Over the years, several superheroes have explored their noir sides with black & white miniseries in the style of Frank Miller's Sin City. Not wanting to be outdone, Deadpool adds a bright shade of scarlet (and a few shades of gray) to this minimally colored 4-issue mini-series from 2021.
As each issue consists of 3 short stories, there are exactly a dozen segments to Deadpool: Black, White & Blood. Several are very bloody. A few feature the Merc with a Mouth teaming up with other characters in the Marvel Universe. All are extremely insane.
Roughly a team of a dozen talents from comics, Hollywood and Manga offer unique takes on Wade Wilson. All 12 stories were rather good. But some stood out among the rest as being of superior quality. Deadpool's cross-town team-up with Wolverine clone, X-23, was a laugh riot and yet unusual. I didn't know the pair were actually that good of friends as they appear to be in the opening story. In another story that utilizes a disgusting eggplant hue, Deadpool has fallen under the thrall of the Daredevil villain, the Purple Man. Fans who hate what the David Tenant portrayed Purple Man did to Netflix's Jessica Jones, will delight in how even under mind-control, Deadpool still manages to keep the villain on his toes!
The story in which Deadpool visits Omega Red's gentrified Soviet Era town in middle of the the Canadian Rockies, was the zaniest one of them all. Fellow Russian super-villain Ursa Major wants to become the ruler of the makeshift community, igniting an arms race with Omega Red. For once, it's up to Wade Wilson to play referee in between two aging Cold Warriors.
The story I was most disappointed with guest stars the X-Man, Doop. It was by Mike Allred, who is in my top 5 list of all-time favorite artists. The artwork was impressive as always. But story-wise, things were trippy at best. I read it twice and I still don't think I understand everything that was happening.
This was a near-perfect anthology of Deadpool stories. The only thing missing was a time travelling epic by one of the definitive Deadpool writers of the past 20 years- Gerry Duggan. Oh! And something by Deadpool creator, Rob Liefeld. As much as I am not a fan of the guy's work, a variant cover by Liefeld would have been nice at least.
This book comes in 2 formats- your basic trade paperback and a tabloid sized treasury edition. Honestly, I don't see a need for this book to be in the larger size even though that's the format I read it in. Save yourself the $8 and go small!
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
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