The Four Color Media Monitor

The LeHigh Valley Express-Times wrote another column about Mark Waid's ludicrous and violent so-called superhero tale called Irredeemable, continuing to sugarcoat it:

"Irredeemable" is by far the best superhero book out now.

The Boom Studios ongoing series by Mark Waid and artist Peter Krause is a dark, apocalyptic vision of superheroes gone bad.

And I suppose that's why it's the "best" hero book on the market now? What makes a book about heroes-turned-villains so much better than one about heroes being heroes, or even villains reforming?

The Plutonian was once the world's greatest hero until something made him turn against his friends and allies.

Now he strikes out at the world around him, destroying entire cities in the process.

The Plutonian hasn't become a villain; he's become a force of nature, moving wherever he wants and doing whatever he wants.

Umm, if he's going to resort to destruction and mass murder, then he IS a villain, NOT a force of nature.

As U.S. ambassador tries to rally the world into uniting to fight the Plutonian, he's killed by the onetime hero.

The other U.N. ambassadors quickly try to sway the Plutonian to their side by offering their individual counties' loyalties.

This leads to a bigger disaster as he uses his super hearing to learn the ambassadors are lying to him and just telling him what they think he wants to hear.

The Plutonian shows the world -- don't try to unite against me, and don't try to lie to me.

Wow. Not only is a he a supervillain, he's become this book's equivalent of Big Brother is Watching You from 1984! He's also become a perfect savage. And clearly, this was meant to be an insult to Superman.

With every flashback you see a betrayal to the Plutonian, some small others bigger.

None on their own would be enough to push anyone over the edge.

As these events are revealed, it make you wonder: Who does the title of the book refer to?

Is it the Plutonian?

He's the obvious choice.

Or is it the world around him?

With every betrayal, no matter how small, could the Plutonian have decided everyone around him is irredeemable?

His teammates betrayed in an as yet-to-be explained event. His girlfriend left him after he revealed his secret identity. His co-workers tried to broadcast his secret identity to the world seconds after finding out.

Ah, so in other words, it's a blame-the-victim game, is it? It's all because his colleagues and ladyfriend went against him? IMO, part about the girlfriend leaving him is the weakest reason for his becoming a supervillain. But what's really damaging here is the violence for sake of violence approach. Does it have to be a path of death and destruction? Can the "hero" not make an issue out of his co-workers' and teammates' betrayals instead, going on the TV news and arguing about how his career is being ruined by greedy and ungrateful idiots? Most importantly though, why is he taking out his anger on millions of innocents who had nothing to do with these betrayals?

The worst thing about this news column is that it was published on the 4th of July. They must've really wanted to ruin everyone's holiday weekend. And with superhero comics already facing enough destruction by contemptuous editors as it is, that's one more reason why a book like Irredeemable is the last thing we need right now.

Labels: indie publishers, msm propaganda, violence