Deadpool Video Game: It's as Awesome as it Sounds

I normally don't go out of my way to make a blog post about a video game trailer. Between reviewing comics, getting drunk, and putting strippers through college I really don't have a lot of time for video games. But every so often a game comes along that simply demands I set aside my joint, tell the stripper to go home, and zip up my pants to take notice of an awesome game. But unfortunately for the comic book lover in me, video games based on comic books tend to suck worse than Rosie O'Donnell at a blowjob contest. Do I need to relive the horrors of that shitty X-men game that tied into an equally shitty third X-men movie? Or what about that horrendously shitty Fantastic Four game that tied into yet another shitty Fantastic Four movie? Then there was that ridiculously shitty X-men Destiny game whose only destiny belonged in a trash compactor, a microwave, or Tim Tebow's anus. I could go on, but at the risk of my soul decaying and being expelled along with the explosive diarrhea that these games often induced I'll skip the rest.

Now that's not to say Marvel can't make an awesome game. X-men Legends and Ultimate Alliance had their charm, but they were hardly awesome on the same level as a God of War III or Legends of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Given Marvel's vast cast of characters and equally vast catalog of epic stories, they have no excuse in an age where breast physics have been perfected. So it makes you wonder why they never tried something as logical as a Deadpool game. I mean think about it, what comic character is better suited for a video game? He's crude, he's rude, he's violent, he's witty, and he doesn't mind the fact that he's a fictional character that inspires shitty cos-players at every comic convention. He's shown up in some games like Ultimate Alliance and X-men Legends 2, but he's never had a game to call his own. That oversight ranks right up there with Mel Gibson's oversight regarding when he's being recorded.

But I'm always willing to forgive such oversights so long as they're addressed eventually. That's why I was so excited to see that a Deadpool game trailer was released during Comic Con this year. At first I thought someone spiked my drink again or someone sold me some bad weed. But for once, I'm glad I was sober because it was very real. That's right! A Deadpool game is in the works for 2013! That means I'll have to get drunk an awful lot for the time to pass by fast enough, but if this trailer is any indication I think my liver will forgive me. Nuff said!

Daken #9 - Ending With A Bang (and Burnt Bodies)

Who doesn't love a good sibling rivalry? I still remember fondly the days when my brother and I would peel the labels off my dad's vodka bottles, mix in some paint thinner, and see who could drink more without throwing up. Good times. The ongoing clash between Daken and X-23 is somewhat like that, with only half as much stabbing. X-23 followed Daken to the mean streets of Madripoor where in between cock-fighting and buying illegal fireworks/artillery, they clashed in a plot that involved Malcolm Concord and a new Weapon X program. Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu have done a great job, stretching this blood soaked family feud over four issues. Some of it is mindless torture porn. Some of it digs deeper into the divide between X-23 and Daken, two characters linked to Wolverine yet who couldn't be more different. One is an unrepentant douche-bag and the other is a confused teenage girl. You couldn't get more volatile without selling weapons grade plutonium to the cast of the Jersey Shore.

Throughout the story, Daken has kept X-23 guessing. At times he's working with Concord and at times he's screwing him over (in a way that doesn't involve his penis). First he helped Concord abduct X-23 so he could cut into her with a hacksaw and play Dr. House. Then Daken helped free X-23 because he suspects Concord is screwing him over (again, in a way that doesn't involve a penis). So he leads her to Concord's facilities where they both hope to get some answers. What they find is a bit more complicated and by complicated I mean fucked up in a way that Charlie Sheen would even admire. They end up facing an army of horribly mutated monsters that look like the tentacle monsters that weren't sexy enough for anime porn.

Daken #9 is the last issue in the crossover and picks up right after this grim discovery. Since Daken and X-23 are both the exceedingly complicated offspring of Wolverine, their reaction is simple. They tear into these monsters the same way I tear into a pizza dipped in vodka. We get some narration from Daken's perspective and unlike the previous issue, he actually sounds more complex than the unrepentant douche-bag he is at heart. It's a nice change in the midst of all the mindless violence. I'll give readers a moment to drool over the pictures and fantasize about doing the same to that bitch in high school who wouldn't go out with you, but would happily fuck your friends.

