Sunday Splash Page #136

"Mass Dumbassery is More Like It", in Deadpool (vol. 4) #17, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer)

The previous volume of Deadpool ended because of Secret Wars. Because the Avengers, as written by Jonathan Hickman, are useless and didn't fix the Incursion mess. The book was naturally immediately restarted, and Duggan took the opportunity to make Deadpool massively popular in-universe, becoming a pop culture and merchandising sensation.

Popular enough to franchise his likeness and hire 4th tier characters like those schmucks up there to dress up like as act as the "Mercs for Money" (Murdock sued him on behalf of Luke Cage to prevent the use of "Heroes for Hire"). Popular enough to bankroll Old Man Steve Rogers' Unity Squad Avengers team. The funny thing is this run actually started about 4 months before the first Deadpool movie came out.

The first 35 issues of this run are Wade starting out at the absolute best place he's ever been, and then steadily losing it all. His mercs grow increasingly angry with him as he stiffs them on their paychecks. Which he's doing because Avengers are expensive, and Wade, trying to live up to Captain America's belief in him, is throwing every cent he's got into the team. 

The sad thing about the run is, Deadpool is trying really hard to actually be a hero, be an Avenger, be better, and fails completely. His mercs leave, his wife gets frustrated and starts taking other lovers. And, you know, declaring war on the surface world. He loses track of Michael the necromancer and Ben Franklin's ghost until he needs them for a tie-in to a Dr. Strange event, then loses both of them. He tried to reach out to Madcap, who he thought was alone and sad, but it's too late. The damage Wade did in the past was too much.

The high point of this portion of the run is the Civil War II tie-ins, surprisingly. Because Duggan and Hawthorne just take the piss on the entire stupid thing. Every issue is Wade getting into some pointless fight that could have been resolved if people had just talked about it reasonably. And it gives us Wade dropping the Macho Man flying elbow on the Black Panther, and them hitting each other with toilets.

And then, of course, there was that whole thing where a sentient Cosmic Cube somehow got used to make it so Steve Rogers was always loyal to HYDRA. By the time Wade realizes things are wrong and he shouldn't trust Captain America, he's in too deep, and everyone's using him as Example #1 of how they should have known something was wrong with Rogers all along.

(Just for the record, the Cosmic Cube thing was Maria Hill's fault, as she'd tried to use it to alter villains' minds, and it got turned around on the heroes. She's the worst. Even Gyrich doesn't fuck things up as spectacularly as she does.)

Sunday Splash Page #134

 "Still More Hygenic than Chuck E. Cheese", in Deadpool (Vol. 3) #8, by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn (writer), Mike Hawthorne (artist), Val staples (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) 

After Way's run finally ended, Marvel handed Deadpool over to Gerry Duggan and comedian Brian Posehn. Their first arc involved a necromancer named Michael, who resurrected all the dead Presidents in the hopes they would help America find its way. Instead, the angry old white men went berserk, trying to destroy the country. Deadpool, once again alone and hated by all, is hired by SHIELD agent Preston to take care of this problem so neither SHIELD or Captain America make the cable news for punching FDR or whatever. Preston is killed by Sorcery Enhanced Undead George Washington, and Michael saves her by placing her essence inside Deadpool's mind.

The first 25 issues revolve around two goals. One, get Preston out of Wade's head and into a body of her own, for both their sakes. Two, Wade is determined to hunt down Preston's boss, Agent Gorman, who has stiffed Wade on the money he was promised for killing all those Presidents.

These goals are complicated by a variety of factors. Finding Preston a body she's OK with being the obvious one. But also the fact that Deadpool's life is rarely quiet. They run up against a demon Deadpool pissed off in a "lost" inventory issue for his non-existent series in the '80s, where he was supposed to get Iron Man drunk, but rather than push Stark out of sobriety, Wade knocked him out and piloted the armor drunk himself. Credit for lateral thinking, at least.

After that, some things Deadpool tried very hard to forget, or was made to forget, came scrabbling out his past. Like how someone had been doping him and stealing his organs for years. And how he might have fathered a child during a brief hookup in another lost inventory issue from the '70s where he teamed up with Power Man and Iron Fist. 

Note that I'm not saying either of those two is the father of the child. I'm also not saying they aren't. You'll have to find the comic and read it yourself.

While Mike Hawthorne draws most of the issues after the initial, President-killing arc (which is drawn by Tony Moore), all the inventory issues are done by Scott Koblish, in some pretty solid attempts to ape the art styles of the eras they're supposedly from. Hawthorne's got a good style for superheroics. Clean lines, good energy, knows how to use panels in a fight scene to act as distinct moments in a fight, but also make it clear how one panel leads to the next.

I first picked up issue 20, which was another of the inventory issues, my least favorite to be honest, since Kirby pastiche ain't really my thing. But the issue after that was when Gorman made his big play to be rid of Deadpool and Preston once and for all, and Deadpool reminds everyone how terrifying he can be when he puts his mind to it.

Alternate Favorite Marvel Characters #3 - Deadpool

Character: Deadpool (Wade Wilson)

Creators: Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza

First Appearance: New Mutants #98.

First encounter: X-Force #2. Deadpool fights and loses to Kane, who was only notable for being able to shoot his cybernetic hand at people and choke them with it remotely. Deadpool talks quite a bit, though less then you might think. Deadpool comments that's pretty gross, although one imagines he'd make a more innuendo-laced comment these days. But the issue establishes that he distracts people with talking, people find him annoying, and he has a personal teleportation device.

Two issues after that, he showed up at the tail end of a Spider-Man/X-Force team-up to abduct both Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy for "Tolliver". I have never known who Tolliver was or what he wanted those two for. That's not a hint for you to tell me, either. I'm fine not knowing.

Definitive writer: Either Fabian Nicieza or Gerry Duggan. I don't like Duggan's take on Wade and Cable, so that's a strike against him, but I thought he covered Wade's tendency to wreck every good thing he manages to cobble together extremely well. Not surprising, since he gave him more to lose than any other writer. I could see Nicieza's pop-culture reference heavy writing getting on someone's nerves, but I mostly enjoy it.

Definitive artist: Reilly Brown's pretty good, Shawn Crystal worked for the more zany adventures Daniel Way occasionally wrote, and Declan Shalvey drew more haggard, dangerous Wade that worked very well for that particular story. But I'd go Mike Hawthorne now. He's very good at giving Deadpool an expressive mask, he draws a good fight scene, his version of Wade's face is pretty messed up, rather than "relatively normal with some lines in odd places scribbled across it", which is what you get with some artists. If Deadpool's face looks less messed up than Jonah Hex', you're doing it wrong.

Favorite story or moment: Cable/Deadpool #41. Wade and Nate were on the outs, because Cable kept doing his "I'm from the future so I know what's best for you" bit and messing with Wade's life. They took opposite sides in Civil War, so Cable arranged to make Wade look bad enough the U.S. government fired him, even though being treated as a legitimate agent meant a lot to him. Wade agrees to help make Cable look bad in Rumekistan, kind of as payback, Cable reveals he knew it was coming all along and literally pantsed Wade on international TV. Then he hooked Wade's subconscious up to the Infonet, so all Wade's issues he tries to ignore would be able to taunt him 24/7 on every TV screen in New York City. You will not be surprised to learn Wade eventually snapped and started shooting up a bar. With that grasp of human emotions and psychology, it's clear Cable is Cyclops' kid.

So things are bad between them. X-Men stuff leads to Cable's island nation getting trashed and beginning to sink. Sabretooth was loose on the island, because the X-Men thought having him around was a good idea, and is holding Irene Merryweather hostage against Domino. Then who comes dropping out of the sky?

My favorite part of all this, besides how much Wade enjoyed shooting Sabretooth repeatedly, is when Irene and Domino reach the evac boat and tell Cable who showed up.

Look at that. Even old grump Cable, who think he knows everything, is not only surprised Deadpool showed up to help, but genuinely happy about it. He goes to finds Wade, and after launching Sabretooth into the Pacific, they set about trying to wipe any dangerous information before other parties get their hands on it. Cable ultimately teleports Wade to safety before the island explodes.

That is why I was disappointed by how Duggan handled their relationship in "Deadpool Kills Cable" last year. For all they're very different and stubborn people, and for all that Cable can't stop trying to manipulate a guy who has been used and abused by people for his entire life, and Wade can't stop making the worst possible choices to deal with problems, they do still look out for each other when it counts.

What I like about him: I've written a lot about Deadpool, not a surprise considering how often I've bought his various titles and how often Marvel ships his comics. I've used him as a recurring character on the blog, largely as an element of chaos. The panda is too sensible to think of most of Deadpool's plans, Calvin wouldn't have the nerve or the skill. Deadpool's an opportunity to let things get really silly, or violent, as the desire arises.

