Deadpool #10 – Review

By: Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan (Writers), Mike Hawtorne (Artist), Val Staples (Colorist)

The Story: As Michael makes his way in hell, Deadpool teams-up with the Superior Spider-Man to take out the next person on Vetis list.

The Review: On the review of the latest issue of Deadpool, I had said that the duo of Posehn and Duggan had made something quite unusual for a comic featuring the Merc with a mouth. Indeed, they had toned down the humor significantly in order to make their plot progress in a faster pace as they explored the titular character a bit further than usual. It was unexpected, yet it did lead to a quality comic.

Here, though, their approach is the exact opposite, as the humor takes precedence to the plot in this issue featuring a team-up of some sort to Spider-Ock. While we do get some tidbits of progression in the story, the focus is clearly on the jokes even with all the action set up here. However, does that make this issue a bad comic?

WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best of the past week: The Fall of the House of Usher #1 – Not the strongest week for comics, but it allowed this nice comic to win.  What impressed me most about this issue is how well Richard Corben (who adapted the classic Poe story) is able to make us uncomfortable, but not scare us outright.  That’s important because the classic Poe story depends on the main character being merely uncomfortable, such that he keeps getting deeper and deeper into the story.  If he’d been scared, he would have fled right away.  I guess I’d summarize the issue as follows: The story is familiar; the execution is not.

Most anticipated this week: 1). The Unwritten #49 – Even though last issue was a little bit routine, I know that this series has the ability to go deeper than just about anything else on the market right now.  Let’s hope it happens here, because I’m really not looking forward to the upcoming crossover with Fables.

2). Uncanny X-Men #6 – It’s funny; after years of LOUSY art, the X-books are suddenly suffering from an embarrassment of artistic riches.  For this issue Frazier Irving takes over from Chris Bachalo.  It should look great.  Brian Bendis has also been doing a snappy job of reminding all the people who hated on the tail end of his Avengers run that he is a pretty good writer.

3). Dia de los Muertos #3 – More Mexican-themed, Day of the Dead stories with illustration by Riley Rossmo?  Sounds good to me!

4). Superior Spider-Man #10 – I’m not so much enjoying the story in SSM and I recoil from all the fan angst over what is happening to a ~50 year old character.  But have you seen this new inking style that Ryan Stegman is laying down?  It is HOT!   Unfortunately, everyone else is realizing how HOT this guy is and his splash pages now cost ~4X what they used to.  Sigh….

5). The Massive #12 – Even though I’m consistently hard on this series when I review it, I’m starting to be “hooked”.  Maybe I just assume that eventually there will be a point to it all?

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Hugo’s Top Picks

Pick of the week: FF #7 – Even if this was a relatively small week for comics, there had been some strong showing, though none as strong as this week’s tale focused on the replacement Fantastic Four. With them battling the Wizard alongside Blastaar in the Negative Zone, it made my week as we saw more of this decidedly unique team working together. With Mike and Laura Allred on art mimicking the best of Jack Kirby’s style, it was a blast to read.

Most anticipated this week: 1) Green Lantern #20 – If there was one series that made me want to discover the DC universe as a whole back in the days, it was Green Lantern. I was much more of a Marvel guy back in the day, yet that character and the concepts attached to him seemed really interesting to me, which made me try the Rebirth series by Geoff Johns. I had a blast reading it and understanding just how huge a character this was, making me fan instantly as I tried to get up to speed to get to Blackest Night. It’s because of Green Lantern and Geoff Johns if I’m a fan of DC comics nowadays, so I’m really eager to see how he can conclude his whole run. It’s the end of the first DC run I first collected in trades and I wouldn’t dare miss it.

2) Journey Into Mystery #652 – The great art of Valerio Schitti? Check. The adventurous and funny writing of Kathryn Immonen? Check. Beta Ray Bill, one of the most awesome creation by Walter Simonson? Check. With all these elements in this issue, how could I not look forward to it?

3) Superior Spider-Man #10 – With the way the last issue ended, I am very curious to see just how Dan Slott will reflect this huge change in status quo in the book. There’s humongous potential for tons of new stuff here and I’d really like to see him take advantage of such a situation.

4) Uncanny Avengers #8 – I am not currently reading Age of Ultron, yet I am very much interested in this particular story, just to see more Kang the conqueror goodness and the apocalypse twins. Although this is a tie-in, this seems like a pretty important chapter of Rick Remender’s ongoing story and I’d be remiss to say that his current Avenger’s book has been really strong in his last few issues.

5) Deadpool #10 – I like the direction both Posehn and Duggan have taken the series so far, yet the latest issue was decidedly darker than usual. Even though I do hope they’ll bring the funny back in a big way, I have to see I am interested in seeing how this situation with Michael the necromancer and Vetis the devil can develop.