Irredeemable #17

Irredeemable #17, written by Mark Waid, art by Peter Krause. Colors by Andrew Dalhouse.

Rating: Worth multiple reads.

The issue that I have with Irredeemable (one of my favorite books of the last ten years) concerns the last ten or so issues. The beginning of the series was so compelling, so engaging, so fast-moving, and so frickin' scary that it is almost impossible to follow that up. There's really only two directions possible: either going over-the-top with the action, like "The Authority" under Warren Ellis, or going the opposite way, and doing a somewhat more introspective series of stories. It took me until the second or third reads, sometimes, to understand exactly what Mr. Waid was doing with those.

In this issue, there are no real major events, that we're aware of. There are two big reveals in this issue: one that we knew, and one that came out of thin air. The Plutonian tries to use Sam's stone to reanimate the dead from Sky City and fails. Qubit makes friends with farmers by creating a solar-powered tractor, then gets beaten by those farmers when Charybdis (a douchebag of immense and catastrophic proportions) tells them that Qubit saved Plutonian's life in their recent conflict. D'oh!

Instead, I really enjoyed the look at one corner of the United States; their reaction to the cataclysm. One can't help but wonder about the social, environmental, electronic, internet effects of the destroyed cities, razed land, and sunken island(s). How quickly would it take before the world devolved into thousands and thousands of city-states? How quickly would it take before our technology failed, and people in non-destroyed cities began to starve because food can't be grown or brought into the city? What does it do to the electrical grid, the telephones and internet, the roads and railways? While Waid doesn't delve into that so much, in this issue, he shines a brief light on the difficulty of modern farming without modern implements and on the rage that powerless individuals must feel.

The interactions between the Plutonian and Samsara were also fascinating, as Modeus continues to pass himself off as a revitalized Samsara. I enjoyed the history that Tony told, leading into the big reveal at the end of the issue. It was interesting; if I had to drag it into a mainstream, I'd say that Modeus is a combination of Lex Luthor (because of the brains) and the Joker (because of the complete psychopathy). As Tony examines Modeus's motives, Samsara / Modeus attempts to direct the conversation.

Now, why did Samsara / Modeus have Tony direct all that energy into the stone? It's obvious that he's playing Tony; what's his game? What effects will that energy have? What's Modeus's game? It's a long month away.