Lizards, Mustaches and Toy Line References, OH MY!!!!
I wasn’t really sure what to think of this series coming into Secret Wars, with Deadpool’s recent death, and all the different tie-ins the event has, I thought this book may have just been a lame attempt at a cash grab for people who want more Deadpool in a “World Without Deadpool”… But with Cullen Budd on board, it was very unlikely that this series would have been something half-assed, or just plain lame- so it made the list of only a few tie-in titles for Secret Wars that I was going to pick up and stick with (the other books so far are Thors and Infinity Gauntlet).
This issue picks up right where the last issue left off- Deadpool is alone on Battleworld (though I don’t think it was mentioned in the last issue WHERE on Battleworld he is) and all the heroes whose coattails he was cruising along on are no more. One big shocker that came from the last issue, and one that I haven’t seen too many people try to blow up the Internet over, is that Wade Wilson is healed! He is a normal looking dude, who doesn’t at all resemble a pizza that you left in the oven (with the oven on) overnight. Wade Wilson (in this story) looks like a golden haired Burt Reynolds, mostly because of his outrageously retro and supremely bushy mustache.
I really like that he has this new look, I think it really helps to set this story apart for Deadpool- before it was just fighting dead presidents, or robot S.H.I.E.LD. agents, or going up against hordes of The Flag Smasher’s goons (which, im sure you and I were both like “who the heck is Flag Smasher?!?!”), so for Deadpool to be alone, in a foreign world, AND to be a handsome, mustachioed devil- well, that’s almost too good to be true…
The flashback sequence for this issue was a really fun moment, and I enjoyed how the story incorporated all of the lenticular 3-D shields that Marvel figures once had (and that are a big part of all the action figure variants for these Secret Wars books…). I thought that it was incorporated very easily into the story, and the moment when Deadpool and Spider-Man are in a giant Harry Potter snow globe prophecy-esque room filled with all these different shields was just plain fun. Plus it added to Wade’s snark and humor when he asks Captain America about the different functions that his shield has- which are none, compared to the weird random thought-based images that Deadpool’s shield displays.
The art of this book was a bit of modern, with some elements of the Posehn/Duggan “throwback issue” artwork tied in, because this book is technically only tied to the PREVIOUS Secret Wars, not the current one. I think that Matteo Lolli and Ruth Redmond have a really unique style that works very well together- and I hope to see them working on more fun, unique stories like this in the future. Cullen Bunn is someone that I really don’t need to say anything positive about, because I have said so much in the past about how I thoroughly enjoy his work- from Magneto, Sinestro, the Sixth Gun PLUS all of his fantastic Deadpool miniseries. I don’t need to say it, but Cullen Bunn obviously has a strong voice when it comes to antiheroes and villains, but his particular talent is most obvious when he is writing Deadpool. This series is no exception.
The Secret Wars are rolling on strong, and this series, after two issues (of I am assuming four or five?) this book has accomplished more in the way of giving a reader some fun tangentally associated story to read than I got from almost ANY of the Convergence tie-in books I read (except for Harley Quinn- that two issue arc was absolutely fantastic…).
This is a book worth checking out, and it really doesn’t even require you know anything about, or really even be reading the Secret Wars main title.
Go read some Deadpool, and laugh and have a good time- Bunn’s Deadpool books are always a good time, and this book is as good a time as any…