"Deadpool: In Wade We Trust"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Deadpool: In Wade We Trust” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned magician Michael Hawthorne/Necromancer was unhappy with the condition of the United States of America. He felt his country was falling apart and needed help. He used his magic powers to resurrect the deceased former presidents of the U.S.A., hoping that they would be able to restore order to his fractured country. Instead, the former Commanders in Chief decided to destroy the country. S.H.I.E.L.D. was tasked with bringing an end to this situation, and Agent Emily Preston was assigned with leading the operation. Wade Wilson/Deadpool was in Manhattan fighting a monster when Franklin Delano Roosevelt attacked. Deadpool stopped the former president, and Agent Preston decided the best way to stop the presidents would be to have a superpowered asset who wasn’t a well-known superhero bring the crisis to a quiet end. Preston hired Deadpool for $2,000,000. Deadpool traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met the ghost of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin agreed to assist Deadpool in his assignment. The former presidents, including George Washington and John F. Kennedy, Jr. forced Michael to raise an army for them as they attempted to destroy the country. After defeating Theodore Roosevelt, Preston decided she and Deadpool needed help from someone with experience in the field of the supernatural: Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. Strange provided Deadpool with a magic sword that would be able to re-decease the presidents. Deadpool was successful in stopping many of the presidents in places like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas. Ronald Reagan flew to outer space to activate missiles on an abandoned Russian space station. With Michael’s help, Deadpool teleported to space to stop the president. Following this, Deadpool, Preston, Michael, and Ben Franklin retired to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, which was attacked by Washington and Lyndon Baines Johnson. Though Deadpool was able to re-decease Johnson, he was unable to prevent Washington from un-aliving Preston. Michael teleported himself, Deadpool and the un-alived Preston to Washington, D.C., where George Washington was using Michael’s spellbook to cast a spell to destroy the country. Deadpool was able to breach the magic bubble and put a stop to the undead presidents’ assault, but Preston’s boss, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Gorman refused to pay Deadpool the money he was promised, despite Deadpool’s receiving praise from Captain America and the Avengers. Deadpool then discovered that before Preston’s body ceased to function, Michael had transplanted Preston’s consciousness into Deadpool and that Deadpool now shared a body with Preston.

            Flashback: Deadpool signed a contract with a demon named Vetis, who was trying to make a name for himself with the Hell-Lord Mephisto. Deadpool was hired to make Iron Man drink. Anthony “Tony” Stark/Iron Man was struggling with alcoholism and Vetis hoped to take Deadpool’s soul and take advantage of Stark. Deadpool found Stark, but the two bonded, and Deadpool cheated Vetis by knocking out Stark, drinking, and stealing then piloting the Iron Man armor, thus making Iron Man drink, but not making Tony Stark drink, which Deadpool’s contract with Vetis didn’t specify that the Iron Man who drank had to be Tony Stark, so by Deadpool being a drunk Iron Man, the contract was fulfilled. Vetis’ plan failed, and Mephisto was not pleased and vowed to punish Vetis.

