REVIEW: Irredeemable #5
Release Date: 5 August 2009
Writer(s): Mark Waid
Artist(s): Peter Krause
Cover(s): Gene Ha with Art Lyon, Dennis Catero, Dan Panosian, Jeffrey Spokes
Colours: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
In this issue, The Plutonian freaks the entire planet out officially, Charybdis reveals he has no powers without his twin (Scylla), we find out how Volt lost his arm and why The Plutonian was having those creepy sex fantasies with random women dressed up like Bette and, finally, that Qubit’s Modeus finding plan may have backfired. In a big way. Everything’s on an express elevator going down. Are the supes in the Paradigm even trying to stop Tony anymore?
The story of this issue is that it’s full of awesome. Epic amounts of it. It starts with Tony letting the entire world know that he can hear all of them, every single last one of them, knows everything about them, and even knows what teenagers write in their private journals. He sets the old Paranoia Wheels spinning into overdrive and panic spreads across the world like a nasty rash through one of Maryann’s parties in True Blood.
We also get another “first-time meeting” character story (Volt’s this time). It’s nice and life changing, like everyone else’s first time meeting Tony. Then, when he flipped, he took Volt’s left arm to square the two (Tony helped Volt control his power surges in the beginning). I like that every issue so far has a bit of flashback in it. It’s great to see the contrast of what The Plutonian was before he cut his hair and became the evilest of evils.
Best of all, Qubit’s brilliant plan of building robot versions of the world’s worst villain (besides The Plutonian now) not only succeeds in their intended purpose (finding out where the real Modeus is), but also locates Tony’s hideout! Apparently, both are in the same place (which gave me a theory I’ll talk about in a minute). So while everyone’s panicking about almost being found out by Tony, Charybdis was the only person who noticed three key points to what just happened. One, Tony and Modeus are in the same place. Two, that Bette’s been bogarting important intel about Tony that she knows because she had an affair with him. This bit of news doesn’t go over so well with her husband. Three, all the Modeus bots disappeared.
This series continues to be great. I keep thinking the next issue will be the “meh” issue, but so far there hasn’t been one. New issue shows up, and it’s all “POW POW! Have a slap of awesome right across the face!” But here’s my theory (I have loads of them all the time, and they’re usually wrong — unless it’s really obvious, and then everyone knows it’s a fact while it’s still a “theory” for me): Modeus is controlling The Plutonian. If Modeus is controlling him, what’s left of the Paradigm can set Tony free of his control. However, Tony would then realize all the horrible things he’d done and how he can never redeem himself in the eyes of his friends and the world. OR he’s gone and killed Modeus and has him taxidermied, standing in the corner of his Rec Room.
Pick this series up, people! This issue is only 99 cents, and it’s a brilliant new series in a sea of old and tired titles that are pushing $4 an issue and aren’t worth it half the time.