It's a very basic kind of action. Daken and X-23 spend several pages just ripping into these monsters and spilling more blood than the last four Saw movies combined. It never becomes too mindless though. At one point X-23 shoves Daken out of the way because he's wounded. Then after she finishes off the rest of the creatures, she says something that changes the whole bloodstorm element of the fight. The creatures they were fighting weren't just rejects from Resident Evil games. They were people. Or more accurately, they were children who had the misfortune of being experimented on by assholes who couldn't give less a fuck if you shoved it up their ass. That bothers X-23, but it doesn't bother Daken. It's a moment that shows the strong divide between these two characters, despite all the many strong connections they share.

This divide is profound. X-23 points out that the creatures have the same look in their eye as she does when she whiffs the trigger scent. She basically loses control and all sense of purpose. That's not unlike what Daken does, who is perfectly fine with letting lose and ignoring all emotional repercussions. It's not clear if he's even listening. He may be fantasizing about boning Arnold Schwarzenegger now that he's separated from that wife of his. But he doesn't respond to X-23 and focuses on finding Concord.

The story gets much less philosophical as they slaughter more people on their way to Concord. Along the way, Daken does some more musing. It shows he may have acutally heard a thing or two when X-23 was pointing out the killers they were at heart. Yet she treats it differently. He indulges in it. She just goes through the motions. He goes so far to ask what it really means. All while cutting some random guy's heads off and painting the wall with his brains.

This inner conflict is something that I haven't seen int he Daken comics so far. I know I make a lot of jokes about him being a total douche and he is much of the time. But he does show some depth here and it's depth that stems from his connection to X-23. She is one way while he's the other, yet they're still killers. That strikes at the very heart of these characters. It provides insight to the readers that they couldn't get if Liu and Way drew it on the back of a Las Vegas showgirl.

Once they killing stops and the blood stops spattering everywhere, they reach Concord. He tries the typical villain ploys, threatening to detonate a bomb if they don't stop. X-23 and Daken come from a very atypical lineage with atypical attitudes. So that does Concord absolutely dick. Even after he says there's a bomb, they look about as concerned as a gay who just banged the last three Maxim cover-girls at once. It seems odd, but think of it this way. Would Wolverine be all that afraid of getting blown up? Hell no! So why should X-23 and Daken?

The sheer stupidity of Concord's plan continues to unravel. Seriously, did he really think he could deal with these two and come out in once piece? Now you would think they're still adverse to being blown up and you'd be more wrong than the guy who claimed he could predict the stock market by reading the messages in a bowl of Lucky Charms. He even tells them to remove a wire in the bomb. They don't even bother. Instead, Daken does something unexpected that once again doesn't involve his penis. He asks X-23 a question.

Just as X-23 took a moment to be philosophical on him, he offers his take. He asks Laura why she limits herself. It's not an unfair questions. X-23 does hold back. She could be every bit as deadly as Daken if not deadlier. She has his skills. She demonstrated that throughout this crossover. Yet she doesn't. She actually has a heart. That baffles him.

She doesn't get a chance to answer Daken's question. While they were discussing this profound question on life, the bomb blows up. They react to it the same way we might react to another drug charge from Darrel Strawberry. They let the bomb blow up because it saves them the trouble of tearing about Concords crazy psuedo-Weapon X piece by piece. Sure it renders them to skeletons for a moment, but that's barely a flesh wound for them. They just couldn't be Wolverine's offspring if they couldn't take an all out explosion without flinching.

So Concords plan blows up thanks to his own pitiful planning and/or outright stupidity. In a scene that Freddy Kruger would jerk off to, Daken and X-23 emerge as scarred hunks of meat that just came hot off the grill at a MacDonalds. Yet even in this state, they continue their debate. X-23 doesn't answer Daken's question. She ends up asking another. She turns it around and asks why Daken limits himself. In her mind, his desire to hold back his emotions in exchange for power thus limits his power. It's as if it's more dangerous to him because it may threaten his ego or he may not be able to handle it. Again, the differences and similarities between these two are striking. They tore into each other earlier in the story. Now they're tearing into each other with questions and it really isn't clear who is right or who is wrong.

