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Deadpool & The Mercs For Money #1 Review

Comic Books

Deadpool & The Mercs For Money #1 Review

Deadpool has a crew now and with it comes responsibility. Can Deadpool even exhibit a shred of it and is it good?

Deadpool & The Mercs For Money #1 (Marvel Comics)

Deadpool & The Mercs For Money #1 Review

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So what’s it about? The official Marvel synopsis reads:

Deadpool is one of the best mercenaries on the planet. He may even be a passable Avenger—jury’s still out. But one thing’s for sure—Deadpool is a terrible team leader. Think we’re lying? Ask the Mercs for Money! Deadpool’s taken on a new high-paying mission to take out radioactive super villains…and his Mercs aren’t nearly as immune to radiation as his healing-factored heinie is. Deadpool veteran Cullen Bunn brings us mo’ mercs, mo’ money and naturally, mo’ problems.

Why does this book matter?

Cullen Bunn has shown he’s one of the top writers these days with great books across publishers. The team aspect of Deadpool is not new, but in this case they aren’t all simply versions of Deadpool but an interesting mishmash of characters. Plus, one of them is Slapstick!

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

Deadpool & The Mercs For Money #1 Review
Deadpool is depressed.

Bunn writes a solid introductory issue here complete with a genuinely concerned Deadpool to open the issue and cast doubt on the entire team-book idea. After that sweet opening we’re thrown right into his team’s first mission and it’s the target that makes for a fun action sequence–her name is Negasonic Teenage Warhead (ring a bell?) and they’re strictly there to snatch her up. They don’t know why they’re grabbing her, but at least they aren’t murdering anyone. We soon learn she has some wicked powers (a lot more interesting than the ones she had in the Deadpool movie) which makes for a clever use of flash-forward. I’ll say no more to avoid spoilers!

It’s hard to get a bead on the members of the team just yet, but the variety of characters is intriguing. It’ll be interesting to see how these characters play off each other in future issues. Deadpool however comes off as very sweet and kind, which Bunn effectively uses to swing things his way.

The art by Iban Coello is solid, featuring accurate renderings of all the characters with just the right proportions and facial expressions. The Negasonic character’s powers work really well too due to Coello’s ability to frame the now and the future so well (again no spoilers!). Colorist Guru-eFX does a bang up job with these flash-forwards, creating a sense of wonderment.

It can’t be perfect can it?

If you’re looking for laughs you’ll have to look elsewhere I’m afraid. The only gag in this issue involves the Deadpool who only speaks Spanish. The joke of course is that nobody actually understands him, but unless you can speak it or you translate it yourself part of the joke will be lost on you.

You don’t get much character building from the team itself (though there is a funny intro page that delivers a description of each). This issue is pretty quick to throw them into a mission though, so it’s probable we’ll see more of the team dynamic as the story progresses.

The only other gripe is Slapstick in this issue. Whenever he appears I want to see more, but for the life of me I’m not sure where his portion of the fight with Negasonic went. We see him on the ground at one point, but how he got there is missing. Or maybe the page fell out of my comic? Odd.

Deadpool & The Mercs For Money #1 Review
Whoa, cool!

Is It Good?

This is a good first issue that introduces the team and Deadpool’s concern with them. It doesn’t spend too much time on each of them, but it’s clear that’s not the point. As the title suggests, this is Deadpool AND team and their mission is intriguing based on the cliffhanger.

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