Reviews

Deadpool by Joe Kelly: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 by

shane_tiernan's review

3.0

Read the individual Deadpool comics that are in this last year, or maybe even 2018. He's funny, but it's a bit dated and there's so much text they take two or three times as long as it does to read a modern comic.

whimsicalmeerkat's review

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

OK, let's start with biases, so we can get that out of the way. I did not grow up reading comics. The first ones I read were Miracleman in my mid-twenties, and the first mainstream one I ever read was the issue in the original Marvel Civil War where Iron Man killed Captain America. I tore through Alan Moore's and Neil Gaiman's works. The Sandman is one of my favorite books, period. In fact, until the last year or so, the only mainstream comics I had read were the original Civil War. Enough about other comics though.

Prior to late last year, my only encounters with Deadpool were the movies, and the handful of issues in the Civil War arc. Then I was introduced to Spideypool (Spider-Man/Deadpool) fan fiction, tore through the team up comics, and decided I wanted more of Deadpool. Some perusing of the many lists on how to get into the character led me here, to Deadpool by Joe Kelly.

I have to say, I was not prepared for late nineties comics, because they are A Thing. I think it is one thing to know how much awareness and cultural discourse has changed over the course of the past 24 years, but seeing it spilled out over the colorful pages of comics is something else entirely. I knew Deadpool had moved from villain to anti-hero at the best of times to his current status as a flawed-but-trying sometimes hero over the 30 years of the character's existence, so I was expecting the violence and mayhem. I knew the humor was going to play less of a role. I knew the treatment of women in comics had changed over time. I still was not prepared.

Let's take Typhoid Mary. Vicious murderess, pretty straightforward villain, right? Except it's not straightforward, or at least it doesn't start out that way. Joe Kelly introduces her in a complicated way.

Spoiler

She has dissociative identity disorder, not that it would have been called that even in a clinical setting at that time, and hires Deadpool to kill her and to break her out. Instead, through a somewhat hazy series of fumbles, he kills off two of her identities, leaving only the evil one, the Typhoid Mary one.

After the beginning that's behind the spoiler tag, she becomes much less interesting than she could have been. The character essentially has one dimension. She wants to viciously and cruelly torture and murder every man who ever wronged her. I know, I know. Comics. A lot of people would say they aren't the place to go for character development. I would argue otherwise, especially because Deadpool does get developed. He is allowed to have complexity and layers, but Mary is not. Even at the point where we find out her origin story, it's framed in the context of Daredevil's involvement and the impact it had on him.

I don't have enough familiarity with Joe Kelly or the era to say how much of the women in this series being one-dimensional was the author or the time, but I definitely wanted more. I haven't decided yet if I am going to read the next volume of this collection. Kelly's part of SM/DP was excellent, so I might give it a go. Overall though? I don't think I would recommend this as a starting point for the current day reader.

Don't even get me started on the muscles and her spiky pauldron things.