What I Bought 1/30/2021 - Part 1

January is over, but there's still comics from January to discuss, so let's do that. Today we've got the last issue of one book, and a first issue that's really more of a teaser for a collection to be released later.

Deadpool #10, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (penciler/inker), Victor Nava (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I assume it's a coincidence that Deadpool does a cover of Wade sitting on a throne all casual, while Excalibur came out the same week with Betsy sitting on the throne, the very picture of regal dignity.

OK, series finale and King in Black tie-in. Even gave Thompson and Sandoval an extra 10 pages to work with. Which I'm not sure they needed, since they did two pages for a "getting the team together" gag, then did two separate full-page splashes for the team doing slow badass walks that were interrupted by late arrivals.

Wade's plan to stab and shoot symbiote dragons blows, and gets Jeffrey the Land Shark infected. Wade also gets infected, but just cuts his arm off. Then Jelby, the big purple mutant gummi person shows up and makes himself really big so Wade and the others can kind of pilot him like a mech in battle against the symbiote dragon, who Jelby eventually contains within himself. Wade frees Jeff through the power of Wu-Tang (Staten island residents!) and that's pretty much it. Until the next Deadpool ongoing, I guess.

What to say now that it's over? I'd actually like the "king of Monster Island" status quo to stick. That was by far the best part of this book, with the most potential. For all that he is seemingly entirely unsuited to any kind of responsibility, Deadpool can be surprisingly considerate and responsible sometimes. And he's been the one kicked around and used enough to not necessarily default to treating his subjects like garbage. It's just a matter of his having terrible judgment.

 

But other than that, which really didn't get enough play, things felt rushed even before this. The romantic subplot with Elsa Bloodstone, wasting four issues on the idea Deadpool has anything to fear from Kraven the Hunter. Give me a fucking break. Bachalo's curious choices with regards to page layouts and how to frame things within panels making the book hard to decipher, and Sandoval's art just being kind of too much in some ways. It doesn't really work for the moments that need to be quieter or more subtle, rare though they are. And whoever is calling for all these splash pages, whether it's Thompson or Sandoval, needed to ease the hell off. This is not some Geoff Johns Lantern War book.

Maybe it's every other Deadpool series I buy that ends up being a disappointment, instead of just every other Deadpool series?

Sweet Downfall #1, by Stefano Cardoselli (writer/artist), Panta Rea (colorist), Bram Meehan (letterer) - He got his heart in 1971? Is it Richard Nixon's? That's a joke, everyone knows Nixon had no heart to begin with. Or was that no soul?

Scout Comics is going to release the entirety of this comic as a GN soon, and this is to try and whet your appetite enough to want to buy it. Jonny there on the cover is an old crash test dummy that's become a hitman. He kills a couple of guys who stole from a mob boss with an unfortunate skin condition, but didn't return the money. Instead heading to the half-sunken ship he calls home off the coast of Santa Clara, to ponder the mysteries of humanity and whale watch. The mob boss sends a couple guys out there, Jonny immediately kills one, and we're left wondering if he'll kill the other.

So, is my appetite whetted? Eh, maybe? I'm curious to be sure, but I also remember feeling pretty let down by Cardoselli's Live Die Reload. Not sure I'd want to splurge on the entire story. On the other hand, the more science fiction setting of this story might make it work a little better for me than that did (LDR was more of a noir crossed with a revenge tale). 

I think having color helps, too, where Cardoselli can show off some more detailed work a little easier, instead of it all being lost in high contrast black-and-white art that drowns in heavy inks. His Santa Clara is this strange mixture of Blade Runner/Fifth Element style hi-rise buildings and narrow alleys, and this crumbling, patchwork infrastructure holding it all up that looks more suited to something post-apocalyptic like Road Warrior or Waterworld. 

 

And there are these little purple fish with big eyes and a lower jaw full of sharp teeth that show up everywhere. The Don has some in a fish tank, they hang out in the sea near Jonny's home. They're even painted as a logo on the side of his ship. I feel like they're supposed to be like piranhas, and they're going to be significant somehow, but maybe it's just a background detail.