Deadpool #15 Preview: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Part 1

"There are different interpretations of the same events, and even events in his past that seem to negate one another. 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly' fills in those cracks and offers an explanation for the pieces that don’t go together. By the end of the arc you’ll understand why Deadpool’s mind has been a mess, and why he’s not always taken himself seriously. If you don’t see him as a tragic figure before this story, you absolutely will by the last page.” Gerry Duggan & Brian Posehn.

A dark area of Wade Wilson's memories have been unlocked, he's onto the outfit who have been harvesting his regenerating organs--and his Weapon X past is about to come back to haunt him.

The Merc with a Mouth teams with Wolverine and Captain America for the 5-part 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,' the Deadpool story I've been waiting for. You can check out an interview with Posehn, Duggan, and new Deadpool artist Declan Shalvey, talking about the arc with Newsarama here, and a Preview of the issue below...

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Join me back here Wednesday for my Deadpool #15 Review!

Thunderbolts #14 Preview and what's coming for Deadpool.

[UPDATED 8/20/13:]

With next week's Thunderbolts #14, Charles Soule (who's been doing a great job on the book so far) officially becomes the ongoing writer, Jefte Paolo comes on board as the new artist, and the team get a new mission, courtesy of Frank Castle...

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You can check out a full Preview at Comic Book Resources here; and an interview with Charles Soule, talking with Newsarama about his plans for the T-Bolts during the Infinity crossover here.

The next issue of Wade Wilson's regular book (Deadpool #15, out Aug 28) kicks off 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,' an arc that sees the Merc with a Mouth teaming with Wolverine and Captain America to investigate the mysterious outfit that's been harvesting Wade's regenerating organs.

These peeps have ties to Weapon X, the program that made Deadpool the unkillable messed-up fruitloop he is. Mental barriers blocking some of Wade's darker memories have recently come down--and with all of this past-connecting stuff coming together, and judging by the cover for Deadpool #19, 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly' looks like the Deadpool story I've been waiting for. One that taps into some of the stuff I also touch on in my Deadpool pitch.

I'm waiting 'til I'm high enough profile to be in a position to hopefully make that pitch, and I'm intrigued as to how the events of 'The Good, The Bad...' will affect it.

Also looking like an essential read is November's Deadpool Annual #1. Written by The Thrilling Adventure Hour's Bens Acker & Blacker, this book's gonna answer the question of what happened to the voices in Wade's head (absent since his Marvel NOW! relaunch) and will feature--as well as Thor, Daredevil, and Luke Cage--Madcap. Like Deadpool, the seldom-seen Madcap is also a seemingly-indestructible loon, and this should be interesting...

Deadpool: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[UPDATED 4/29/13:]

As alluded to in Deadpool #8, a mysterious outfit have been harvesting Wade Wilson's regenerating organs for years, and in August's Deadpool #14, three Weapon X/Plus subjects--Deadpool, Wolverine and Captain America--team up to find out the connection between this and the program; and we meet a Weapon X reject with a major mad-on for the Merc with a Mouth!

You can find out more about the arc as co-writer Gerry Duggan and incoming artist-for-the-story Declan Shalvey talk to Marvel.com and Comic Book Resources about their plans here and here!

And as well as this, Deadheads can look forward to the introduction of a Deadpool from a future where Wade's a member of the X-Men(!)--in the forthcoming X-Event, X-Men: Battle of the Atom. And you can find out more about that at Newsarama here!

Marvel's future is almost NOW! Major Preview!

[UPDATED 10.10.12:]

Deadpool and, well, everyone but Psylocke is out, and Storm, Puck, Spiral and...a female Fantomex/EVA? are in--with new looks designed by Chris Anka--in one of the more radical shake-ups from Marvel NOW! when writer Sam Humphries and artist Rob Garney relaunch Uncanny X-Force in January.

Marvel aren't giving too much away about this one yet, but Humphries did have this to say to Newsarama: "You'll see a very proactive team in Uncanny X-Force, but whether or not they have the same mandate and goals as the previous X-Force remains to be seen. I wouldn't advise that anyone get too comfortable;" and you can find Humphries & Anka talking about the team's new looks with Comic Alliance here.

