Update: As clarified by Peter David in the comment section of this article, it’s a 4-issue mini-series that covers the 13 chapters of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War,” not a 13-issue maxi-series.
Original Article
As revealed in an interview over at Comic Vine, Peter David is continuing to expand his Marvel work — and that’s maybe some of the best news you’ll hear all day.
Illustrated by the great Scott Koblish, the book is apparently a thirteen-issue maxi-series that goes over the entirety of the original book by Sun Tzu (although this isn’t exactly 100% clear; David implies it, but his answer also reads as a bit of a joke and no firm numbers are given). And while not too much is said by way of the series, it apparently features Deadpool publishing his own version of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War,” and then attempting to plummet the world into a giant war in order to ensure sales.
David remarks that he’s wanted to do a comic version of “The Art of War” for years, and that while the original plan was different (he wanted to do all thirteen chapters with different characters illustrating the ideas of the chapters), David notes that Deadpool pretty much took over the book with the help of Axel Alonso.
While David is certainly known primarily to Marvel fans for his work on “X-Factor,” his work in the past few years has centralized pretty exclusively around that team in a few different incarnations. “Spider-Man 2099” was David’s first announced non-“X-Factor” ongoing at Marvel in a few years, and now David will be handling a Deadpool book as well, which is great to see for fans of his work.
This will also be the first time David writes Deadpool, which is astonishing in retrospect. David has the perfect comedic voice for Deadpool, a very specific tone that is both at times wry and absolutely ridiculous. While it’s early to tell what kind of Deadpool David will write (as there’ve been, what, a thousand and one different interpretations of the character over the past few years alone?), I would imagine David’s work will be particularly witty — as is par for course from a writer like Peter David.
Additionally, it’ll be quite great to see Scott Koblish take on a bigger role as a Deadpool artist. Fans of the current “Deadpool” ongoing will know that Koblish comes in for filler issues every now and again, set as throwbacks to previous eras of Marvel Comics (such as the huge stand-out “Deadpool” #13, taking place in the 70’s and featuring Deadpool, Power Man and Iron Fist fighting against The White Man). Koblish is also the artist of the Guinness Book of World Records Making cover to “Deadpool” #27, which features 232 characters — at least 224 of which are recognizable.
If there’s anyone who should be drawing more Deadpool, it’s certainly Koblish.
Either way, while I’m sure many readers will feel the general fatigue of Deadpool from his multitude of recent appearances, this definitely seems like a book to keep on your radar.
“Deadpool’s Art of War” arrives in October.
