Deadpool - the story so far - Part 1

It's no secret that I'm gunning to work on Deadpool. Awhile back I re-read a stack of old Deadpool comics and wrote a pitch, which I'm waiting for the right time to make. If you're relatively new to the Merc with a Mouth, or would just like a trip down a very warped memory lane, marvel.com are currently rolling out Deadpool's history in bite-sized chunks. You can check out parts 1-4 at the links below and I'll be adding more as they come up at the site.

The History of Deadpool Part 1

The History of Deadpool Part 2

The History of Deadpool Part 3

The History of Deadpool Part 4

Weapon X, Cable, Siryn, The Great Lakes Avengers, Wade's now-team-mate-in-the-Thunderbolts (although they want to kill each other) The Punisher, Captain America, saving the Earth, and a rivalry with Thanos for the affections of the love of their lives--the female embodiment of Death--all feature in Wade Wilson's checkered past; and as the only one crazy enough to also make a bee-line for Death's affections, the Mad God of Titan made damn sure that the Merc with a Mouth got taken out of that picture--for good.

But what if Deadpool and Death could get it together? (which would mean the unkillable Wade being dead) If you never checked out my Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death, you can find 'em below...

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And look for Bootleg Alcoholic Iron Man coming here soon!

[UPDATE 6/23/13:] You can now check out the rest of Deadpool's Story So Far here!

Deadpool and Death

In Deadpool's 'Dead' arc - written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Carlo Barberi and Ale Garza - now out in Hardcover, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool: the Merc with a Mouth sets out to find the serum that can beat his super-charged healing factor - so he can die - and be reunited with the love of his life, the female embodiment of Death.

Deadpool's X-Force teammates, his sometime sidekick Hydra Bob, Wolverine's son Daken, The Kingpin, Typhoid Mary, The Hand and more are embroiled in possibly Wade's most messed-up scheme ever, as he tries to smoke out the one thing that'll offer him the sweet kiss of Death!

I'm gunning to work on Deadpool, and wanting to have a little fun in the build-up to 'Dead' whilst showcasing my Merc with a Mouth-writing skillz, I took an existing Deadpool/Death fantasy scene, removed the dialogue and broke it up/remixed it into short funnies with all-new words - to create my unofficial prequel to 'Dead.' For those that haven't caught it yet, you can check out my complete Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death here!

Deadpool #54 Review

So, thanks to Hydra Bob, Deadpool's succeeded in getting injected with the serum that's taken out his healing factor and he can now fulfill his wish to get offed. The complications: Bob got the serum from Tombstone (who had it made in order to kill Deadpool as payback for putting him in the slammer) by promising Tombey that he could be the one to kill Wade Wilson. Only, getting gunned down by a second-rater like Tombstone isn't the spectacular ending the ego-crazed Wade desires, he wants to go out in style--possibly by being destroyed by his team-mates X-Force after playing them and massively pissing them off.



'Fine.' Except, if Tombstone doesn't get to be the one who puts a bullet in Deadpool's head, he's gonna make damn sure he puts one in Bob's.

Wade got into his crazy scheme in the first place after his 'friends' temporarily killed him--briefly reuniting him with the love of his life, the female embodiment of Death--before his healing factor brought him back; Wade surmising that what his friends wanted for him was for him to be with Death, and deciding that this was what he wanted for himself now.



Only, that whole thing--? Kind of a subjective call. Those 'friends' are gone, the only one that wasn't party to it is the only one that's stuck around. Hydra Bob. Wade hadn't thought about anyone else, he hadn't considered what would happen to Bob if he carried out his plan. And he doesn't want his one true friend Bob to die...


*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

We hit the ground running in this concluding chapter of DEAD, as the bulletproof Tombstone comes gunning for Deadpool before Wade's had the chance to come up with a plan to save Hydra Bob's ass. Of course, if he really cares about Bob, he could just take the hit from Tombstone, but with Hydra Bob having shown Wade he does have a true friend, maybe Bob's actually given him something to live for. After all, this whole thing kicked off when Deadpool returned to Earth after saving a planet--to no kudos--looking for some love from his buddies and getting a barrage of gunfire from them instead.


So, now mortal and vulnerable and without a plan, Deadpool goes on the lam with Bob and Tombstone pursues--before being met with a 'temporary fix' that'll buy them some breathing space.

Bob's scared to the point of bordering on suicidal, and in a tense conversation with Wade, Deadpool's twisted mind kind of has a reboot. This was all a game to Wade--who saw the way he played his team-mates X-Force, Daken, Kingpin and co. off against each other as a grand game of Chess--his ultimate challenge--and attaining the lethal serum as the lynchpin of that. But getting it didn't turn out to be so tough for Wade, Bob did the work there, really--and now that Deadpool is mortal as a result of it, there's no challenge. Dying would be easy. And with Death a woman of VERY high demands, dying now wouldn't be worthy of her.



