Let’s Hear It For The Girls: Reviewing ‘Deadpool’ #6

Nothing prouder than for a parent to watch their child grow up, gain a healing factor, and do mercenary fieldwork. Preferably alongside their symbiote dog ‘sister’ and their paid by the gig photo-reflex ‘uncle’ mercenary.

At least this is all the case if one happens to be Wade Wilson, the merc with a mouth known as Deadpool. For one shiny moment Cody Ziglar, Rogê Antônio, Guru-eFX, and Joe Sabino gave Deadpool this joy, before tearing it all away in Deadpool #6.

*Reader beware, SPOILERS (already spoiled in the solicits) lie ahead.*

Well, guess that is egg on my face or something. Not really, but I do have to backtrack a bit from the last review. “But why, oh great reviewer?” you are probably asking yourself right now. Well dear reader, the reason lies below.

The premise is solid but the way it ‘ended’ feels kind of weak, and a bit confusing. It seemed that Wade was headed for death, but nope! Instead he’s missing numerous limbs that won’t grow back and still somehow not dying.

That is a snippet from my review for issue five (read it now if you haven’t already – shameless plug). If you’ve read issue six, then you know that Deathgrip returns at the end of this issue to finish what he began, and kills Deadpool while Ellie, Princess, and Taskmaster are on a mission. A fact that the solicits were claiming for months (since they dropped) that I took to be a swerve from how issue five ended.

Oh, no, the swerve was the end of issue five making us think things were ‘fine’ when they were most assuredly not. Even our merc with a mouth and his fourth wall break thought he’d only be down for a few issues before unexpectedly meeting his untimely end (for now).

Ziglar is one of my favorite writers, chiefly for the Miles Morales: Spider-Man series, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt with this one until I didn’t. Despite having enjoyed a lot of what was on the page. While comics are built often to be long-form stories, they are still month-to-month releases, meaning we tend to judge them that way. Even humble reviewers like myself that have read more comics than I could ever spend the time trying to list.

That said, I do still stand by my assessment that the culmination of the first beats with Deathgrip felt rushed in the last issue. Even with this nice setup and home run situation, another issue to let it all breathe before we got this could have been the better move. Overall though, this issue does a lot and spends the bulk showcasing the new mercenary team in action to give us a taste of what the rest of this arc (and likely beyond) will be like.

After a bit of time off, Antônio returns for this issue. Picking up where he left off, plenty of kinetic wide action pieces alongside really tangible emotional energies. Letting the characters speak for themselves through their movements and facial expressions plus body language. Giving things that sharper harder edge to fit the gritty nature of these stories with the right dash of whimsy to remind us it is a zany comic book.

Getting in all the violence at the right level, never pushing to a gory or off-putting place. I say that as Deadpool was diced and pulled apart in this issue. Never though was it more gratuitous than that notion. No blood and guts spilling, keeping it to a lightly bloody PG-13 level of violence.

Darker and colder colors take the lead here, as Guru-eFX keeps the tone steady. Warmer, brighter, and often far more vivid color tones find their way into play, chiefly around the mercenaries and anti-heroes that call this book home. All of it making sure to allow the world to feel relatable but also truly off the wall.

Characters go through a lot here, and as noted, we can see it on their faces and bodies. We also hear it in their words as Sabino makes sure that the pain, loss, and more really resonates with every word on the page. Letting us hear the characters as they quip, riff, emote, and drop hot expositional dialogue.

Deadpool #6 is now available from Marvel Comics.