But what about when people with actual skill use him? Well, he can be funny, and funny in a lot of different ways depending on the writer and artist. Bizarre pop culture references and metaphors, bodily humor, ridiculous props. Meta references to the fact he's a fictional character. I love Deadpool's commitment to branding, whether it's having his logo on the soles of his boots, or brass knuckles that say "DEAD" and "POOL". Even his grenades have been known to have his logo. Just how much he annoys other characters or makes them uncomfortable can be hilarious.

Or there's general absurdist behavior. With Deadpool, any action or decision is within the realms of possibility. He'll fight a Skrull invasion dressed as a baseball team mascot. He famously tried to pick a fight with Wolverine by giving Kitty Pryde the ol' Shoryuken (not a euphemism). He'll dress as a pimp to shake down a bodega to draw out the gang that's already shaking down said bodega. He'll get a bunch of Iron Fist's students to fight a super-villain (sort of) because his body is too shattered to use. He could take a bunch of money and buy a crappy little boat so he can be a pirate. He can decide the best way to keep a succubus Queen from having to marry Dracula is to marry her himself. That didn't end well, but that's the danger of applying questionable decision-making to problems. And he enjoys his plans so much, most of the time, that it's easy to be carried along with his enthusiasm.

His healing factor means he can take a lot of punishment, so you can do something with that. Have Logan decapitate him, then let Weasel spend a couple pages scrambling around trying to pick up the head while Logan kills HYDRA agents. In that sense, he's a very malleable character to the strengths of whatever creative team is working with him at the moment.

That's all well and good, humor's great. The interesting bit is you can flip that on its head and use it to make him terrifying. Like when he brings down ULTIMATUM's helicarrier, and after Coulson congratulates him, Wade explains he just used his plan for bringing down SHIELD's helicarrier if they didn't give him the money he was owed. Coulson clears his throat and goes to a) update Wade's threat level in his file, and b) figure out where that money is.

For all his jokes and zany hijinks, Deadpool is still a highly trained and periodically ruthless killer who is nearly unkillable himself. That guy kills a room full of ULTIMATUM guys and paints the walls with their blood as some joke? That's frightening. You can do jokes about how he doesn't remember fighting Captain America with the Fixer in St. Louis and all of them getting hit with a diarrhea ray. Or you can have him trying to solve how someone killed a well-known terrorist leader, and he figures it out while actually thinking about chimichangas the whole time, because he's the one who killed him, but he doesn't remember doing it. And he can't figure why he did other than, he felt like it. It can be funny to see him running around with his severed arm tied to his body fighting goon squads, until you realize he chewed his own arm off to get free to kill these guys.

Deadpool is very human, in that he falls prey to the same flaws as a lot of us, just in more spectacular ways. Wade wants to be a good person most of the time, but he wants to do it on his terms, when it doesn't inconvenience him too much. He'll take the easy way out sometimes, avoid tough conversations with people he cares about. The reason that move Cable pulled worked so well is because Wade didn't want to deal with his inner conflicts. When he realizes he doesn't know how many people he's killed, then he starts thinking about why he not, and what he even hoped to accomplish with those deaths. And rather than answer that, he lashes out instead.

Deadpool's been victimized a lot in his life. Department K, or Weapon X, whoever, that used him as a guinea pig, then dumped him down a sluice gate into a pile of corpses when they thought he was of no use to them. When someone in charge decided that was a dumb idea, they sought him out to harvest his organs and tamper with his memories, even having him kill his parents just to test how effective their mind-wiping drug was. Logan let him on X-Force, but treated him as a soulless killer, a weapon. You'd think Logan would know what that's like, but he treated his "daughter" the same way, so let's just leave it that Logan's a shitty mentor figure. Cable would hire Deadpool for jobs without letting him know it was him doing it, to let Wade think he had some autonomy. True or not, Deadpool feels like Captain America used him as a gun because Cap himself was old and Logan was busy being dead.

And so Wade has a tendency, publicly anyway, to blame his problems on others. Privately, Wade will acknowledge his own hand in the trainwreck his life routinely becomes, but when he's around others, he'll blame them, or anyone else. Maybe because everybody seems to dismiss the crap he's been through. People always makes excuses for Logan after he murders up 40 guys, how he's been through a lot, suffered a lot. They look the other way for the shady shit the Black Widow continues to do. But Wade feels he doesn't get that acknowledgement. I'd say his consistent friends - Weasel, Blind Al, Outlaw, etc. - recognize it and allow for it, and that Wade ignores that, because it's convenient to him. It's not one of his better traits, but it's understandable, and like I said, Wade does internally acknowledge how he often ruins things himself.

Jamie Madrox mentioned he pulls practical jokes as way to get people to notice him, so he didn't feel alone. I wonder if Wade acts so irritating because it forces people to acknowledge him as a person. They can't just treat him as a weapon to use or destroy, because he's pissing them off too much for that. They have to yell at him to shut up, or tell him how disgusting he is. Which undoubtedly hurts, but at least they see him, the person. Or a version of him, at least, which may be better than nothing.

Deadpool is fully capable of compassion, but like a lot of people, he's selective about who receives. He's more likely to show compassion to those he sees as victims, as opposed to people he thinks have made their own bed. He tried to do a lot for the Kim and the rest of Butler's Korean test subjects, those X-Men he partially created using Wade's body. Wade got them out Korea, got them money, and when their health began to fail, he convinced the X-Men to help. When Beast needed some of Wade's organs to keep them alive, Wade gave them. When the X-Men went temporarily evil - thanks Axis! - Wade found his friends another sanctuary. He'll save a random kid riding by on a bike while he was in the middle of fighting a demon. Just because. When some kind of tampering is making him try to kill Cable, he'll shoot himself rather than let that happen.

On the other hand, when he was trying to deal with that demon, he killed his necromancer acquaintance Michael and sent the guy to Hell so he could bargain with Mephisto. From Wade's point of view, Michael already sold his soul and was doomed to Hell. Wade was just using Michael's bad decision to help the rest of them. Same with Madcap. He was trapped inside Wade's mind, Wade was in a bad place, he tormented Madcap. Later, he tries to make amends when he feels he can afford to, but it's too late. He'll punch random people or threaten them because he's got problems he can't deal with and they happen to be annoying him at the wrong moment. That's not unusual, to take out our other problems and frustrations on people who have nothing to do with them. Although I can also see how having to share your mind with Madcap would get irritating real fast. Wade didn't ask for him to be there.

Deadpool is a good friend. Sometimes. We discussed the efforts he went to trying to help Cable out, and that doesn't cover the time Wade jumped across multiple dimensions trying to find Cable's soul to bring him back to life. Or when he was sent through time to kill Cable, but kept saving his life. Or the time he fought Power Man and Iron Fist to protect Weasel. Gail Simone didn't write Deadpool for long, but when his brain was increasingly scrambled by Black Swan, he had Swan use his powers to help his friend Ratbag instead (also an example of Wade helping someone who was a victim of circumstances outside their control). He worked hard to help Evan believe the best of himself, that he wasn't going to become Apocalypse, and to protect him from Stryfe. He went to the wall for Kim and the others, and he fended off a lot of people trying to keep Agent Preston safe until they could figure out some way for her to have a body. He killed everyone in ULTIMATUM to try and keep his daughter and her new family safe. Which is extreme, but he'd already tried letting their boss live in such mortal terror of Deadpool that he wouldn't think of messing with him. It eventually stopped working, sooooo, new plan. Or old plan really.

And sometimes he's a terrible friend. He kept Blind Al locked up in his house, and kicked the shit out of Weasel when he dared to figure out where Wade lived. He's tried to kill Cable on multiple occasions, even after they became sort-of friends. When Preston came after him, he shut her down and left her mind trapped in a deactivated, trashed LMD until he could get around to telling Captain America to fix her. He treats Bob like his personal punching bag. (Though Bob is an agent of HYDRA, so he probably deserves it, he's been a loyal friend to Wade.) He killed Irene Merryweather for Stryfe to protect his daughter. Wade is leery of letting people close, because there's a lot of ugly stuff in his history, and once they see it, they might not want to be around him. Better to drive them off first, even if he's confirming all his worst fears about himself in the process. He sabotages himself a lot. He's had a good thing, then wrecked it somehow so many times he's convinced it's always going to happen, and then he ends up making it happen. He pushes them away before they can turn against him, which causes them to turn against him.

