Digitally Speaking...34 "Deadpool"

via Launchpad Comics

Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #1 (Marvel)

From 2009.

Yeah, so, Deadpool.

Deadpool is the embodiment of how mainstream audiences view superheroes these days.  And not just mainstream audiences anymore, it seems, but even comic books fans.  Hence all the success of Harley Quinn.

Deadpool represents the idea of not taking the experience too seriously.  Not in a Batman & Robin kind of way, but much more thoroughly.  Deadpool is the superhero whose face under the mask literally couldn't matter less.  Like Spawn, he's got an ugly, scarred mug.  Unlike Spawn, there's no real reason for that, no deeper story to be explored.  Deadpool is Spider-Man without any of that great responsibility crap.

And in consequence of all that, how you feel about Deadpool probably depends on how you feel about superheroes in general.  And how you read Deadpool should depend on how he's written.  Last year I managed to find Deadpool worth reading.  Fully embraced, he's really no different from Atomic Robo.  He's both a commentary on everything you know and a vehicle that drives itself, even though inherently there's not a lot going on.  What I mean is, taken for what he is, Deadpool practically writes himself.

Unfortunately, Marvel likes Deadpool so much it's willing to do any and everything with him.  And the fact is, Deadpool has limits.  So when I don't like Deadpool, I mean I hate the lazy writers who've been allowed to waste time writing Deadpool stories that are the laziest stories those writers will ever tell.  

I hate lazy writers, by the way.

Merc with a Mouth featured gimmick covers as demonstrated.  And gimmick crossovers, which all lazy Deadpool stories do.  This one with Ka-Zar, Marvel's Tarzan.  There's actually a good Deadpool story in there somewhere, but it's completely buried by lazy Deadpool nonsense.  I've seen good Deadpool nonsense.  This is what happens when a company wants to tell a lot of stories with a character but doesn't really know how to do it, even though it seems obvious.  Deadpool is not Wolverine, who was never Batman.  You can't just tell any old story.  Not with a character this limited.  

And yes, the crazy thing is, Deadpool has no limits.  But in the wrong hands, he's completely limited.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read any random Deadpool comic.

Or if you still don't know what I'm talking about, you're Deadpool's target audience.  And why we're exactly flirting with Batman & Robin territory again.  Thanks, fans...

Deadpool: The Gauntlet #1 (Marvel)

(via CBDB)

writer: Gerry Duggan, Brian Posehn

artist: Reilly Brown

You know Deadpool?  Maybe he's kind of cool after all.

Maybe he's been a joke of a joke since he originally debuted, but perhaps Deadpool is not completely irredeemable after all.  

The difference between a bad Deadpool comic (which I assume is every other Deadpool comic) and a good one (this one) is knowing about a concept known as context.  In the wrong context, Deadpool is random in word bubble after word bubble, ultimately means nothing, and his stories are instantly pointless.  Any humor to be found has no weight because the character has no depth.  He's the Merc with a Mouth.  As opposed to Spider-Man, who also spends all his time making quips.  Or Nightwing.  Or any number of other superheroes (all of Joss Whedon's Avengers, every Iron Man movie).  Deadpool doesn't stand out except that quipping is the only thing about him.  Usually.

Maybe this has happened before.  I don't know.  This comic was a free preview, and so I maintain my record of never having paid for a Deadpool comic.  But the thing is, it presents context all over the place.  The guy is playing off of a damsel he's rescued, who plays along willingly and is completely smitten...until she sees under his mask.  For no apparent reason, Deadpool is one of the rare comic book characters (Doctor Doom is another; the Phantom of the Opera is the completely unjustified classic precedent I will use to give either of them more credit than they deserve) who wears a mask for a reason.  Like the original Spawn, his face is mincemeat underneath.  Hilariously (for real this time!) the girl immediately gives up on him.

And the writing is pretty good.  There was some controversy when the series on which this comic is based, also by the team of Gerry Duggan and comedian Brian Posehn (a master of slacker deadpan), announced its creative team, which was nothing like the impressive presence creator Rob Liefeld expected for the character.  But really...besides Brian Michael Bendis (no shit, I would buy that comic), who among the current pool genuine comic book writing all-stars is capable of doing Deadpool justice?  Better to give him to a pair of comedians, especially ones who come with relatively little baggage.

It's a gamble that seems to have paid off handsomely.  (Unlike Deadpool's origin...whatever it is.)

The main foe in this story is Dracula.  Marvel loves it some vampires.  I don't know that there have ever been any good Marvel vampires stories (probably the Blade movies come closest), but the company keeps trying.  And perhaps it's Deadpool, improbably, to the rescue!

The other big draw to Duggan and Posehn's take on the character is his upcoming wedding.  Deadpool gets married???  Somehow I trust these guys to pull it off, no matter how they do it.

And maybe, just maybe, I will buy me a Deadpool comic written by someone other than Brian Michael Bendis.

Deadpool Kills Deadpool #4 (Marvel)

(via Comic Book Data Base)

writer: Cullen Bunn

artist: Salva Espin

I don't get Deadpool.  There, I said it.

I mean, I get Deadpool.  He's Marvel's officially sanctioned representative of irreverence.  If you want to read a comic that takes superheroes about as seriously as every other scene in The Avengers, then this is your guy.  He's been a cult star in the making for years.  He even showed up in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and was long rumored to have a spin-off of his own in the works.  

It never materialized.  

I'm going to argue that the reason was pretty clear: Deadpool means absolutely nothing except to comic book geeks, and he only means something to comic book geeks who apparently love a character who has no point except to be a complete lunatic.  In an X-Men context, he makes the least sense of all.  Tellingly, the last time the comics tried to make that happen was a long time ago, when he was inexplicably paired with Cable for years.

He would make much more sense in an Avengers context, especially one that, like a lot of recent Avengers comics, seems like it was written directly for fans of the movie.  I would read the Deadpool out of a Brian Michael Bendis Deadpool comic.  That's probably the only way I'd deliberately read a Deadpool comic.  This was, along with a number of other comics I've been writing about here recently, part of a grab bag.  I did not knowingly purchase a Deadpool comic.  Why would I?

This comic is a good reason to ask that question.  Even if I had read the three previous issues, I'm certain I still would not know the answer.  In the mind of Deadpool fans, the character is a legend.  There have been so many random Deadpool adventures in the past few years, you'd think Marvel thought so, too, but I would assume it's more a case of striking while the brand is hot.  Because once it cools, this guy will once again slip into obscurity.  Can't we just Howard the Duck him already?

Basically, like a lot of those other comics, Deadpool only exists in this story to play off other stories, because there's no story potential any writer has found yet in the character otherwise.  This is like the event book of all meaningless event books, Deadpool battling countless alternate versions of himself.  Countless Deadpools spouting countless versions of the same gibberish.

If it's supposed to be funny, I don't see the humor.

The writer is Cullen Bunn, who has for a few years now been one of the indy writers with the biggest buzz around him, thanks to his Oni series The Sixth Gun.  I haven't read it.  I never really found a compelling reason to, other than that there is constant buzz around it, and thus more work for Bunn elsewhere, like in this comic.  But if Deadpool Kills Deadpool is any indication, I don't think I've been missing anything.