"Deadpool: X X Baby"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Deadpool: X X Baby” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Norman Osborn swindled Wade Wilson/Deadpool out of a large amount of money. When Deadpool tried to collect, Osborn sent his covert strike force, the Thunderbolts after him. After Deadpool defeated the Thunderbolts, Osborn sent the Dark Avenger Hawkeye (really the assassin Bullseye in disguise) to take Deadpool out. Bullseye failed. Rather than return to Osborn with the news that Bullseye was defeated, Bullseye chose to pay Deadpool the money that Osborn owed him.

            Using some of the money he came into, Deadpool bought a boat in Vladivostok, Russia. Deadpool called his friend Bob, agent of Hydra to be a pirate with Deadpool. Deadpool planned to rob the luxury resort island Jallarka. After six weeks at sea, Deadpool and Bob finally arrived on Jallarka and met the island’s blind tour guide Kalani. Jallarka was suddenly under attack by pirates led by a man known (not by himself) as Captain Wackbeard. Deadpool agreed to defend Jallarka if Kalani joined Deadpool’s crew. Kalani agreed to Deadpool’s proposition. Wackbeard and his crew boarded Deadpool’s ship while Deadpool and crew were off of it. Deadpool climbed back aboard Deadpool’s ship and faced off against Wackbeard and crew, and while Deadpool was able to reclaim Deadpool’s ship, Deadpool was defeated by Wackbeard. Deadpool and crew then took to the seas to defeat Wackbeard, and Deadpool realized that being a pirate really wasn’t his ambition in life.

            After faking being sick and adrift at sea to board a cruise ship, Deadpool was thrown off the ship after being described as the most wanted and hated man on the planet, after seemingly selling out Earth to the Skrull’s during the Secret Invasion. Deadpool found himself in San Francisco, where he saw the X-Men on TV. X-Men leader Scott Summers/Cyclops spoke out against Norman Osborn, and Deadpool decided that Deadpool wanted to join the X-Men, despite not being a true mutant. Upon arriving at Utopia, Cyclops told Deadpool no. Ellis Kincaid, father of X-Men trainee Cessily Kincaid/Mercury, believed the X-Men were holding Mercury against Mercury’s will, and wanted to free Kincaid’s daughter from the X-Men. Cyclops decided it was not safe to have Deadpool unsupervised and sent Neena Thurman/Domino to be his chaperone and an offer of probationary status on the team. Deadpool decided the best way to ingratiate himself with Cyclops would be to get the X-Men out of their legal trouble with Kincaid by putting Kincaid out of the picture permanently. Kincaid made a television appearance, and Deadpool came to take him out. Domino protected Kincaid from afar, then brought Deadpool out for a drink, where she drugged him and tied him up to wait for the X-Men. Domino overheard part of a conversation between Cyclops and James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine talking about getting Deadpool out of the picture, and mistakenly assumed the worst, but Cyclops’ actual plan was to take Deadpool on a “special mission” to China and ditch him, and Domino allowed Deadpool to escape before Wolverine could get to Deadpool. Kincaid turned to Norman Osborn for protection. Osborn pretended to be offering it but secretly was willing to let Deadpool eliminate Kincaid because this act made the X-Men look bad. Two of Osborn’s H.A.M.M.E.R. agents acted as Kincaid’s escorts. Deadpool went after Kincaid, but Wolverine and Domino came to Kincaid’s rescue. The X-Men then had to stop Deadpool and save Kincaid and look good to the public. After losing X-Men probationary status, Deadpool headed for New York.

