Writer: Skottie Young // Artist: Scott Hepburn // MARVEL
Cut The Talk, Hit The Action
Of course, everyone wants Deadpool to shut up. Completely on-brand, understandable. What is sad about Deadpool #12 is that now that we understand what happened in the villain’s childhood and how Wade (at first) attributed to those traumatic experiences (Deadpool #11), we are now seeing the pissed off aftermath. Now, this gets ugly, but its casual cartoonish humor. You know the usual, flopping Wade across ally ways, buildings, food trucks, incoming traffic the usual. It was funny, genuinely, but I’m not sure if this comic was anything passed a revenge beating? You know those episodes of Dragonball Z where Goku is powering up for like SIX THOUSAND episodes?
Deadpool #12 feels like that, except he’s just getting beaten for like 98% of the comic. I’ll admit the intensity rises and it felt more like an issue to showcase the humor and art style than the actual writing/concept. Which on one-hand saddened me because I felt like this could have been the perfect time to introduce Deadpool’s mindset during said beating (I mean he got whooped). Granted when you’re getting slammed into projectiles, it is hard to be reflective. Yet at the same time, I appreciated this breath of fresh air considering that the last issue was somewhat heavy. Therefore in a way, seeing Deadpool tossed around like a discus, was understandable.
Gruesome Understanding
One thing that Deadpool #12 genuinely made me think about, is the heaviness of loss. How does a grudge build? What does it look like? I never once questioned the anger coming out from our villain, the interrupting thoughts, and the definitive answers. Anger is definitive. It presents nuances in different forms of pain, it hits hard on some days, others it is a slow tear. The best part about this comic was the disintegration of Wade as our anti-hero and as a person. The nuances could have been attacked differently, and as much as I love a comic filled with action and all the dark humor to spare, I felt like we had a perfect moment to attack the aftermath of trauma, and how will that serve as a narrative in future issues, and that great bait was not taken.
Was this issue entertaining? Yes. Did it do what I know it was capable of? No.
7.8 Delayed Service of These Hands out of 10
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