BIG DEADPOOL PREVIEW

(Gold Town: 'A Whole Other Thing' from Pandemonium Spotlight #2. Right click then 'Open' to read up close).

As I continue to make moves to showcase to Marvel that I can write the Merc with a Mouth-- sending them my latest, in which white boy wannabe-gangsta Pete the Pimp goes to Gold Town in Twilight Star Productions' Pandemonium Spotlight #2, and working on my major Top Secret comic (sneak peak below this post and plenty more to come), which will be my biggest and best shot yet--there're big things happening for Deadpool in his ongoing book, with major story arc 'Dead' looming. Let's get up to speed and take a look at what's coming up for everyone's favorite wise-crackin' psychotic...

For any that haven't been following the Deadpool ongoing series: After taking down Numero Uno intergalactic merc Macho Gomez and stealing his spacecraft, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool jetted off into outer space and took Gomez's mantle as the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter... But, disheartened by the non-reaction to this, "In space, no one can hear you win," Deadpool returned home to Earth--only to be confronted by the surviving Gomez and a bunch of Wade's supposed friends, who proceeded to try and kill him. And succeeded. Temporarily. And in that moment, Wade was reunited with the love of his life, the embodiment of Death--and realized this was what he wanted from his friends--to be reunited with her. To be dead.

And then Deadpool's super-healing factor kicked in.

Brought back to life, Wade embarked on an unhinged mission to annoy the hell out of The Hulk, believing 'Ol Green Skin the only one with enough muscle to smoosh him out of existence for good--and he succeeded--kind of.

The Hulk smashed him, but knew his healing factor would bring him back, and realizing the mental state Wade was in (bad--even for Deadpool), the Hulk's alter ego Bruce Banner had his cousin, lawyer Jennifer Walters a.k.a. She-Hulk fix it for Wade to be committed to Crossmore Institution for the criminally insane, in Britain.

There, Wade was helped by shrink Dr. Ella Whitby... helped to escape, that is--as Whitby was nuttier than Wade, crazy in love with him, offing people in Deadpool's name--and had even collected dismembered parts of Wade that he'd lost over time in battle and regenerated--stored in her freezer!

Heartbroken at the revelation that Deadpool was in love with someone else, the unhinged Whitby killed herself--and Wade, disgusted at his 'frozen bits', dumped them... following which, they merged to form Evil Deadpool. Which brings us to now.

Both 'good' Deadpool and Evil Deadpool are headed separately for New York city in a 5-part story arc beginning in Deadpool #45. "[With Deadpool,] every bad turn was always voluntary. He always had a choice. Either turn back or turn into it and he always took the wrong path. I don't think he intentionally did it, but I think that kind of informs his morality as it stands now," says Deadpool writer Daniel Way in an interview with Comic Book Resources. Way continues, "Evil Deadpool was born in a dumpster. He has no background and is not attached to anything. He's got some short term memories. There's no childhood there. He's never experienced love. He's never experienced loss. He's basically what Deadpool would be if he had never been one of us."

Way has been doing 'big picture'/'pieces of the puzzle' work on the book, and speaking in interviews with Comic Book Resources and Newsarama recently, has revealed that Deadpool has by no means given up on his quest for death--and that the Evil Deadpool arc will provide Deadpool with his 'Krytonite;' something that goes back to the origins of the character. Something that will actually kill him.

The first issue alone of 'Dead' (Deadpool #50) will see the return of the Kingpin, Typhoid Mary and The Hand--tying into Joe Kelly's run on the previous Deadpool series--plus Wade's team-mates X-Force--as well as the return of regular Deadpool artist Carlo Barberi. But ahead of this issue, following the Evil Deadpool arc, we have Deadpool #49.1: 'Deadpool: The Musical,' which brings back some other old 'friends' and promises to bring readers up to speed ahead of 'Dead.'

I'm invested in what Way's bringing to the character, and looking forward to all of this stuff, 'Dead' in particular, though not sure what to expect from this much-teased arc--a feeling that is clearly deliberate on the part of Marvel and Way, as speaking with Newsarama, he says, "A lot of readers have become jaded with the whole, 'In this issue...a hero will fall' thing, and I don’t blame them. I’m one of them. That’s why 'Dead' is what it is; and it’s nothing like what you think it’ll be. Bluntly, I don’t think readers can prepare for this one."