What If The Joker Went Straight?



Okay so The Joker isn't exactly an analogue for Max Damage, but I figure what The Joker represents makes sense.  Plus the Clown Prince of Crime is certainly a more recognizable name than if I had written "What if Black Adam..."

ANYWAY,  I just wrapped up reading the 15 issues of Mark Waid's "Incorruptible" that have been printed to date so I figured why not blog about it like I did about "Irredeemable" when I finished that up.

See "Incorruptible" is a sister title to that book, taking place in the same reality in which The Plutonian lost his mind and went from the world greatest hero to its greatest villain.  But in this book, the situation is reversed...it's a story of what happens when the villain attempts to redeem himself.

The villain in this case is Max Damage, a man who had stood toe-to-toe with The Plutonian in the past and survived, a man who was essentially The Plutonian's arch-nemesis.  Super strength & invulnerability are Max's power set, but they come with certain trade-offs that, while not a major spoiler, is something I found clever enough to not want to ruin for the unfamiliar.

Max, along with his underage female sidekick Jailbait, were a duo capable of anything, most evidenced by his last near-crime that would have seen a plague unleashed upon the world.  In the moments before said plague was about to be released, The Plutonian unleashed hell upon the Earth and everything changed.  In that moment, something different opened up inside Max Damage and his path towards heroism began with a vengeance.

Essentially what Damage knows about being a hero is this: don't do what he did as a villain.  That is the credo he begins with and it leads to a rather intense sequence inside his underground lair.  The initial supporting cast is intriguing: an elderly cop & the barely legal sidekick, but it allows for two very different perspectives on Max's change.  With Jailbait there are number of questions: Is there redemption for a man who pulled a 16 year old girl into his life and, for lack of a better description, turned her out?  What kind of man does that?  How does she adapt to this new life of Max's? Is she even capable of following his new path?

And with the officer, Max has a parallel of sorts.  The cop, Armadale, seems to be a man undergoing his own life change.  Newly sober, apparently trying to tread the straight and narrow as a cop, he is a man who can understand the desire for change that Damage is experiencing.  In addition, he also seems to have some back story that is of yet unexplored.

As for Max, the biggest challenge is obviously convincing anyone that he is a different person.  When a man has committed the atrocities that Max has in the past, it's difficult...if not impossible...to accept he is now a "hero".  It's almost the same situation as with The Plutonian, but in that case, it was impossible to believe the avatar of good had now become the poster child for evil.  For every good moment that set The Plutonian into his position, there was an evil moment on behalf of Max Damage.  Yin and Yang I suppose, and Max is best defined at one point as "...dangerous because he'd do things just to create fear, no other motive. Modeus was smarter, but Max was more threatening, because his anger was indiscriminate."  How does the average person possibly grasp the idea that a man like that has suddenly stepped into the light?  Is that even something comprehendible to the average man?

That is the story of "Incorruptible" more or less.  The story of salvation and change, but not just for Max, it's also for the people around him and how they too are capable of becoming something...more, something better.  Given that this is taking place within the same world as "Irredeemable" there is crossover with the characters & events taking place in that book.  Alana Patel, The Paradigm, certain aliens, they all make appearances in this book and some of the specific story points spill over as well.  The two books certainly feel tied to one another, but each has its own sense of identity...not just a case of reading the same story from two different perspectives.

"Incorruptible" is much more the street-level story, the tale of what happens to the common man in the wake of The Plutonian snapping.  This book shows how the rampage of the most powerful being on earth impacts the cities and the world in which "Irredeemable" takes place.  The rise of a White Supremacist movement in Plutonian's name, survival in the remnants of Sky City, the government, the businesses, just the reaction of the common man to the events happening in their world.  Yes Max Damage is a super-powered being but he is on the streets not floating in the sky above it all.  He's driving/running on the roads, not teleporting across the world, so the effects of The Plutonian's turn are in his face much more than in those of The Paradigm. 

This is a book that fleshes out the world around the super powered heroes/villains and adds another layer to The Plutonian story that there just isn't room for in "Irredeemable".  And even though he hasn't made a single appearance in this book, The Plutonian is still a constant presence hovering over all the events that take place in Max Damage's corner of the world. 

I'm excited to see how the story of this book plays out, of how much of the world will be explored as the saga of Max Damage progresses.  I think my interest is not, as of yet, at the level of my interest in "Irredeemable" but it is still quite high.  The impact Max has already had on the lives of people in his short existence as a hero has been quite sudden, particularly on the characters of Headcase & Alana, and with the way the most recent issue closed, that impact is only just beginning. 

Will Max Damage ever be embraced as a hero?  Is he even looking for that public acceptance? Those are just a couple of the questions that I eagerly anticipate the answers to as Mark Waid unfolds his story.  I certainly recommend this book to any readers who may have picked up "Irredeemable" already but have yet to look into "Incorruptible".  I initially thought the idea of "bad guy goes good" wouldn't be as interesting as its opposite, but I'm happy to see that Mark Waid has proven me wrong.

To pick up "Incorruptible" yourself click here: Incorruptible on Amazon, and for more info on the series head on over to the BOOM! website via the link over there on the side.

What If Superman Went Nuts?

