The world is under attack. Each and every citizen on the planet lives in fear. Any moment death might greet them quickly without warning. Cities turn to ruins and the Earth’s superheroes are being murdered, further preventing the innocent from maintaining any kind of hope. Will today be the day they die?
This manic-filled story is created and written by Mark Waid. A winner of multiple Eisner Awards, Waid brings his many years of creative ingenuity to the table for this latest release, Irredeemable Premier Edition Volume 3. These awards include Best Limited Series for Kingdom Come in 1997 and Best Single Issue, Best Continuing Series, and Best Writer for works of Daredevil, Irredeemable, and Incorruptible in 2012. This latest release is a hardcover edition that collects issues 16 through 23 in the Premier series.
Waid offers his fans an intriguing premise as he continues this BOOM! Studios product. Not only is every person alive afraid of dying, it’s the cause that pulls the reader into Irredeemable. The greatest superhero, Plutonian, turns against his former team, the Paradigm, and the ensuing chaos seems irreversible. This is not just a tale of hero-turned-villain, it describes the vindictiveness associated with god-like powers, while associating compassion with difficult choices those surrounding Plutonian must make. To his former team, and the world, he is invincible. The resulting terror is clearly evident among anyone else, regardless of having super powers or not.
Will his former teammates and friends do anything to stop him? Will they try to kill him? This seemingly simple notion presents a dichotomy that is not so clear to everyone involved in this fight. Waid creates a cast of characters full of depth, filling the pages with their intelligent thoughts, irreverence, and despondency stemming from such devastation and betrayal. Illustrations by Peter Krause and Diego Barreto clearly convey this wide array of emotions with animated facial expressions helping to signify the intensity of the characters’ actions.
Vibrant colors burst from the pages with blasts of power from our super humans, further indicating their strength and resilience. Colorists Andrew Dalhouse and Nolan Woodard also capture your attention with bright blues and oranges, emphasizing powerful gemstones and demon-like eyes. The stature of the characters and contrasting colors of their uniforms help highlight that they, as well as the story, are larger than life. Such an epic tale might seem overwhelming; however, Waid constructs this third edition amazingly well, allowing new readers to follow along without any need to stop and go back or research a prior volume.
This collection includes a cover gallery for all eight issues, including many images of Plutonian, theoretically unstoppable, yet in compromising and sometimes bloodied states. For a volume including so many comic books, it reads as a one-shot that doesn’t need any introductions. The entirety of its content will make it an obvious choice to check out the first two volumes, and the turn of events and alliances will drive your desire to get a fourth.
Irredeemable Premier Volume 3 is now available in a hardcover and digital edition.
