Deadpool #3

So continues the adventure of Deadpool versus a bunch of presidents raised back from the dead, this time he’s enlisted some help from Doctor Strange—who frankly ends up being the best part.

Writer: Brian Posehn & Gerry Duggan | Artist: Tony Moore

Cover: Tony Moore & Val Staples | Publisher: Marvel

By somewhat popular consensus so far, the new Marvel Now! launch of Deadpool has been pretty lackluster, and it doesn’t really get much better by the third issue, and the only reason to keep picking up this series is this desperate desire that it really does pick up and get better, because it’s Deadpool and it should be all sorts of awesome and hilarious and dark and twisted, but so far it’s just been disappointing. It’s been three issues already and he’s still battling American presidents raised from the dead, and there’s no foreseeable end to it anytime soon. It may have been an interesting premise in the writer’s room but three issues along and it’s only been ridiculously cheesy and not in a novel kind of way where it’s you can just shrug it off as being ‘a Deadpool thing’.

Frankly the best part this issue was Doctor Strange who always manages to be pretty kickass no matter because he’s got sass and mysticism on his side, and if it weren’t for him, this could have been a lot worse. He’s also the only one who seems pretty competent enough to actually defeat the damn presidents so there’s a flicker of hope that all this can end soon.  In that regard it seems they have at least been able to have done a couple things right, the other being the art. It’s not necessarily mind-blowingly stunning art, but it’s clean, well detailed and not afraid to get as gory as the action requires it to be, innards and guts galore (seriously).

Another part of what was making this tolerable was the little ‘Augmented Reality’ (AR)feature they had spattered in because the creative team added in some ridiculous commentary and sort of interesting stuff that made it almost worth it, and at the very least, it made the creative team likable enough that a willingness to keep reading would bubble up, but this issue didn’t have a single AR panel which was a little disappointing and truly left not a whole lot for the read.

Maybe it’s all the (un)dead presidents but it’s kind of hard to really get into the series no matter how beloved Deadpool is. Beyond that there’s really not a whole lot to say about the subject. The only reason to continue getting this is to hold on to a fraction of the hope that the writers finally, finally, (once all these ridiculous presidents are rid of), get into the nitty gritty of Deadpool, the twisted humor and such. There’s nothing wrong with light humor and Deadpool, it’s Wade Wilson, he can pull anything off, but there’s also so much more to him as well.