Cable/Deadpool ended with Wade living in a nice apartment, surrounded by friends. Seven months later, Daniel Way had Deadpool living alone in a warehouse. Instead of friends for a supporting cast, he had a yellow caption box, and a white caption box. Oh, and hallucinations. Can't forget the hallucinations.
And hey, I enjoyed some of the hallucinations. Wade getting bored scaling Norman Osborn's tower and imagining him as the giant from Jack and the Bean Stalk, calling himself a 'stinky dummy-dum'? Yeah, I laughed. But those aren't really a decent substitute for some sort of coherent plan.
Wade careens from taking merc jobs, to wanting revenge on Osborn and spending three issues fighting his Thunderbolts, to spending three issues in an almost Looney Tunes battle with Bullseye (dressed as Hawkeye, thanks Dark Reign). Then he's a pirate. Then he's trying to join the X-Men. Then he's trying to steal the gig Weasel's set up for himself as a mech-suited defender of Las Vegas. Every story seems to involve Wade swinging wildly from one thing to another. Which, I guess if you weren't enjoying one story, you don't have to wait long for something different. But it's still the same guy writing, so is it gonna be any better?
If you're inclined, you say Way's trying to make a point about Wade, how he's looking for validation from others, and just keeps trying different approaches to the same failed idea. I'm not sure I'm that charitable. I bought the book for 24 issues before I abandoned it in mid-2010. I think it went to 50 issues, but I'm not sure it got any more focused. This was also the stretch when Marvel first really over-exposed Deadpool, as they also started up the Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth ongoing, Deadpool Team-Up, gave Liefeld the Deadpool Corps book, and released numerous one-shots, specials, and whatnot. I bought far too many Deadpool comics during those years.
I still own maybe a half-dozen issues. The three-parter against Bullseye (although that's come close to be excised from the collection and probably will again this winter). The two-parter where he becomes a pirate. The one-off where he ends up against some moonshine makin' hillbilly with electricity powers. As far as silly Deadpool adventures go, they're fine. But there's not anything more to them than that. This was the third and final time I gave a series written by Daniel Way a chance, after his stint on Wolverine and his Ghost Rider run.
No comments:
Post a Comment