This Irredeemable special is leaps and bounds better than last week’s Invincible special, but it is not without its flaws.

Waud presents us with three stories featuring different characters from the world of the Plutonian.  The most crucial to the previous storylines is the first story, which centers around The Hornet, and how The Plutonian came to be a member of a superhero group.  It’s a well told story, but, visually, it looks rushed.    I saw sketches from last week’s comic con in Boston that looked more focused than Azaceta’s pencils.  And the Hornet’s Vespa looks AWFUL.  If you’re going to make a car not look like a real car, it either needs to look awesome, or like a deliberate clunker.  This just looks like it wasn’t thought through.

The second story, on the other hand, looks stunning.  Emma Rios really nails making her story very Asian looking without making it too manga (not that there’s anything wrong with that…but if we’ve learned anything this week it’s that Manga and superheroes don’t mix…right Quesada?).  In addition to looking gorgeous, it tells a very simple story in a avery engaging way.  It’s easily my favorite of the three.

The third story is the origin of Jailbait.  I went into the story with the baggage that I don’t actually like the Incorruptable story.    I dropped it after issue two.  Supervillain gone good just doesn’t intrigue me.  Particularly when his “gone good” is that he’s not going to sleep with his underage girlfriend…anymore.  Ehhh.  So I was prejudiced against the story from the get-go,   The fact that it focuses on a whore house that caters to metas reminded me of Ennis’s The Boys.  But The Boys whore house stories were more interesting.  This was just okay.  Chaykin’s art was, as expected, fantastic.  And combined with Rios’s work, upped my rating from a two to a four.