            Peter Parker/Spider-Man came upon the scene of an accomplished hit. Spider-Man immediately believed Deadpool to be the assassin, but Deadpool had an alibi. Spider-Man reluctantly agreed to let Deadpool see the crime scene and try to get to the bottom of the assassination. Deadpool recognized the crime scene as being the work of Hit-Monkey, an assassin who was an actual monkey who killed other killers… and Deadpool was on Hit-Monkey’s list. Spider-Man didn’t believe in the existence of Hit-Monkey at first, until at the scene of Hit-Monkey’s next crime scene, and monkey paw print was left behind. Spider-Man went looking for Deadpool and Hit-Monkey followed. Following a shoot-out, Spider-Man took a bullet to the shoulder. Spider-Man brought Deadpool to the Fantastic Four for convalescence, but the heroes turned Deadpool away. Needing to make a change of costume, Spider-Man brought Deadpool to Peter Parker’s apartment. While Spider-Man wasn’t looking, Deadpool stole the Spider-Man costume with the bullet hole in it. Deadpool then used the costume to fake Spider-Man’s death. At Spider-Man’s funeral, Hit-Monkey made an appearance. Deadpool hopped out of the casket, and Spider-Man and Deadpool teamed up to fight Hit-Monkey. Following the fight, Deadpool was taken into custody, but Spider-Man helped Deadpool escape from jail.

            While on the road in rural North Georgia, the bus Deadpool was traveling on was the target of a robbery. Deadpool was defeated by a man with electrical powers calling himself White Lightnin’. Deadpool found a police walkie-talkie at the crime scene and deduced the robbery had been conducted by a pair of cops. Deadpool went to the local police department, where an officer named Darlene pointed Deadpool to Sheriff Dale’s moonshine still, where the sheriff and his nephew Clovis Maines/White Lightnin’ operated out of, encouraging Deadpool to permanently put a stop to the crooked cop’s operation. Deadpool went to the still to combat Dale and White Lightnin’ again.  However, Dale wasn’t the only crooked cop.

            Deadpool found his way to Las Vegas. Upon arriving, Deadpool was slandered on television by club owner Lonzo Toutolos. In revenge for the defamation, Deadpool blew up the club. Deadpool then went to a casino, where he started to win games. The casino owner wouldn’t have that and sent his armored soldier the House after Deadpool. The House fought and defeated Deadpool. After detaining Deadpool, the House revealed himself to be Deadpool’s old ally Jack Hammer/Weasel. Deadpool propositioned an alliance with Weasel, and Deadpool took on the ironed mantle of Wildcard. The House and Wildcard protected Las Vegas from a robbery by supervillain Grizzly, but Wildcard became the most popular superhero in Las Vegas. Deadpool revealed his dual identity as Wildcard to the House’s bosses, forcing them into letting him keep the armor. Weasel felt jealous of Wildcard’s popularity over the House as the hero of Las Vegas. Deadpool suggested Deadpool and Weasel switch identities so Weasel could be the more popular hero. Weasel agreed to the switch. However, Deadpool secretly formed a partnership with Grizzly. Grizzly struck at the counting room of another casino to commit robbery, and the House and Wildcard battled Grizzly. The House then helped Grizzly escape with the money, having Weasel publicly dubbed a criminal. The House and Grizzly committed another robbery, but Wildcard stopped it. Deadpool allowed Weasel to escape, but since Deadpool had revealed Deadpool’s identity as Wildcard to the casino owners, Deadpool was consigned to be the Chief of Security for the casinos, and that Deadpool now had a job.

            Deadpool quit his job and found himself the target of Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider, who wished to punish Deadpool for the sins Wade Wilson committed over the years.

            Deadpool found himself in a team up with Steve Rogers, Natalia Romanova/Black Widow, and Marc Spector/Moon Knight against a terrorist. Rogers offered a continued alliance. Rogers, Widow and Moon Knight had all been cloned by the evil Doctor Bong, and Rogers wanted Deadpool to help Rogers’ team stop Doctor Bong and Bong’s cloning operation. However, during the mission into Bong’s laboratory, Rogers and Deadpool got into a fight. Moon Knight came to Rogers’ aid. Bong detonated the lab, attempting to destroy the heroes, and escaped. Rogers, Deadpool and Moon Knight also all managed to escape. Bong then disguised his soldiers as Deadpool when Rogers, Black Widow, Moon Knight, and the real Deadpool came to try to apprehend the evil Doctor.

            Deadpool was approached by vampires, led by Colvin. The opposing vampire Claw Sect had been provided with amulets that allowed them to walk in the light of day, and Mercy General Hospital, the hospital Colvin was the director of, needed protection for the daytime, so Colvin wished to hire Deadpool. Human Doctor Matsuzaki found herself targeted by vampires. Deadpool became smitten with Matsuzaki and fought to protect her, and the rest of Mercy General Hospital, from the invasion of the Claw Sect.

