Deadpool #1 Review (2022)

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It's the first issue of my favorite Marvel character Deadpool's new ongoing series, and I've been looking forward to this...

Wade Wilson is invited by The Atelier - a secret society of exclusive, highly-paid, glamourous assassins - to join their ranks if he can complete the task they assign him: kill Doctor Octopus within 48 Hours.

Another of my Marvel fav.s since his days as the Superior Spider-Man, Otto Octavius is gonna be a tough kill - even for someone with the Merc with a Mouth's skills - but there's a complication; en route to taking out Ock, Deadpool is kidnapped by the plantlife-controlling Harrower, and injected with a strain of Carnage symbiote.

The Harrower found the symbiote in a barely-alive state following the events of Absolute Carnage, and is looking for an incubator that - together with Harrower's powers of biofusion and biofission - can revitalize it and transform it into a creature capable of supplanting humans as Earth's dominant species. A creature that will follow The Harrower as its 'god'. Any attempts at moulding the creature this way have failed as a result of it destroying any host body it was placed in - but The Harrower believes Wade's super-healing-factor will be the solution to this problem.

Deadpool #1 artist Martin Coccolo has worked on the MwaM before in the Deadpool: Black, White & Red Mini-Series - but writer Alyssa Wong is - as far as I'm aware - a new voice to Deadpool. And she nails his voice right out of the gate.

Wong's going 'R' with Deadpool, which comes with a parental advisory rating, most notably on account of a couple of risque jokes that might go under the radar of a younger reader, were it not for Wade pointing a metaphorical arrow at one of them; and with what Deadpool now has growing in him, gore is guaranteed.

The briskly-paced Extra-Sized debut issue jumps back and forth in its timeline - briefly introducing us to the members of The Atelier along the way - some of whom look intriguingly weird, and one of whom - Valentine Vuong - is set up as Wade's potential new love interest. Deadpool's after-the-fact embarrasment at the pickup line he uses on her providing the funniest gag in the book, followed by him brainstorming and rejecting 'better' cringey pickup lines.

The art by Martin Coccolo is solid, Neeraj Menon's color art sometimes a little 'pencily'-looking - but all in all it's an appealing debut for this creative team: with an intriguing potential new direction for the Merc with a Mouth.

Though Wong seems to have Deadpool's character down, though - I'm not certain she has Doctor Octopus', with the few lines uttered by Ock during his brief appearance seeming out of character for him.

Doctor Octopus versus Deadpool is a fun concept that I hope Wong delivers well when it comes to fruition in issue #2 - which I will certainly be back for...