.  That’s because someone is trying to convince them that Nocturnus’ wife and Galahad’s mom may not be as dead as they initially thought she was.

As the title implies, this is something of a companion piece to writer Mark Waid’s other superhero titles “Irredeemable” and “Incorruptible.”  Familiarity with either title isn’t necessary, but a familiarity with superhero tropes is.  Specifically that of the sidekick role best popularized via the exploits of a certain Dark Knight and his Boy Wonder.  To that end, Waid gets points for not making who the “Insufferable” one is in the title immediately obvious.  Unfortunately it winds up feeling like both characters are not very likeable, and not in an interesting way.

While there are some fun bits to be had as the writer interrogates the relationship between the two, it doesn’t feel like it amounts to much, even if the story builds to a more dramatic climax than its predecessors.  However, it still lacks the darkly comic heights of “Irredeemable” and the consistency of “Incorruptible,” even if it is the most consistently good looking of the three thanks to Peter Krause illustrating all eighteen issues here.  While I don’t regret reading this collection, and I do appreciate BOOM! Studios putting together this all-in-one edition, this isn’t something I’d recommend to anyone who doesn’t already have an interest in the other two titles I’ve mentioned here.