“Deadpool” jumps its way back to the swingin’ Marvel ’60s in another one of those great time traveling issues that take place between arcs. What we end up getting is plenty of Jack Kirby and even more poop jokes. Your mileage may vary.
(There’s a character in this issue that would get a kick out of that last sentence.)
Written by Gerry Duggan & Brian Posehn
Illustrated by Scott Koblish
Colors by Val Staples• Another flashback to Deadpool Stories Past!
• This time, Deadpool wreaks havoc on a cosmic level!
It has been a stroke of comic genius on the part of Duggan and Posehn to put these flashback issues in between arcs of “Deadpool.” The tone has been pretty light so far (the most recent arc ‘The Good, The Bad, & the Ugly’ being the exception), but these issues come in and break up the type of humor that we’re getting by going even further inward and “at” Marvel Comics’ past. However, this issue is especially welcome, given how uncharacteristically heartbreaking the aforementioned ‘Ugly’ arc was.
I just wish this issue were a little funnier, is all. Humor is completely subjective and I get that, but the prior flashback issues just had better jokes at a higher frequency and it’s as simple as that. Deadpool gets a little out of making fun of the ’60s era, but mostly it just wants to show you the absurdity of it all. In the ’70s, “Deadpool” took shots at racial insensitivity, drugs, and crime. I guess Marvel Cosmic doesn’t have such pointed topics to take aim at. Luckily, the art does most of the heavy lifting.
Scott Koblish is the super secret weapon here. Some comic readers might remember that he was the inker on “OMAC” in the ‘New 52’ relaunch. While Keith Giffen was the penciler aiming for a Kirbyesque style, it’s clear that Koblish was instrumental to that exercise working out so well. Though other trips to past eras with “Deadpool” were nice artistic turns for him, this is by far his finest work to date. Duggan and Posehn have him drawing tons of crazy cosmic crap (literally, crap, at times) and somehow he strings it all together with coherence and fun.
Bill Watterson used to draw “Calvin & Hobbes” strips that would aim to look like the serious soap opera newspaper comics of the past. He once wrote that he wished that he would have taken the drawings even more seriously to mimic the style of the strips he was making fun of. With respect to Watterson, I think he nailed it, but that’s another argument for another day. Koblish does the same thing here – taking the style super seriously, thereby making the inevitable joking around even more effective. The absurdity becomes more absurd when the comic actually looks like what a Marvel Cosmic comic looked like.
Koblish isn’t messing around when he draws a massive, gorgeous spread featuring Fin Fang Foom, even if there’s a joke about his purple pants coming right around the corner. This comic is so pumped full of Kirby crackles and Kirby dots that the King himself would be proud – though he, too, might roll his eyes at some of the lesser dick jokes. Cosmic entities do battle across space and plane of existence in beautiful double-page spreads, all while Deadpool is wearing one of the most ridiculous costumes I’ve ever seen on him. And I’ve seen him dressed like a pimp and chock full of pouches. Koblish makes Deadpool seem comically absurd, amidst a world that, while absurd in its own right, is completely in line with the tone set by Marvel back in the day. That’s the right note to hit with a comic like this.
“Deadpool” #20 is a visually-stunning throwback issue – even better than the few that came before it courtesy of this great team. Unfortunately, not enough of the jokes land this time around, whereas other trips to the past have reaped jokes upon jokes per page. Off-color jokes in the ’70s totally worked, where a different sort of touch seems required in the cosmic Marvel setting. There are laughs to be had, but the hit percentage is low for a Merc that loves firing ’em off.
Final Verdict: 6.8 – Browse, but the art is an absolute knockout.
