Irredeemable #18 – Review

By: Mark Waid (writer), Peter Krause (art), Andrew Dalhouse (colors) & Ed Dukeshire (letters)

The Story: A new threat emerges and we learn about it from an unlikely source.

What’s Good: Mark Waid just continues to stir the pot on this awesome series.  In some ways, Irredeemable makes one think of what it must have been like to read JLA back in the early days when the characters and worlds were not so established.  And, this book is really more of a JLA-type book.  It has been derided by some commentators as merely “Superman gone bad” and it is true that the title started with that concept, but it has morphed into more of a superhero team book where we are learning something new about the heroes and the world every month.

One of the characters we haven’t seen much of in Irredeemable is the Hornet.  This guy is basically the Irredeemable world’s answer to Batman: No powers, but crafty and 20 steps ahead of everyone else.  Hornet was the first hero we saw killed (along with wife and kid) by the rampaging Plutonian in Issue #1, but other than that, we’ve known very little of him.  In this issue he speaks from beyond the grave to tell his fellow heroes of a “deal with the devil” that he made years ago that is coming home to roost now.  This twist offers both salvation and doom for our heroes.

It is just hard to say enough about what a good job Waid does of keeping this series fresh.  In an era when some writers at Marvel/DC can barely finish a story arc in 18 issues, Waid has covered an incredible amount of ground and the reader never feels like things are getting stale or becoming something that they have “seen before”.

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

DS’ Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Brightest Day #11 – It was a thin week with few bright lights. I’ll pass the crown to Brightest Day #11, because parts of it were working well.

Most Anticipated: Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5 – With all those comics out there that get published every 2-3 weeks, it feels like it’s been a dog’s age since the last issue, so I’m pretty pumped about Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5.

Other Top Picks: Other Top Picks: Green Lantern #58, The Thanos Imperative #5

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: American Vampire #7 – It was neck-and-neck between this and Taskmaster #2, but I’m giving the tiebreaker to Scott Snyder’s book because he is doing a cool story in the context of something bigger than a 4-issue mini.  I love how Snyder is tying in all the material from his first story arc in a pre-Hoover Dam Las Vegas to create a big-picture vampire book.

Most Anticipated: Hack / Slash Annual 2010: Murder Messiah – I loved the first story arc of Hack/Slash since it moved to Image and am eager to see what tale we get in this oversized annual.  Anyone who loved 80’s horror/slasher movies should give this a try.

Other Top Picks: Unwritten #18, Amazing Spider-Man #645, Invincible Iron Man #31, Strange Tales #1, Tomb of Terror #1, Irredeemable #18

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Secret Six #26 – Though American Vampire gave it its best shot in a fairly thin week, Secret Six’s mix of Savage Land type madness, Bane badassery, and an ending that had me hungry for next issue was ultimately enough for me to give it pick of the week status.

Most Anticipated: Thor #616 – Was there any doubt?  I’m really glad that I’ve not had to wait a full month between issues, because I absolutely loved Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry’s debut issue and have been dying to see where they go with Thor.  I really think this is going to be one of the best reads at Marvel and I’m expecting this issue to further substantiate that.

Other Picks: New Avengers #5, Batman: the Return of Bruce Wayne #5, Shadowland #4, Green Lantern #58, Invincible Iron Man #31, Superman #703, The Unwritten #18