{"id":4316,"date":"2009-12-08T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T06:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=4316"},"modified":"2009-12-10T22:38:23","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T22:38:23","slug":"deadpool-we-don%e2%80%99t-need-another-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2009\/12\/08\/deadpool-we-don%e2%80%99t-need-another-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadpool: We Don’t Need Another Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Joe Kelly<\/strong>, Ed McGuiness<\/strong> & various (Marvel\/Panini UK)
\nISBN: 978-1-84653-427-0<\/p>\n

Bloodthirsty and stylish killers and mercenaries have long made for popular protagonists. Deadpool is Wade Wilson (and yes he is a thinly disguised knockoff of DC’s Slade Wilson AKA Terminator: get over it – DC did), a hired killer and survivor of genetics experiments that has left him a scarred, grotesque bundle of scabs and physical unpleasantries but practically invulnerable and capable of regenerating from any wound.<\/p>\n

The wisecracking high-tech \u00e2\u20ac\u0153merc with a mouth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza and first appeared in New Mutants<\/strong> #97, another product of the Canadian \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Weapon X\u00e2\u20ac\u009d project that created Wolverine and so many other second-string mutant and cyborg super-doers. He got his first shot at solo stardom with a couple of miniseries in 1993 (see Deadpool: the Circle Chase & Sins of the Past<\/a><\/strong>) but it wasn’t until 1997 that he finally won his own title.<\/p>\n

This collection gathers the first ten outrageous fun and fury filled issues (#1-9 plus issue minus 1) as well as the combination Daredevil & Deadpool Annual 1997<\/strong>) and features a frenetic blend of light-hearted, surreal, fighting frolics and incisive, poignant relationship drama that is absolutely compulsive reading for dyed-in-the-wool superhero fans who might be feeling just a little jaded with four-colour overload.<\/p>\n

It all kicks off with a extra-sized spectacular ‘Hey, It’s Deadpool!’<\/em> by Kelly, McGuiness, Nathan Massengill and Norman Lee which reintroduces the mouthy maniac, his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153office\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153co-workers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at the Hellhouse where he picks up his contracts and also affords us a glimpse at his private life in San Francisco where he has a house and keeps a old, blind lady as a permanent hostage. This is not your average hero comic\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The insane action part of the tale comes from the South Pole where the Canadian government has a super-secret gamma weapon project going, guarded by the Alpha Flight strongman Sasquatch. Somebody is paying good money to have it destroyed\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

‘Operation: Rescue Weasel or That Wacky Doctor’s Game!’<\/em> finds the slightly gamma-irradiated hitman still mooning over lost love Siryn (barely legal mutant hottie from X-Force) when his only friend and tech support guy Weasel goes missing, snatched by ninjas working for super-villain Taskmaster \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and just when Deadpool’s healing ability is on the fritz, whilst #3’s ‘Stumped! Or This Little Piggie Went\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Hey! Where’s the Piggy?!’<\/em> ramps up the screwball comedy quotient as Siryn convinces the merciless merc to turn his life around, which he’ll try just as soon as he tortures and slowly kills the doctor who experimented on him all those years ago\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The turnabout storyline continues in ‘Why is it, to Save Me, I Must Kill You?’<\/em> featuring a hysterically harrowing segment where Wilson has to get a blood sample from the Incredible Hulk, and concludes in #5’s ‘The Doctor is Skinned!’<\/em> wherein T-Ray, his biggest rival at Hellhouse, moves to become the company \u00e2\u20ac\u0153top gun\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Flashback<\/strong> was a company-wide publishing event wherein Marvel Stars revealed an unknown tale from their past, with each issue that month being numbered # -1. Deadpool’s contribution was a darker than usual tale from Kelly, Aaron Lopresti and Rachel Dodson, focusing on para-dimensional expediter Zoe Culloden, a behind the scenes manipulator who has been tweaking Wilson’s life for years. ‘Paradigm Lost’<\/em> looks at some formative moments from the hitman’s past and possibly reveals the moment when – if ever – the manic murderer started to become a better man\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Another extended story arc begins with Deadpool<\/strong> #6 and ‘Man, Check Out the Head on that Chick!’<\/em> as the gun (sword, grenade, knife, garrote, spoon\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6) for hire accepts a contract to spring a woman from a mental asylum. Of course it’s never cut-and-dried in Wade’s World, and said patient is guarded by the distressingly peculiar villainess the Vamp (who old-timers will recall changes into a giant, hairy naked telepathic cave-Man<\/em><\/strong> when provoked\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 cue poor taste jokes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6).<\/p>\n

It just gets worse in ‘Typhoid\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 It Ain’t Just Fer Cattle Any More or Head Trips’<\/em> as the captive chick turns out to be the murderous multiple personality psycho-killer Typhoid Mary (extra inking support from Chris Lichtner) whose seductive mind-tricks ensnare Deadpool and drag him into conflict with the Man Without Fear in the concluding Daredevil & Deadpool Annual 1997<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did I say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153concluding\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Typhoid isn’t that easy to get rid of and Deadpool<\/strong> #8 (by Kelly, Pete Woods, McGuiness, Shannon Denton, John Fang, Massengill and Lee) found her still making things difficult for Wilson in ‘We Don’t Need another Hero\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6’<\/em> as the merc is forced to confront true madness\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 or is it true Evil?<\/p>\n

There’s a return to lighter, but certainly no traumatic fare in the last tale ‘Ssshhhhhhhhhh! or Heroes Reburned’<\/em> (with ancillary pencils by Shannon Denton) as Deadpool reassumes his pre-eminent position at Hellhouse just in time to be suckered into a psychological ambush by utterly koo-koo villain Deathtrap – clearly a huge fan of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones cartoons\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Although staying close to the X-franchise that spawned him, Deadpool is a welcome break from the constant sturm und drang<\/em> of his Marvel contemporaries: weird, wise-cracking, and profoundly absurd on a satisfyingly satirical level. This is a great reintroduction to comics for fans who thought they had outgrown the fights ‘n’ tights crowd.<\/p>\n