A word of caution though, if you read this issue while stoned your mind may be so blown you may not move for four hours. So make sure you're wearing clean underwear or have a piss bottle handy.

The fight isn't necessarily settled and why should it be? These two just survived an explosion. I'm pretty sure they'd rather save their homicidal rage for something more worth-while. They meet up with Tyger and Gambit, who have been sidelined for the past few issues because both are too pussy to take a simple explosion. Now Tyger has a chance to subdue Daken, who did screw her over (possibly with his penis as well) earlier in the story. But for reasons that aren't entirely clear, she lets him go. In an issue full of so many philosophical musings, this one stumped me no matter how much pot I smoked.

With Daken gone and Concord reduced to barbeque, Gambit and X-23 leave. However, Gambit still shares one last kiss with Tyger. She comments on how she wants to 'taste' him. I'm pretty sure that's the least subtle porno metaphor Marvel has EVER done. But they end up leaving before too many uglies are bumped. X-23 and Gambit set sail again. X-23 didn't kill Daken, but she did take on Concord and she proved to Daken that while she's a killer she still controls her fate. That's more important to her than being a massive douche-bag. When a teenage girl can be that honest with herself, then you know something profound has happened.

So it seems like a good ending for X-23. But what about Daken? This is his book after all. Well after he grows his skin back, rests a bit, and bangs a few hookers (male or female) he's back to his old pretty self. But as soon as he's healthy again, he pays a visit to someone unexpected. It's Concord. Apparently, he did survive the explosion and it wasn't just because he's douche factor matched Daken's. Those experiments he was conducting weren't for Weapon X. He was trying to develop an artificial healing agent. This actually makes him a lot less of a douche because with a healing agent, you could technically do a damn bit of good in the world. And if it means screwing over a jerk off like Daken, that's practically a bonus!

Unfortunately, all those other burn victims and cancer patients will be disappointed. The healing agent doesn't exactly work. Concord doesn't heal the same way Daken and X-23 do. He only heals half-way. By that I mean he still looks like a guy with burnt bacon for skin. That's no way to live. He asks Daken to kill him, but Daken being the asshole he is lets him suffer. It just wouldn't be douchy enough to show mercy. Now the guy could have used the healing agent to create more monsters, but you can't deny his plan had some potential. It once again shows that Daken is as unrepentant as it comes when it comes to being a complete and total tool. Yet he never lets it get in the way of enjoying life. It's a fitting ending because in a way he's like X-23 in that he does seek his own destiny, even if that destiny is being an asshole.

So the Collision arc has ended. The long-awaited showdown of X-23 vs Daken has come and gone. Is the story as awesome as it sounds? Well let me sober up for a minute and break it down. Marjorie Liu and Daniel Way could have easily spent several issues with X-23 and Daken beating the piss, shit, and entrails out of one another. That would have been quite a sight, but let's face it. That sort of bloodshed is more a lit match than a bon-fire you can roast marshmallows on. Making a story out of that carnage is difficult and there was more than just bloodshed. There was a strong plot surrounding Weapon X, Malcolm Concord, and the differences between X-23 and Daken. It was a wonderfully balanced story that showed the conflict between these two. It's not like a Wolverine Sabretooth rivalry. It's a rivalry of two conflicting personalities with the same burdens.

Now the case could be made that the conflict between X-23 and Daken wasn't physical enough. They spent only one issue beating each other up and the rest they were either working together or working to screw each other over. The arc did sputter a bit in the middle and became choppy at times. However, the end did effectively tie everything together. It didn't just resolve the story surrounding Concord. It established the conflict between Daken and X-23. It wasn't going to be resolved with one fight. It was a lot more complicated and the door was left open for that fight to resume. It's a great new element for both characters and one that makes this mini-crossover a true success.

This final issue is definitely the most fun I've ever had reading a comic with the title Daken on it. Between this title and the X-23 titles, it works perfectly to close out a great story. You can't find too much wrong with it unless you're as big a douche as Daken and start nit-picking. That's why I give Daken #9 and the Collision arc as a whole a 5 out of 5. There's a lot to love about this story and these characters. A confused teenage girl and an unrepentant douche whose last name isn't Trump has so much to offer! If you're a fan of either titles, you'll want to frame this arc. It's definitely worth it's weight in adamantium. Nuff said!

