Here's A Little More Darkness

Irredeemable
BOOM! Studios
Mark Waid, writer
Peter Krause and Diego Barreto, artists

What would it take to make the world's greatest superhero into the absolute worst villain, someone so evil he became irredeemable?

Imagine Superman growing up without the influence of Jonathan and Martha Kent to help shape his moral center. Being a young boy with powers and abilities he doesn't understand and can't control would be scary enough. Add to that being bounced from foster home to foster home, dreading the day when each new family learns that he isn't normal and learns to fear him, wanting desperately to be free of him.

Despite all of that, the boy grows up and adopts the public identity of the Plutonian, a superhero. He works hard to save people from everyday dangers and criminal masterminds and alien invasions. He is beloved, but he has learned through long years of experience that others' love can be a temporary thing. One slip can turn that love into fear and loathing.

Other heroes begin to show up on the scene. Plutonian reaches out to these other heroes, seeking friendship and understanding. Several of these heroes join forces to form the Paradigm, the world's foremost superhero group. But always, Plutonian must be on his guard. Any mistake will bring disaster, and he has the emotional scars to prove it.

But then, one day, despite all of his efforts, or maybe simply because of all the pent-up pressure he has placed on himself all these years, the Plutonian makes that one mistake that slowly turns everyone against him. And first the Plutonian's world falls apart, and then in a rage, he makes sure the rest of the world falls apart as well.

That is the premise that begins this series, the brainchild of Mark Waid. It isn't Waid's first foray into a darker, alternate version of superheroes. But it is an interesting read, a terrifying take on what might have happened in other heroic universes. The entire run of Irredeemable is collected in 10 trades, and there is also a companion series, if one is interested, called Incorruptible, about the Plutonian's most persistent foe turning into a hero in the wake of the Plutonian's fall from grace.

My only complaint about Irredeemable is that none of the heroes of the Paradigm are really all that likable once you get to know them. Each one is flawed and has a multitude of secret shames, it seems, just none that have fallout as disastrous for the world as the Plutonian's downfall. But the story Waid has crafted is nonetheless an interesting one. And the ending serves to not only tie everything up, but even offer a bit of a nudge and a wink to the heroes whose popularity makes it possible to explore these kinds of "what if" scenarios.