Deadpool Corps #1 Review

So, it's a new year. It's a new me. It's a new you, and it's a new beginning. 

Yeah that's great let's just talk about Deadpool already, that's the real reason you're here. If you're unfamiliar with my blog, that's okay. You're a click away from familiarizing yourself with it. And if you are familiar with it, you'll (hopefully) remember that last year, I reviewed a Deadpool comic as my first book of the year. So, why change things? 

And not only that, but for the month of January, I'll be reviewing other #1s, too. Some old, some new. And one I'll bet you probably haven't heard of. And this is not that book. Because you've heard about Deadpool. The Deadpool Corps? Probably not. 

Heck, I didn't even know they were a thing until I got this book, and it wasn't until I read Deadpool Kills Deadpool that I had any real exposure to them. But, like many, I have quite a fondness for the Corps. They're great! It's Deadpool in different shapes and sizes, and different personalities too. The Corps originates in the prequel series to this book, and involves character seen in Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth. The one you'll recognize from last year's review? Headpool! 

                                          

The cover is decent. It has all the information we'll need about the book on it: the Deadpool Corps is in space, comprising of Deadpool, Lady Deadpool, Kidpool, Dogpool, and Headpool for the primary issue. Though it is a little simplistic for something you'd expect out of a Deadpool comic. Man, we're 0/2 on awesome Deadpool covers on the blog. 

The cover also highlights a flaw I have with the design of the characters, one they all share: the fact that their faces are all scrunched up, like they're constantly angry. The problem is that Deadpool is rather comedic, and has a certain air of naivety around him when he speaks. Seeing an angry face on some funny jokes meant with a positive air about them is very weird. It pulls me out of the book whenever it happens. It seems like something you would see from Dreadpool of the "Killogy" fame, but even then, he very eerily mirrored Deadpool. 

We open where the previous series left off, as the Contemplator, similar in most ways to the Watcher if you want to think of it that way, explains to the Corps that their mission is very important, that their foe is very powerful, nothing they've seen before. Deadpool immediately assumes it's the Beyonder, and, hey it does match the description. I don't know why he thinks fighting the Beyonder would be lame. Deadpool versus the Beyonder? Heck yeah! But, no, instead, we get Galactus--er, I mean, an evil space cloud. 

Tell me this isn't Galactus from "Rise of the Silver Surfer"

I mean, come on. An evil space cloud that devours entire planets? This is so Galactus from the second "Fantastic Four" movie! Probably just a spoof on that idea, but, I'm not mad. It fits right in with a Deadpool comic. It was a ridiculous idea that had no place in a potentially good movie. They just had to take that botched idea and throw it where it belonged: the pages of a comic book.

Basically, too, it is Galactus. It devours worlds and has been around for quite a while. Whether or not it turns out to actually be Galactus or anything else is sort of irrelevant. Deadpool continually points out that it must be a Beyonder. I wish it were. I'm just confused how the writer didn't take an opportunity to crack the whole "Galactus" joke in the book? Sure the movie wasn't fresh in audience's minds, but still: the opportunity was there. 

Regardless, the Corps leaves, and we're left to look at our...villains.

Wait, does Tryco not have eyes? It's the same color as his skin, what the heck!

Tryco, our radical villain for the issue, meets with his brother about how the Contemplator has chosen the Deadpool Corps as his champions to fight not-Galactus/ not-Beyonder (aka Frank) instead of he, and shall ride out to meet them head on in an epic space battle to remembered, truly, as one we shall tell our children in years to come. 

"Can you tell me the story of how Tryco battle the Deadpool Corps in outer space to eventually fight a space cloud named Frank?"

"Sure can, kid." 

Legends. 

So after the Deadpool Corps points out the plothole that the Contemplator didn't just dump them off near Frank, Tryco rides up and...oh. 

Oh my God.

...someone needs to Photoshop a "Explicit: Parental Advisory" sticker on the corner of this...

Much better...

Only in a Rob Liefeld do you see these things, my friend. I really have nothing else I can say to this. It's too radical for me to discuss. I need a RADiation suit to talk about it. 

For those of you still reading and not throwing your computer/ laptop/ phone/ tablet/ television/ whatever else you use for the Internet (gaming console, maybe?) across the room like a bad book, yes, I will continue to review this Deadpool comic. 

