Modern Comics Review: Incorruptible #8

I’m a big fan of Mark Waid and he’s been doing some excellent work over at Boom! Studios since he got there. The first book he had there that seemed to call out to me was his Superman-gone-bad comic Irredeemable. It quickly proved to be an interesting exploration of what could drive the world’s greatest hero, in this case the Plutonian, to become its worst villain. Not quite a year after the debut of Irredeemable, Mark Waid began to release an offshoot of the book that functioned as a side story within the same universe but exploring the opposite theme; this series was Incorruptible. The book follows Max Damage, previously one of the Plutonian’s greatest enemies and he has a sudden change of heart and tries to become the world’s new greatest hero to fill the gap left by the Plutonian. To my surprise, I found myself liking Incorruptible nearly as much, if not more, than Irredeemable.

Issue #8 begins right where last issue left off with Max having been shot after the Plutonian-worshipping Diamond Gang discovered Max’s main weakness and shot him. Luckily for Max, a girl he used/saved named Annie has taken up the role of his previous sidekick as Jailbait and saves him for being finished off. Max’s power making him super strong and invincible and he get more and more so the longer he’s awake, but if he sleeps, his powers reset to nothing. Here, he manages to heal thanks to some shots of adrenaline that artificially “wakes” him up allowing him to heal. This is all well and good, but it just made me wonder why Max doesn’t just carry adrenaline around with him all the time. It’d kinda solve his whole weakness problem if he just took a shot of the stuff as soon as he woke up after every nap. But I guess he’s super strong and not super smart though, so maybe he just never though of it. The rest of this issue follows Max and Jailbait as they try and figure out just how The Diamond Gang figured out his weakness. I was pleasantly surprised at the answer as it added a little bit more a connection between this series and Irredeemable, something it hasn’t had in a few issues. I am curious why this person would know his weakness, but maybe that’ll get explained in a later issue. I’m also already starting to like Annie more than Terri, the previous jailbait. She’s much less whiny and more take charge, which I like.

The art here, by Horacio Domingues, is cartoony fun, rather in the vein on Mike Wieringo but with Domingues’ own personal twist. Surprisingly, it suit’s the book despite it’s gritty feel. I still don’t like it as much as original series artist Jean Diaz’s artwork who seemed more suited to the feel of the book, but I’m still enjoying Domingues’ art here too. There are some odd proportions and continuity errors (I.e. the blood on the back of Max’s coat) and some faces can change dramatically change from panel to panel, but it’s not really all that noticeable. Once you get past how goofy it can look at times, it can be fun to look at, even if it’s nothing too spectacular.

Incorruptible has been in something of a rut for the past couple issues, losing quite a bit of the momentum it started with, but this issue seems to start moving away from this and adding a new plot that could prove to very interesting. I can understand why he’d avoid this only eight issues in, especially with how tight the plots seemed to be scripted, but I’m still hoping it’ll lead to the crossover with Irredeemable that’s been scratching at the back on my brain since I picked up issue one. Either way, this issue hopefully marks an upswing in the pace of the overall story, so I’m excited to see where it goes from here.

Overall: 7.7/10

Modern Comics Review: 7 Psychopaths #1

I have a tendency when reading comic books to stick largely to superhero comic books. It’s not that I think only superhero books are entertaining, it’s just sort of a habit of mine, but one I’ve been trying to break over the last five or so years. As such, I decided to check out 7 Psychopaths and am I ever glad I did! This was one entertaining book with some very strong characterization. Fabien Vehlmann and Sean Phillips are able to take an old concept, using prisoners and others with nothing else to live for to invade World War II Germany for one reason or another and truly invigorate it. In this case, the story is assembling the titular seven psychopaths for a mission to kill Hitler and end the war.

What really brings this story its energy is the truly interesting characters. The leader of the psychopaths, Joshua Goldschmidt, is just so much fun to read. He’s delightfully sarcastic and rude, but you also know he’s the smartest person in the room at any given time and it makes him truly endearing. Even though only five of the members are introduced in this issue, they are all shaping up to be equally fun to read. They range everywhere from a pathological liar and impersonator to a man who believes Hitler is communicating with him telepathically as a means of torture and could definitely make their mission an interesting one once it gets underway. Vehlmann definitely has a great grasp on writing insane people and that is most certainly a compliment.

I think the person I have to give the most praise to, however, is artist Sean Phillips. I really enjoyed his work in Marvel Zombies, but I haven’t gotten around to reading some of his other works so I was worried how well he’d be able to draw a cast of regular humans and he did not disappoint. I could best describe his art in 7 Psychopaths as cartoonishly realistic. All of his characters have a distinct feel to them that makes them feel real. Possibly the highlight of the work though is that each of the psychopaths seem to have some sort or artistic tick that make them seem as though they actually have the problems the reader is told they do. My personal favorite it the goofy smile that team member Willy Wright has on his face perpetually that just screams that he is lying to you and enjoying it at any given time. Phillips war-torn Europe certainly looks the part as well and it looks just plain gorgeous. Considering I read an interview with him saying he had no clue what 1940’s European architecture looked like and had to constantly research it, it looks especially amazing.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, to say the least. I really didn’t know what to expect going into the issue and, honestly, I was kind of expecting to not really like it, but I definitely did. The only real downside is that the plot still feels a little generic in basic concept, but it has every opportunity still to open up and really shatter expectations. If Vehlmann can keep up this level on characterizations and keep the story varied, it could easily become one of my favorite books of the year.

Overall: 9.4/10