Marvel NOW! launches today with Rick Remender & John Cassaday's Uncanny Avengers #1--teaming Wolverine, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Captain America, Rogue, lead by Havoc (you can find Remender talking about his plans for the book in a brand new interview with Newsarama here)--and the comics news sites are cranking things up a notch, here's what I've pulled from the new stuff so far, stay tuned to this post for further developments...

(From last week's Amazing Spider-Man #695 - it's too late - Madame Web's seen everything! Courtesy of Bleeding Cool). (Right-click on images and Open in New Tab to enlarge)

Avengers vs. X-Men #12 Commentary & Bonus Features from writer Jason Aaron @ Comic Book Resources (*CONTAINS SPOILERS*). The beginning of the end of the Avengers as we know them - Preview @ Newsarama...

...and Related.

Comic Book Resources have a 4-page Preview of Uncanny Avengers #1 and you can check out the rest of it here!

Newsarama have a Preview of Mark Waid & Leinil Francis Yu's Indestructible Hulk #1; and Yu draws an awesome Hulk.

Long-time Spidey writer Dan Slott talks the new Superior Spider-Man with USA Today here!

And if you missed any of my previous MN! features, just click on the links below to take you to 'em:

Marvel NOW! primer.

Deadpool Cover Gallery plus Not Marvel, Not Now!

The all-new Thunderbolts #1; plus Thunderbolts Variant Covers.

Deadpool #1, Captain America #1, X-Men: Legacy #1, Thor #1, Hulk #1, Iron Man #1, FF #1's - Marvel NOW! New Creative Teams Interviews!

You can find loads more Marvel NOW! Stuff at my MN! Facebook Fanpage, and check out Part 2 of my Marvel NOW! Major Preview here!

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #3 Review

*EXCLUSIVE FIRST REVIEW*

*CONTAINS SPOILERS* *MATURE READERS*

"What if everything you thought was funny about Deadpool…was actually just disturbing?" That was one of the lines in the promo blurb for this mini-series, and in this third issue, that really locks in.

Due to Psycho Man screwing with Wade Wilson's messed up head, a new voice has emerged in Deadpool's noggin'--cancelling out the old voices and giving him a 'clarity of vision' that he never had before. Deadpool's now either loopier than ever--or the only one that 'gets it;' that what we're reading isn't real, everyone's just a Marvel comic book character getting their strings pulled by Marvel, and he's had enough of having his strings pulled--he's gonna take out the Marvel Universe! Hero or Villain, look out--the Merc with a Mouth is gunning for you!

Deadpool's been busy since last issue. Witness to the bodycount he's been racking up in the days that have passed, we see Venom, Madrox and the Green Goblin are all now among the dead... Taskmaster's been hired by some of Wade's previous hits' bereaved to take him down, and following his trail, he comes across the smoking remains of kid-superheroes Power Pack.

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Tasky (or 'Tony' to his friends) sees this as the point where Deadpool's crossed the line; he would've been happy to find and kill Wade for money before--but now he's going to do it because Deadpool deserves to die...

It's from this point that my earlier quote from the Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe promos started to sink in; for all Deadpool's 'This is just a funnybook' evangelizing, we are following a twisted killer here--the fun and funny side to Deadpool has taken a back seat to psychosis, and any humor now is tainted with sickness.

This is evidenced further as we cut to Wade torturing Professor Xavier--whom he's taken hostage inside a building that he's rigged with inventive, twisted booby traps--as he attempts to educate Charlie X on his beliefs, while the X-Men show up in a vain attempt to rescue him--and fall foul of Deadpool's maniacal machinations.

Deadpool tries to get through to Charles; to get him to see that all Marvel characters are just puppets being played by the Big M for the amusement of the general public, but the Professor is more concerned with the slaughter Deadpool's traps are wreaking, and determines to get inside Wade's mind and shut it down...