Daken #8 - The X-23/Daken Saga Continues

I've made no secret of my disdain of Daken. I liken him to a cross between Gordan Gecko and David Lee Roth, a douche-bag so full of himself that he's fuck his own ass if he could. I never really bothered with his ongoing. If I wanted to read two dozen pages of some degenerate asshole I'd read one of Donald Trump's books. But he's not the only Wolverine spin-off in the Marvel Universe. X-23 has endeared herself to me much more. She's a far superior character in that she doesn't have to act like a complete asshole to set herself apart from her predecessor. She's her own character and under Marjorie Liu, her new series has been a monument to awesome.

Now after each character has waded through their own pool of shit, they're finally set to clash in a story entitled Collision. It reviewed the first part in X-23 #8. It was a story that did everything right. It brought X-23 and Gambit to mean streets of Madripoor. It showed why Madripoor makes Tijuana look like a Saudi Arabian religious compound. It also put X-23 and Daken within stabbing distance of one another and they took full advantage of it. The issue ended with the two characters bloodied and pissed off. Daken #8 picks up right after that. Can the series continue even within the pages where the douchiness is so thick that you can't read it around an open flame?

Well Daken #8 starts from Daken's perspective and not X-23's. He's still staring down X-23, seeing Wolverine in her eyes and not in a good way. They're both in a position to tear into each other like a pack of hungry wolves that just broke into John Goodman's refrigerator. Then all that heated action that made the end of the last issue so thrilling takes an unexpected turn. Instead of fighting on, Daken does what can't be describe as exceedingly douchy. But it can be described as exceedingly fucked up because he just asks X-23 to take his hand, after his inner musings blatantly state he sees Wolverine in her. If that's not fucked up enough, X-23 does this even though she says he doesn't need him. I don't know if this was Marjorie Liu's idea or Daniel Way's, but it's more fucked up than Gary Busey's psych evaluation.

I really wish I could figure out what the fuck happened here. I would need the brain of Stephen Hawkings and whatever medications Michael Jackson was taking to make sense of it. Just after X-23 flat out rejects Daken's hand, Tyger shows up. She was a big player in the last issue and now somehow she's at the scene. It's not clear whether Daken goes to her or she comes to him. But for reasons that defy modern physics, X-23 just completely disappears. It doesn't show her walking away. It doesn't show her escaping. No attempt is made to explain this shit. Daken just talks to Tyger, who reminds him she helped him get control of Madripoor and he's responsible. But trying to teach an asshole like Daken responsibility is like trying to teach abstinence to a porn star. It's a waste of words.

Again, there's another fucked up scene transition. There's no narration. There's no mention of where X-23 went or what Tyger even wants Daken to do. He just goes on his merry way, reciting lines from old poems and sounding like a douche-bag with every line. So that epic fight that unfolded against X-23 and Daken in the last issue amounts to precisely dick. It makes no sense and there's no flow to this book.

So when Daken finally meets up with the mysterious Malcolm Concord that was revealed in the pages of X-23, it has about as much impact as Brett Favre saying he's going to retire. There's not a whole lot of groundbreaking revelations here other than Daken seems to want to launch his flesh rocket into Concord's chocolate factor. That and he wants Concord to make a new Weapon X program that will make him even more powerful than his predecessor. It's the kind of douche-bag behavior you would expect from Daken, but it's low even for him.

Concord seems to want X-23 as a test subject and who wouldn't? Damaged teenage girls who want to kill the people who fuck them up are just so easy to mess with. It's about as groundbreaking as another porn star claiming to nailed Tiger Woods. So it basically confirms what X-23 suspected. Daken was working with Concord and the Weapon X program is up and running again, just as boobalicious Miss Sinister claimed in the previous arc. I want to say that this is another dick move because unlike every other Wolverine spin-off, Daken is actually embracing Weapon X. Yeah, it makes him different. But the way he goes about it still makes him a douche. However, he's not above screwing Weapon X over as he screws everybody over both pornographically and figuratively.

