Written by Christopher Hastings
Illustrated by Bong DazoAs the Marvel Universe is wracked with FEAR ITSELF, only Deadpool sees it for what it truly is…a way to make money. Has Deadpool really been chosen as one of the worthy, granted one of The Serpent’s Hammers? Or did he just take any old hammer and go to town with some rhinestones? Either way, when Deadpool hits the street with his shiny new mallet it’s–STOP! Hammer time. Don’t miss Deadpool playing whack-a-mole with the comic event of the season!
I’ll admit, this comic book encapsulates two things I tend to avoid like the plague at this particular point in my career as a comic fan/”journalist”: flash in the pan, largely inconsequential event tie-ins and modern day Deadpool comic books. Yes, there was a time when I couldn’t talk comics for more than five minutes at a time without slipping the merc with a mouth into the proceedings, but my days of vapid Deadpool fandom are long over in the wake of now several years of sub-par Deadpool stories that often forget the inherent humanity of the character in place of slapstick that stopped being funny after the fifty seventh pie in the face exploding car. So what brought me back just enough to give this book a shot? Why that would be Christopher Hastings, writer of the much beloved Dr. McNinja, making his Marvel Universe debut. Click on down to see how he fared!
Our issue begins with Deadpool attempting to scam a poor couple with sub-par “super villain proofing” for their home, including guided lasers that emit from the eyes of their children in their beloved family photos and…wow, I can’t even talk about this story with a straight face. Really, I was planning this whole time to just run the usually review cycle of “talk about story, talk about art, throw in opinion and give verdict”, but I’m afraid this time I just can’t do that. This one is gonna be largely opinion here, folks.
First off, as I mentioned above, I do NOT like slapstick Deadpool. Sure, there is a very thin line between the zany antics Wade has become known for and outright slapstick, but when that line is crossed it is blatantly obvious (blatant like getting hit by a truck, in this case). Selling super villain insurance and defaulting? Tricking a lackluster super villain into thinking they are more impressive than they are? Deadpool engaging in get rich quick schemes when, last I checked, he was still a multi-millionaire? (This happened back when the Daniel Way main book didn’t suck, FYI.)
No. No. No. No.
This is not Deadpool. At least, no Deadpool I recognize (thats a lie, I do RECOGNIZE him…I just wish I didn’t).
I really like what I’ve read of Dr. McNinja, but if this is the style Hastings brings to Deadpool, I want him nowhere near the character. That having been said, I blame Daniel Way and Victor Gischler 100% for this. Sure, Deadpool was always a funny character, but in his glory days penned by the likes of Joe Kelly, Fabien Nicieza and even Gail Simone, the humor was always delivered with that awkward feeling in the back of your head that says “yes, laugh, but still feel kind of weird and awkward about doing so.” A lot people tend to forget this when they read slapstickpool, but Wade Wilson is a sick man trying to become better than he is. So yes, him blowing up cars and locking blind people in boxes full of knives may be funny, but when it is written with reverence it almost makes you feel bad for his lack of control, which makes his legitimately heroic moments that much more heroic, because we know full well that he is rising up against his nature and his sickness to be a better person.
There is no reverence here, no respect for his sickness…this issue is basically the equivalent of a Deadpool themed whoopee cushion, and it sadly fits well within the standard recent books by Way and Gischler have written for the character. It seems Rick Remender is the only writer than remembers there can actually be depth written into Wade Wilson, while still having him fly off the handle and make with the yuk yuks.
Continued belowThat having been said, Bong Dazo’s work is not completely horrible here. While I am a very publicly stated non-fan of Dazo, I do think his work has taken a tighter turn since I last saw him. His characters are a little less misshapen, his lines are a little more crisp and his body language is a little more expressive than the stark lines on a page were the last time I saw his work (which was longer ago than I can really recall, honestly). And hell, there were barely any women in this issue that he could objectify and make naked for no good reason, so that probably also impacted my opinion of his work on this one.
Ultimately though, this book only served to remind me of how far one of my all time favorite characters has fallen, and I am NOT amused.
Final Verdict: 1.0 – Burn