It's just all very interesting to me because I can't ever be sure which way Deadpool's going to go at a given moment. Even when he's at his lowest points, or things are starting to spiral out control, he can still do something good or kind. And other times, he can be completely cruel and indifferent to the suffering he's inflicting. It isn't as though he has no moral compass - it may be skewed, but it's there - but he'll either ignore it, or justify his actions in some way. Which again, isn't all that different from a lot of us. We may do something unkind, but there were reasons, you see, so we should get a pass. Wade may very well believe he should get a pass - during the fallout from HYDRA Cap, he's been constantly trying to "I was only following orders" line of defense - but I don't know that he really believes it. And I'm positive he knew he wasn't gonna get it.

How aware Wade is of the fact he's a comic book character varies from time-to-time. He's as aware as the writer needs him to be to make a joke. But again, you can flip that to make it terrifying and sad, like when he addresses the audience about their complicity in the hell his life regularly becomes, as his suffering is our entertainment. In those moments, he's also aware of how writers love to give him friends or family, only to pull them away. If not by that writer, like Gerry Duggan did with everyone he gave Deadpool, then the next writer, like when Daniel Way threw out everything Nicieza had established. That has to be exhausting, to know, even just some of the time, that he's stuck on a treadmill of gaining friends only to lose them, and it's ultimately going to be played as his fault. He'll be written to do something shitty and awful that turns these people away - help HYDRA, beat up his friend for crossing a line the friend didn't know existed, neglect his wife - so he can be alone and terrible again. Wade ends up being very good at regrets after the fact, but not so good at avoiding the actions he'll end up regretting in the first place.

Given that, it's not much of a surprise he tries to kill himself sometimes, even though he knows his healing factor (or Marvel) won't let it take. He's stuck in his own Groundhog Day, but he's not ever going to get the happy end where he finds true love and becomes a better person. Every time he does, it's pulled out from under him, and he wakes up back in the hotel bed with the alarm playing the same damn song. Maybe all his bizarre adventures are just a way for him to keep occupied. If he's stuck existing, there's no reason he has to be bored. After all, if he's bored, he might start thinking, maybe about how he's going to live for a really long time, and suffer setback after setback, loss after loss. Misfortune, isolation, hatred, scorn, there's truckload after truckload of that waiting ahead for him. Better just not to think about it. Find something to do today, kick the can down the road. He can always try killing himself tomorrow.

It's this push-pull where Deadpool can be hilarious, or sad, where he can frustrate by tearing his life down around his ears one money, and then do something stupid and ridiculous that almost makes it funny. Where I want to yell at him about his bad decisions, but defend him against any character in-story that tries to give him a hard time or look down on him. I know Wade shoots himself in the foot a lot, literally and figuratively, but I also know that he's done the right thing a lot when no one would have expected it and no one was willing to help. I root for him to get to have friends and good times, even knowing it's all eventually going to fall apart. He's an interesting character in his good and bad times.

Credits! Wade didn't make a great first impression in X-Force #2, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Rob Liefeld (artist), Brad Vancata (colorist), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer). Cable appreciates that Wade had himself shipped air mail for overnight delivery in Cable/Deadpool #41, by Nicieza (writer), Reilly Brown (penciler), Jeremy Freeman (inker), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer). Deadpool unveils his new DLC alternate costume in Deadpool (volume 3) #13, by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn (writers), Scott Koblish (artist), Val Staples (colorist), and Joe Sabino (letterer). Deadpool's career as a physiotherapist was brief, in Deadpool (vol. 3) #19, by Duggan and Posehn (writers), Declan Shalvey (artist), Jordie Bellaire (color artist), and Joe Sabino (letterer). Everybody wants someone else to solve their problems, then they complain how you do it in Deadpool (vol. 3) #10, by Duggan and Posehn (writers), Mike Hawthorne (artist), Val Staples (colorist), and Joe Sabino (letterer). Wade does a nice thing for his friend, he tells him to get away in Deadpool (vol. 1) #69, by Gail Simone (writer), Arnold Tsang, Andrew Hou, Eric Vedder, Omar Dogan, and TheRealT! (artists), Dave Sharpe (letterer). Deadpool makes sure you can always tell where he's been in Deadpool (volume 3) #17, by Duggan and Posehn (writers), Shalvey (artist), Bellaire (colorist), and Sabino (letterer).

What I Bought 10/12/2016 - Part 1

I might, here in the next month, actually be able to resume weekly comic reviews. Maybe. It won't go back to the early days, when I'd cram like 5 shitty reviews into one post, but I would like to get back to it being a more regular feature again.

Deadpool #19 and 20, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish (artist, #19), Matteo Lolli (artist, #20), Guru eFX (colorist, #20), Nick Filardi (colorist, #19), Joe Sabino (letterer) - When I first saw that cover as a preview, the girl's blue-tinted hair made me think Wade was hanging out with a ghost. Old Ben Franklin sent someone to keep an eye on him or something. But no.

Issue 19 is a return to 2099. The first round between the Daughters of Deadpool ends inconclusively, Warda successfully escaping, but Ellie having rescued Wade and Preston. Warda still has one of her mother's WMDs, an Elder Beast sealed within one of those glass coffins, and demands her mother or else she'll unleash it on an unsuspecting populace. Wade gives Ellie the location her buried Shiklah, and goes looking for back-up, in the form of what I'm assuming is an extremely old-ass Danny Rand. I guess it could be his successor, there's enough time between now and 2099 for that person to be a wizened geezer too.

So a set-up issue. Lots of talking around things we haven't seen yet, which gets frustrating. The scene where Ellie is reunited with Preston and Wade was sweet, even if she still won't call him "dad". I feel like Koblish's design for Wade's outfit, the coat with the really high collar, is a lot like the one Flint Henry used in the Jim Twilley issues of GrimJack, which involved catching up with the character after a jump of a couple of centuries. Could be a coincidence, though. I like how Koblish is doing page layouts. He uses a lot of small panels swinding their way between two or three larger ones. Allows for a lot of close-up panels for reaction shots, but also establishing setting or allowing for action shots. I feel like the smaller panels are supposed to give a sense of rapid-fire pace, before hitting the larger ones and pausing for a moment to take it in, but honestly, I always feel like I'm bullshitting when I talk about how page layouts effect pacing. I see a lot of people mention it in reviews, but I've never noticed it much myself. It's like a series of notes at a frequency I can't hear. But it's probably there. Plus, all the small panels made turning to that full-page spread reunion shot more effective for how much space it gets.

Issue 20 returns to the present, with Wade wanting to mope on the ruins of his home, only to find a young woman named Danielle preparing to end her life. Which puts Wade in the position of trying to keep her from doing that. So he opts to bring her along with him as he does some pro bono charity work. Meaning he beats the shit out of crappy people he'd received letters about doing crappy stuff. Geez Wade, Captain America had an entire hotline back in the '80s, and you're still relying on snail mail?

This does temporarily raise her mood, eventually, and then Wade brings her to the hospital to try and receive help. Because Wade is at least aware enough to recognize he isn't a trained medical professional. Wade has several lines here that are probably not things he should say, which makes them kind of hilarious? Telling Danielle she should probably go a few blocks down to Parker Industries if she wants to fling herself to death, or that he was bitten by a sad, radioactive clown. Telling her not to be presumptuous because he doesn't care yet, or that she's terrible at knowing what people are going to say next. Booing her for doing a poor job kicking a guy who steals from his elderly neighbors. And the fact that anytime he's going to bust through a door, he knocks first and yells, "Sexy maids!"

Hey, that would get me to come to the door to see what's happening.

Matteo Lolli takes over art chores for this arc. His strongest point is probably the expressions he gives Wade. The exaggerated frown as he relates his sad clown, or the big toothy grin as he admits people say he makes them uncomfortable. That grin would definitely make me uncomfortable. Lolli doesn't get to draw much fighting, but he does well with what he does. Though I wanted to see those hackers actually get a chance to attack Wade with a keyboard, just to see how that worked out for them. I mean, I know it would have ended horribly, but the specifics would have been fun. Although I think when Wade breaks the arm of a guy with a gun, he breaks the left one, but in the panel before, the guy was holding the gun in his right. Little thing, but noticeable.

What I Bought 9/21/16

I managed to pick up a couple of books last week. Not everything I needed, but the rest will be here later in the week. Course, it all adds up to a measly 4 books. Everything waited until this week to come out.

Deadpool #18, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne and Brian Level (pencilers), Terry Pallot (inker), Jordie Bellaire and Rochelle Rosenberg (colorists) - People lining up to injure Wade, something everyone can get behind, event he people who don't like Deadpool. Actually, those folks are probably trying to figure out where that line is.