So Wade doesn't want to die now--but there's the small problem of both Tombstone and X-Force being out to kill him. So Deadpool and Bob are going to flee via Grand Central Station (one of the places X-Force have deemed to look for him at), so they need disguises...

But then, upon seeing his newly scar-free face in the mirror--a result of the serum--Deadpool realizes they don't need disguises--no-one now knows what either of them look like without their masks...



Despite this, tension holds as Wade and Bob hit Grand Central Station, only to be met by X-Force--and things don't look good for either of them.

I won't say exactly happens, but--*BIG SPOILER ALERT*--everything gets resolved and tied up in a neat little bow and Wade Wilson is now a blue-eyed pretty boy, complete with stylin' hair (that's come from nowhere) and comes out of DEAD mortal, and with a new lease on life.

Ale Garza's art isn't as strong here as it has been in previous issues--on occasion, I mistakenly thought there were two pencillers involved--and it would have been nice to have regular Deadpool artist Carlo Barberi back for the conclusion of the story he helped kick off--but Garza, inked by Sean Parsons, does a decent enough job.

In the writing, Daniel Way requires you to read between the lines and put things together in terms of the characters' motivations, which asks for a high degree of trust that he knows Wade inside out, given that they're certainly not the most logical or linear of motives.

We have a decent conclusion to the big arc here, though I would have liked to have seen some Deadpool on Death action (not in the biblical sense, that would be gross). If, like me, you find that amiss, you'll be able to find it in my unofficial Prequel to DEAD, Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death, here.



Way will be staying on board as Deadpool: the pretty boy years begins in issue #55, meanwhile, I'm continuing to work on showcasing my MwaM-writing skillz (for which Deadpool hearts Death was the last thing)--having fun along the way--should a vacancy come up at some point. ;)

And you can get a first look at my new thing here:



Meet Wade Wilson, Blind Al and Weasel parodies Wayne Winston, Nigel and Rodent--who will be making their debut in an upcoming Abnormals Special, taking on Grant Springford's little demon Nasty--dynamically illustrated by Sgt. Mike Battle's Graham Pearce.



Stay tuned ;)

Deadpool #52 Review

Part 3 of DEAD. The Wilson wagon starts to shake--and then...

As we begin this issue, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool is continuing to play everyone in his neo-chaotic game of 'Chess' as he attempts to smoke out the lethal serum that will negate his super-charged healing factor and kill him, enabling him to be with Death. Last issue, Wolverine's son Daken blew up the lab that the serum was made in, and may or may not now be in possession of the final vial.


Having fed Daken information and manipulated him, it appears likely that Deadpool is aware of Daken's actions when he calls him to pass on a--made up--message from Wolverine, telling him to get out of town, whilst planting a bomb beneath the restaurant table he's sat at--severely spoiling Wolvery Jnr.'s meal.

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Meanwhile, Wade's sent his sidekick Hydra Bob back to The Kingpin's HQ supposedly to relay info back on weak spots that Deadpool and his X-Force team-mates can use to attack the Kingpin through--Deadpool having told them that The Kingpin possesses the lethal serum. But The Kingpin's captured Bob and is holding him as bait, as he wants Deadpool to come for him.


Hitting The Kingpin's HQ through something far from a weak spot--immediately ambushed by his ninja The Hand and right-hand woman Typhoid Mary, X-Force engage in a fast-pased battle; and having got away with playing all sides for the first two parts of this arc, now that X-Force--this time, including Deadpool--and The Kingpin's crew are thrown together, Wade's lies start to get revealed and his team-mates smell a rat.

Throwing a barrier in their way so he can go after the escaping Kingpin himself, bypassing the held-hostage Bob, fighting the feelings of guilt the voices in his head throw up over his actions, Deadpool pursues the big guy in the hope that The Kingpin really is now in possession of the serum, and another of Deadpool's 'Chess pieces' takes his place--but then in the final three pages, there are two twists!

Guest art team Ale Garza & Sean Parsons do a nice job, Dommo Sanchez does his usual outstanding job on the coloring, and writer Daniel Way allays concerns I had that the vast majority of this 5-part arc would be spent on build up.

After the end of this issue, who knows what's coming next.

UPDATE 4/6/12: Looks like the end of the ish was no hoax--although doesn't quite mean what some of us may have thought it did--check out a Preview of Deadpool #53 at Comics-X-Aminer! (contains spoilers!)