So it's also not terribly surprising when X-23 emerges with Gambit to basically fuck Concord up. Again, this comes after X-23 saying she doesn't need Daken's help. It's not really a twist. It's basically showing one thing and doing the other. It's like hypocrisy only it doesn't get you a job as a treasury secretary after you've skimped on your taxes. I wish I could figure out how the course of events unfolded, but I re-read this comic several times and still couldn't get it down. I don't know if it was poor planning or it's like the movie Inception where it's purposefully confusing. That may work in movies where Leo Dicapprio is there to make the women go into orgasmic fits, but in a comic book like this you might as well try teaching brain surgery with a coloring book.

X-23 doesn't waste time with Concord. Apparently she was following Daken, but again it's hard to figure out because her fight with Daken basically ended on a WTF note. Now that she has Concord in her grasp, she prepares to have a little chat with him. And by chat I mean in the way Freddy Kruger chats with whining teenage girls. She explains to him how she was taught all the fine elements of torture at an age when most girls are just learning to dress like sluts from Miley Cyrus inspired concerts. She demonstrates that by tearing off some of Concord's nails. For a teenage girl, it's pretty badass and it's a nice touch for X-23. She's been basically written out of the issue to this point and she makes a powerful statement that hurts like hell just to think about.

While Concord is getting the kind of pedicure you can only get from a Somalian warlord, Daken decides to follow his dick again and flirt with Gambit. Keep in mind, he's doing this while a man is being tortured. This is the sort of thing that gives him a boner and he has the gall to use it by asking Gambit to take a cruise down the Hershey highway with him. Now you could argue Gambit is a bit of a douche, but his bullshit smells like summer roses compared to the stomach-melting stench of Daken exudes.

Even the worst Gambit haters in the world of comic fandom have to admit that Daken is a few rungs lower on the ladder of assholes. You can't help but forgive some of the guy's flaws when he starts tearing into Daken the same way X-23 should have done in the first few pages of the issue. Daken does seem to get under Gambit's skin, pointing out correctly that he's a scoundrel who would rob his grandmother and kick her in the face yet find some twisted way to justify it. He'll likely do that to X-23 as well. Daken may not be wrong, but he still deserves the beating he gets from Gambit and it's not the kind that'll give him another boner (I think).

Unfortunately, Gambit makes the same mistake as X-23 and doesn't keep pounding Daken until he's a metrosexual puddle of puss. While he was busy keeping his ass away from Daken's other claw, Malcolm Concord managed to stick X-23 with a needle. And that's not a porno joke either. Somehow while this deranged teenage girl was torturing him, he found a way to take her out. Every parent in the world would get on their knees and suck Concord's dick if he shared with them his secrets. Unfortunately, this is never shown and when Gambit sees it he ends up getting knocked out. I can only assume Daken will find a way to have his way with him off panels.

So the big fight between X-23 and Daken falters in the same way a party at frat house house falters. Someone gets knocked out, some homoerotic innuendo is shared, and someone gets knocked unconscious and thrown into the trunk of a car. There's no implied date rape, but given this is Daken we're talking about it could have happened off-panel. It makes me wonder why he doesn't ditch Madripoor and just enroll in some underachieving college where he can indulge in all the reckless poon and degrading violence that a degenerate like him could want. Unfortunately, it doesn't do X-23 much good. She was pushed aside in this issue and shuffled around like personalities of Mike Meyers. Yet it all ends with her getting thrown in the trunk. It's an underwhelming end to a disappointing book.

Now before I score this let me state outright that I understand this is a Daken book. It makes sense for him to take center stage. I don't mind that he had more panel time than X-23. I do mind that it wasn't developed in a very coherent way. The fight that began in X-23 #8 was just completely cut off so Daken could do his own thing. It felt like a string of choppy transitions that left one too many gaping plot holes. Did X-23 just stand there after Daken went off to meet Tyger? What the hell did Daken hope to gain by reaching out to X-23? It just seemed like an excuse to stop the fight so the story with Malcolm Concord could unfold. It's a messy way to tell a story and it really stunts the momentum that this book had in the last issue.

