From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. You can also hear the show to kCRW.com.

It's been a while since there's been some real excitement stirred in comics.

We get to see the old guys try it out now and again and now and again.

But Mark Wade has done an incredible job with his new series Irredeemable, which starts off the premise.

What if a Superman-like being decided that the earth was basically beneath this contempt?

Mark, thanks so much for being here.

My pleasure, sir.

And where did the idea come from?

It's been percolating for a while. It's the idea that we live in such a media-based

culture in the 21st century, where the tropes of, you know, if you take, look at Superman,

he has a secret identity, you know, he's loved by the world, that's your paradigm. But he doesn't live in the same celebrity culture that we've grown up to live in where every move you make is scrutinized on the Internet.

And then take that to the next level.

If you've got super hearing, if you've got super senses, you can't go anywhere without hearing somebody.

See, that's a great thing about the book that you do early on.

You introduce the fact that he doesn't shut it off.

He can't. He can't.

Otherwise, you can't be selective about who you help as a superhero, but the problem is it's unfiltered.

And you hear all these people talking about what an underwear pervert you are, where your underwear on the outside of your pants, and you know, you've got frilly boots.

And so that sort of thing.

And also the constant scrutiny, can you imagine this is, we live in such an age of entitlement in a litigious environment where if Superman decides to save your yacht, are you going to sue him for damages because he dinged up your, you know, the precious, you know, woodwork on the bow.

I mean, it sounds comical when we're talking about it, but the pressure is that

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