            Deadpool and Preston dealt with sharing a body and Preston missed her family. After having Deadpool check in on Preston’s son, then having Deadpool shot by Preston’s husband, Deadpool retreated to his mobile headquarters, a stolen ice cream truck, where Vetis returned to try to renegotiate his contract with Deadpool. Vetis revealed he had given Michael his magical powers and ordered Deadpool to un-alive four specific people whom Vetis had granted magical powers to and return those powers to Vetis, or Vetis would claim those four souls, along with those of Michael and Deadpool. Deadpool agreed to save his “friend,” and Michael offered to transfer Preston into the body of one of Deadpool’s victims. After finishing the first name, Preston decided that this was not the one she wanted. Deadpool was seduced by a mysterious woman, who tricked him into an ambush where he was assaulted and had samples taken from him while he was unconscious. Deadpool, Preston, Michael, and Ben Franklin continued into looking for ways to transfer Preston, and learned that the Ancient One, a master sorcerer, had a secret library located under Ryker’s Island. The group decided the best way to get in was to have Michael arrested and sent to Ryker’s, then teleport Deadpool in and infiltrate the library, then have Michael and Ben Franklin search for a spell to transplant Preston while Deadpool continued eliminating the names on the list. After escaping from Ryker’s, Michael and Ben Franklin rejoined up with Deadpool, but Deadpool decided the best way to save Michael’s soul would be to un-alive Michael. While Michael went to Hell, Deadpool teamed up with Peter Parker/Otto Octavius/the Superior Spider-Man, whom Deadpool tricked into helping him un-alive another name on the list. While in Hell, Michael struck a deal with Mephisto. Deadpool battled Daredevil, then completed the task Vetis had assigned him. Vetis then turned his returned powers against Deadpool, until Deadpool was aided in defeating Vetis by Mephisto and a restored to life Michael. Mephisto then offered to transplant Preston, but Deadpool and Preston decided Mephisto was not to be trusted and declined the Hell-Lord’s offer.

            Flashback: Deadpool saw an ad in the newspaper the Daily Bugle for the Heroes for Hire, Luke Cage/Power Man and Danny Rand/Iron Fist. Deadpool mistook the ad and thought the Heroes wished to Hire and Deadpool attempted to join the agency, but Power Man and Iron declined his offer. Widow Mrs. Comacho turned to the Heroes for Hire to protect her bodega and her daughter Carmelita from a gangster called the White Man, who un-alived her husband and wanted to shake down her business for protection money. Deadpool teamed with the Heroes for Hire against their wishes and liaised with Carmelita. Deadpool fought the White Man and froze the White Man in stone with the White Man’s magic cane, which the villain had received from his friend, the supervillain the Mandarin.

            After many years frozen in stone, the White Man was released, and he threatened New York to freeze hostages at the Empire State Building unless Deadpool and the Heroes for Hire arrived to fight him again. Luke and Danny were frozen in stone, and Deadpool was hurled from the roof of the Empire State Building. Iron Fist’s students teamed up with Deadpool and they returned to fight the White Man. Deadpool then learned that a man named Butler was the man ordering Deadpool being knocked out and sampled.

            Butler was aware the Weapon Plus Program had cured Deadpool’s cancer and had given him his regenerative powers and hoped to use these powers to cure Butler’s ailing sister. Deadpool suspected the Weapon Plus Program was behind Deadpool’s assaults and turned to other products of the Weapon Plus Program, Steve Rogers/Captain America, and James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, but the two superheroes turned him down. Deadpool was successfully abducted by Butler, who was working in North Korea on a government program to produce North Korean super soldiers. Deadpool escaped and discovered that Butler had been splicing his DNA with that of several members of the mutant superhero team, the X-Men, and several North Korean test subjects. Deadpool learned Butler was holding the test subjects’ families hostage and also had Carmelita and Carmelita and Deadpool’s daughter. Deadpool was recaptured, and his spirit was broken. One of the North Korean super soldiers, Kim, who had been given the powers of Deadpool and the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler, freed Deadpool, who refused to fight, but Preston took over Deadpool’s body and agreed to help free the other test subjects, their families, Carmelita, and Deadpool’s daughter. The two rescued Captain America and Wolverine, who had also been abducted, and they freed the other test subjects and turned against their captors. Deadpool, Wolverine and Captain America then went after Butler to stop Butler once and for all.

