EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a rant, so note that “emotions are high”, and this is perhaps not that most rational/polite pieces we have ever published. That being said, enjoy!
This morning, solicits for X-Related titles were posted on Comic Book Resources. Most of it was fairly entertaining and exciting. The return of Doop, the beginning of Second Coming, as well as Kieron Gillen and Niko Henrichon being tapped on the Siege-related New Mutants arc. Count me in! Of course, oddly enough mixed in with the rest of the batch was Deadpool. I figured, “Ok, he’s in there because he tried to join the X-Men recently, and there are rumors of him being on X-Force in the future. Fine.” But as I looked on, I discovered something sinister:
Continued below
PRELUDE TO DEADPOOL CORPS #1 – #5 (of 5)
Written by VICTOR GISCHLER
Penciled by ROB LIEFELD (ISSUE #1), WHILCE PORTACIO (ISSUE #2), PHILIP BOND (ISSUE #3), PACO MEDINA (ISSUE #4), & KYLE BAKER (ISSUE #5)
Covers by DAVE JOHNSON
Issue #1 Variant Cover by ED MCGUINNESS
Witness the birth of the most important super hero team ever in a universe-spanning event that will rock the month of March! Wade Wilson has been tapped to save the Universe, and to do that he’s going to need help. Enter: The sexy-but-insecure Lady Deadpool! The devious-but-lovable Headpool (a.k.a. the Zombie Deadpool Head)! The bratty-but-brilliant Kidpool! And the irascible mutt known as
Issue #1 40 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99
Issue #2-#5 32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$2.99
DEADPOOL CORPS: RANK AND FOUL
Written by JEFF CHRISTIANSEN, MICHAEL HOSKIN, RONALD BYRD, MIKE O’SULLIVAN, ERIC J. MOREELS, JACOB ROUGEMONT, MADISON CARTER, MARKUS RAYMOND, KEVIN GARCIA, STUART VANDAL, CHRIS BIGGS, MIKE GAGNON & ROB LONDON
Select Character Artwork by GUS VAZQUEZ
Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS
In the Marvel Universe Handbook style, this one-shot has everything you need to make sense of Deadpool! (Is that even possible?) In this issue, there are more ALL-NEW profiles than ‘Pool has voices in his head — from “allies” (Outlaw, Weasel, Zombie Deadpool), to enemies (Ajax, Dr. Bong, Madcap), to the hotties (Dr. Betty, Blind Al, Big Bertha) and the sheer awesomeness of the Sack! How could you pass this up? You know at least one of your personalities will love it! Featuring NEW ART for dozens of characters! More fun than a barrel of gun-wielding monkeys!
64 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
DEADPOOL #21
Written by DANIEL WAY
Penciled by PACO MEDINA
Cover by JASON PEARSON
Deadpool and Spidey square off against one of the deadliest foes either of them has ever faced, Hitman Monkey! But can Deadpool do what it takes to rid New York of this terrifying new menace, or will he wilt under Hitman Monkey’s soulful gaze?
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$2.99
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #895
Written by CHRISTOPHER LONG
Penciled by DALIBOR TALAJIC
Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS
“HARD AS ROCK”
Off the coast of the Galápagos Islands, something hideous, something so deliciously amoral has vanquished the tranquility and shattered the peace – DEADPOOL! The legend no one can forget has been missing for years…yes, we’re talking about It! The Living Colossus, the 30-foot-tall stone statue brought to life by wheelchair-bound Robert “Bob” O’Bryan. Enlisted by O’Bryan’s niece, Deadpool takes a dive, plunging down to the ocean floor in search of the stone statue. But something more heinous than Deadpool’s thoughts when he’s watching lingerie football lurks in the ocean depths. And underwater, nobody can hear your hilarious one-liners!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$2.99
DEADPOOL MERC WITH A MOUTH #9
Written by VICTOR GISCHLER
Penciled by BONG DAZO
Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM
Bloodthirsty zombies and interdimensional travel have got Deadpool feeling a little, well, frisky. But there’s only one way that Wade can earn the affection of the luscious duo of Dr. Betty and Professor Veronica: by capturing one of those pesky zombified super heroes for a little experiment. And just where does a can of “stink spray” fit into his plan? Answers inside.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$2.99
Right about now, you’re asking yourself: Am I reading this right? Yes, friend. You are. THERE ARE NOW GOING TO BE FOUR SEPERATE DEADPOOL TITLES. Three of them are ongoing, as well as an event which will spin out of one of the ongoings. To which, I have but one response: “REALLY?” Well, I’m sorry, Marvel. I just can’t play this game with you anymore.
Now, let’s get a few things “straight” right off the bat. I grew up reading two non-traditional titles: Venom and Deadpool. I’ve been a Deadpool fan for a looong time. One might even say I’m “OG.” Heck, I actually have every issue of Agent X. Yeah. You know what I’m talking about, other OGers. So after appearing in Wolverine: Origins, when Deadpool started to become a bigger part of the Marvel U, I was excited at first. The first few issues of the Daniel Way’s Deadpool book spinning out of Secret Invasion (and actually somewhat having an important role in regards to the finale) were really entertaining. I approved.
But with X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the “breakout success” of the character portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, we all of a sudden saw an intense upswing in Deadpool’s comicbook life. Along with appearing in Messiah War (X-Force/Cable crossover) and Jeph Loeb’s most recent Hulk arc, we also had a bunch of Deadpool stories from Mike Benson (i.e. Suicide Kings). Oh, and then we were “treated” with the appearance of Zombie Deadpool in Marvel Zombies 3 and 4, which then spun into a brand new book called Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth. Following this, we had Deadpool #900, in order to celebrate his “milestone”, which subsequently gave birth to Deadpool Team-Up, counting backwards from 900. Queue an appearance in Amazing Spider-Man, as well as various other random books such as Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu and X-Factor, and even an unexplainable role in Doomwar. And now, on top of Chris Yost confirming Deadpool becoming a member of X-Force, we have (spinning out of Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth) The Deadpool Corps.
