The Plutonian, "Irredeemable."
Where do I even start? If you haven't read Mark Waid's "Irredeemable," A.) you should, and B.) the following may ruin the plot for you if you haven't read it... which you should.
The Plutonian's personal history is tragic.
- Since childhood he has been cognizant of others being terrified of him due to his powers. This continues all throughout adulthood and his career as a super hero. Even his teammates are afraid of him to a certain degree (enough that several prepare possible counter measures just in case he turns).
- His adoptive father raised him with a rigid dogma of selflessness and control. Unfortunately the position is untenable and it puts Plutonian under terrible pressure. This ideology results in the deaths of his adoptive parents.
- He is trolled by the public regardless of his success. The public always want more. He is basically betrayed by a public he has saved countless times.
- His powers make it so that he can't be physically intimate with anyone. Ever (for fear of slaying them).
- The first time he takes a 10 minute break in his entire super career results in a bunch of children dying
- Due to super hearing he is aurally awash in cries for help from all over the world all the time.
- All the fear and pressure lead to a complete mental breakdown. Throughout the whole series Plutonian seems practically bipolar. He vacillates between committing horrible acts to begging for forgiveness and then back to cruelty. He reminds me of Superboy Prime.
- He murders millions of people, which he seems to enjoy most of the time but at various points in the series he becomes remorseful and horrified by his own actions.
- His mental breakdown leads to him basically going catatonic at one point. He is beaten and imprisoned by aliens. Still catatonic, he is forced into dangerous manual labor.
- He gets raped by aliens.
- He is imprisoned in a cosmic asylum.
- He was actually not supposed to exist. He was originally intended to be a construct or probe that would travel the world and record data about humanity. His creators however, had not accounted for human willpower and emotion. The probe is drawn to an especially strong outpouring of emotion an desperate need. A woman's need for a child actually restructures him into an infant.
- The woman's need was so strong because she was psychotic and had recently murdered her own infant. When presented with a new "miracle infant" she continually tried to murder him.
- When he eventually encounters hi "real parents" (who are kind of an analogous mix of Marvel's Celestials and Watchers) they beat him, flay him, and abandon him at the heat death of the universe.
- He gets violently raped by his arch nemesis inhabiting the body of his teammate/obsession.
- His final act as a super hero is to save the world from deadly radiation by flying around the world and absorbing it into a device. In the process he absorbs so much radiation that it discorporates him back to his essence which is scattered over time and space.
In the end he is betrayed by teammates and remains irredeemable despite his last heroic effort.
His story is incredibly tragic. He is doomed from the start. Irredeemable before he reaches his teens. As a super hero his successes vastly outnumber his failures but the failures are what haunts him and ultimately what he is judged by.
There's that ethical question: "would you kill 1 person to save 1,000?" The Plutonian isn't even of offered the luxury of that concept as a super hero. He just fails to save 1001 people but between external and internal pressures he is basically held responsible for that 1 life lost despite his best efforts. Every little imperfection shines brighter than his overwhelming resume of good deeds. Every snarky comment or insult by a member of the public eclipses the praise for his heroism. My point is that the Plutonian is mentally tortured from the moment he gains sentience to the moment of his death/discorporation.
Now don't get me wrong, he is still his comic universe's greatest force of evil. An unparalleled murderer. A sadistic psychopath determined to avenge himself on an unworthy public. A tragic figure who is explicitly a product of his environment.
My 2 cents. Sorry no scans.
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