Wade and Shiklah have a big knockdown, drag out fight over their relationship, all the way from Shiklah's bedchambers to the street. The fight brings out a lot of the problems in their marriage that were readily apparent from the start. Like how marrying the first guy you see after being asleep for thousands of years possibly isn't a good idea. And that Deadpool is not a reliable partner. But it's unclear if things are over or not. Even Wade can't figure it out, so he goes to the remains of his Avengers' teams HQ, which was also his cool building with the speakeasy in it. Runs into Rogue there, and takes her to see Eleanor. Explains his daughter is a mutant, and Rogue promises the kid will have her in her corner. Meanwhile, Madcap is still putting things together for his plan.

The thing I finally realized this issue is that Duggan and Hawthorne are having Wade get into a fight every issue of this tie-in, but they're all pointless, unnecessary fights. He and T'Challa didn't need to fight; Wade hadn't hurt Ulysses and he was leaving. Wade and the Mercs should have focused on getting out of the vault instead of killing each other, and definitely shouldn't have continued the fight while cops showed up. Wade couldn't pay them, so just let them leave. And then after all the fighting, they have to ride the same train home. Now this fight with Shiklah, which I don't know what's going to happen. It's all stupid fighting for no purpose, which is pretty much Civil War II in a nutshell. Bravo, Deadpool creative team.

I didn't enjoy this fight as much as the previous couple. It isn't badly drawn, Hawthorne's still doing good work, but it doesn't have as many clever bits to it as the previous fight. That and I was sad to see a married couple having a falling out. Why won't Marvel let any characters stay married?! Still, there were a couple of parts I enjoyed. The expressions Wade has on the page where the fight ends, first when Shiklah proposes they go back to bed, the one with a wolfman minus a head in it. that's a bit weird even for Deadpool (and it confirms Jack Russell won't stay dead, if you're one of his 4 fans). And the expression in the last panel on the page, as he declines. He just looks so sad and tired, which is never a good sign when it comes to Wade. Then the part in the subway when Wade thinks Shiklah is threatening his loved ones and flips out for a minute. And the fact she immediately recognizes why he flipped out, and even raises the possibility it wasn't simply poor phrasing. That was a little chilling.

Brian Level takes over art chores halfway through. There's just a bit of a shift in how Wade's drawn that I mostly notice around his mask, the lines on it not being as defined as usual, or the shape being slightly different, that makes me think that. Otherwise it's a pretty smooth transition, and I don't know if that's due to Level shaping his style to mimic Hawthorne's, or if Terry Pallot's inks are doing it. The colors shift somewhat, Wade's costume seems brighter than in the earlier pages, but otherwise, it's a smooth transition. There are times Level really nails some of the body language Hawthorne typically gives Wade. The pose Deadpool makes when he tries to lean against Rogue's closet door, for example.

I gotta say, I still hate Civil War II, but this has been a solid tie-in. Definitely the best one I've seen by Gerry Duggan over his time writing Deadpool.

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #10, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), Megan Wilson (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Why the heck are Boomerang and Shocker there? Nothing better to do than watch exes arm wrestle in a bar?

Daimon dumped Patsy into the hands of Belial, a lord of lies. And this wasn't Daimon actually trying to help Patsy, he really did get duped by Hedy. Maybe that hellfire on his head is cooking his brain. Belial tries to get Patsy to buy into embracing her rage and taking control of her full power and cutting loose, which does sound fun, but Patsy is uninterested. She gets Belial to bring her back to earth by daring him to prove he has powers somewhere outside Hell, at which point Jubilee breaks his face, and Daimon banishes him. Then the boys apologize and the day is saved, while the Black Cat prepares to get Hellcat out of her way.

But Felicia, I'm pretty sure Patsy was Hellcat before you showed up in comics, and I know Greer Grant was wearing that costume as the Cat before you came along. So they can't really be biting your style, can they? That's not even getting into the fact her costume is yellow and blue, and yours is black with a little white fringe. That's like saying iron First is biting the Hulk's style because they both have green in their color palettes. So becoming a crime boss hasn't made Felicia smarter, clearly.

I've been trying to figure out what seems so different about Williams' art in the scene in Belial's realm. Some of it is Wilson's colors, I'm sure. Things seem more washed out. The colors are lighter, but not as rich. But it seems like Williams isn't doing any shading around the characters. What I mean is, in places where Patsy's hair should be casting a shadow across her face, it doesn't. It's as though everything lacks a certain level of detail, because it's just a surface illusion. Belial is going with easy, obvious stuff, the simple conclusions someone could draw if they wanted to to make a person feel bad, without looking at the deeper levels of who people are and why they do stuff.

Or it could be Williams is trying to use a style more similar to what would have been in those books starring Patsy and her friends from back in the day. Some of the peculiar background effects, like how the shadows in her mom's hospital room are a lot of narrow black lines, close together. Or the static on TV backdrops that appear a couple of times. Those seem like techniques more common to much older comics, and so maybe Williams and Wilson are trying to put things in that style.

What I Bought 8/28/2016 - Part 3

There was a report a month or two back where the Department of Health admitted there wasn't any proven benefit to flossing, or something to that effect. I'll probably continue to floss, though. I prefer not to see a bunch of crud jammed between my teeth, and it doesn't seem to hurt anything, so why not? It's a minor expense compared to some nonsense I waste money on. Speaking of nonsense. . .

Deadpool #17, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I doubt that Wade and Madcap's upcoming rumble will resemble a Spy vs. Spy comic, but I wouldn't be opposed to it.

Wade and the Mercs are done. The bank employees let them out of the vault, but they cause so much property damage trying to kill each other SHIELD is called in. Which means Wade has to hear about it from Preston, and pay for damages. He tries to come over for Sunday dinner, and gets punched in the face. And Eleanor won't call him "Dad" any longer, which made me sadder than I expected. Then he returns to Shiklah and finds her in bed with Jack Russell. Who Wade shoots in the face with a shotgun, right after Shiklah promised Jack he was under her protection. So either that's going to be a big fakeout, or there's going to be some real problems for the married couple.

So maybe now we've seen the last of the Mercs. They're like an annoying visitor that keeps hanging around in front of your door, but keeps talking rather than just leaving. Go! Enjoy your ongoing series that will all be canceled in five minutes! Anyway, things are rapidly falling apart for Wade, which is not surprising in the least. You can't even tell whether he was actually cursed or not, because this has been building for awhile, and it was probably always going to end this way. And it can't be a good sign Wade at the very least tried to straight up murder Jack Russell (since I don't know if he succeeded or not). Contrast that with the last multi-part story of the previous volume, where Wade turned against his Roxxon employers, and even spared the life of Omega Red because he wanted to try a different approach to just killing. Now he's back to solving things with killing. Backsliding.

That said, the ridiculous fight between Wade, the Mercs, and eventually the police cracked me up. Wade being blinded by a flashbang, then yelling out, 'Here comes Sweardevil!', only to be hit at the belt line by Slapstick with a sledgehammer, causing Wade to ralph in his mask (great "WRETCH" sound effect, whoever did that, either Hawthorne or Bellaire I'm guessing), and the throw the puke-filled mask at Foolkiller, who freaks out. That's good stuff. Plus, Solo and Stingray ignoring all of it to finish burning their contracts. Or Wade claiming they were there to stop Kang, who made them think they were HYDRA before he escaped, and that's why they fought the police.

I don't think Wade in a banana hammock can not look horrifying, but as depicted, it was pretty much something I don't need to see or think of ever again, so good work Mike Hawthorne. And on Wade's face as Eleanor walked away from him and he was confronted with Preston. It's a vague, sketchy outline at the back of the panel, but he made sure to get Wade's big frown in there. I tend to think it was what Eleanor said about her therapist telling her not to consider Wade a father figure sinking in. The fact she's going with it has to hurt Wade, on top of everything else.

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #9, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), megan Wilson (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Can no one in New York wear a proper shirt? Buzz is wearing that v-necked whatever, Daimon's in a coat with no shirt, that one lady has a pink sports bra, the dude in the back is in a tank top, the guy in the grey, tight-fitting t-shirt. I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be fashionable, bunch a damn slobs, look worse than I do.

Hedy, in her eternal assholishness, has convinced both of Patsy's exes she's plotting against them. Because that certainly sounds like something Patsy would do. But I guess the Civil War II idiot ball hasn't left the area yet, because they both buy it. As a result, they ruin Jubilee's attempt to get everyone at the office to relax with a night of karaoke. Daimon ends up sending Patsy to some realm to "reflect". And Ian may be developing an even bigger crush on Tom after seeing the guy sing. Oh, and Jubilee is still a vampire, and a mom. Wasn't sure if they were keeping both those things in continuity after Secret Wars. Kind of seemed like a good time to sweep the vamp thing under the rug to me, but I guess the character has enough fans who think the idea has potential that they're gonna run with it.

