Mark Waid and Peter Krause Tease Their Irredeemable Reunion in New BOOM! Series (Exclusive)

Return to the Irredeemable Universe

ComicBook.com: How does it feel for both of you to step back into the Irredeemable Universe?

Mark Waid: It feels great, but weird. This is not something we have planned back in the day, but the itch is upon us again.

Peter Krause: Yeah, I just did a reread of the whole series too, and I'm just overwhelmed with how much we covered in those stories. So, diving back into the deep end of the pool, obviously, it's very exciting. A little daunting, but exciting.

Mark, you said that obviously, you didn't plan this when it first started. How did everything come about before you decide this was the time to revisit the universe?

Mark Waid: Well, it was BOOM! who pointed out that we're coming up on an anniversary, or that it's time to start maybe exploring. And again, it's nothing that we had planned, but once they planted that seed in my head, it became intriguing. The fact that the Irredeemable movie is in development at Netflix was also obviously a call to action.

What made Kickstarter a perfect place to bring everything back and do the hardcover limited edition?

Mark Waid: Well, we've never had that deluxe release, which is great. We had several hardcovers out from Irredeemable, back some time ago, but long out of print. But it's so cool to have all of this stuff back in print and available to everybody who wants to read it.

Peter Krause: The thing that impresses me about the book is the legs that it has, that there's still interest here, 10 years after the fact, 10 years down the road. That there's still an interest, that the book continues to sell the original series. So maybe that's a call to action in and of itself right there.

Ahead of Its Time

When the original series first came out, it felt ahead of its time, since it was the deconstruction of superheroes. That theme has really taken off over the years in comics, TV shows, and movies. I imagine both of you have some thoughts on what makes this type of storytelling compelling to fans.

Mark Waid: Evil Superman is such an easy trope to do. And not to take away from other people who have milked that cow, but it's low-hanging fruit. And I think the thing that sets Irredeemable apart, has always set it apart, is that's just surface stuff. That's just the hook that gets you in, but it has always been a deeply psychological book. It really deals with why you would be this way. Why is a person a hero? And also, at the end of the day, as dark as it can be, at least to me, it is not a cynical story.

Peter Krause: There are parts of it, again, after rereading it, that are heartbreaking. The other thing that really interests me, aside from our main character, the Plutonian, is that you have this whole group of people that consider themselves good. And they're put in situations where they have to make decisions. Does the end justify the means in this particular instance? There are a couple scenes with Plutonian and Qubit and some of the famous quotes from there: "Choose 10."

Mark Waid: Right.

Peter Krause: That's quite the dilemma for anyone who considers themselves good. I mean, what do you do in that situation?

Mark Waid: I realized after issue four, once we sank the entire island of Singapore, and we did that in issue four, that we had two choices. We could either continue to try to overscale that, and try to top ourselves over and over again and get bigger and bigger and bigger with the evil, to the point where it was almost comical. Or we could turn back in and examine what really constitutes evil?

It's easy to topple a building when you're a super villain, but what is real evil? I mean, again, the mind games he plays with people are much more interesting to me than watching him topple a building.

Netflix Films

Doubling back to the talk of the Netflix movies. How did you both get involved with Netflix? Did they show interest first, or is that something you took to them?

Mark Waid: My understanding is they approached BOOM!, and then we were contacted from BOOM!.

Did you have any say in the selection of the director and writers for the projects?

Mark Waid: No. They came to us with a good team, but I love that team. I mean, these are the guys who can pull it off. And having spoken to them, I feel really good about what they want to do.

The Harder They Fall was definitely one of the better movies from last year.

Mark Waid: Yeah. And One Night in Miami is a really good script.

New Irredeemable Series

One of the biggest pieces of news to come out of the Kickster is the announcement of a new Irredeemable series coming out in 2023. I know details are being kept under wraps for now, but what can you tease for fans? And what can they expect out of the new story?