            A blinded Deadpool fought against a faction of terrorists in the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, in the United Arab Emirates.

            Okay, we have the plot synopses out of the way, it’s time to focus on my individual segments of the review. As always, we’re going to start with my own personal opinions about the book. I will say that I found this book to be highly enjoyable. I had a fun time reading it. I liked Deadpool as a pirate. I thought it was funny how Deadpool didn’t make Bob first mate, Deadpool made Bob be a parrot. And it was an interesting idea to have a blind tour guide. I enjoyed Deadpool trying to join the X-Men, particularly Cyclops’ response. I liked how Osborn played his game to manipulate public opinion against the X-Men by using both Kincaid and Deadpool as puppets, I thought it was brilliant writing. Spider-Man/Deadpool team ups are usually entertaining, and I feel like the one in this book definitely was. I loved Hit-Monkey, I thought he was a unique threat, you don’t usually see superheroes fight animals like this one. The dirty cops issue had twists I did not see coming and I thought that it was well written. I enjoyed reading Deadpool becoming the hero of Las Vegas, and I was shocked when Deadpool pulled a double-cross on Weasel and teamed up with Grizzly, then screwed them both over, but I guess that’s just typical Deadpool. And I was amused how he backed himself into a corner there and wound up with a job. Deadpool’s encounter with Ghost Rider was an interesting one to me, especially the outcome of Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare. I was surprised when Steve Rogers actually asked Deadpool for a team up, and I thought their mission was an exciting read. I loved the concept of vampires secretly running a hospital, and the Claw Sect were an interesting group of vampires. I also love how Deadpool calls every vampire a Dracula. Finally, Deadpool’s Pool-o-Vision did not work like Daredevil’s radar sense, but it made for a difficult handicap for Deadpool to work with, and he did it well. While I found the stories to be amusing and entertaining in general, some of the jokes, to me, just weren’t funny. I’m not saying it was because they were offensive or inappropriate, I just didn’t think they were anything that invoked humor in me. I also felt like Deadpool’s warped way of thinking wasn’t always likeable at times, particularly his fixation on killing Ellis Kincaid. Moving on, we’re going to discuss the art. I did not particularly enjoy the work of Shawn Crystal, Tan Eng Huat, or Philip Bond. However, I loved the work by Paco Medina, Carlo Barberi, and Bond Dazo, whom I feel did phenomenal work. The next thing I’d like to talk about is the title. In general, an Epic Collection is titled after an issue or storyline title. “X, X! Baby!!” was a caption on one of the covers, rather than a title. I found this to be an exceptionally odd choice. There were plenty of titles that the editors could have chosen from for this Collection, and they chose to disregard all these choices in favor of a quote on a cover and remove the punctuation marks. I feel like a few of the titles of storylines would have worked as titles for the Collection, such as “Want You to Want Me,” “Tricky,” or “I’m Your Man.” “Want You to Want Me” was the longest story arc in the book and the one to feature the Collection’s titular caption on the cover of one issue, so I’ll settle on “X X Baby” being an adequate title for this volume. As for the cover of this volume, it features Deadpool in his X-Men uniform in front of the cover of “Giant-Size X-Men” #1. This issue was the debut of a new team of X-Men, and I feel like the significance of that issue does not match the significance of the story of Deadpool trying to join the X-Men. Also, this cover is an edited version of the cover of “Deadpool” #17, and I feel like if the editors had used the original cover, which features Domino and Emma Frost next to Deadpool, it would be a better representation of the actual story in these issues. That said, this book was an entertaining read and a fun experience and in general, I enjoyed my time consuming it.

