Time’s up for Deadpool... But will Wade make it out alive?
(Panini Books)
There’s something deeply emotional about the final (for now) fate of Wade Wilson. If you ignore the obscene comments and the gratuitous violence, what you’re left with is a man who has lost everything out of blind faith in his hero, and is now so deeply entrenched in regret and despair that he can see no other option but to end his own life. This isn’t a comedy, it’s a heart-wrenching, kick-in-the-gut tragedy which really has no happy ending.
Having been duped into killing much-loved SHIELD agent Phil Coulson by Captain America’s fascist duplicate, Wade has gone from being an Avenger, a husband and a father to a fugitive with nothing left to lose. Raiding a casino cruise ship run by supervillains to seize $20 million in cash gives Deadpool the means to take out a hit on himself, but even that desperate effort proves futile.
Ultimately all that is left for the Merc with a Mouth is to effectively wipe himself out of existence, eliminating his mind and his memories using an intergalactic gizmo appropriated on the distant space station Knowhere, and bringing his misery to an end. It’s an inevitable end to this current Deadpool series, and also the last story penned by long-running writer Gerry Duggan, so there’s a real end-of-era feel to proceedings.
It’s still funny, but also one of the most emotional Deadpool stories you’ll ever read.
Meanwhile, in the Spidey team-up book, the present and the future come together as revelations by the bucket-load are poured over our protagonists.
Who is FauxPool, and how is he linked to the army of LMDs under the control of the Chameleon? Who are the Fantastic Four of the future? What dark secret is Deadpool keeping about his webslinging buddy? And most shocking of all, who are the creators of the LMD Master Matrix?
Robbie Thompson is weaving an intricate narrative which jumps between the decades with reckless abandon, yet his attention to detail and characterisation never leaves the reader confused. But then this is the same talent who crafted the sublime Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme, which also weaved an intricate storyline across time and space, so we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s capable of bringing his A-game to ‘Pool and Parker.
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