Am I missing something? No? Ok. Cool.
THIS IS RIDICULOUS. I love Deadpool and all, and I’d be lying if I said I still didn’t like the character, but are you kidding with me with this? It’s just not funny anymore! I can’t remember the last time I read a Deadpool book that I really enjoyed. Sure, I get a kick out of it occasionally, and that Fred Van Lente written Herc team-up book was definitely funny, but this has just gone way too far. It’s like freaking Wolverine over here. See, what’s OK about Wolverine is that his character has always “made sense” in an odd sense. There was an amazing little story written by Jason Aaron dealing with the fact Wolverine is all over the place in Wolverine #73-74 (right before the book became Dark Wolverine). But the problem with all these Deadpool books is that they are really bad. Let’s look at the breakdown.
Wolverine: Appears in Uncanny X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, X-Force, Wolverine: Origins, Wolverine: Weapon X, New Avengers, as well as various appearances in random titles.
How much of it is worthwhile?: Every title in the above list with the letter X in it is worth reading. Top writers like Warren Ellis, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, and Chris Yost? You’ve got it made. Plus, Daniel Way’s recent work in Origins has been great, finally bringing resolution an unfortunate plotline put in place by Jeph Loeb post-House of M. So it’s worthwhile to be reading this books. It never feels forced, considering it’s a tradition that’s been in place for years now.
Deadpool: Appears in Deadpool, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool Team-Up, will be appearing in X-Force and the Deadpool Corps, as well as random unfortunate appearances.
How much of it is worthwhile?: And there in lies the rub! Do you know how much of that is worth reading? Precisely NONE OF IT. Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth is a stretch beyond belief as to a “legit” series. Outside of the terrific series of covers, the writing is poor and the artwork is worse. Granted, this book is about as close to the 90’s series as we will possibly ever get, but the biggest difference between that book and this is that the 90’s series of DP books had heart, character development, and it didn’t rely on cheesy gags that played themselves over and over and over again. The head? Cute at first, but now it’s tiresome. And Deadpool Team-Up? When every issue is written by a new author with a new artist, it’s a very tough run. But most importantly – do we need it? GOOD GOD NO.
Continued below
Which then brings me to the “lead title.” Deadpool by Daniel Way, repeatedly remarked by people who I loathe as “the best book on the market.” Yes, it’s the best book on the market if you’re not reading anything else, or perhaps if you’re still in junior high. Once Deadpool entered the Dark Reign, all hope was lost on the book due to poor writing and sub-par art. It should have been better, and every arc you think it will get better, but it never does. Deadpool/Thunderbolts crossover? Should have been full of win. Deadpool vs Hawkeye? Entertaining, but very poor. Deadpool as a pirate? No. Deadpool tries to join the X-Men again? Ugh. Let’s look at the future. Deadpool and Spider-Man? Should be good. Hitman Monkey? What an amusing concept. But will it be good. Yeah. Right.
Unfortunately for us fans of Deadpool, who still like to break out the over the top Tiamat arc, the new books have absolutely no re-readability. Heck, they barely have readability as is. Deadpool used to be one of my favorite books to get excited about, and by all means it still should be. But Marvel just doesn’t know when to quit. It was ahead of the game before it started to realize that there was a high profitability margin to the character, at which point it decided to let anyone who ever looked at a type writer take a crack at Deadpool if they wanted to. Remember when Deadpool was a cult favorite? I do. And while I’m not saying that Marvel shouldn’t take opportunities to work with characters that gain popularity, there is a definite point in time when they take it way too far.
Look at the market. You’re flooded by one-shots, tie-ins, crossovers. It’s a generally accepted evil of the industry. We move with it. Heck, every company is guilty of it. DC has two Justice Society of America and Justice League of America titles right now, as well as a million billion Blackest Night tie-ins. Boom Studios has their book Irredeemable which will now tie together with Incorruptible. Top Cow has the current Cyberforce/Hunter-Killer crossover title coming out, and has a new book spinning out of Witchblade soon. How many volumes has there been of The Authority over at Wildstorm? Oh, and how about Fables, Jack of Fables, the Literals, Cinderella, Peter and Max, and 1001 Nights of Snowfall? Multiple titles all being tied together with the same characters are possible, and it’s even possible to do it GREAT. All of the books I’ve mentioned in this paragraph are enjoyable reads. But what creates a problem is when you have a series of books, all dealing with the same character, and all of which are bad.
Deadpool once did work. I still believe that Deadpool is a character that we could all easily enjoy. The reason he was a cult character is due to some of the great work done with the character in his short time as a relevant player in Deadpool, Agent X, and Cable and Deadpool. There were even those really old minis like Sins of the Past. I’ve even been so kind as to find an image with some covers of the amazing books we’ve had. But this recent run of Deadpool books are absolutely atrocious. I barely get through them. And I’ll be completely honest: as much as I love the character and have always had a standing order to get any book he stars in, we’re coming to the point where even I, Mr. “I Buy Everything”, am reaching my limit. I have bought my fair share of bad books in the past, but I’m afraid I just can’t take it anymore. I give Deadpool to the end of the Hitman Monkey arc to see if I enjoy it again, and I also am making a note to keep the Deadpool Corps off my pull list. It’s just too much.
What do you think, readers? Are you sick of the Deadpool books? Does anyone else think Jeph Loeb needs to create a Deadpool-themed Ultimatum to just end it all? Weigh in on the comments.
