Nuked In The Publishing Microwave — Reviewing ‘Deadpool/Wolverine’ #2

There is a particular feeling that really seems to hover around the head of Wolverine, for better or for worse. Where forces of nostalgia, convenience, and familiarity meet to keep sprinkling the character and anyone around him with the same static feelings.

Toss in Deadpool, another king of falling into sort of one-note status, and it’s a whole mess of been there done that kind of feeling.

That’s not to say that Deadpool/Wolverine as a series isn’t trying, but by golly, it’s quite a steep uphill trek. With the second issue, Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara, Guru-eFX, and Joe Sabino add a bunch more chaos, confusion, and complications into the story.

Having Percy and Cassara together again is great. I’m pretty sure I said that in the last review too, but it bears repeating. They were a solid duo during the Krakoa era. While I had some quibbles with some of what X-Force did as a series, I miss that era. So even this little taste of what we used to have gets me a bit excited.

I just wish that this meal wasn’t partially based on gussying up some leftovers.

By that, I mean the familiar tropes, like adding even more “forgotten” past stuff with the title duo. There’s also the appearance of Maverick (who dominated cameo page space of Percy’s Krakoa era work), stuff with Stryfe, and the overall feel of this whole story.

Visually, it’s delightful to watch as Cassara cuts loose at times, making the massive dinosaur monsters of Stryfe feel huge and menacing. Quick dynamic panel choices that let the action breathe and feel authentic. Characters take up space, their emotional bandwidth on full display, and there is plenty of depth to the details we find here.

Colors swirl around that solid middle point where vibrant and darker come to live comfortably. As Guru-eFX brings the more fantastical sharper colors befitting the costumes and action mixed with the heavier shadowy tones. I love the way that the scenes that are way from buildings and artificial light sources have such an authentic night like feeling to them. It’s such a small, but greatly appreciated and affirming thing to see in books.

Much of the same can be said for how Sabino brings the voices to bear. He lets the same sorts of colors and feelings really swirl through the lettering, keeping the voices solid and flowing, no matter what is going down on a given page.

My issues with the series just stem from what my overall issue is with Wolverine pretty much all the time. There’s a sort of feeling of stagnation as a character. I actually like the way that Percy writes Logan, really getting his voice and making it work. There are clear beats where he’s trying to do some fun stuff here and I do appreciate that. As a character, though, both Logan and Deadpool are just starting to feel more and more like one-trick ponies.

Because so much of who they are seems based on the versions of them from the 80s/90s and 90s respectively, those moments where they hit the zenith of popularity play back, over and over again. The series is chasing a particular high that wore off a long time ago and can’t be found again.

Look, at the end of the day, there is some wacky fun here. It fits the bill of throwing these characters together. I just wish there was a bit more to chew on and that it didn’t lean too heavily on the most overused parts of their collective pasts.

Deadpool/Wolverine #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.