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...

RSS (Random Superhero Shizzle) Feed

Wanting to cover some stuff that isn't just about me or my pal Deadpool, this is Random Superhero Shizzle--new superhero stuff that's caught my eye:


(1) FANBABES: Former FANBABE of the YEAR Ana Aesthetic is smokin' as Emma Frost the White Queen in her new shoot, and you can check out more of it here (the guy in the video isn't doing what he looks as though he is).

(2) The acerbic Charlie Brooker, Guardian columnist and writer of Big Brother gets zombified comedy-drama Dead Set, responds to David Cameron's recent call for British films to be more commercial by offering some suggestions (with tongue firmly in cheek) for British-made superhero movies:

"Superhero films are guaranteed box-office gold – so let's make a British one: a Dark Knight facsimile about a vigilante Beefeater in a rubberised outfit who lives in the Tower of London with an army of ravens.


"Also, how about Paddington Bear as a wisecracking CGI hero? The marmalade sandwiches he enjoys won't 'read' overseas, so we'll replace those with peanut butter and jelly, but otherwise he's exactly the same loveable British Paddington Bear, minus the bit about him being an immigrant from darkest Peru. Also, he wears sunglasses and says 'Woah, THAT's godda hurt!' and is voiced by Ashton Kutcher."

(3) THE STARS #1 written & pencilled by Kurt Belcher, inked by Stuart Berryhill, published by Earthbound Comics.

A super-team of yesteryear, The Stars have been put back together--with their number depleted--following a hiatus resulting from a mission gone wrong.

In a gesture of 'good faith,' the President of isolationist republic Um-Kulthoum has brought The Stars in to take down a resident terrorist sect--though the President's 'bread-breaking' doesn't extend as far as allowing the team to search for Weapons of Mass Destruction while they're at it, as a supervillain team are sent in to intervene when they do.

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From here we jump over to the super-heroics of some new would-be Stars members--and the taking down of whitebread armored hero Panzermannen by a shadowy group of supervillains who have designs on influencing just who is going to be joining The Stars...

Steeped in superhero comic-influences spanning Lee & Kirby to Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, The Stars is kind of a more traditional The Authority that borrows liberally from other superhero books--one of the team, Grand Britannia, resembling Captain Britain somewhat, and their 'eye in the sky' Dr. Mole pretty similar to Fantastic Four villain the Mole Man. And btw, Dr. Mole, you'd do well to be less concerned with your 'P's and 'Q's--preceding every critical warning to the team (such as when they're about to get obliterated) with a "Pardon" or "Don't mean to interrupt." There's a time and place for politeness and it isn't when you've got a nuke up yer ass.

The book's quite raw, particularly in the art department, and the narrative could flow and hang together a bit better--and having British members among a team called 'The Stars' doesn't seem the most natural fit--the name evoking, to me at least, 'stars 'n' stripes.' But if you enjoy a traditional superhero comic that does also have moments of edge and originality stemming from its influences (a giant Japanese breakdancing robot super-villain), you can check this first of a 6-issue mini-series out at Earthboundcomics.com where it's available to buy in print and digitally, and comes with two cover variants--one by Belcher and one (pictured) by Top Cow & Zenescope artist Martin Montiel.

(4) Remi Nicole is the worst superheroine ever. She can't even fly and all she does is get arrested.



(5) RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #5: written by Scott Lobdell & illustrated by Kenneth Rocafort.

One of the unholy trinity of perceived audience-alienating DC New 52 launches, along with Catwoman and Voodoo (with honorable mention going to Batgirl), Red Hood and The Outlaws copped a lot of flack for its rebooted Princess Koriand'r a.k.a. Starfire seemingly being portrayed as something along the lines of a lobotomized sexbot, as parodied here by Auggie18:


I didn't pick up the first issue of the book, but I saw and heard enough to make me want to check out issue #4--which one of my Twitter pals Jesse Robels described as "very different [from previous issues] and crazy" (which sounds good to me)--and what I found was an offbeat book with flawed, conflicted characters, and I liked the feel of it. Rocafort's art is very nice and his Starfire is hot, but things have definitely moved away from how she was coming across at first--apparently, issue #3 having revealed that her overt lack of memory and emotion were in fact defensive facades, as she isn't able to come to terms with her past. And rendered 'human' and vulnerable in issue #5--her bond with team-mate Roy Harper a.k.a. Arsenal developing, Starfire's emotions begin to come to the surface.


Former Robin, Jason Todd a.k.a. the Red Hood is also struggling with issues of the past--having been killed by the Joker (before he "got better" due to Superboy Prime having altered reality--or whatever reason the New 52 universe holds for his resurrection) and Batman having failed to avenge him; and former Green Arrow protégé Arsenal is billed as a "recovering superhero" (whatever that means--perhaps it was explained in the first ish).

The main 'villain' of the peace, Crux, is also flawed--this time detrimentally--carrying something of a hokey spin on Batman's origin wherein a spacecraft belonging to Starfire's race accidentally crashed on his family, killing them, and he's gone a bit mental and turned himself into a kind of alien and dedicated his life to wiping out all alien life. As you would. There's more alien threat in the form of The Untitled, a race that have infiltrated the US, and whom Red Hood holds responsible for slaughtering his former post-Batman mentor and crew, the All-Caste. Though, in battle with a female Untitled member, it turns out the Red Hood may not have his facts straight.

I found the All-Caste/Untitled stuff somewhat confusing (though I assume would have less so if I'd been in from the beginning) but in some ways that fits the book, which is largely told from the not-necessarily-accurate perspective of its conflicted male protagonists. Red Hood and The Outlaws is a book that's flawed and misunderstood, but with an intriguing humanity to it.