Broken Frontier

This issue signals the next installment in Mark Waid's second story arc of Incorruptible, the story of the redeemed villain turned superhero. 

While Waid's stories rarely fail to deliver and to entertain, and Incorruptible #6 is no exception, this issue reads more like a midpoint in the ebb and flow between major plotlines Waid is developing for Max Damage and company.   Additionally, even though audiences witness a further expansion in Damage's repertoire of powers, the artwork of Horacio Domingues, who joined Waid with issue #5, seems too cartoonish for what is essentially a very dark and disturbing examination of the superhero genre.

Having received an unmistakable sign of Jailbait's whereabouts and condition at the conclusion of the previous issue, Max Damage spends the first four pages rehashing Deathgiver's past crimes and debating what his response to Jailbait's kidnapping should be now that he walks a different path.  More than in issue #5, Domingues' interiors are inconsistent from panel to panel in his depictions of Damage’s facial expressions (despite the emotional shifts), and they detract from the significance of the event and Damage's inner turmoil over it.  Although this exaggerated cartoony approach would work better with a more capes-and tights-oriented crowd, it appears too out of place for this book.

Whether intentional or not, there’s a sequence should elicit laughter that distracts from the art problems as Waid returns to his speedster roots by introducing yet another metahuman ability for Damage.  Yet, once Damage is in Deathgiver's stronghold, the art difficulties return.  It's hard to believe that Damage would be shocked or horrified at seeing an unknown body hanging in front of him as he enters the inner sanctum to retrieve Jailbait.  Here, readers witness yet another back-and-forth between Damage and Deathgiver; however, unlike the first between Damage and his police cohort, Waid infuses this sequence with his trademark humorous take on the superhero genre and the textbook definitions of comic heroes and villains.

The remaining pages are spent juxtaposed between Jailbait's loathing of Max for what he has become and how he's turned his back on their past, and Max's fight against Deathgiver, which is over far too easily and quickly.  It's in the final two pages though that Waid illustrates his strengths as a writer as he returns to the Annie character introduced in issue #5 and ties her directly into the new, emerging threat to Damage's world—a self-professed pro-Plutonian organization of white supremacists called the Diamond Gang.

Fans will appreciate how this issue corresponds and relates to Irredeemable as readers are given even more glimpses into Max's past and its effects on his present.  As usual, Waid provides another solid storyline, albeit perhaps the weakest of the series thus far, that provides Max with challenges to his newly prescribed role as defender and savior.  Furthermore, for the first time, audiences witness how difficult that process is for him.  A character growth issue if not a major plot-advancing one, Incorruptible #6 still delivers for fans of the series.