Deadpool #51 Review

Having completed my 4-part Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death, I'm currently working on my next thing to showcase that I've got the skillz to write the Merc with a Mouth... Meanwhile, let's see what's going on in his book, in Deadpool #51: Part 2 of DEAD.

And if you weren't able to get hold of a copy of Deadpool #50, the recap page in Deadpool #51 tells you everything you missed from the issue--and more!


Writer Daniel Way is pulling threads together here; for one: revealed at the end of Deadpool #50, the guy with the serum that killed Evil Deadpool is stone-hard-skinned albino super-villain Tombstone--whom Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool was responsible for incarcerating back in the day.


Tombstone's had a scientist concoct a serum that can beat Deadpool's supercharged healing factor and kill him. There are only two samples of this serum, though (with one already having been used on Evilpool).

Deadpool doesn't know Tombstone's got the serum, so he's set about smoking out whoever has by manipulating various players--his team-mates X-Force (of whom Wolverine is a member), The Kingpin, and Wolverine's son Daken--setting them against each other. The only one (including us) that's--seemingly--fully in on Wade's 'game of Chess' is his sidekick Hydra Bob, who's too dim (or sane) to understand it.


With them having narrowed down Evil Deadpool's potential snipers to a list of two, we catch up with X-Force as they're paying one of these a visit--just as The Kingpin's right-hand woman Typhoid Mary and his ninja The Hand are, too--but they're all too late as Daken's already been there, offed that; Daken part of another thread Daniel Way's pulling together for this arc, Way having made his debut writing Deadpool in a Wolverine story arc that also featured Daken, and set up his antagonism towards Wade.

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With neither X-Force nor The Kingpin's people party to Daken's actions, it's X-Force versus Typhoid and The Hand--with the building they're in erupting in flames thanks to Typhoid's telekinetic firestorm--before Wolverine and Typhoid dramatically exit the burning building, followed by The Hand and Wolvey's team-mates making their separate exits.


With the businesses housed in the building all rumored to be owned by The Kingpin, the media jumps on the theory that what just happened was part of an erupting gang war. All part of Deadpool's plan; as--it would seem--was Daken beating his team-mates and The Kingpin's crew to the punch. Knowing Daken and his agenda as well as he does, Wolverine realizes that his son was responsible for killing the sniper X-Force sought before they got there and, seeing a news report about the blaze on TV, Wolvey initially reacts violently to Deadpool having started a gang war (another nice use of Logan's claws, following last issue's slashing-change-out-of-a-payphone). But Wolvey calms down when Wade explains it's all a smokescreen so the team can set about finding the remaining suspect-sniper.

Meanwhile, Tombstone is visited by/visits some of the other 'pieces' in Wade's game, and, attempting to retrieve the remaining death-serum, finds he may be out of his depth as Daken continues to make his presence felt.


Ale Garza & Sean Parsons do a nice job as guest-artists--filling in for the regular art team of Carlo Barberi & Walden Wong--aided by excellent colorist Dommo Amara. Storywise, a weakness in the plot is found in the ending: defying logic on the part of Tombstone when related to the beginning. The issue is short on humor for a Deadpool book--as was the first chapter of 'Dead'--the impetus here being on Wade's machinations picking up speed as writer Daniel Way brings us a fast-paced issue with multiple characters being played by the Merc with a Mouth.

With 'Dead' a 5-part arc, I hope it won't be too long before we get past everyone being played and get to the meat of the matter--Deadpool trying to get himself killed so he can be with lady Death--but with us not being fully privy to Wade's schemes, right now, we're just along for the ride.

Deadpool #50 Review

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Congratulations to Mike Workman on winning the Deadpool/Death Caption Contest I've been holding here in the run-up to DEAD!

Mike, your little yellow & white boxes of craziness are now immortalized here and at my Deadpool Crew Facebook Group!

So here we are at Part 1 of the much-anticipated, much talked about DEAD arc--which comes with the tagline 'Watch him Croak'...


For some time now, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth, has had a death wish. After changing direction from badass merc to wannabe superhero and back and flying to outer space where he saved some planets, but felt alone and missed the pat on the back he would have gotten from friends--Deadpool returned home, only to be met by all his friends trying to kill him--and for a brief moment, succeeding.

But his supercharged healing factor kicked in and brought him back to life. However, in that brief moment, he was reunited with the love of his life, the female emobodiment of Death--and realized (or deluded himself into believing) that this was what his friends wanted for him. That this was what he wanted. To feel Death's embrace forever.

