You really shouldn't have waited until you were in the middle of this "fiasco" before you created a backup, if that is what you actually did. And if it is what you did, it's no wonder that it was corrupt. I know that your iPad is only six weeks old, but you shouldn't wait that long to backup. With iCloud and automatic backups, or with iTunes and automatic WiFi syncing, there is no reason to not have been backing up. IMO, you really have to work at preventing backups to not have backed up several times in six weeks.
I'm not trying to come off like an a-hole. You've had enough problems for one day with your iPad. I just hope you have learned from the experience. I had no issues at all updating and I'm guessing that millions of people will update without any issues at all. There could be a very good reason why the update went south on you, but without knowing more information as to how you updated, how you use your iPad on a daily basis, what you have on your iPad, etc. it's really difficult to explain why it happened.
I hope that you get it all sorted out and that rebuking the iPad goes smoothly for you. But I also believe that your experience will be that of a small percentage of iOS device users.