Deadpool Team-Up, Vol 1: Good Buddies

I got on the Deadpool Team-Up band wagon way too late. I'm taking about the 2009-11 series, by the way. I bought issue #884 which has the Merc With a Mouth teaming with Oatu the Watcher. A sucker for a team-up title, I was thrown off by the high numbering. It turns out that as a joke, Marvel decided to spoof the now meaningless legacy numbering by having each issue of this series go backwards from #899, after releasing a special 900th issue of Deadpool!

With Deadpool Team-Up getting cancelled with issue #883 and finding it a financial nightmare trying to collect the rest of the series, I quietly put the series on my wishlist and went on to collect other, more affordable titles. For nearly 15 years, I searched and searched for issues that wouldn't break my bank. Wanna guess how many issues I found? If you guessed zip, zilch, nada; give yourself a cookie. That was until this past week. I had a box full of stuff to take to a used bookstore for trade credit and got lucky finding not just this hardback edition, but the other 2 volumes that round out the run. Being premium editions, each book was still pricey. But at a little bit less than half of original cover price, AND considering how difficult it's been to get this series off my wishlist, I scooped up all 3 books and merrily went about my way. Besides, the trade credit covered the price, meaning that the cash in my pocket could be spent on other things!

With the numbering going backwards, I wouldn't have been surprised if you were supposed to read volume 3 first. But I can attest that is not the case here. In the opener, Wade Wilson finds himself stuck in the wandering labyrinth of legend with none other than Hercules! Deadpool then attempts to collect bounties for successful hits with a pair of lucha libre hitman siblings called the Zapata Brothers, legendary big rig trucker US Ace, and a pair of Ghost Riders. Wade then helps a woman locate the missing behemoth, IT!, the Living Colossus before accepting a hit to rub out the Punisher, who at this moment in time has been reanimated into a Frankenstein monster!

The Punisher issue has a ton of fantastic cameos. It's a real treat if you are a fan of Marvel's monsters, of which I definitely am. You could consider me gobsmacked when I learn that the old Jim Shooter lead series US1 is actually pronounced US Ace! There are no numbers to be said when speaking about the title! Plus, I didn't realize that the trucker had adventures in outer space. I'm going have to revisit that staple of dollar boxes nationwide...

Featuring a different talent team each issue, I really dug this series. A good rule of thumb about team-up books is that the more obscure the guest star, the better the story. And with IT!, the Living Colossus and the hermanos Zapata, I do not think you could get much more obscure. The only thing I wasn't such a fan of was the inclusion of the bonus material of an issue of Marvel Spotlight focusing on Deadpool. It's mostly a 30 page commercial for other Deadpool titles and if you've read 1 interview with a comic book creator, you really have read them all. I mostly read it for the pictures...

Come on volume 2!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

A Year of Marvels

In 2016, Marvel Comics released 5 one-shots devoted to the holidays as seen through the eyes of the Marvel Universe. The holidays were occasions like Valentines Day, April Fools and Father's Day. Holidays that don't get the specials treatment. There was even a story about a holiday from Japan that I had never even heard of. 

When these holiday single issues were released, I thought it was a great idea. But when Marvel didn't release a 6th one-shot devoted to celebrations in the months of November and December, I was sorely disappointed. Marvel had missed out on executing a brilliant year-long plan. And thus, I kinda lost interest in collecting the whole run.

My interest was revived a few months ago when I found a copy of A Year of Marvels at a used book story for only $1! This book collected the floppies devoted to January-October. Along with those 5 one-shots, there were 3 never before published holiday specials. From Marvel Unlimited's Infinite line, I got to break bread with the Punisher in a Veteran's Day/Thanksgiving epic. Robbie Reyes returned to the City of Angels and helped me to believe in Santa. And I rang in the new year with radio host, Charlamange Tha God over at Avengers Tower.

That those last 3 stories appear in this book is proof that Marvel can indeed take all of their digital holiday specials and sell them in print form! DC does this kind of thing all the time. Why won't Marvel? There's like 30 Thanksgiving and Christmas Infinite specials that I haven't read and I gladly pay some good money for a holiday omnibus. I really think Marvel owes its fans this since in the past 5 years, the only Christmas related special released by the House of Ideas was a Star Wars Life Day one-shot. Don't get me wrong- I appreciated that amazing issue. But Marvel has been a Scrooge for a very, very long time towards it's fans of floppies. 

The stories and artwork of the 5 main volumes were good. But with such a spread of artists and writers, the level of quality was varied. The Punisher story was poignant and amazing. I loved the Ghost Rider Christmas story. Though I hated how a poor little defenseless kitty who is being abused by a brat. I love that Robbie Reyes frees the kitten and threatens the bully. But if you look closely in that story, this monster has abused other animals before. And that just bothered me. That story was written by Method Man of the Wu-Tang Clan and he could write for Marvel any day in my opinion.

As for the NYE story by Charlamange Tha God, it was horrible. I think this is where fans can point to Axel Alonzo's failed experiment to basically insult and alienate any comic book reader who was white, male, conservative, Christian, and wealthy. I know that CTA is very popular and he's got followers. But he should stick to radio and since his story is nearly a decade old it thankfully appears that the celebrity did just that. 

You might like to collect single issues only. But this is one of those times you might want to reconsider as this collection completes the full year A Year of Marvels that never actually came to fruition. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars