Incorruptible—Volume 1

Comic Info

Incorruptible #3

The world’s greatest superhero, the Plutonian, has turned into the world’s greatest villain.  With the world in fear, the only hope is the world’s greatest supervillain Max Damage.  While Max is trying to prove his change in direction to the world, he teams with his under-aged sidekick Jailbait and Lieutenant Armadale of Sky City to begin his battle to free the world of the danger of the Plutonian but first he must gain the world’s trust.

Written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Jean Diaz, Incorruptible—Volume 1 is the first collection of Boom! Studios’ series which is the flipside to Waid’s Irredeemable.  Though Irredeemable was rather well received, Incorruptible reviews were positive but not as strong.

Irredeemable is a fun comic, and Incorruptible obvious spin-off to the idea of Irredeemable.  The comic has a very different tone than Irredeemable and is a lot lighter and more humorous.  Unfortunately, since Max Damage isn’t an established character and the world of Irredeemable isn’t very established, this doesn’t work as well as Irredeemable.

Irredeemable prints a rather dim and dismal world where heroes have fallen and the world is in dire straits.  Incorruptible is a world where it is also bad, but it doesn’t seem bad enough.  You start to get an idea how bad the world is in this collection, but it just feels like this should be a dark, dark comic…which it isn’t and I rather hoped for.  I wish that it was closer to the tone of Irredeemable.

Incorruptible #4

I don’t love Boom! Studios collection style.  Boom! was all about getting out cheap and affordable collections so the series focused on four issue arcs.  I prefer a little longer story arc or letting the writer kind of determine how long a collection should be so it feels more complete.  Though the story does kind of have an ending with the hunt for the dimensional device, it doesn’t feel like much of a story arc…plus it is rushed.  It is possible that Waid wanted the series in four issue arcs but I think it would have played out better in longer stories.

The art for the comic is good, but it is very traditional.  I would have almost liked to have seen both this series and Irredeemable a bit more stylized with an edgier artist.  Part of the plot device of this series is that it is supposed to be a traditional comic book world gone wrong…I would have loved to see it with classic comic art as a possible way to provide a warm feeling and a contrast.  There is nothing wrong with this art, but I think different art could have opened up the story even more.

Incorruptible unfortunately cannot survive in a vacuum and cannot stand on its own without comparisons to Irredeemable.  I think if you just read Incorruptible, it wouldn’t be a very good series or very enjoyable.  If Incorruptible is read as a companion piece to Irredeemable, it is worth reading, but don’t expect as much from this series as you might from Irredeemable.  Incorruptible—Volume 1 is followed by Incorruptible—Volume 2.