Mark Waid: What we can say is that it's not set back in the day. It is a catch up on what the Irredeemable Universe is all these years later. All that said, I'm sure there's a place for Plutonian in that story because it's his story. So, trying to figure out if there's a flashback angle to some issues, or maybe there are other structural things we can play with, we've been talking about. That's what you can expect. It is an outgrowth of what you saw before. Pete and I are 10 years older and 10 years, hopefully, better at our jobs. So hopefully, it will continue to entertain.

As you said, it's been 10 years since you've both done the original story, and with 10 years comes more wisdom and how the world's changed. Has time informed how you want to tackle this follow-up on the series?

Peter Krause: Looking at me personally, and how things all got involved with me working on Irredeemable... I was coming back into comics after being away for a while. And as much as I was still drawing, drawing comic books is a whole different gig. So it was like learning how to do it all over again, and with the Irredeemable Universe with multitudes of characters that you had to design. I had said in another interview that Mark is like the star miler on the track team. And he goes, "Hey, let's go off for a run. Can you keep up?" And that's the way it was.

I was learning on the job again, it felt like. I just felt like a newcomer. Certainly, things have gone on and I've stayed very active in drawing comic books. So I feel like the skill level is there. And obviously, I've made the changeover now to working digitally, which gives me a lot of freedom. So I am really looking forward to getting back into the Irredeemable Universe with my full powers intact.

Mark Waid: Pete's going to knock it out of the park. I've had the pleasure of working with him here and there since, and he's just gotten so much better. Let me rephrase that...

Peter Krause: That's okay. You can say that. [laughs]

Mark Waid: He was always great, and he's gotten so much better.

Difficulty Drawing Skeletons

Right now the new series is scheduled for 2023. How much do you have in the bank, as far as both of your work going along right now?

Mark Waid: We're still forming the story.

How's that collaboration process work for both of you? Are you both getting on Zoom calls, like we are now and just bouncing back and forth?

Mark Waid: Pete and I like to talk about this stuff, and I would be an idiot not to draw Pete into those conversations and have those conversations with him. We're partners in this and I never want Pete to feel like an art robot.

Peter Krause: And we have informal conversations about this stuff. And I think that does inform the creative process about things. It's not up for me to say to Mark, "I really like this character." Mark will say, "Well, why do you like this character? What about this character?" And that sort of stuff. He is still thinking about, "Okay, how can I bring more depth to this character? What is the real appeal?" Those things are always going on.

Mark Waid: The only thing I have to be careful about is to not ask Pete to draw skeletons. Pete hates drawing skeletons. I learned from the first series.

Peter Krause: I bought a little model skeleton.

Mark Waid: Okay, right. You hated drawing skeletons. It's the only thing you ever called me out on.

Peter Krause: Did I hate drawing skeletons?

Mark Waid: You complained once about, "Oh my God, more skeletons." Well, first off, you had to look up a baby skeleton somewhere.

Peter Krause: Well, that could be kind of tough.

Mark Waid: Yeah, I can imagine that didn't leave a very impressive Google trail.

Peter Krause: Well, I know I've got plenty of Atlas books, human Atlas books, human anatomy books. They cover all that stuff in there. So Mark, don't feel hamstrung, if you need to add skeletons.

Irredeemable's Future

Do you see this universe continuing to grow another 10 years from now, whether that be from both of you still working on it, or maybe bringing other creators to find some more stories to flesh out?

Mark Waid: I think that completely depends on the reception we get.

Peter Krause: Yep. The reception that this book gets, I guess, opposed to a certain extent, the reception that the movie gets. If there's demand for it, great. If not, there's nothing wrong with hitting the stage one more time, making your marks and leaving with a good ending.

How much input do both of you have on the movies?

Mark Waid: By choice, not much, but that's not because we're not invited or our voices aren't welcome. They've reached out to the team, but they do what they do incredibly well.

Having heard the pitch, I trust what they're doing and I see no reason to get in there and mettle and be a fly in the ointment because all that's going to do is exasperate them. Writing film is a completely different animal.

Peter Krause: If they ever want to invite us on the set so we can take a look and that sort of stuff, great. But we've got our medium that we like to work with. And they're the experts in that. So let them run with it.

Mark Waid: Exactly. I'll gladly be a background character who gets heat-visioned into ash, but that's the level of involvement. I can draw the line there.