Since then, he's been on a mission to beat his healing factor and get himself killed for good, but has only wound up getting himself put in the nut house, thereupon meeting fellow fruitcake Dr. Ella Whitby--who was obsessed with him and had his old discarded body parts, lost in battles, in her freezer. Disgusted at this, Wade chucked the parts in the dumpster--but they thawed and formed the sentient Evil Deadpool... and Deadpool and Evil Deadpool went head-to-head--before 'Evil' was taken down by a sniper dart. And died.

Which brings us to now.


Deadpool wants what he had. He wants to find that sniper and get a dose of what killed Evil Deadpool. But with 'every cop in the world out to get him,' drawing attention to himself isn't gonna be the way to go as it'll only end up with him put away again--where he can't reach the serum. He's gonna have to 'use pawns to do it.' And so Deadpool begins putting the pieces in place for his own inimitable 'Game of Chess.'

'The Horse Heads.'

Telling them the serum nullifies mutations and hiding his true motivations from them, Deadpool convinces his X-Force team-mates that The Kingpin has it and gets them to help him try and find the sniper The Kingpin 'hired,' that took out Evil Deadpool, believing this to be the smarter way to go than aiming directly at The Kingpin, as he'd quickly cover his tracks.

Deadpool also meets up with Wolverine's son Daken...

'The Shooter.'

...and invites Daken to accompany him on the search for the serum (Daken, also possessing a super-charged healing factor, having a vested interest)--and then kill him with it. But Daken turns down the offer, believing it too good to be true.

Meanwhile, Wade sends his sometime sidekick Hydra Bob...

'The Wheelbarrow.'

...to visit The Kingpin, asking for the big guy's help in finding the serum. Bemused by this, The Kingpin's tolerance for Bob rapidly erodes before he forcefully shows him the door and sets his right-hand woman Typhoid Mary (who had a 'thing' with Wade in the past)--together with his Ninja lackeys The Hand--about finding the serum for his own gain.

'The One That Goes Diagonally.'

All this plus an inventive use of Wolverine's claws to get change for a payphone, double-crossing, and some intrigue involving a 'Baby's First...' book that begins and ends Deadpool #50--and you have a solid, extra-sized set-up issue for the 'Dead' arc. We're not privy to exactly what Wade's trying to pull off here, and though we don't have the full picture, there's also a piece in Deadpool's chess game that he isn't aware of--a 'Wildcard' introduced at the end of the book.

Returning art team Carlo Barberi & Walden Wong deliver some of their best work yet, aided by excellent new colorist Dommo.

There's been much talk about this hyped-up arc, which seems as though it may be writer Daniel Way's swansong on the volume of Deadpool that he's been with since the start. Way's also revealed that this mysterious serum that the Merc is searching for dates back to the start. A signature of Way's run on Deadpool has been the Merc 'playing' people and things not being as they appear; this looks set to be the grandest example of such yet--and one with the highest of stakes--the life of Deadpool himself.

I'm intrigued to see where this is gonna go...

Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death #4

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Awww... Wade does love her, after all. And he reckons he's found a way to beat his healing factor and be with her...

You can check out my Deadpool #50 Review - 'Dead' Part 1 here - the story where we're going to "Watch him Croak"?!?

Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death #3 + Daniel Way interview and more 'Dead' Preview art

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You can check out an interview with Deadpool writer Daniel Way @ WatchPlayRead.com here--in which Way gets questions such as "President Obama is strapped to a nuclear missile, on a submarine, in space, with genetically enhanced space sharks protecting the submarine. How would Deadpool save him?" thrown at him--and here's some more 'Dead' Preview art:




You can find the concluding Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death here!

Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death #2 + 'Dead' Preview art!

Well the first installment of Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death went down well on the Deadpool fanpages, with one of the Facebook ones saying, "Pretty awesome stuff," among the great comments it received. Here's the next one for your Pool-o-Vision pleasure...

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Btw, if you'd like to check out the Deadpool fanpages on Facebook, here're links to a whole mess of 'em:

Deadpool "THE PLACE TO KEEP UP TO DATE WITH DEADPOOL!"
Deadpool "Welcome, be sure to check out the links page for great Deadpool sites."
Deadpool "DEADPOOL!!! 24/7, 365 DAYS A YEAR, NON-STOP DEADPOOL!!!"
Deadpool (runs 'Fan of the Week' and ting.)
Deadpool Rockz "I Like Guns..."
And my own Deadpool Crew Group which has lots of active members, posting about all kinds of Deadpool shizzle.


Now, as we continue to countdown to Deadpool #50's landmark 'Dead' arc--for which Marvel have now released the tagline "Watch him Croak"--here's some tasty-looking Carlo Barberi & Walden Wong Preview Art from it:




[UPDATE:] You can now find the next Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death plus a Daniel Way interview here!