A new series of Deadpool has the Merc with a Mouth invited to join an illustrious team of assassins. In order to secure membership, Deadpool has 48-hours to kill Doctor Octopus! Should he fail, Deadpool will never again be given a chance to join a team that has been Wade Wilson's dream job for all of about 30 minutes.
With just a couple of hours before Deadpool's time limit is up, the mercenary awakens to find himself strapped to a table in a strange looking lab, being attended upon by one strange lady. This isn't the type of trap that Deadpool should have any trouble escaping from. He's done this kind of thing a million times before. The part where he's got an experimental symbiote taken from the DNA of Carnage, that's another story.
Alyssa Wong's debut as Deadpool writer was an enjoyable one. Wong carries themself much like previous Deadpool writers have when it comes to the character- with little to no reverence about anything. Though I would say that Alyssa Wong's Deadpool isn't as juvenile in terms of bathroom humor. But those pop culture references and non-sequiturs are just as brilliant as ever.
The issues reprinted in this book introduce readers to the character of Valentine Vuong. According to several online sources, Valentine is Marvel's first openly non-binary character to use They/Them pronouns. I'm sure comic book scholars are debating that claim to this day. Regardless, Valentine becomes Deadpool's love interest in this book.
I had written a while back that I had difficulty following works that use non-binary pronouns because based on decades of English lit classes and readings, I was used to he/she, etc. Well, I don't think I am the only one that has a problem with this. On several occasions Alyssa Wong uses she/her pronouns to describe Valentine Vuong. And according to Wong's Wikipedia page, the writer uses they/them pronouns!
Plus, Wade keeps referring to Valentine as his 'girlfriend'. For a non-binary character is that even pronoun accurate? According to Quora: NO! The appropriate non-binary term world be 'enby' or 'enbyfriend.' Maybe Deadpool doesn't know Valentine is non-binary? Maybe Marvel or Wong thought while readers might understand they/them, adding enby might be too much? Regardless, it's not just amateur reviews like this Madman that gets those pronouns confused. Nor do we all stay consistent with them!
Speaking of a lack of consistency, the artwork by Martin Coccolo was varied. All of the heroes are draw with very clean, thick lines. The villains are illustrated in thinner lines about as hard to clearly see as strings of gossamer. Put both parties together and the pages look like they were drawn by 2 different artists. The first time we meet the character of Deadpool's crazed researcher captor, Harrower, she is extremely stunning with this luscious full head of hair. Yet over the course of these first 5 issues, Harrower's hair obtains less body and seems no more than shoulder length. I'd possibly blame the inker on this. However, it appears that Coccolo was both the penciller and inker on this book. Therefore, I can't really forgive the lack of cohesion in the overall artwork.
Yes, I want to get my hands on volume 2 when it comes out. Yes, I liked this book. However, I did find that while it seems to fit within the Marvel Universe, each issue seems to want to contradict the one before. Are the mistakes first time jitters, like how the first season of a popular TV show has to work out some production errors and kinks to get things right? Or is this just another sign at the lack of care in quality by the editorial staff at the House of Ideas. I hope it's the kinks. My gut tells me it's all due to the worst level of editorial control at Marvel since Bob Harras.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
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