What a terrible comic.
I’m used to Irredeemable running hot and lukewarm and Incorruptible being awful–Waid’s incredibly inconsistent–and this special is anything but.
There are three stories. One’s a prologue, sort of, to the first issue of Irredeemable. It apparently hints at something the regular series will deal with. The second story might serve a similar purpose.
For the third story, Waid just ran out of ideas and did a little Incorruptible story with terrible, terrible, terrible Howard Chaykin artwork. How Chaykin is still an attraction for readers is beyond me… his art is just awful here.
The second story–with the Emma Rios art–is artistically solid. It looks like a Japanese fable or something, which is the point, and the art’s nice. The Paul Azaceta artwork on the first story’s mediocre at best. Azaceta runs hot and cold, colder here than hot.
It’s a real snoozer.
CREDITS
Hornet; artist, Paul Azaceta; colorist, Matthew Wilson. Kaidan; artist, Emma Rios; colorist, Alfred Rockefeller. Max Damage; artist, Howard Chaykin; colorist, Andrew Dalhouse. Writer, Mark Waid; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editor, Matt Gagnon; publisher, Boom! Studios.
I was real sad to have this one at my shop. The slap dash feel of all three stories is a severe letdown of the momentum that it’s main title maintains. When publishing inadequate comics like this, one wonders, why would you drag the fans from your one successful comic to reading this tripe? Well, money, of course. It certainly doesn’t help your franchise though, as it’s clear now how much Boom thinks of it’s audience and their hard earned bucks. The latest issue of Irredeemable was quite likable, too. Damn shame.