            Okay, we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, now we’re going to get to the Tim Cubbin part of this review. So, to start, we’re going to talk about my personal opinion of the book. I will say that I didn’t mind reading it, and while I did like some of the things about it, I didn’t love it. Let’s start with the things that I have to complain about this time. First off, I didn’t like the whole storyline of the dead presidents attacking the country. I didn’t appreciate the concept or find the idea to be particularly funny. I even found it to be somewhat disrespectful, especially the promiscuousness of Benjamin Franklin’s ghost. Another complaint is how the writers used humor around getting Tony Stark to drink. As a recovering alcoholic myself, I thought it was treated very callously and alcoholism is not funny or something to joke about, so I was rather offended that the writers tried to use humor about it. Also, I thought that the editor’s attempt to joke about the flashback issues being unreleased issues from decades past fell flat. They clearly are not from the ‘seventies or ‘eighties based on content that the Comics Code Authority would have never approved of, and also Deadpool was not even introduced in the comics back then, so these quite clearly could not have been vintage Marvel Comics. I think that the editor’s note page should have been excluded and that these issues should have just been called what they were, flashback issues, and that would have spared this unfunny joke. On top of that, I also was not a fan of Declan Shalvey’s artwork. However, I did enjoy certain aspects. I found the character of Emily Preston enjoyable and her predicament as Deadpool’s dual consciousness was amusing. I enjoyed the Vetis storyline when it didn’t focus on the disrespectful approach at alcoholism, that being of him trying to vie for power over Mephisto and become a Hell-Lord. I found there to be good entertainment in that. I found the Superior Spider-Man and Heroes for Hire team-ups to be enjoyable. And I thought the Weapon Plus storyline was the best part of the book. I liked the team-up with Captain America and Wolverine, and I thought that it was well-written. I also found the artwork throughout the rest of the book to be enjoyable aside from issues #15-19. I found some of the humor in this book to be on point, and there were times where I found myself laughing, but it wasn’t constantly, and Deadpool is meant to be a jokester, so the humor falling flat at points was slightly disappointing. All-in-all, this book wasn’t a great experience, especially being a Deadpool fan, but I can’t say that I hated it.

            Next up on the agenda is to talk about accessibility. I’ve said this about four dozen times at this point, but I know I always have some first-time readers with every post I publish, so I have to explain myself every time, so if you know what I mean, I’m sorry, bear with me while I school the newbs. Okay, so when I say “accessibility,” I mean if you can just pick up this book and read it, even if you’ve never had any prior knowledge on the source material. So, we have Deadpool here, and this book is marketed as Vol. 5 and contains issues #1-19, but it’s the first volume of Deadpool released in the Modern Era Epic Collection format, so the situation is a little odd. So, I will say that despite this being labeled as Vol. 5, this is accessible as it is a starting point. These are the first nineteen issues of an ongoing series, so the volume number could easily have been labeled Vol. 1, but Marvel has plans to start the Modern Era Epic Collection line of Deadpool at an earlier point but made the decision to release this volume first for some odd reason, they don’t always publish Epic Collections chronologically. But this is the start of a new collaborative team with a new take and direction for Deadpool, and I feel like if you’re looking to start getting into Deadpool and don’t mind starting at a graphic novel that isn’t marketed as Vol. 1 as at the point of my drafting this post there are no other volumes of Deadpool released in Modern Era Epic Collection format, you can definitely choose to pick up this book and start reading Deadpool here, but in a while, there will be volumes released that chronologically take place before this volume, so you can choose to wait and start there, or you may be reading this after another post from a Deadpool Modern Era Epic Collection that takes place chronologically before this one and catching up to this at a later date after volumes marketed as 1 through 4 have been released, and this is very confusing. Anyway, despite all this, if this is the first Deadpool Modern Era Epic Collection review you are reading, this is a great starting point. I feel like this volume does not require background knowledge of Deadpool or Marvel Comics to read, but there are points that would help. A few tidbits of outside information needed are that the Superior Spider-Man is actually Otto Octavius in Peter Parker’s body, that Wolverine is dying from losing his healing factor, that Tony Stark actually admitted to having an alcohol problem and tried to do something about it, and that Luke Cage and Iron Fist were an agency called Heroes for Hire. There’s a few other bits of knowledge that help, but this volume is very elementary school in the way of Deadpool, and as it’s the only volume available at the moment, it’s a good place to start. Some #1 issues aren’t always a perfect place to start, but I feel like in this case, it does actually work. So, if you want Deadpool at this exact moment of reading this and there are no other available volumes, I think you could easily begin here.

