I've been
exposed to comics for pretty much as long as I can remember. Matt started in on
comics super early, and therefore I was two years younger when I started. For
me though, they were always just a constant presence in my periphery. Our mom
would buy us the occasional comic here and there, and she would get me the
latest "Batman Adventures" issue. But I was so young, I just read
them out of obligation, I didn't have much of an opinion. My nerdiness really
flourished in college with video games, D&D and Magic cards. All of which I
very lightly dabbled in during high school as well. But still no comics.
It
wasn't until one day last year that I decided to look into comic books. A
friend from college reviewed Vertigo's American Vampire. And I trust
this guy's opinions on all things nerd, so I was intrigued. I also learned that
Marvel was starting the new title Avenger's Academy. The idea of
starting a new title from the very beginning, with new characters never before
seen in the Marvel universe, was cool to me. I was never interested in starting
a comic in the middle of its run; say, Spiderman
#367 or something. So I did some research, poked around. I settled on four
titles to start my official foray into the comic world.
The
aforementioned Avenger's Academy, American Vampire, the newest
run of Deadpool (which I ended up buying all of the back issues for
(about twenty or so), because, like I said, I can't start in the middle of
series), and another comic reviewed by my college buddy, iZombie.
We'll
start with iZombie (by Chris
Roberson). Frankly, I totally forgot who published it. And if I didn't
have my comic shop's monthly comic schedule in the drawer next to me (at work),
I wouldn't have even bothered to look it up. It's Vertigo, for the record. So I
thought the premise for this title was pretty cool. Zombie works as night-time
gravedigger for easy access to brains. Is friends with ghost and werewolf
(except he turns into a terrier, if I remember correctly, not really a wolf)
(upon research, he’s a wereterier. So, yeah. That.). And when she eats the
brains, she has flashes of memories and of the dead, and is then compelled to
right wrongs, solve crimes, avenge murders, what have you. Even the art was
pretty cool (Michael Allred) with its flatter textures and heavy uses of blues
and pinks. But, where it failed, and what ultimately had me stop collecting it
only a few issues in, was the writing. Now, this title is still going and
available as of the writing of this article, so if it sounds cool, by all
means, pick 'er up. But the slightly clichéd story, paired with the really
pretty lame dialogue and weak overall delivery left me wanting so much more. It
just felt like it was lacking in something that I couldn't put my finger on.
The title has been around for over a year now, so I hope that it picked up, and
fleshed out (bad pun intended. Zombies, remember?) and has become something
more than what the first few issues had to offer. It must have something
redeemable, as it's still selling, but it just lost me too early on.
Deadpool
always made me laugh before I picked up the series. My first real exposure to
the character was when I read the "Civil War" line that Marvel did
back in '06 to ‘07 (it was early my senior year of college). In that
cross-universe storyline, we saw Deadpool paired with Cable. Cable was the
perfect straight man to Deadpool's sarcastic, biting wit. And frankly, he made
me laugh my ass off. So, I thought, why not look into Deadpool's own,
individual series? So I bit the bullet and jumped into the series that was
already about 20 issues in. So I back ordered all of the issues that I had
missed, and even had to ebay those that couldn't be found. But, I have all of
them, so the collection is complete, and my ocd tendencies are at ease.
I
should note, the title I'm collecting is just plain Deadpool (written by Daniel Way). Not Baby
Deadpool or Doggy Deadpool or Deadpool Corps or Sexy
Deadpool. I don't know if any of those are actually titles, but I know that
for the longest time, there were a ton of titles. To the point where Marvel
even advertised and said "Listen, there are too many Deadpool titles.
We're going to trim some of the fat. Which ones should we cut?" And they
did take a few out, but this is the main Deadpool title.
So,
the art is fun (pencils by Paco Medina at first, currently by Ale Garza), it's
just cartoony enough to fit in with the insanity that is Wade Wilson. The story
has a tendency to leave much to be desired at times, though. There are the
occasional stand-alone issues that are frustratingly vapid. There was even a .1
issue (49.1, to be precise) that was an "opera" where every other
page was a character singing some bit of the Deadpool story "set to the
tune of (insert song that you don't actually know the tune of)". And
that's just stupid. Why make me waste my four dollars on that drivel? Oh, I
don't have to buy that one? Yes, you're right, I acknowledge. But if I want to
collect all of the issues as they come, I have to suck it up and buy them all.
Otherwise it's not a full collection. Frankly, an issue like that doesn't feel
clever, it feels like a cop-out, and disrespectful for those who collect the
comic regularly. It added nothing to the story. It wasn't a refreshing change.
The
dialogue itself is usually funny. Not as good as really early original Deadpool
(I've got the first Classic Deadpool Volume 1 tpb; good stuff), but it's
not altogether atrocious. And the storylines, usually only a few issues long,
are zany enough to fit in perfectly with Deadpool's theme of absurdity.
So,
it stands to question, am I being too hard on Deadpool? Am I looking for too
much out of him? Should I simply accept the sophomoric humor, nothing too
in-depth story-wise and be happy with it? I don't really have an answer, I
don't know what the writers are really going for. The latest storyline
(starting with 50) (and he tried to get the Hulk to kill him earlier on,
39-40), where Deadpool has been playing both heroes and villains against each
other in order to actually be killed. Like, big boy killed. No more regen, no
more healing factor. Worm food. And it's a good storyline. But I'm finding it
hard to see a fair balance of comedy and story. (except the "Evil
Deadpool" line (45-49), that one was solid) So, all-in-all, if you're
looking for something definitely on the lighter comic side, but still has super
heroes in it, Deadpool isn't a bad one to look into.
The
next two coming soon!
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