The Good
Wade Wilson, a.k.a. Deadpool, attempts to protect Adolf Hitler from time travellers who want to kill the infamous man. If you can wrap your head around that idea and roll with it, odds are you'll have a blast with this one. Don't worry, Deadpool says he isn't fond of Hitler's agenda, but this is back when Wade was a villainous mercenary, and the amount of money he'll receive can buy a whole lot of chimichangas and The Golden Girls collections.
Writer Duane Swierczynski packs this final chapter with some moments that had me laughing out loud and the events never slowed down. From messing around with translations to Wilson's banter, the script was consistently humorous and never took itself too seriously. The action in this one is mostly forgettable -- there's just some good panels of shooting -- but it's still fun. In fact, "fun" really is the best way to describe this series. Sure, that's a subjective word and all that, but the premise is goofy and instead of going too ridiculous and slapstick-ish, they aimed to fill the scenario with thrills and banter that compliments the narrative's absurdity. For the most part, I'd say they succeeded. You can really tell this is a book where they just enjoyed seeing how much they could get away with.
Simply put, artist Pepe Larraz and colorist Nolan Woodard are awesome pair to bring all of this levity and madness to life. Larraz's juggles the various tones so well and offers character work that can make you burst into laughter one minute and then make you think a character is ridiculously formidable and intimidating the next minute. Not only is the character work diverse and impressive, but they do an excellent job handling all of the varied locations and special effects the writer puts into the script. Both really bring their A game with this and the end result is a book full of visuals that do such an superb job selling all of the laughs and crazy encounters.
The Bad
Yes, this is a book that embraces pure silliness and over-the-top fun, but the ending felt pretty abrupt. Even though I wasn't the biggest fan around of the sudden conclusion, they addressed it in an absolutely hilarious way in the "recap" page. Just don't expect a sudden dose of substance with this one, readers. And yes, I'm still a little bummed that no one on X-Force besides Cable received much of the spotlight. There's some cool panels of the team in action, but aside from that, they're just present to fight fodder. One day you'll get your time in the spotlight, Warpath. One day...
The Verdict
What you see is what you get with DEADPOOL VS. X-FORCE. It's all kinds of crazy, silly, and loaded with a ton of energy. It looks great and it's plenty of good fun, too. There's no real substance here and, as hilariously addressed in the final page, it isn't really something that necessarily needs to be read. However, if you simply want to laugh and enjoy an overdose of madness, you'll absolutely get your money's worth. After reading this limited series, one thing is clear: Marvel needs to let Duane Swierczynski write a new volume of CABLE & DEADPOOL. This arc makes it crystal clear he can handle the banter and action, but given more issues, I'm sure we'd see more character and depth shine through as well.
3 Comments