Dead in General
Deadpool has become a pretty heavy main-stay of the Marvel universe in recent years, attracting a lot of people to the medium through his outrageous attitude and absurd antics. Because of this, audiences have been regaled with various works featuring him, ranging from the grand to the mundane. And, while this isn't the worst, it stands out in my mind as a disappointing addition, at least this first issue.
Readers are pretty much thrown into the plot with little to no background beyond a brief explanation as to why America's presidents are rising from the grave. This is quickly pushed aside for Deadpool to make a grand appearance, give us one or two forced lines of exposition, and get to work. There's pretty much no build-up to anything, and, while this can sound like a good thing, it leaves the story feeling rather lackluster and unstructured, as if a decent beginning couldn't be afforded. And what little beginning there is feels forced, as it takes a while for Deadpool to actually come into the picture. I feel like if the origins of the dead presidents had somehow involved our "hero" it would have some more weight or investment behind it. As it is, it feels a little forced, despite one explanation the story pushes that makes a moderate amount of sense.
But, when Deadpool is on the page, he feels like a stereotype rather than the clever character he is. The first glaring issue that leaves this issue feeling empty and disheartening is the lack of his multiple personalities talking. This, especially in Mark Waid's iteration, is what made the character stand out so much, and the dialogue between his different personas allowed for clever dialogue and moments, as well as livening up the atmosphere. Here, it's quiet and bland, with the people opposite of Deadpool having no personality, leaving conversations feeling rather one-sided. This also resulted in most situations devolving into Deadpool shouting quips and puns. And, while I'm all about puns, they have to feel natural for them to work in storytelling, and here they feel forced and out of place.
Finally, I'm not a huge fan of the art. I can understand why some may enjoy it, but, for me, it feels a little too unpolished and awkward. And this may have been because of the coloring, which feels like watered down versions of what should be bright and colorful scenes. No matter what the reason may be, I've seen Deadpool in much better venues than here.
While Waid's version of Deadpool is, by some, considered the black sheep, straying to far from his serious nature and persona, I can't help but wish there was a little more of that here. This issue lacks cleverness or snappiness in it's dialogue, and it tries to seem serious tonally in some ways while presenting supposedly goofy antics and jokes to have a fun atmosphere, but it doesn't ever deliver either. I plan on at least reading through the rest of this story arch, but I can't say I'm overly excited for it.