We see our heroes land on a nearby planet, where Tryco prepares for battle. Kidppool runs out to meet him, bracing ourselves for one legendary throwdown. Someone call the WWE. It's about to get real. 

Aaaaaaand...they just take his ship and fly off. Huh. Actually that makes sense. Deadpool is known for fighting, but is definitely more of a trickster than some people realize. He fights to make himself look good, but if there's a way to screw his enemy over that does not involve fighting? He'll take it.  

Truly, this is a wise Galactic council bent on saving us all. 

Deadpool sets the group back into action as they deliberate also on whether they'll really call their enemy Frank and why Tryco wanted to throwdown with them. Disheartened that Deadpool isn't the center of attention, he goes below, where we finally get to meet up with Dogpool, the fifth and final member of the Corps. 

Back with Tryco, another eternal being, the Gardener, arrives.

What is it with Eternal beings and NOT having pupils?!

Tryco, with his eye color fixed, swears vengeance on the Deadpool Corps while the Gardener expresses interest in their mission. You know, Tryco is the kind of villain I want in a Deadpool series. At first glance, he was pretty annoying. The more I think about it, though, it's his lack of really being able to do anything right that makes him a great choice to go up against the group. He'll swear all these things to try and kill them and what not, but really, he's just a guy blinding looking for a fight. 

It's almost something a newer, or someone who doesn't really read Deadpool, would come into a Deadpool comic looking for. Mindless violence, without any real thought put into it. Perhaps this is also Rob Liefeld's own injection into Victor Gischler's story. First, just look at the design of Tryco. It's doesn't resemble many villains we see normally in comics anymore, and is something we would expect to see out of Liefeld's older work, back when he was a big hit. Following that frame of mind, is Tryco perhaps just an extension of that archetype finding its way into a Deadpool comic, another character of Liefeld's own creation? I feel like it is, and seems to be the reason why he can't keep up with Deadpool--Deadpool's character, along with Liefeld's own style recently, have evolved. Tryco, and characters of his ilk from back in the day, were nothing more than buffed-out dudes with wild hair. That image of him on the bike? It's so ridiculous, even for a Deadpool story. Yet it actually works well with Tryco and in the context of his own story here.

Intergalactic slicein' n' dicin', ya know? 

The Corps takes a quick stop on an alien world, where they hope to gather a little more information on their foe. Deadpool, Dogpool, and Lady Deadpool all head into a cowboy-style town while Kidpool and Headpool stay behind at the ship (Kidpool also remarking that he hopes they don't stay at the ship for the whole arc, nice). 

Back at the ship, Kidpool gets to naming the ship the "Bea Arthur" while the others in town get into a little squabble before Deadpool decides to put the moves on the intergalactic ladies.

Dang it, Lady Deadpool, I was gonna make a Captain Kirk joke! 

As we can see, Deadpool doesn't have so much luck with finding info as he does finding alien lady phone numbers. But, again, he's hitting on these ladies with a scrunchy face. So he looks quite mad while talking to them but is well-meaning (probably not, one can hope though) in his words. The art and the dialogue aren't syncing up here, which is a distraction. 

Speaking of distractions, Tryco and Gardener appear again, forcing Deadpool into battle, where we end the issue as he prepares for the fated battle between the two (that is foreshadowed to not go quite well!). Oh, and Dogpool!

Dogpool knows all. Dogpool IS all. 

This comic is great. It's Deadpool, how could it not be? Each member of the Deadpool Corps is fun in their own way, Tryco is a decent enough villain for the book, and their quest of having to fight space-cloud Frank opens the door for many silly antics. 

Again if I had one complaint about the book it's in the facial work, how everyone (except Dogpool, but his mask is also scrunched up before it opens up at his mouth) looks mad all the time. It just doesn't match the light-hearted tone the book is going for. If it were normal and they had the faces do the talking instead of actual lips, I think the book would actually feel much better than it does. As such, there's an odd aftertaste with it. 

Nevertheless, I can't say I was dissatisfied by it. After all, it's the Deadpool Corps in space battling something that should've been left in the 90s. Rob Liefeld shows here that he isn't quite done with Deadpool, and Gischler's story here is very fitting of the Corps second solo run. It's a fun time to be had, for sure! 

Next week, we'll stay on the Marvel train and take a look at the very first family in Marvel with their premiere issue. You know them, you probably hate their movies, it's the Fantastic Four from 1961! See you then. 

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