Deadpool #5
Bethany W Pope
Recap
A Halloween-themed speed-walking race for the elderly is interrupted by the sudden murder of every competitor by voodoo-wielding (chicken-themed) Black Talon. The baddie (whose pun-game is terrible, by the way) uses his magic to raise the elderly dead into zombies. Deadpool-et-al hide out for a while in a theme bar before uncovering the fact that BT’s grandma orchestrated the whole event in order to finally win a race. Mayhem ensues. Flesh-eating happens. Corpses pile up. But eventually granny does the right thing and beats her grandson over the head with her gun, and the day is saved.
Review
Once again, the pacing, art, and dialogue are the greatest strengths of this book. It took great restraint on the part of the writer to allow every reference to Romero’s film to be rendered visually. There was so much else going on in the story that if Wade had been allowed to make a meta-commentary on the resemblance it would have broken the mood a bit.
The story itself boiled down to pretty much nothing, but that’s ok. This was basically an excuse to pit Deadpool against a horde of geriatric zombies and that’s more than enough to ask from this kind of book.
The artist rendered throw-away characters in a cartoonish style that dehumanized them enough that the violence (which was copious, detailed and gloriously graphic) read as humorous rather than horrific.
There’s really not a terrible amount that I can say about this issue. It is very good at what it does, and it’s not aiming to be anything more than entertainment. If you want to spend twenty minutes watching Deadpool dismembering the elderly (hey, if that’s your thing, I’m not going to judge) this is the best book for you.
The cover is a work of gruesome, retro beauty, though. No one could possibly deny it.
Final Thoughts
This book is the best there is at what it does — and what it does is mix juvenile humor with cartoonish violence and references to films which came out decades before I was born. Mayhem. It's a good thing.
Deadpool#5 Dawn of the Dead(pool)
- Writing - 7/107/10
- Storyline - 7/107/10
- Art - 8/108/10
- Color - 7.5/107.5/10
- Cover Art - 8/108/10