...But this backfires. Professor X can't handle what he finds in Deadpool's brain and is rendered a vegetable by connecting with it. Whether this is because of Deadpool's unspeakable insanity, or whether Charles has discovered what Wade's saying to be true and it's blown his mind, is left ambiguous.

Meanwhile, believed dead at Wade's hands last issue, Wolverine's healing factor has restored him and he's arrived at the building--making short work of super-villain Arcade, who's built Wade's traps for him--to take on Deadpool, who's now wearing The Beast's fur as a hunting trophy over his costume; another flash of trademark Deadpool humor, but again one steeped in his new sickness.

Once more breaking the Fourth Wall, Deadpool informs Wolvey that it isn't Logan's healing factor that truly keeps bringing him back, it's his popularity--*Wade slicing Wolverine's head off*--but that all the popularity in the world can't save him from what he has planned.

...At Dr. Strange's place, Taskmaster arrives to find Strange and his man-servant Wong murdered, and that Deadpool's ransacked the place looking for a magik book--and found it--and what's suggested inside the book makes issue #4, the conclusion of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, for me, unmissable.

Artist Dalibor Talajic once again hits the right feel for the book, and Cullen's Bunn's writing again falls slightly short. As with the first issue, this one has another moment or two where suspension of disbelief is called for; particularly in how Taskmaster finds what he does at the end of the ish. But this book is exceeding my expectations in terms of its (Fourth Wall-breaking) angle; a maguffin that continues to make the book's intrigue exceed its shock 'n' schlock (which ain't bad either) value for me.

...If you didn't catch my reviews of issues #1, #2 and #3 you can find them by clicking on those numbers; you can also find a Preview of issue #4 here--and join me back here on Wednesday for my Review of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #4--the climactic conclusion! ;)

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 #1

Deadpool is going to die (?). In Deadpool's 'Dead' arc, running through Deadpool #50-54, out in Hardcover on July 11th, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool: The Merc with a Mouth has finally found a way to beat his supercharged healing feeling factor and be with the love of his life, the female embodiment of Death.

Wanting to have a little fun with that, I've taken an existing Deadpool/Death fantasy scene and broken it up into short funnies with all-new dialogue...

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Join me here every Wednesday for more Deadpool/Death shenanigans as we countdown to 'Dead', on which writer Daniel Way has recently shed more light in an interview with Marvel.com:

"Despite his miraculous healing abilities, there’s been something out there since the very beginning of the character that can kill him, or at least make it possible for him to die—permanently. The real deal.

"And that’s great news for Deadpool, as that’s been his new obsession. Deadpool’s the type of character that’s always obsessed with the things he couldn’t have or couldn’t do. The best way to motivate him to do something is to have as many people as possible tell him he can’t. For this particular goal, Deadpool hasn’t really sat down and thought out the implications of dying; to him it’s just a goal, not a destination. He hasn’t figured out that dying would be the end of the line for him. He just wants to do it. With his manic personality, he hasn’t considered the ramifications of what that means."


Way continues, "Now with the news that there’s something out there that could actually kill him, it becomes a kind of mystery where he has to find out who has it and get them to use it. At first you’d think it’s just a matter of him going out into the public and making himself as visible as possible, but at this point he’s wanted by Interpol, the N.Y.P.D. and every international law enforcement agency out there. If they grab him, they’ll lock him up and he won’t be able to get to this thing that could kill him. For “Dead,” he has to figure out a Rube Goldberg-style plan to flush out this thing while still maintaining cover from his pursuers. That means sucking in all of these different parties after him to get them to do what he wants them to do. No one knows they’ve been drafted into Deadpool’s plans until it’s too late. This arc has a very big cast."

And that 'big cast' includes The Kingpin, Typhoid Mary, Nick Fury, Wolverine's son Daken, Deadpool's teammates X-Force, and his sometime sidekick Hydra Bob--whom it doesn't appear as though things are going to go well for...


[UPDATE:] You can now find more on 'Dead' and episode 2 of Bootleg Deadpool hearts Death here!