Irredeemable #1 (Waid, Krause, Dalhouse, Dukeshire)

The "superheroes-as-bastards" concept has practically become a sub-genre in itself.  There was the Liefeld/McFarlane "grim-and-gritty" 90's, but the less said about that, the better.  Warren Ellis's runs on Stormwatch/Authority/Planetary developed the idea more maturely, Alan Moore almost redeemed the Awesome Comics universe with Judgment Day, and Mark Millar, Garth Ennis and Grant Morrison have all explored the concept in detail.
This is Mark Waid's entry into the arena.  It's not really a surprise he's done this, because it's a natural extension of his work on Kingdom Come, but without any editorial constraints.  It has the exceptional quality of storytelling we've come to expect from Waid, but the thing that really makes this stand out is the lack of humour.
The other writers I've mentioned use comedy or camp to lighten the fact that (e.g.) thinly veiled analogues of Superman, Batman and the Flash are coercing a junior super-heroine into performing sexual acts (Garth Ennis's The Boys and please don't let that spoiler put you off – it's slowly developing into a wonderful exploration of power, responsibility, heroism and friendship).  Waid doesn't.  This universe's Superman-equivalent has turned against his friends and is mercilessly hunting down and killing them and their families.  It has the traditional four-colour costumes, but Waid's experience as a writer and Krause's talent for anatomy and layout stop them from becoming camp and there is nothing in the slightest bit amusing about what "The Plutonian" did to his sidekick to stop this former friends learning anything from the sidekick's ghost (at least I hope that was his ghost; the alternative is even worse).  There's nothing to protect your mind from the implications of what's happening on the page.
The editorial says that this ongoing monthly is going to explore "how the lessons we learn about right and wrong as children can become warped and twisted when challenged by the realities of the adult world."  As much as I love "The Boys", "Irredeemable" already looks like it's becoming everything I wanted "The Boys" to be.