We had a Deadpool Double Shot this week, with the release of Deadpool #23 and, for you tablet-readers, Deadpool: The Gauntlet #6, both from writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn, the guys who’ve been revitalizing the Merc with a Mouth.
We’ll start with The Gauntlet, the Infinite Comic series that’s introducing the weird succubus lady named Shiklah, betrothed of Dracula who Wade Wilson is apparently going to find himself marrying in the near future. It opens with the montage that shows us a genuine sort of attraction between the two, despite the fact that Wade was hired to deliver her to Ol’ Drac. “What a weird day. I’m having fun and I haven’t killed anybody,” he says in the process of hanging out in Paris, before they head down to the catacombs to be around dead things. She’s into that. Turns out the dead things don’t like them so much, as ghosts attack. It’s a funny sequence with great Reilly Brown art that illustrates how cool Infinite Comics are. Then they get lifted outta dodge by Hydra. Yes, that’s right, Bob, Agent of Hydra is back in play – although shenanigans are afoot when A.I.M. crashes their party, too.
Speaking of AIM, the fact that their profile has been raised significantly by Secret Avengers and Avengers World, so there needs to be a new punching bag in the Marvel Universe for random heroes to casually smack around when team-ups and one-offs need to happen. Duggan and Posehn have humbly nominated ULTIMATUM as that punching bag, as nearly the entirety of Deadpool #23 is Wade going on a huge revenge kick against SHIELD turncoat Agent Gorman, who swindled an entire Helicarrier away from them. AIM may have worn funny beekeeper hats, but ULTIMATUM guys wear berets. Also, they are hilariously bickering clowns, as the focus is just as much on random goons (including precious, precious Rick) having arguments as it is Deadpool making them bloodified.
The whole issue is mostly mayhem, as it’s the climax of the big “Deadpool vs. SHIELD” arc, and it’s a damn good time. There are mighty yuks to be had at the doofus villain dialogue, and we even get Wade’s version of The Aristocrats (a great splash page by Mike Hawthorne). Plus, he also wears a beret. Plus, at one point, he straps a dead guy wearing a jetpack to his back so he can fly. Also, Scott Adsit of 30 Rock fame is an agent of SHIELD. Then it takes a weird turn at the end, where you kinda feel bad for all the massive carnage Wade let loose – because not only do we get a last ‘I’m about to die, I’m sorry, family’ call from… well, let’s call him Rick, but the fact that a Helicarrier blew up over the ocean is actually considered an ecological disaster (“extreme littering”) that will reap a whirlwind from the Sub-Mariner. It’s that cool balance between black comedy murder madness and actual consequence that is necessary to have Deadpool at its best.
The resolution of the Agent Preston In Wade’s Head should come next issue (as evidenced by the great Watchmen reference on the final page), and after that, the whole Gauntlet business is going to jump to the print book, because Deadpool’s getting married to Shiklah in issue #27, and that’s gonna make for some seriously madcap hijinks. Seriously madcap! Wait, no, not Madcap, that was the annual. Just lower-case madcap.
