Deadpool #9: At The Mercy Of The Horned Emperor!

In the penultimate issue of Deadpool, Wade, and Valentine are lying on the floor, bleeding out, while Lady and Lord Deathstrike call in their boss, THE HORNED EMPEROR! They really want Princess (Deadpool’s symbiote-bonded dog), and they’ll do anything to get the dog. As they spend time in their cell, Deadpool learns more about Valentine’s past and what it means for their future.

Cover Art

The main cover, created by Martin Coccolo (Green Lantern, Grimm Fairy Tales) and Neeraj Menon (Star Wars, Star Wars: Darth Vader), shows the Horned Emperor standing over Deadpool while he’s lying on the ground, with black smoke coming out of where the Emperor’s head should be. The composition is done very well, making the Emperor menacing as they stand away from the screen, while Deadpool’s positioning is up close but showing him at a disadvantage.

One of this issue’s variants covers the Dragotta Hellfire Gala Variant, created by Nick Dragotta (East of West, FF). The Hellfire variant shows Fantomex in an X-Men-inspired suit, wearing a popped-up collar suit jacket and an X-Men belt buckle while sitting on a Krakoan-made armchair right outside a dance floor with multi-colored lights. His glasses also reflect the dance lights, which gives them a nice, subtle colored touch against his monochromatic suit colors.

Lastly is the Villalobos variant cover by Pablo Villalobos (The Amazing Spider-Man, Something Is Killing The Children) and colored by Rachelle Rosenberg (Moon Knight, Star Wars). The cover centers Deadpool in a Marilyn Monroe pose as he’s wearing his classic red suit with a blue skirt and pink bunny slippers. Surrounding him are various characters from X-Force, such as Cannonball, Domino, and Cable.

Writing

The writing done by Alyssa Wong (Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Alligator Loki Infinity Comic) has been consistent since the first issue. They can somehow write a story with multiple characters that have equal weight in the story without any of them overshadowing the other. The conflicting nature of Lady Deathstrike going between helping Atelier and Deadpool is fascinating while at the same time not sacrificing the character’s nature for the story development. Writing Valentine’s backstory was a work of art where they could tell the reader enough for them to take off and fill in the remaining details without letting the story drudge on.

The area of writing that falls flat, however, is the punchlines. Some stick the landing; others are way too corny, even for Deadpool. This kind of humor has been consistent in the previous issues and doesn’t seem to improve with each issue. Part of the character of Deadpool is his witty humor and hilarious outtakes, but it doesn’t seem to be what we get here in this series.

Artwork

The art by Luigi Zagaria (Midnight Suns, The Amazing Spider-Man), colors by Matt Milla (The Amazing Spider-Man, X-Factor), and letters by Joe Sabino (X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic, Deadpool) have been stellar. The compositions of the panels were done well, the visual effects were impressive, and the coloring had an outstanding balance in each image. The letters were fantastic with the sound effects (especially the krunch), and The Atelier HQ house is still captivating (one might suspect it takes some influence from the TV show Charmed).

One confusing area was when the readers saw Valentine’s missing arms, which stopped right above the elbow. In many panels, it looks like her arm is of a glassy substance, but there were two panels where they looked like regular human arms, and it wasn’t clear if this was intentional or an artistic mistake.