People often say that Deadpool just always wins. He always has the best comics. Anything he's in will automatically be better. Now, that latter statement is certainly hyperbole. Deadpool was involved in AXIS. Of course he can be in bad things. Others will clarify that to say he's never in a bad solo book. To which I say...welcome to Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe.
The "Killogy," as it has been called, is all written by Cullen Bunn, who writes pretty great comics most of the time. I thoroughly enjoyed his run on Moon Knight in 2014/2015 and I do like Night of the Living Deadpool. It's a funny horror comic. This...this story is weird.
And you can certainly attribute Cullen Bunn to "weird." His stories are often on the stranger end of things, for better or worse. Writing strange comics is often divisive, and he may be the king of that nowadays. He's also a horror writer, so naturally, he was a pick for this comedy character.
Actually that makes a bit of sense. In an interview with Comic Book Resources before the book's publication, Editor Jordan White revealed he pitched the book to Bunn as a slasher style film, "Freedy-meets-Jason-meets-Jigsaw." While that's not entirely incorrect, it's just not something you expect coming from the main Marvel imprint. Keep in mind that Marvel published Alias, but not with their main line. Preacher doesn't fall "directly" under DC Comics so much as it does Vertigo, you get what I mean?
Of course, there is a Parental Advisory on this comic (not one some moron put on to make a joke...like me) and it's quite necessary for this book. It has gore, swearing, adult themes, pretty graphic imagery of iconic superheroes...and it's all in fairly poor taste. As we'll get into, the book isn't very funny, Deadpool (as the villain...spoiler?) just kills because he thinks he's liberating everyone, and they even try to make us a little sympathetic to his "situation."
This comic doesn't really read like much of a horror comic, anyway. It's similar to Freddy vs. Jason. It's labelled as a horror film only because of the gore. The only scary thing about that movie is how boring it is. This comic is the same. It tries to be a horrific slasher story but it's too bright and colorful to be that. As we progress in the series the tone will get darker, but for now it just feels incredibly violent for violent's sake.
And I thought DC had gone dark in 2012.
I'm reading from the trade collection of the miniseries, and I don't want to look at the covers because most of them are lame anyway. Sorry.
We open on Uatu, the Watcher, as he fills us in on his backstory and what he does, even lamenting on the pain that some feel in the universe.
Ah, my first problem with this comic: the Watcher's face. I understand that he's alien and incredibly old, but that middle panel makes him look pretty dreadful. I'll admit, I have an affinity toward the more baby-faced Watcher, like how we see him in Original Sin #0 (before he gets shot), not necessarily this one. He looks kinda like Megamind in some of the later panels.
We head over the Baxter Building, where Susan Storm (aka Invisible Woman) tends to a dying Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic), who is...melting? It's weird. He's dying. Reed informs Sue that someone stole something, but that their children are safe in the Negative Zone...though the portal was destroyed so there's no escape. Except those kids are super geniuses so of course they'll find a way back.
If not, the title is a lie! Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Minus 2 just doesn't ring off the tongue correctly, though.
Also, they leave it open to who the Fantastic Four's killer can be (despite the title), so we're going to play a game and guess who it is, too! Just to leave you in active suspense.
Is it
A.
B. 
C. 
D. 
If you guessed D....yeah, you're basically correct.
But it's also C, kinda.
So yeah, Deadpool finishes off the Human Torch and the Invisible Woman right after. Then the Watcher does something that Deadpool should be doing...addressing the audience.
Although I do really like that panel. It's the funniest scene we've gotten so far and it promotes the Watcher, in the eyes of new readers, as someone with incredible strength. He is literally setting the scene for us. I do wish the next panel had just been him placing it down for added comedic effect, but hey, I'll take what I can get.
And yes, some of you may be wondering, I am censoring this book. Not because I don't like the violence...okay, I don't, but because a lot of it is gratuitous and unnecessary for the purposes of this review. The fact that I'm omitting it should be point enough to that. And some people may be triggered by the images, so, there's that too.
