Deadpool #3: A Day at the Zoo… LOOK, GIRAFFES!

This issue picks up with Deadpool waking up in Valentine’s apartment. Valentine is working on a way to safely remove Wade’s Carnage symbiote, leading them to test out some of their medications in public with a trip to the Zoo. Meanwhile, Harrower, Doc Oc, and Lady Deathstrike are planning ways to find and kill Deadpool.

The best part about this series so far, outside of the fantastic art from Martin Coccolo, is the way that Alyssa Wong works with the format of the X-books. Fans of the Krakoan era have grown accustomed to important and informative black-and-white pages that are full of charts and text. In Deadpool’s case, these pages come off as part of the humor. Oftentimes the pages are filled with commentary noted on by Deadpool, or the pages are full of useless information that only Deadpool would find important. These are nice touches that remind readers that this is technically an X-book; however, it doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the publishing line. In this issue, the part that stood out was where you would normally see a recap get replaced with “I think we need a blurb or pull quote here.” The format stays the same but this is through and through a Deadpool book.

Coccolo’s art continues to shine in this third issue. Deadpool has some parts comedy and some parts body horror, and Coccolo captures both perfectly as he somehow does the impossible by making the Harrower, a character that could be irritating to no end in her previous iterations, interesting. He draws her in the most badass way possible, infusing the body horror elements into her power set. When an artist is able to make the reader forget how much I dislike a character, they are doing a perfect job. 

Wong has captured a new side of Deadpool with the romance between him and Valentine that is starting to make this run feel wholly unique. Having not read a ton of Deadpool, seeing him so head over heels for someone is a fun and interesting place for his character. Now, anyone could see Valentine’s eventual betrayal from a mile away; however, seeing Deadpool so enamored with them separates this run from what has come before. 

Just to touch a bit on Valentine, it is so refreshing to see an LGBTQ+ character that is not forced to fit some stereotype. Even Dan Slott’s Spider-Man fell into this trap when he played up the gay stereotype by making a gay version of Peter Parker a fashion designer. In Valentine’s case, their status as non-binary isn’t in any way derogatory or forced.

They are a fun character that holds their own agency and also a bit of a badass. 

This is the first issue so far that we’ve gotten to know Valentine and we see most of them through the eyes of Deadpool. This is a fun touch since the details of Valentine’s eventual betrayal will likely be obviously foreshadowed, but we aren’t privy to them since Deadpool is blinded by love. Wong writes familiar Deadpool here; however, her sense of humor definitely will not suit all readers. The comedy is mainly made up of innuendos and pop culture references. At one point Deadpool refers to a character as Gretchen Weiners, a reference that went completely over my head. Upon further research I was reminded that this was a character from Mean Girls. Comedy is subjective and most of it hits, but some references here may be a bit too specific only to certain generations, making this book harder to digest for some. This is only a nitpick since I found myself chuckling at most of the comedy throughout this issue.