I was recently introduced to a wonderful piece of comic book work known as "Irredeemable".  A creation of, and written by, Mark Waid,  largely drawn by Peter Krause, it's published by BOOM! Studios which also puts out Stan Lee's current creations, many Disney tie-ins, as well as books by Phillip K. Dick, Howard Chaykin, Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, and many more.  It's a publisher with a very eccentric line of books from "Darkwing Duck" to "Muppet Sherlock Holmes" to "Irredeemable" and its companion book "Incorruptible".  Now I haven't read any of the other titles from this publisher, but just based on subject matter alone, it's safe to say that BOOM!  has something for everybody.  Which brings me to "Irredeemable"....

The title of this blog is essentially the premise for this series: what would happen if a being as powerful as Superman went nuts?  What if Kal El decided he no longer cared about humanity?  What if he decided that humanity had to be punished?  Whatever visions those statements stir in your mind...that is what happens when The Plutonian reaches those points.

"Absolute power brings with it absolute responsibility. And the pressure Plutonian felt to never make the slightest mistake for fear he'd hurt people and lose their love was incalculable. It finally broke him...and when it did, it unleashed in him a lifetime of pent-up rage and frustration." - "Irredeemable" Special #1

See The Plutonian is a Superman-esque character, but his specific origin is still unknown.  Alien? Mutant? Science experiment?  At this point it's anyone's guess, but what is known is that he was a foster child passed around from family to family as soon as the parents found out about his powers.  Eventually he settled on a name, Daniel Hartigan, and blended. 

The story is told from the perspective that Plutonian has already flipped his wig, decimated Earth, and murdered millions.  The surviving members of the team he was once a part of, The Paradigm, are left to put together the pieces and figure out just what went wrong with the most powerful man on the planet. 

I won't play spoiler for this story because, for something like this, it would completely ruin the moments that dropped my jaw or caused me to utter "holy shit" as I read.  That is something I would not want to rob a person of if they know nothing of this story.  It wasn't done to me, and it would be unfair to do the same to another unfamiliar reader.

Suffice to say that as this story unfolds, the moments that drive The Plutonian over the edge are completely understandable because, obviously on a much less cosmic scale, I think it's safe to say every person has had a moment where they so completely disappointed themselves or the people depending on them.  The question becomes what does one do in that moment?  Do you curl up into a ball and cave in? Do you suck it up and solider on? What do you do when something catastrophic happens to your life?

On the other hand, how would you react if everything you do is meant with some level of grumbling disapproval if not disdain?  How does a cop feel as he attempts to apprehend a suspect but is greeted with disrespect & taunts from the very people he is trying to help?  Is it insecurity that causes the saved to resent the savior? Or does the courage of a man (or superman) risking himself to help others merely point out the failings of those being helped?  For example, there is a moment where The Plutonian saves a baseball game under attack from a giant robot, and while the majority cheers, a man with super hearing can pick out the insults and mockery littered throughout.  At what point do those jeers become louder than the cheers and become more than a man can handle?

It's these sort of questions that are truly at the heart of "Irredeemable", along with the idea of whether or not someone is ever beyond the point of salvation.  For this reader, looking at this character and everything he has done, I find it almost impossible for him to ever be redeemed.  He truly lives up to the title of this series, and although there is no one in reality that could ever perpetrate the horrors The Plutonian does, it's almost a necessary question to ask yourself while reading if the same idea crosses over into real life.

Maybe I'm extending the ideas of the series farther than intended, but I think the idea of a person being beyond salvation is something that may pop into your head as well while reading this.  Take out the ideas of genocide on a global scale or Irredeemable's own Coast City moment, and minimize it down to a man responsible for multiple homicides or, and I know this is a touchy subject, a sex offender.  Our judicial system operates under the idea that man can be rehabilitated, that man can be saved, that someone can pay a penance (be it years in jail or holy confession) and come out a "better" person. 

Whether or not that is true...I believe it's something that operates on a case by case basis, there is no simple solution or tidy package in which to wrap up the answers.  Every person is different and whatever works for one person, likely won't work for the other.  There will always be someone who thinks the offender can be saved, fixed even, and there will always be their counterpart who believes there is no redemption, that some crimes, and their perpetrators, are absolutely unforgiveable. 

Both POV's are represented in "Irredeemable" through the various members of The Paradigm, as well as the opportunity to see how the (re)actions of the group play into successive situations.  What happens to the psyche of a man who finds a way to stop the unstoppable? What do you do when you find out one stupid moment of weakness unraveled it all? 

The questions this book asks of the players on the page, as well the readers, are ones that...at least for me...extended beyond the pages.  This series is something highly recommended...something I think I would put on par with the best of Grant Morrison, the best of Geoff Johns, something that has a true resonance to it and...well I will close this with a quote from Grant Morrison's afterword in Volume 1 that really sums it all up...

"...it dares to look directly into the demonic churn of recrimination, fear, entitlement, and rage that drives our media discourse.  Its spits venom across the you're-too-thin, too-fat, too-clever, too-stupid, too-old, too-young, too-flawed, too-human black hole of self-loathing judgement that spins at the centre of our culture and threatens to devour us all."

Pick it up here: "Irredeemable" on Amazon