Williams and Wilson do draw Jubilee using her powers to turn to mist as a pink, fluffy cloud with sunglasses, which is one of the better depictions of that vampiric power I've seen. I might have used Alucard's mist transformation even more in Castlevania: Symphony of Night if he'd looked like that when he used it. Although I used it a lot anyway. I did notice during the fights at the end, Williams' lines were thicker and less crisp than usual. Things were rougher looking, almost a little rushed. Might have been intentional, because it seemed to vanish in the calmer panels in between. Deliberate choice for Patsy's frazzled mindset? She's dealing with a ton of other crap, and now here come two old idiots from her past causing trouble because they believed the lies of some petty jerk. She was pretty off her game, considering how easily Daimon got ahold of her. You'd think she'd be on her guard the moment he appeared, and I know she knew how to slip loose of magic attacks once upon a time (meaning, after Hawkeye got her out of Hell). And it isn't as though the creative is ignoring Patsy having been dead and in Hell, so yeah, I'm going to chalk it up to her not being at peak form.

I'm really looking forward to Daimon getting kicked in the chops by someone next month, though the more I think about it, the more I wonder if he's going along with Hedy's plan as some stupid way to help Patsy actually deal with her emotional problems. Not Buzz though, he's just a gullible moron.

What I Bought 8/6/16 - Part 1

I did manage to grab a few of my comics in a nearby town while I was visiting my dad, but I already had a bunch of posts scheduled, so we're just getting to them now. Considering today's selection is Civil War II tie-ins, I'm sure you're fine with waiting.

Deadpool #16, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Squirrel Girl's riff on Spidey's theme song is better than Wade's version of Captain America's.

Wade winds up trapped in the bank vault with the Mercs, rather than blowing them up and doing me a favor. So instead we learn what Solo did while disguised as Deadpool that made everyone love Wade: He saved an ambassador from assassination. But it turns out the whole thing was a set-up by Madcap to frame Wade as the assassin, it just didn't work out that way. And Madcap's attached to someone - probably Adsit - while he plots and regenerates.

When I do my Year in Review posts, I also use it as an opportunity to find books from that year's purchases that aren't going to make it into the larger collection. This issue is definitely one of those. For one thing, I think the people of Earth-616 (or whatever it's number is now) would be more impressed by Wade wiping out ULTIMATUM than saving one ambassador. Yes, it helped said ambassador and the U.S. President end a war, but was it a war the U.S. was actively involved in? If not, then I doubt the public would care. Also, do people not remember Wade had a teleportation device he carried around for years? Solo acts like it's some big deal he can teleport.

Let's see, positive things. The art on those last two pages, the ones in the woods with Madcap and his host. Good work all around by Bellaire, Hawthorne, and Pallot. I especially like the effect of headlights against the shadows of the trees. Also, Wade's scowling determined face in the final panel of the page before that. Hawthorne and Pallot do a really good job making Wade expressive through that mask in a way that still makes it seem like he is wearing something over his face. On the writing side, Wade complaining about people thinking he liked Mexican food to the point of Tourette's was funny. You know how these rumors take on a life of their own Wade. You keep insisting you're a mutant, and the next thing you know your movie says you are, too.

Ms. Marvel #9, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona (artist, pages 1-3), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist, pages 4-20), Ian Herring (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Come on, Kamala, you just had someone spray paint "traitor" all over posters of you six issues ago. You should know how that can be hurtful.

So Josh really was intending to do something that would knock out the power of the school. I had assumed it would be a science lab accident, but no. He was sad that Zoe broke up with him, but she explains she's actually interested in Nakia, and Josh is understanding. But he's still locked up, with Ms. Marvel's OK, until the time when he was going to cause trouble has past. Which earns her a rebuke from Nakia, and prompts Bruno to decide he's going to spring Josh himself, but he only succeeds in nearly blowing himself up.

It won't surprise you to learn the various tie-ins are not on the same page in this crossover. Deadpool had Ulysses state that he really only sees big tragedies - like Thanos coming to earth for a Cosmic Cube, or an earthquake - but here he's been warning them about convenience store robberies. Some things never change. I'm a little surprised how quickly the teen brigade Carol saddled Kamala with have gone foll police state, even immediately questioning if Ms. Marvel is emotionally compromised for knowing Josh, but I was very "no shades of grey" at that age, with accompanying blind spots, not to mention stupid in general, so maybe it's not surprising. Probably realistic that Kamala hasn't yet given up entirely on the idea. At this point her concern is that her squad is being overzealous, but she doesn't seem to have decided there's anything hinky about this whole thing. So hopefully it'll be a process, although you would think all her friends and family pointing how bad an idea it is would start to sink in. I mean, it didn't for Tony Stark in the first Civil War, but Kamala generally doesn't have her head lodged up her own butt like Tony does.

Miyazawa's art is excellent, as usual. I need to see the remainder of that newspaper headline in the paper Kamala's dad is reading. The raccoon escaped the zoo, but what did it eat all of? Doughnuts? Pizza? Strawberries? Why does Josh have rubber chickens in his cell? And I notice that when Kamala embiggens herself, she's making her fists even larger, out of proportion to the rest of her. Does it mean she's thinking with those and not her head, or that she's trying to maintain control and authority through force, rather than reason. I notice that when Becky and the cadets are arguing with Bruno, Nakia, and Zoe, Kamala doesn't try to enter into the conversation and discuss it. She gets big, then starts telling people what to do. And the cadets are under her command, and Nakia and Zoe don't know she's their friend (although I suspect Nakia actually does know, she's not an idiot), but Kamala's generally not resorted to that sort of thing unless provoked, rather than as a first response.

What I Bought 7/26/2016 - Part 2

We're going with the other two Marvel books. One is doing its best to incorporate changes the event is bringing to its supporting cast, the other is mostly taking a piss on the whole stupid thing. Which is truly the most noble act of all.

Deadpool #15, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I went with the Scott Koblish variant again. Wade kills Justice Peace and the rest of the Time Variance Authority, and makes the UGC code help him bury their corpses. Sorry, he lets the UGC code help bury the bodies. Big difference (according to Wade).

Wade breaks into Ultimates' HQ because he says he wants to kill Ulysses (he's narrating out loud on the assumption Ulysses can hear him in his visions), but since the kid didn't actually have a vision of Wade doing that, that must mean the kid is full of crap, right? Maybe. Wade is more interested if Ulysses saw anything about Wade's daughter, which he hadn't, so Wade starts to leave. And gets blocked by T'Challa, who behaves like a douche, and they fight. For really no reason. OK, Wade may have spoiled Game of Thrones, and he was leaving an upper-decker in their bathroom, but they were fighting before that happened. T'Challa even says Steve Rogers may have been brainwashed if he trusts Deadpool. Says the guy who was on a super-secret team with Namor and alcoholic butthole Tony Stark, that failed in its mission to save the universe, so cram it, T'Challa.

Also the Mercs have learned Wade has a safety deposit box in a bank in Jersey, and go there to burn their contracts so they can be their own team. But they suck at stealth, Ulysses saw them on a newsfeed, he told Wade before the fight started, and now Wade's going to try and kill them all. Unless that was Madcap, posing as Wade again. I don't believe it is, though.

The whole thing is a farce, but that's roughly how much respect I have for Civil War 2 myself, so that's fine. I really enjoyed the fight. Wade pretty much gets whooped anytime he tries to fight conventionally in it, but when he starts getting weird, he does better. The portion of the fight on pages 10 and 11 is very nice. Hawthorne does an excellent job of showing the progression of it, the back and forth, with moves being started in one panel, and then finishing in the next. I especially liked when wade launches a flying headbutt at T'Challa while he's trying to backflip away from Wade. That was Raphael's special move in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3; The Manhattan Project. Maybe next issue Wade will use Leo's spinning swords move, or Mikey's kangaroo kicking attack thing.

I'm a little surprised at T'Challa's behavior. Wade is actually trying to leave, he didn't kill the kid, he just wants to stop off in the men's room, just let him go. That's what people usually want, for Deadpool to leave their vicinity. But that's point, right? It's a big event so everyone has to act more stupid and belligerent than usual. And we get to see the Black Panther take a toilet upside the head, and actually respond to being kicked in the junk, by kicking Wade in the junk right back. Participation in this event has cost everyone their dignity. Fantastic.

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #8, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Such a sad cover, given the context.

Patsy had a feeling something has happened to Jennifer Walters, and she's right, because here's America Chavez to tell Patsy She-Hulk's in a coma, and to bring her to see her friend. Though the medical staff are insensitive jerks. Where's the bedside manner? Patsy and her friends are all very sad, and this causes some difficulties for the landlord of Patsy and Jen's office space, so she asks Patsy to temporarily move her office into Jen's. And Jubilee, still a vampire, is joining the cast apparently. I wonder if she still has that baby she basically stole from the wreckage of a destroyed hospital in Eastern Europe? Shogo, or whatever his name was?

