Incorruptible Volume 5 [Paperback]

If you're at all familiar with this series, you know that there is a companion series: "Irredeemable" (Irredeemable: Volume 1). Incorruptible is based on a super villain, who becomes a pseudo-hero. Irredeemable is based on a Superman-level hero who becomes the ultimate, world-destroying bad guy. Irredeemable is very good. It's an interesting idea. A super-hero with god-like powers far exceeding every other super-hero and villain on the planet going from the hero of heroes to a terrible world-destroying bad guy. It's clear a lot of thought went into Irremeedable. However, Incorruptible, which is supposed to be the flip side (a bad guy who becomes good) comes across like an afterthought. The villain turned good guy in Incorruptible cannot be god-like in a world that already has a character with god-like powers far exceeding every other super-hero and villain. A lot of thought went into providing a reason that the hero turned evil. It's not as clear why this bad guy turns into a good guy. Ultimately, Irredeemable covers the entire planet, while almost the entire story of Incorruptible is limited to one city. So, clearly, it is intended to be a story about a small area within Irredeemable's larger world, but it's not small enough. It keeps hinting at addressing the larger global problem of the super-hero turned villain, but that keeps coming across as a waste of time because the storyline in Irredeemable is dealing with that. So elements of the Incorruptible storyline are suddenly dropped as they are rendered moot by events in the Irredeemable storyline. By comparison, for a great story about a villain turned pseudo-hero, I would recommend Astro City Vol. 4: Tarnished Angel (Astro City Vol. 4: The Tarnished Angel), which does a superb job on all fronts.