DEADPOOL #62
"Funeral for a Freak, Part 2 of 4: Reign of the Deadpools"
Mildly Recommended (5/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Frank Tieri
Pencils: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Jon Holdredge & Walden Wong
Colors: Color Dojo
Letters: Sharpefont
Editor: Mike Marts
Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN |
Well, judging from the plot and the story title, it would seem Tieri's goal for his "Funeral for a Freak" story arc is to offer a send-up of 1993's Death of Superman storyline from DC Comics. There's certainly plenty of grist for the parody mill, but I'm not so sure that Tieri can hold my attention with an entire four-part story arc. In fact, I'm positive he can't, as I'm already disinterested. Some low-brow humor and merely capable art don't do anything to change my mind either.
Newly resurrected, Wade Wilson awakens in an alleyway, wearing nothing but an overcoat and completely unaware of who he is or how he got there. He befriends the homeless men who call the alley home. Meanwhile, a number of unusual men turn up all over the city, each claiming to be Deadpool, each with a different variation on his costume and application of his methods.
Jeanty's art tells an odd story clearly, and the designs for the various faux Deadpools are a lot of fun, and even plausible. But nothing about the art in this issue really grabbed me. The visuals are merely capable. It's not substandard, but it doesn't exceed any standard either. It lacks uniqueness.
Tieri's Deadpool boasts a plentiful supply of the kind of jokes that struck a chord with readers when the series first launched, but somehow, the gags just don't click as well here. It's as if the low-brow humor -- like the repeated regurgitation of one of the title character's new homeless pals -- just hangs there. My mind was telling me that yeah, this is kind of funny, but I just didn't feel the laughs inside. The parody elements -- Todd McFarlane's Spawn seemed to be lampooned along with the Death of Superman stuff -- are rather obvious.
The biggest problem with this issue, though, is that there isn't a human element with which the reader can connect. One of the reasons that Joe Kelly's initial zaniness in this series was so popular was that it was balanced with the down-to-earth exploration of 'Pool's emerging conscience. We weren't reading to witness just his antics, but instead to follow him as he searched for his moral center.
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