It feels bizarre to have Patsy switching offices when she literally moved into that one about two issues ago, but it works as part of the way these sorts of big, crazy events, throw people's lives into chaos. Patsy is deliberately trying to stay out of big superhero stuff. She doesn't care about Ulysses or any of that. But it can still cause problems. Friends get hurt, or die. Then there are complications arising from that, which have to be dealt with at a time when you really don't want to have to deal with them.

 Can't believe that mugger actually wanted to fight Patsy and Jen. It's She-Hulk, and he is some French-speaking guy with a knife. This was never gonna end well for him.

I liked how Williams drew Howard the Duck's beak more this issue than the last time he showed up. Much closer to a real duckbill. Also, I think Williams uses a thinner line when she draws more serious scenes. The weight of the line Patsy's drawn with in the panel on page 9 when she's looking at the picture is a lot different from the one of Jennifer getting ready to fastball special Patsy on page 13. I'm not certain why take that approach. Maybe the lighter lines are just better for more subdued scenes. The character doesn't bound off the page by being so sharply outlined from the surroundings.

I do think Williams needed to draw the giant pizza as even larger. As big as it is, I still think I could eat it in one setting, though I'd hate myself after. And I don't have that big of a stomach, but it isn't quite daunting enough. So that's my one complaint with the art this issue. I really wouldn't have expected Williams' style to work so well for such a somber story, but she handled it well. I think Rosenberg went with colors that weren't quite as bright as Megan Wilson normally does, which might have helped, too. Not positive about that, might just be letting a few panels influence my perception there, but it didn't seem quite as vivid. In a good way, like there's a dark cloud hanging over everything.

What I Bought 6/21/2016 - Part 2

So like I said Wednesday, I didn't buy Deadpool #13 yet because it was too expensive for my cheap ass, even though it was probably a good value, in terms of cost per page, relative to other comics these days. But here's two other Deadpool comics, because Marvel publishes plenty of them.

Deadpool: Last Days of Magic, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish (artist), Guru eFX (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - That is an awful cover. Just boring as shit.

So Dr. Strange is dealing with a threat trying to wipe out all magic in his book. Deadpool has some magic-using friends, plus his wife is a succubus that rules a Monster Metropolis, so this actually makes sense as something he'd get dragged into. He and his friends stave off total annihilation, but the Ghost of Ben Franklin decides it's time to move on to the afterlife (after confirming that story where he and Clea did the nasty in the past-y is in continuity), and Wade's necromancer friend Michael dies stopping the Empirikul's magic-eating machine. Wade does a spectacularly poor job delivering the news to Michael's girlfriend Daphne, who also has magic abilities, and may have actually cursed Wade. Or it may have just been a generic "Curse you!" When things go to shit in Wade's life, it'll be hard to tell.

I feel like Koblish was homaging/doing a parody of Barry Allen's death in Crisis on the Infinite Earths with Michael's death, mostly the panels at the bottom of page 23 where Michael slowly crumbles to dust. Except Koblish's art makes it seem slightly less heroic, slightly more comical. I don't know that it's intentional, although most of the moments for Michael up to then are making fun of him. Puking after using the teleportation spell, failing to try and heal someone (because the spell doesn't work anymore), the echo of the Ancient One facepalming at Michael planning to use Togbon's Journal. I think that's the point, he looks like a screw-up, and he isn't any sort of great mage, but he still saved a lot of people (albeit temporarily if Strange doesn't get his shit together and deal with this problem). Anyway, Koblish does an excellent job on Deadpool's desperation to try and help his friend, and his sadness when he can't. His immediate turn to Doctor Voodoo to find some way to bring Michael back, the way he stands there and takes Daphne's hatred. And the moment when Michael promises to make the Ancient One proud before teleporting away (followed by that facepalm), he had such a look of happiness, it was heart-wrenching. Guru eFX softened the color scheme a bit for those two pages as well, which helped. It's a quieter moment, the colors aren't attacking my eyes, things don't feel as frenzied, and so it lets everything sink in.

It's an effective tie-in, I just would have preferred it not whittle down the parts of Wade's supporting cast I actually care about.

Deadpool #14, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I went with the Koblish-drawn continuing adventures of Deadpool and the UPC code through time. This issue, they landed in the worst story in Simonson's Thor run, that one with Justice Peace of the Time Variance Authority. If they erase that story and replace it with something better, the whole thing will be worth it.

The Ulysses kid with the precog stuff warned all the heroes about a Celestial (I think?) showing up, and the day was saved. But Wade is not being properly appreciative to his Mercs and they're planning to go into business for themselves. Oh no, please don't, you are such an integral part of my enjoyment of this book, he said with no emotion whatsoever. That's pretty much it, other than the Mercs trying to convince Cable to fund them, and Adsit leaving to return to SHIELD. After a half-dozen issues, where he did almost nothing as the guy running Mercs for Money day-to-day. I suppose this could all be part of the curse, shit falling apart rapidly for Wade, although, again, it's hard to tell. Deadpool is the last person who should be trying to run a business, given his lack of attention span and routine indifference to the problems (like bills) of others. But given Ben Franklin's warning of dark days ahead before his departure, and Ulysses telling Wade he wouldn't want to be believe in predicting the future either, if he had Wade's lifeline, yeah, it's probably the curse. Still, the rapid dumping of Adsit feels like I'm back in Daniel Way's run on Deadpool, where he careened one way then the other with seemingly no plan. That's not something I wanted to be reminded of.

At the end of the day, Duggan hasn't done enough with the Mercs for me to care if they stay or go. There's a lot he could do, since all of them represent different facets of Wade (which is no doubt why they were picked), but so far, it hasn't materialized (except with Madcap, I guess). The Mercs are just baggage distracting from the cast members I'd actually like to see Wade interact with (because it's actually been established how they play off him, resulting in me giving a crap about them): Preston, Eleanor, Adsit, Michael, whoops he's dead, oh well. If it's a point about Deadpool getting everything he thought he wanted, and losing all the stuff he really cared about (Last Days of Magic points out Wade has pretty much dropped his friends from the previous volume now that he's a big Avenger), fine, but it doesn't make it anymore enjoyable.

The high point of the issue is Cable explaining to the Mercs how he has money, which involves a flashback to Cable traveling back to the 18th Century with some cash, which he deposits in a bank, and draws from when he returns to the present. Not so much for that explanation, but Mike Hawthorne drawing Cable in a top hat and coat with tails, plus an eye patch to cover the glowy eye. I had not realized I ever wanted to see Cable dressed up like that, but it was great. Deadpool thinking precognition is a bunch of crap feels appropriate too. Otherwise, he'd have to acknowledge what everyone's been telling him about how it's all going to end badly for him, and I don't think he wants to do that.

That turned out very angry, but the books happened to combine to form a perfect combination fo everything that's frustrating me with Deadpool right now.

What I Bought 1/26/2016 - Part 2

You will be shocked, shocked! to learn things are not going well for Deadpool, in the present, or in the year 2099. So, more common ground between the two of us?

Deadpool #5 and 6, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler, #5), Scott Koblish (artist, #6), Terry pallot (inker, #5), Guru-eFX (colorist, #5), Nick Filardi (colorist, #6), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I'm reasonably sure that trap would work on the Rhino. Maybe the Trapster.

So Wade actually brings Eleanor to his townhouse/complex/HQ and waits for Madcap to try and kill her. At which point, Quicksilver whisks her to safety, so Wade's still a better father than Magneto. Probably Reed Richards, too. Wade tries to fight Madcap, who apparently looks hideous under his mask now (I didn't even know that was a mask), and blames it on his time spent in Wade's mind. Wade does have a big plant to hack Madcap into pieces, then throw him in some plastic box Stingray built, but it fails miserably, as Madcap incinerates himself with some alien weapon Deadpool keeps on him as a possible tool to kill himself {Edit: Whoops! It was to kill the demon Vetis if he came back. Sorry}. Everyone seems fairly certain Madcap will reform at some point, and Wade's left wondering about all the cryptic references to arson Madcap made, as well as the other things he did while impersonating Deadpool.

The other issue jumps to 2099, where the new Deadpool is Wade and Shiklah's daughter, who hates her dad and keeps him chained in an apartment watching C-SPAN, and wants to know where her mother is. Also she has an army of Bobs, and there's someone hunting her down. My guess is Preston, still in an LMD body, but it could be Shiklah.

