A Deadpool Title to Read
Okay after I tore apart Deadpool MAX I felt like I should establish that I am indeed a Deadpool fan. And Deadpool Pulp has been a perfect example of everything I love about Deadpool.
It's not about the humor, the 4th wall, or even the yellow subtitles. Honestly when the character was introduced he didn't even have the healing factor we all know and love (check the first bunch of issues of X-Force, he references his jaw being wired shut for a month) or the yellow subtitles (his text was orignally just done bold with red, not yellow.) Instead we get a fractured man doing the job he has to do. Not because he wants to do it, not because its the right thing to do, but because it's the job he's paid to do.
Deadpool Pulp #1 established our schizophrenic protagonist as well as perfectly timing a Frank Sinatra song to the carnage of a few pages. Now Deadpool Pulp has established the characters more, Wade Wilson and "Crazy Inez" Outlaw were once lovers, And his true conflict is "duty or love." Everything that is great about a pulp novel is here. Mike Benson and Adam Glass mesh perfectly with the writing; all the humor of Benson with the serious writing Glass prefers to do.
The art deserves special note because it continues to capture the pulp era while still feeling like a modern comic book. Some of the best artwork is when Outlaw and Deadpool dance together, for what may be the last time, It is done in a spotlight where the talk through the current issues and then decided that they are enemies. Laurence Campbell does a great job of capturing the mood of the scene and making it seem natural when they both pull their guns.
All and all, Deadpool writers and artists need to look at this book and keep in mind that zany Deadpool failed in his first series run, it wasn't until Cable and Deadpool made him relatable that he started to catch on with more fans. Deadpool can be zany and fourth wall breaking, in fact he should be. But unlike Corps or MAX, you have to make him someone you can relate to not just a crazy merc with swords and guns and a red and black mask.