CBR: Mark Waid Talks "Irredeemable"

[CBR News]

This month's "Previews" catalogue features a brief essay by BOOM! Studios
Editor-in-Chief and writer Mark Waid on the subject of his new series,
"Irredeemable." CBR brings you the full text of Waid's piece.


Full article here.

[John Lynch]

In superhero comics, pretty much everyone who’s called upon to put on a cape is, at heart, emotionally equipped for the job.

I reject that premise.

If you're trying to be edgy or anything, then you've missed the boat. Because Sentry is already a hero who isn't emotionally equipped for the job. Then we've also got Hulk from the 60s who has gone through periods of being a hero, but ultimately not being able to remain a hero because of his mental and physical issues. There's also plenty of villains who think they're heroes, but ultimately prove not to be. Then there's also the Irredeemable Ant-Man which was called upon to be a hero, but simply wasn't hero material (as shown in his latest appearance in the Thunderbolts series).

So all in all, I hope you've got more going on in this series other then exploring an issue we've seen done in plenty of other books over the years. Otherwise you might want a time machine and travel back to the 50s so you can do this book when it would have actually been groundbreaking

Having said all that (most of it tongue-in-cheek for the overly sensitive), I'll be giving Irredeemable an issue, if I can afford to.

[parkaboy]

If you're trying to be edgy or anything, then you've missed the boat. Because Sentry is already a hero who isn't emotionally equipped for the job. Then we've also got Hulk from the 60s who has gone through periods of being a hero, but ultimately not being able to remain a hero because of his mental and physical issues. There's also plenty of villains who think they're heroes, but ultimately prove not to be. Then there's also the Irredeemable Ant-Man which was called upon to be a hero, but simply wasn't hero material (as shown in his latest appearance in the Thunderbolts series).

So all in all, I hope you've got more going on in this series other then exploring an issue we've seen done in plenty of other books over the years. Otherwise you might want a time machine and travel back to the 50s so you can do this book when it would have actually been groundbreaking

I'd say that's what he meant by "pretty much". Then again, none of these examples are so great. Sentry and Hulk are too messed up, they're not like normal people under great pressure, they're flat out crazy. I hope Irredeemable can tell this story better by focusing in the character instead of in the shock value of "hero gone bad".

And I'm guessing that demoting Pluto to a dwarf planet was the last drop that turned this Plutonian guy evil.