Story by Mark Waid
Art by Peter Krause & Diego Barreto
For the last several months, Irredeemable has been mired in several plot threads that were opened with seemingly little thought toward their closure. While interesting at its start, the current storyline has diverged so far from what made the book interesting in the first place that it felt like Waid’s tale of Superman-gone-bad might be completely lost.
While issue 27 hints at something like closure, it does not do quite enough to assuage the feeling that Irredeemable is just…off. This issue feels even more haphazard than others recently as Tony nears the conclusion of his quest through the bowels of an intergalactic insane asylum. Characters introduced in previous issues are proven to have no purpose other than momentary plot devices, and the most recent introduction feels a bit too deus ex machina for my liking.
The entire purpose here feels forced, like Waid suddenly decided to give purpose to the book’s meandering. A few potentially major plot points are closed in very minor ways, yet new threads are opened with far-reaching implications. At some point along the way, Irredeemable lost its rudder, and this issue does nothing but change the book’s direction without committing to any particular destination. It lacks any sort of satisfying resolution, ending on another mildly interesting cliffhanger without really advancing any of the characters or storylines.
On the upside, I can dare to dream that the new direction laid out here is for the best, a first step toward bringing Irredeemable back around to the simple-yet-compelling storyline that made it a hit in the first place. That hope, however, will be tempered by yet another month of “wait and see”.