            Next up on the docket of topics we need to cover is accessibility. Now, if you’ve never been to one of the seven dozen or so other times, I’ve already explained my meaning of using the word “accessibility” in application to a graphic novel, you may not know what I’m trying to say. So, if you’re a newb to a Tim Cubbin review, allow me to explain, and if you’ve been to one of my seven dozen or so other reviews, please bear with me while I go over it once again. When I say “accessibility,” I mean can a person who has never heard of Deadpool or read a Marvel Comic before obtaining this Collection, then read the story, and understand everything they have just read based solely on the material contained in just this book and this book alone? I would say that the answer is a relative yes. This Collection really doesn’t rely on outside knowledge. While this is marketed as Vol. 2, and it does directly continue from where the previous volume left off, the storyline is a fresh start, and I feel like not having read the previous volume is too detrimental to understanding this particular volume. All the issues in this Collection come from one series. There are no events occurring during this Collection and there are no tie in issues or crossovers. As such, I feel like this book has a relatively high accessibility rating. If you’ve never read a Marvel Comic before and are looking into starting, this volume is not a terrible place to jump on at.

            We’ve now come to the point where I give my numeric score. My scores are done on an extremely simple system. I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that reading this book was so bad, I wish I could go back in time and erase the period of consuming this book from my memory to never have experienced this absolute abomination of literature and art. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if I score a book at a ten, that signifies sheer perfection, and the time I spent reading this book were some of the best hours of my life and when I have reason to reexperience this book, I will be in absolute bliss. When I score a book, I focus on four things: if the story was completely enjoyable; if the art was consistently visually appealing; if the title was an accurate description of the contents within; and if the cover properly delivered on the promise of what it showed and adequately represents the book. So, after careful consideration, taking into account that we have: a story that was enjoyable, yet had a lack of amusement where humor was expected; art that was, for the most part, enjoyable; a title that was questionably adequate; and a cover that didn’t quite match its significance, when I give this book a score, we’re looking at… seven! It was a decent read, but it had visual flaws, and the title and cover didn’t quite live up to the essence of the book’s content.

            Continuing forward, we have my recommendation segment. This segment handles two separate questions. The first question I answer is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is regardless of the first question, beyond the obvious answer of fans of Deadpool, Marvel Comics, or the creative team, who are the fans of particular genres, characteristics, or styles of literature that would find this book most appealing? The answer of my first question is a resounding yes. If you’re reading this review right now and based solely on the words you’ve spent the past few minutes reading you want to read this book, I’ll tell you to hop onto your favorite online retailer, or check out your favorite book store, local comic book shop, or public library, or hit up some friends who are into Marvel, and try to find a copy of this book. As for who should be reading this book, I’d say readers who enjoy stories about mercenaries would enjoy this, fans of pirates might enjoy it, people who enjoy vampire stories could find this entertaining, and people who like literature with crude jokes might find something amusing with this book.

            Okay, we’re at the point where I’m just about ready to wrap everything up. I’ve been at this for several hours now and I need to move on with my life. Before I go, there are a few final things that do need to be said. I’ve been doing this blog for almost six years now. In that time, I have posted over 190 times. If you enjoyed reading this post, check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content from me. If you go way back, you’ll find I’ve written short stories, poems, essays, articles, and editorials. I’ve also written over seven dozen other reviews of Epic Collections just like this one. I’ve also reviewed some prose novels, comic book events, and manga as well. Right now, the primary focus of From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin is to review Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one of them as soon as I can after it is released and if possible, put up a review as soon as I can after I finish reading it. If you liked this review, there are similar reviews you might like. Search for “Deadpool: Magnum Opus” “Deadpool: In Wade We Trust” “Deadpool & Cable: Ballistic Bromance” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Isn’t it Bromantic?” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: ‘Til Death Do Us” and “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Road Trip” for more Deadpool content if you have some more free time to spare. You can also keep checking back for more upcoming posts. I post on a very frequent basis. My next review will be “Iron Man: The Future” and you can expect to see that within the next four weeks. That is a rough estimate, it will most likely be sooner than that, I just have to give a wide timeframe, so I don’t give false hope. But definitely keep checking back for it, because it will be up soon. If you liked this post, feel free to follow me. Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you. Interact with me on whatever platform you found this post on. I’d totally love to hear from you guys, my readers, I’d totally value your opinions. Everything said by me on this blog is my opinion and I don’t expect anyone to agree with me on what I say, and if you have read this book and feel differently about it, please let it be known to me, I’d like to know what you think of this book. That’s really all I have to say for now. I’ll be back soon, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!