Deadpool #24 – Review

by Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan (Writers), Mike Hawthorne (Artist), Jordie Bellaire (Colorist)

The Story: Agent Preston finally gets transferred out of Deadpool. The only thing she needs to do is get out of his head.

The Review: The more you read cape comics, the more you begin to learn to appreciate honest effort from any creative team. While it can be a hard task to differentiate those that actually care from those that only wants a paycheck, there are times when the work is clear-cut in its quality that it is immediately noticeable.

This issue of Deadpool is one of the latter, with both writers actually going around with plenty of elements firmly established from their run as well as previous ones to present not only a definitive version of the character, but one that has plenty of hidden depth to boot.

What Posehn and Duggan does impossibly right is making the character an actual person, one with regrets, feelings and genuine emotions that are both said and unsaid, leaving room for readers to interpret things as well as invest themselves in. With this issue being the culmination of several elements brought up since the first arc, the evolution on display here is superb, with all the horror, the thrills and the actions of Wade Wilson coming back to him, making him not only a sympathetic character, but also one that becomes genuinely likable in many respects. To transform this character from recurring and sometimes annoying joke to an actual person takes skill, which is very commendable for both writers.

Deadpool #24 – Review

By Daniel Way (writer), Carlo Barberi (pencils), Juan Vlasco (ink), Marte Gracia (colors), VC’s Joe Sabino (letters)

The Story: Deadpool pulls a pretty epic double-cross on Weasel, and they both deal with Grizzly’s counter-attack.

What’s Good: Way’s characterization of Deadpool continues to be this series’ strong point, and reinforces it as the flagship Deadpool book. While some of the plot decisions in this issue took a turn for the wonky (‘Pool’s double-cross for example–more on that later), it still feels very Deadpool. This is not Way’s strongest issue by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s a talented enough writer than even a less than stellar outing isn’t bad.

Barberi’s pencils serve the story well. Although he has more than his usual quota of odd panels (especially when it comes to facial expressions), a lot of the less than stellar elements are mitigated by Gracia’s excellent color work. The entire art team does a great job on the House and Wildcard armored suits. I wish there was more variation between them than just color, but they’re still a lot of fun to watch in action. They feel suitably powerful, and Barberi gives them a wonderful sense of weight when they move or strike.