Let's get issue 6 out of the way first. These pastiche issues are always hit or miss with me. I didn't love the Kirby one, but loved the "stop time-travelin' Hitler from killing Nick Fury" one, and the one where he teams up with the Heroes for Hire to fight The White Man. But this just did not work. I would say I'm too fond of the era being mocked, but outside of Spider-Man 2099, I don't really give a rat's ass about the 2099 books. But the art on the action sequences is a confusing mess, and if that was a deliberate choice (which I figure it was, because I know Koblish can do better), it was a bad one. Don't make your damn action sequences hard to follow just because the art of the period you're mocking was bad. All the small panels, and let's have the Bobs initially as weird, glowy outlines to get us wondering what they are in the midst of all it.

And maybe it bugs me a little because while the past issues of this type have taken place in the, well, past, this one's in the future. The former work as a way to introduce some character or problem that is about to pop up and give Deadpool issues, but with the latter, we find out these things that should probably be shocking or sad, but it's just kind of a thud. Oh, Wade and Shiklah had a daughter, and she hates her dad. OK. Ellie died and that made Wade go crazy. Sure. Maybe it's the fact none of that is terribly surprising to me. Of course things are going to end badly for Deadpool. That's how things always go for him, it's just he's currently doing better than he ever has before, so he has further to fall.

Rolling back to issue 5, The question I have is whether Madcap picked up some part of Wade's personality and took it with him when they separated previously? That's why Wade's been able to keep it together and not screw up everything he's got going so far, because the destructive, crazed and violent part of him got absorbed by this other, even crazier, even more unkillable guy? Or this could just be a lesson for Wade. For much of his life, he's been largely indifferent to the suffering of others, justifying that because of what he experienced at the hands of the Weapon X program. Wade passed it on, essentially, and even if he's grown beyond that now (mostly), that doesn't erase what he did in the past. So here's a prime example. Someone who, like Wade, was caught in a situation outside his control (being stuck in Deadpool's brain), and Wade may very well have tortured the guy, rather than doing his best to tolerate him. And now he has to deal with the consequences.

He's also having to deal with being a public figure right now, and we can see that wearing on him. He's in a situation where someone pulls off his mask, lots of people see his face, and no one is screaming or puking. They want pictures with him! But it means he has to play to the cameras. He's used to putting on masks, the humor hiding the pain and all that, but this is different. He has fears, and anger, and he can't do anything with it, because there's too many people watching, and they all want a piece of him. And he has to keep giving it to them.

I'm surprised that the Mercs for Money also speak in yellow dialogue balloons when they were their Deadpool outfits. I thought that was supposed to represent a specific timbre of Wade's voice. Unless he's even mass-produced and farmed that out.

Also, I really, really hope that Madcap's comment about having been up to lots of stuff while dressed as Deadpool isn't Duggan signaling he's going to use that to retcon out Deadpool appearances he doesn't like. Don't be like Jim Starlin when it comes to Thanos, Mr. Duggan.

What I Bought 12/30/2015 - Part 3

Holiday over, back to the grindstone. In other news, Deadpool. Deadpool deadpool, deadpool. Deadpoooooool, Cable. Deadpool!

Deadpool #4, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Guru eFx (colorists), Joe Sabino (letterer) - The first store I stopped at didn't have any copies, and said it had been a really popular issue because of the rainbow-colored Deadpools? I don't understand that myself. I mean, Stingray as Greed and Slapstick as Fear? This emotional spectrum makes no sense whatsoever.

Madcap is the person running around impersonating Deadpool, having grown obsessed with Deadpool after spending that time in Wade's mind. And he's upped the ante, making people nuts, then giving them Deadpool masks and weapons and sending them out to cause mayhem. So Wade, Steve Rogers, and the other Mercs for Money are going to have to find him, and then somehow stop someone who feels no pain and may be impossible to kill.

I keep thinking this whole Madcap thing is a false lead, but I guess not. I can't entirely explain the guy from issue 3 that Wade chased across the rooftops. We got a glimpse of his face beneath the mask, and he didn't look human or like Madcap. I think Shiklah's mixed up in this, since Duggan keeps having these brief scenes with her, where she's annoyed Wade is never around, and she's been unhappy with the change in his personality since at least Axis.

Hawthorne draws Terror as significantly larger than the other Mercs in this issue, so I guess he really is supposed to be larger (this is in reference to my comment about the cover to issue 3). I hadn't noticed it previously, but sure, OK. There is one screw-up. One the page where they first encounter the mass of "Deadpools", we see Steve Rogers, Stingray, and Wade fighting them. But in the next panel, Wade drives up in his motorcycle and enters the fray. So I don't know whether the Deadpool in red in the first panel (the "For Chimichangas!" panel) wasn't supposed to be there at all, or if it's supposed to be one of the other Mercs, and he just got colored wrong. I think it's the first option, because he doesn't speak or have any other characteristics that would show he's a different merc, nobody talks to him in that panel, and he doesn't show up anywhere on the rest of the page. 

Watching Deadpool and Steve Rogers interact is kind of neat. Rogers believes in Wade, but he hadn't spent that much time in close proximity to him before this. So he's constantly being confronted with how odd it is to work with Wade, in a way I'm sure the stories and reports he's read couldn't prepare him for. You can see him mentally gritting his teeth and reminding himself that Deadpool's really trying, and the team needs his financing, like when he learns about Bob. Which, c'mon Rogers, you're buddies with Nick Fury, and over the last 10 years he's been far more morally compromised than Bob. As for Wade, you can see how hard he's working to live up to it. He's completely serious when he's handing out orders to his mercs about searching for Madcap, it's kind of unnerving. Working with Rogers, hustling to show up whenever the guy calls, mostly deferring to the old man's wishes (how does Steve know Wade didn't legally buy that old Fantasticar? Maybe Peter Parker sold it off when he bought the old FF HQ.) It's a different dynamic from Deadpool and Wolverine, or Deadpool and Cable, where I think Wade resents the attitude the others have to him more, the sort of high-handedness they approach him with.

Deadpool and Cable: Split Second #1, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Reilly Brown (artist), Jay Leisten (inker), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - 10 years ago, I'd never have expected to see Cable on the cover of a comic book and not roll my eyes, but here we are.

Deadpool and Agent Preston's SHIELD team rescue Dr. Carl Weathers from HYDRA. As it turns out, Dr. Weathers has developed a time harness for HYDRA, but then decided to sell it to the highest bidder. In the meantime, Cable's had a vision of the future of the doctor, and Deadpool shooting someone, so he concludes they're connected and tries to stop Wade. Except he doesn't really have the power to back that up any longer, and so they team up instead to watch the doctor. They see Weathers, Wade decides to just stab the guy instead, only to be interrupted by a time traveler out to kill Weathers, and during the fight, Wade accidentally shoots a kid.

Nicieza tries lampshading the fact that if Cable doesn't want Wade killing Weathers, it's really dumb to bring Deadpool along to watch Weathers, but I'm not sure you can lampshade it successfully. I can sort of argue with myself that Cable isn't strong enough to stop Wade on his own, and figured it was better to be with him where maybe he could control him, but I'm not sure even I can buy it entirely. Especially since Wade could just have left the surveillance to Preston's team. Kind of a plot hole there.

Plot issue aside, I like this just fine. There is an element of nostalgia in my buying this, but I generally enjoy Nicieza's writing, and Brown's art, so that works out nicely. Nicieza's Deadpool is more impulsive than Duggan's, but that could just be from being around Cable. Nate has that whole "I know better than you because I'm from the future" thing, and I could see how it would be worth doing questionable stuff just too annoy him.  Sometimes you have to tweak people like that. Preston telling HYDRA to hail her badonkadonk made me laugh, and so did the one HYDRA guy whispering, 'Please die,' while shooting Wade. Also that other HYDRA guy trying to say he's Bob so he doesn't die. Incompetent, frightened evil henchmen are funny, basically.

I couldn't help but notice Brown draws Wade's outfit as being form-fitting on his rear, which actually doesn't surprise me. Wade stays in shape, and he definitely seems the type who would want others to notice. Especially Cable. Even if Wade is done being on the bottom in their relationship. That whole sequence made me laugh, especially because Cable has this look on his face, like he can't figure out what Wade's going on about, and why he feels the need to get so close to Cable's face to talk about it.

There are certain panels I imagine work better in the comics original, digital format, though I'm just guessing that. But there are sequences in there were I could see some part of the panel appearing or disappearing as you read it. Maybe that's not how it went, though. It works fine in print, which is ultimately what I'm concerned about.

And I finally got to see Wade outright beat Cable up, which is something I'd been waiting on for awhile. Now if I can just get Spidey whupping Daredevil. . .

What I Bought 12/22/2015 - Part 1

Starting what are hopefully not the last set of reviews I get done this year. I tried going to the closest store that sells comics today, but they didn't have any of the three books I wanted that came out this week. Hopefully I can grab those next week, and in the meantime, we'll focus on stuff from earlier this month.