That's not to say it was terrible. The book definitely picked up steam as it neared the end. X-23's confrontation with Concord was very powerful and it involved an exploding car, so I'll give bonus points to that. Also, Gambit got to play a bigger part by beating up Daken when he tried to flirt with him. That's definitely a plus because Gambit hasn't really done much in the past two issues of X-23. It's nice to see him finally partake in a major fight. It would have a lot more impact if the story was actually well-organized. That way the fight would feel more natural. Sadly, the weak beginning of the issue really stunts the potential of this book.

There is still one issue left of the Collision arc. It's set to conclude in X-23 #9. I'm still excited about it, but this issue really left me underwhelmed. It's not a terrible book. It has all the potential necessary to be as awesome as X-23 #8, but it just doesn't follow through. The latter half of the book is solid while the first half is a mess. So in the interest of balance I give Daken #8 a 2.5 out of 5. If you only read half the book, you'll get plenty of awesome. It just depends on which half you read. The X-23/Daken battle has been pretty entertaining so far, but this was definitely a hiccup. It has every potential to finish strong. Like a witness to a drunken bar fight, it just needs to be coherent. Nuff said!

X-POSITION: Marjorie Liu & Daniel Way - My Questions Asked!

I know I've been doing a lot of ranting lately, comparing Hope Summers (aka Jean Ripoff) to no fewer than fifteen different kinds of diarrhea. I apologize to those who are sick of hearing my graphic depictions of the entrails I want Jean ripoff's brains to read once Bishop comes back from the future and gives her a Columbian neck-tie complete with her tongue ripped out through her throat. While I may not be done spitting on her eventual grave, there are still plenty of X-books that I enjoy reading. X-23 by Marjorie Liu is one of them. This past week she and Daniel Way were the subject of CBR's X-POSITION.

X-POSITION: Marjorie Liu & Daniel Way

Now I've had little to complain about with X-23. Marjorie Liu has taken the character a long way in only seven short issues. X-23 has been a science experiment, a messed up teenage girl, an X-man, a member of X-Force, and a whole host of other problems that make her just slightly less crazy than the girls I dated in high school. X-23 still has plenty awesome to offer as recent stories have set the stage for an eventual clash with Daken, Wolverine's metrosexual son who makes Lady Gaga look modest. I'm looking forward to seeing X-23 give Daken the kind of torment that doesn't give him a boner. As such I submitted some questions for the X-POSITION and they ended up getting asked.

MarvelMaster616 is also curious about Weapon X and some of Laura's conditioning. What can you tell him about the following:

1) Since the beginning of the "X-23" series, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on Laura being a teenage girl and not just a mutant or a product of Weapon X. Now that she's trying to find her own way, what exactly would you say she's looking for? Does she have any idea? Or is that something she's still trying to figure out?

Liu: I don't think she really knows what she's looking for. Who does? She's always lived in a very controlled environment. Very regulated and structured. And then, the first time she was on her own, it was a disaster. She killed people, became a prostitute -- I mean, come on. This kid has had a rough life.

Now she's a little older, maybe a little wiser and she wants to know who she is -- because she doesn't know. Is she just a killer? Is that all she's good for? Can she move past her conditioning and be something more? Or is it enough for her to be a soldier? What makes her happy? 

2) In the second issue of "X-23," there's a moment where Logan is talking to Laura about him being a father figure to her and her being a daughter. Is this relationship dynamic going to come back up once their paths cross again? The ‘Hellverine' arc sort of derailed it.

Liu: You bet it's coming back. I'll also be exploring Wolverine's double-standard when it comes to his care of Jubilee versus X-23. Actually, I'll sort of be hammering it over the head. I'm not very subtle, sometimes.  

3) Why do you think X-23 and Daken are so different despite being the offspring of Wolverine?

Liu: That's a hard one. Both were raised in radically different environments. Clearly, I think X-23 had a more difficult life than Daken and yet, she's not a sociopath. She is, however, emotionally shut down -- and can be a stone-cold killer. If she had been raised like Daken? Who knows?

Way: Here's the easy, non-academic answer: different creators. Few people know this, but my inspiration for Daken's characterization was actually the song "We're Only Gonna Die" by Bad Religion.