Also, like, why did we need to see Deadpool slit Human Torch's throat?
Exactly.
The X-Men arrive and deliver Deadpool, with Professor X claiming that he's far beyond his help and, well, they're open to possible solutions.
This does beg the question of what exactly Deadpool did. Did he commit a crime, was it something explicitly against the X-Men? All we get from Xavier is "he needs to be turned in because...I said so." Oddly enough, Wolverine is the only one speaking with some sense here. Or it's just that Bunn needed a character to try and sympathize with Deadpool. Who knows.
He's turned over to Brighton and it's here we see some more of Bunn's attempts at comedy that sadly don't land that well. A few sex jokes and dated references. The best bits are Wade's voices talking to him: "Not the 'I was born poor and oppressed' story again." "Yeah. Try something new this time." "I was born a coal-miner's daughter."
Real humor!
Although we quickly find out that this isn't Dr. Brighton at all! It's Psycho Man!
Hmm. You know that name could easily be twisted around as a modern superhero, I bet.
Psycho Man, somehow, implanted something into Deadpool. He wants to try and condition Deadpool negatively to listening to his beck and call, so that he may raise an army of super-villains! Wait...have I heard that concept before?
However, the machine works...in a way!
In an incredibly forced, almost contrived fashion, Deadpool's mind just...breaks...and we're introduced to a new voice. One with a red background for the caption box, so you know it's a bad guy!
I do like the image of Psycho Man there, though. It's ominous, menacing. Probably the best piece of art in the entire comic, really.
Deadpool, with the new voice in his head basically telling him what to do, murders Psycho Man and the other inmates in the asylum, all of whom are begging for escape. It should be noted that they brought in some good bits of comedy earlier, so, they'll be missed.
As Deadpool heads out to go kill the Fantastic Four (not sure why them first, but whatever), we cut over to the Watcher, who lays over the dead body of Susan Storm. Clearly he hasn't been watching much, then, because any moron would figure out what's going to happen next.
Yeah.
And so our comic ends with the reveal that Deadpool has become aware of the reader's presence, and is capable of seeing through multiversal boundaries, and even reality itself, before he slices off the Watcher's head. But not before another great little piece of quick artwork.
It's so great because you can so clearly see the terror in the Watcher's face as he looks at the reader, even though half of his face is concealed. Even Deadpool looks pretty perplexed. I remember reading this for the first time and getting chills. There's a good horror element for you. The fear on Watcher's face and his ultimate death, which may be the only gory death I'm okay with in the comic...mostly because he was drawn weird.
I won't harp on the violence any more, and it ultimately doesn't change my mind in how I feel about the comic. It's just boring. Like Deadpool the film, the backstory part is what hinders it. Xavier bringing Deadpool to the clinic just seems weird because we don't get a reason and Deadpool not going after him first also doesn't make much sense from a story perspective. Speaking of, there isn't much of a story besides Deadpool killing because the animalistic voice in his head tells him to.
The plot of this book is meant to be "what if Deadpool snapped." Well, he didn't. A voice in his mind appeared and he went with it. He didn't "snap" and suddenly start killing on a whim with no motive. The motive is the voice in his head telling him "do this because you like it, remember?"
The artwork by Dalibor Talajic is perfectly serviceable for this story. I imagine he'd drawn a great slasher-flick franchise comic (like a Friday the 13th comic), but it clashes with the tone of this story. Everything only gets gritty near the end. Before that, the art seems a bit confused if it wants to be a "Marvel" look or not.
In the end, this comic is a good indicator for if this story is for you or not. It leaves you with a strong ending, Deadpool spotting the reader and knowing that he has to continue his killing quest, as well as some questions about this new voice and how he'll stand up against the strongest Marvel heroes. We'll get back to it in a few months, but for now, we'll let this murderous Merc rest.
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