            Okay, I’ve been going on for quite a while and I figure you’re starting to get bored of my ranting, so let’s move on to bigger and better things. And the biggest and best thing we can move on to in this particular review is my numeric score of ranking this graphic novel. I always work on the same scale every time, I score on the numbers one through ten, at exact integers. One is my lowest possible score and means that this book is absolute trash that should be avoided at all costs. Ten is the highest possible score I can give, and that signifies absolute perfection and that this book belongs on anyone who has even the slightest interest in Deadpool’s shelf. Now, I don’t feel that this book heads towards either one of those extremes. One of the biggest score-saving factors of this book is actually the artwork. This has actually condemned many of my reviews. If the artwork is bad, the score gets impacted negatively. Now that said, the artwork is not consistently pleasing, so the score does go down a bit. But there is a lot of artwork in this book that I actually really liked, so this does have a positive impact on the score. And I didn’t totally hate the story, so I don’t feel like it should be given a terrible score based on story either. But that still doesn’t mean I’m giving this book a great score. So, since this is a graphic novel and the story and art are both important factors to consider when giving the book a score, I have to take both and put them in my metaphorical blender, then turn it on, mix thoroughly, and pour out and look at the score, which I have given… a six. I feel this book was average, but on the positive side of average, so it gets a score right in the middle with a slight advantage. Like I said, I didn’t love it, but at the same time, I did find plenty of things to enjoy about this book, so the score shouldn’t be terrible, but it can’t be stellar either. And I know my regular readers know I am a harsh scorer and when I give out scores, I look for a lot of things to dissect and giving out high scores is not an easy thing for me to do, and to get a ten, a book has to be absolutely perfect, but at the same time, I don’t like giving out low scores either unless the book actually deserves it, and in this case, I don’t feel like a low score is necessary. So, an advantage middle score is absolutely adequate when applied to this book.

            Okay, I know I’ve been going on for a long time, so let’s move on to the final point of my review before the conclusion paragraph: the recommendation. When I go to the recommendation segment of my review, I approach two factors. The first is if I myself actually recommend this book to you. The second is who I believe the best audience would be, regardless of the fact if I recommend it or not. So as to the first point, yes, I do give this book the personal Tim Cubbin recommendation. As far as the second point goes, I feel like the best audience for this book would be anyone who has an interest in Deadpool, whether it’s been a long-term investment in the character from years of reading Marvel Comics and wanting to read a good Deadpool story, to those who saw any other form of Deadpool media, such as the films, who want to now start reading comics, to anyone who wants to read a Marvel Comic Book and is just looking for somewhere to begin, to you who just read my review and now have an invested interest in reading this book. This book is just a good book for Deadpool fans of any respect.

            Okay, I’ve been blathering for a very long time, so I think we’re at the point where we should just wrap up and move on with our lives. So, before we go, though, I do have a few things I do have to say first. I’ve been doing this blog for almost five years at this point and have posted over 150 times, including over four dozen reviews just like this one, as well as other content, such as short stories, poems, essays, articles, and editorials, so there is plenty to read on this blog if you liked this post. Keep on browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for more posts currently and keep checking back. I post on a very frequent basis. At present, I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection published as early as I can after publication and attempt to review them on my blog at the earliest possible time. I currently have two other new volumes in my possession I have yet to read, so you can expect another review coming up in the next two weeks from the point of this particular post, and another one soon after that, so keep checking back for that. If you liked this post, there are a few other posts you might find interesting, such as “Deadpool & Cable: Ballistic Bromance,” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Isn’t it Bromantic?” and “Spider-Man/Deadpool: ‘Til Death Do Us…” so feel free to check those out if you desire and want more Deadpool reviews. You can expect more content soon after the next two posts as well, so keep checking back for more because I promise you, I will be back. So, all I have to say until next time is Tim Cubbin… out!