Overall, I've little material with which to make poop jokes this time around. Marjorie Liu seems to have a solid handle on X-23. She's not approaching this series the same way as her previous series. She's basically guiding X-23 down a very uncertain path and providing plenty of awesome along the way. The prospect of X-23 meeting up with Wolverine and a non-Twilight vampire in Jubilee adds even more potential for gut busting awesome. Yet I would still argue that about a quarter of the girls in my high school graduating class went through less insanity.

While the other X-books give me so many reasons to shove my head into a deep fryer, X-23 offers a great deal of comfort in that it's a solid and consistent book that tells the story about a great character who is still coming into her own. With plenty of events to look forward to in the near future, I'll definitely be tracking this comic in my blog and in my LSD trips! Nuff said.

Deadpool 22 Review - Small Town Awesome

Lately, it seems Deadpool comics are the only comics that offer pure entertainment rather than complex serious plots involving traditional superheroes. Not that there's anything wrong with those stories, but between stories like Siege and Second Coming there aren't too many comics that just make fanboys smile and laugh with pure awesome. It's all world ending emotional strain and heartfelt character deaths that tug at the heart of fans and creators alike. Granted, our arteries are hardened from years of awesome, but we do have our limits. There are times when we need the kind of crazy fun you can only get from a wise-cracking psychopath who can have a heart of gold along with balls of adamantium. Deadpool is one of those comics and issues like Deadpool #22 show why these comics are so much fun and give our hearts and arteries a much needed break.

Deadpool #22 is a departure from the previous few arcs where Deadpool has tried to join the X-men and Spider-Man. His efforts to be more 'heroic' have so far had mixed results at best. He still shoots, kills, and maims his way through ridiculous situations and cracks jokes about it in the process. The setup for this issue was not too elaborate. He was traveling on a bus through a small town in Georgia daydreaming about fighting Thor when the bus got pulled over and robbed at gunpoint. Leading the pack was your typical hillbilly stereotype with a special kick. He was able to blast Deadpool Electro style with a suite made up of car batteries. It's the kind of thing that only works in Deadpool's world.


So what does Deadpool do? While he rarely does the most logical thing in response, here it's a bit less crazy than usual. He goes to the police station only to find out the police were in on the attack and weren't going to do anything about it. Deadpool being Deadpool he took matters into his own hands and took over the station, naming himself sheriff in the process. It's a title that shouldn't mess well with his character, but he makes it work.


As usual, a pretty girl enters the picture who works for the Sheriff and helps Deadpool to take on White Lightning and his gang. She's unusually helpful and by unusual I mean she actually encourages Deadpool to find them and kill them. That should be a red flag. In comics, like life, whenever something looks too good to be true it probably is. Deadpool finds this out the hard way and gets set up when he takes down White Lightning. The Feds then show up and by traditional government logic, they go after the guy in the mask with the guns and the history of blowing stuff up. Only Deadpool could be so deranged that he would have the government actually act logically.

But authority figures are not without their redeeming qualities. Even though Deadpool is a wanted man, they actually listen to him (reminding readers once again that impossible things do happen in comics books) and he takes them to the police station where they end up arresting Deadpool's female ally. In exchange they conveniently stand by while he goes on his merry way. Again, only in comics will government be that reasonable.


So overall, does it work? Deadpool comics are one of the few comics writers have to actively try to make suck. Deadpool is an easy guy to write. He's nuttier than squirrel turds and he's hard to write out of character because pretty much anything goes for someone that crazy. That being said, this one-shot was a nice read. It wasn't quite as engaging as the previous issues involving other Marvel heroes. There were also scenes where it kept going back and forth to what was happening presently and what was happening in the past. That got pretty confusing after a few pages and became an outright distraction. It was basically the equivalent of trying to solve a crossword puzzle with one and a rubix cube with the other. That's not the kind of complexity you want in a Deadpool comic.

This series is always good for a solid read and this issue gets a 3.5 out of 5. It's definitely worth picking up. You'll get to enjoy a nice stand-alone story and if your from the south, you may just get a little offended in the process. So overall, Deadpool #22 is a good time and offers plenty of awesome.