Atomic Robo: The Ring of Fire #4, by Brian Clevinger (words), Scott Wegener (art), Anthony Clark (colors), Jeff Powell (letters/design) - The Atomic Robo Aerobic Workout series was not a commercial success once people realized the exercises wouldn't help, because Robo doesn't need to work out.

The Biomega Island approaches Tokyo, as both Ultra and Robo/China's Super-Science division scramble to enact plans to stop it. Ultra's going to use their mechs to blast open the island's core and nuke it, rendering Tokyo and the surrounding environs uninhabitable. Robo's plan is to be blasted into space, hijack a leftover Nazi space weapon to fire tungsten rods and smash the island without radiation. Assuming he can get past the station's defenses (which include a deathbot). And assuming he can manage it before he runs out of power (since he can't draw from China's power lines once he's out in space). And his plan involves ALAN, the artificial intelligence that nearly killed him in Ghost of Station X. So nobody's plans are inspiring much confidence here.

When Broughton frightens off his babysitters by pretending they're being exposed to monumental amounts of radiation, which is already killing him, so run, you fools, Wegener draws little "x"s for his eyes when he's feigning death, which made me chuckle. The "OrbitPanzer" has a good design, though I wonder if that's an actual human skull in the bubble, or the Nazis put a fake in there because they thought it would be more intimidating. The green plexiglass its covered by is a nice touch, that spooky, unearthly green color.

I'm not at all sure how this is going to end, though I still have the sinking suspicion it won't go as Robo hopes. And bringing ALAN into the mix just seems to be asking for trouble, but we'll see.

Deadpool #3, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Guru eFx (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I have no idea why Terry Moore drew Terror as being Hulk-sized on the cover. He's not that big a guy.

Wade's being questioned by the cops about the Zoning Board Commissioner, but they believe he didn't kill the guy, because he had already told the feds about the now-dead guy trying to solicit bribes. So Wade gets the cops to pretend they don't believe him, so they'll put him on a bus to Ryker's to draw out the fake, and then Wade and the mercs will bust him. Except their paychecks bounced, so none of them are showing up. And Wade, unarmed and alone, can't catch the guy, which makes Wade worry he's losing his edge. Uh-oh.

I guess Duggan is sticking with the idea that the "yellow caption box" from Daniel Way's Deadpool run was Madcap, having been nearly liquefied and inhaled unwittingly by Wade (this was introduced in some annual I didn't buy in the last couple years). Which never made a lot of sense to me, because there was also a white caption box, and it argued with Wade's external voice as much as the yellow, so was that still supposed to be Wade's own thoughts? But with Wade talking about missing having another voice in his head, and Steve Rogers talking about needing to get rid of Madcap, I'm not sure I like where this is going. I'm also starting to get tired of the mercs, at least some of them. I'm sure they're meant to reflect different aspects of Wade in different ways, but as a supporting cast go, they kind of aren't great. Maybe just get rid of half of them? Especially Slapstick. Please, no more scenes of Slapstick being horribly depressed because his family is gone.

Also, it's a little frightening to see Steve Rogers talking about killing a man in the Ardennes Forest for trying to "boop" Steve's nose. That is. . . coming on a little strong there, Steve. On the other hand, I enjoyed Mr. mantle the weapons' dealer calling a guy "Cochise". I've found myself doing that a lot lately, mostly when I'm talking to myself about some person driving aggressively near me. Maybe because I saw Fort Apache again over Thanksgiving. I know I shouldn't watch it, because Fonda's character pisses me off so much, but everyone else is so good in it.

The fight scene, brief as it was, was good. The Hawthorne/Pallot/Guru eFx team is doing some strong work. Pallot's inks really steady Hawthorne's pencils, which can get a little shaky and rough at times in the past, and the color work is just good. There's nothing wild or psychedelic about it, but it always seems to work for the scenes. Especially the interrogation scene with the cops. The color of the walls, and something about the pallor of the cops' skin under those lights, just makes it seem like one of those interrogation rooms designed to make people feel uncomfortable.

What I Bought 12/1/2015 - Part 1

I actually have eight comics to review this time around. Things are starting to look up, and all it took was for Marvel to quit dicking around and release some new series. Or the same series that had been put on the shelf for months.

Deadpool #2, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Val Staples (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - And this is what happens when you aren't Robert Redford playing a character who knows Nick Fury. You get Deadpool at your niece's birthday party, instead of Iron Man.

The other "Deadpools" are concerned they're not being paid, and that the company isn't making any money as a result. Huh, who knew letting a crazy person run a company wouldn't be a path to financial success? They get a paying job, but it turns out to be them throwing a bunch of illegal immigrants out of their apartment building for an asshole landlord who wants to take advantage of rising property values to build a condo. Some of them - meaning not Foolkiller or Madcap - feel bad and give their shares to the people they just beat up. Did Deadpool teach them a lesson? Well, considering it may not be Deadpool, probably not. Adsit has come to visit Wade and tell him the truth of his parents death, and the hood wearing Deadpool stabs Adsit and laughs at how this will make his plan to destroy Deadpool even easier.

It's not T-Ray is it? Please tell me it isn't T-Ray. I hate that guy, in that Superboy-Prime, "don't even want to see him" way. But I can't figure who else it could be. The head ULTIMATUM guy is dead. So is Butler (and he'd know Wade did that already). I don't see this as Dracula's style. Cripes, it's going to be Agent Gorman isn't it? The SHIELD traitor who stiffed Wade on his money for rekilling all the undead Presidents. He somehow survived being thrown into a garbage compactor. Might explain Adsit's reaction.

Hawthorne's doing a pretty good job making all the Deadpools distinguishable from each other, but giving them noticeable little flourishes. Solo and Foolkiller are the only two I can't tell apart when they have masks on. I liked the page of the team smashing through the apartment building. You can follow Stingray down the page, to the two on the top floor. Madcap is directly above Terror, so you can track down to him, and then over to Solo, which takes you to his meeting with some of the tenants. I still can't quite figure either of them doing this, especially Foolkiller (who hasn't killed any fools so far), so perhaps Duggan will highlight how Wade roped them all in at some point. And if the hooded guy isn't the real Wade, where is he? It seems like he ought to have noticed this was happening, and at least been mildly curious.

I'm really enjoying this, and I want to see where Duggan and Hawthorne go next, even though I'm sure it's going to leave me feeling really bad for Wade when all is said and done.

Descender #7, by Jeff Lemire (writer), Dustin Nguyen (illustrator), Steve Wands (letterer/designer) - What is the thing in TIM's stomach region? Does he have a digestive tract, so he can simulate eating?

TIM, Telsa, and Quon are rescued by this robot resistance group called the Hardwire. They were actually only there for TIM (and to kill the Gnishian leader), but TIM wouldn't leave without the other two. He was not able to convince them to find Driller, Bandit, and Tullis, so they're stuck on a planet that hates robots, and probably won't love the UGC since the Hardwire is setting Telsa up to take the fall as part of the assassination. In a different plot thread, we meet a robot bounty hunter, one who is concerned only with finding more robots, and when he learns there's a bounty on TIM, he jumps at it. He's a few steps behind, but he finds the last survivor of that first crew that tried to catch TIM, and that guy has a tracking device locked onto TIM.

The last page reveal of the hunter's identity felt unnecessary. It was pretty obvious from how intense he was about hunting down TIM, combined with TIM's comments about how he wants to find his "brother", who the hunter was. On the other hand, given how obvious it was, at least Lemire and Nguyen didn't draw it out over several issues like some big mystery.

I do wonder how, whenever the hunter finds TIM-21, how that meeting is going to go. Considering his actions in this issue, it's going to be pretty hard for me to roll with it, if they decide for a tearful, hug-filled reunion. That seems unlikely, but he certainly didn't seem a sympathetic character. Although not many characters have been sympathetic so far. Psius is content to throw the entire galaxy into (bloody) chaos to suit his purposes. Telsa only considers TIM a means to some revenge. Quon's a thief who built his rep on others' work, and now is a pathetic wreck (though he's remarkably coherent for having an arm cut off). TIM-22 blew a guy's head off without a second thought. OK, the ruler of Gnish was a scumbag, and certainly responsible for genocide from the Hardwire's perspective, and I'm inclined to agree.

I was looking at the side-by-side panels of TIMs-21 and 22, and it's interesting how much Nguyen just raising 21's eyebrows adds to his sense of being alive. 22's face is purposefully blank, but if you cover everything below the eyes, they're still noticeably different. The eyebrows are the most obvious, but I feel like there must be something in the eyes themselves helping. I just can't figure out what. Other than that, I like how Nguyen uses his colors on the frozen world at the start of the issue. The massive amounts of white, but working in the blue to suggest ice or drifts. It's just impressive to me.