Review - Incorruptible #5

Incorruptible is the story about a former #1 most wanted criminal turned good guy after the world’s most powerful superhero, The Plutonian, turns villainous and slaughters a whole town. The hero, formerly the most feared villain in the world, is Max Damage. He is aptly named in that if he shows up for a situation typically the most possible collateral damage will occur. The first four issues really set up the back story of why Max Damage decided to become a superhero. This issue starts off as one of his comrades goes missing.

Overall this was a nice continuation of the story, and I thought we got a better look at the personality of Max Damage, but for reasons I’ll discuss after the break I was distracted for the entire time while reading this issue. Essentially Max has had a sidekick named Jailbait (use your imagination) and she got into a fight with him and has left. For reasons Max elaborates on that are not conducive to her health. Read on for my impressions of this issue.

Let’s start with the story as that aspect of the series kept up its pacing and left me very entertained. Essentially Max’s sidekick Jailbait, as I said before, has run away after a bit of a misunderstanding while fighting a villain at the end of issue #4. Issue #5 opens with Max rescuing a girl from the back of a car after he mistakenly thinks it is his sidekick. After forcing her to dress in Jailbait’s uniform we find out that the reason is so people won’t know she is missing. He feels that she will get kidnapped to try to get to him, and that terrifies him.

I think in the past Max the villain wouldn’t have been fazed by this, but Max the hero truly is trying to be a caring individual. There are a few fun fights and his new temp sidekick gets dragged around. The issue ends with a gift from a villain named Deathgiver that leaves Max looking the most shaken I’ve seen in the whole series to date. Even when he was in Sky City the day The Plutonian melted down 3.5 million people he didn’t look so personally hurt, just hopeless.

This brings me too the part of the book that distracted me a bit. For the first four issues, Jean Diaz has been doing the artwork with Mark Waid writing. Suddenly in issue #5 Horacio Domingues has taken over the art duties and his art style is very different. Before the characters had some hard edges to them that gave the book a more crisp look. Domingues draws the characters in a way that makes it seem more cartoonish, if that makes any sense. I am not saying that I didn’t like it; just that it caught me off-guard. The only thing bugging me is that Max Damage’s power is that he gets harder the longer he is awake and the sharp edges seemed to match up with that. The characters were consistent and some of the fight scenes were very entertaining, but the new art style will just take some getting used to.

Overall the story is still one of my favorites around and Mark Waid really seems to have a knack for keeping the pacing going really well. We saw a caring side of Max in this issue that went beyond simply his newfound upholding of the law and morality and he still seems unstoppable after being up for a day or two. This series doesn’t fail to entertain and even though the new art doesn’t personally resonate with me this iss still an issue well worth picking up in stores. For a quick peak at some interiors take a look below.