War, What Is It Good For!? — Reviewing ‘Deadpool’ #12

Misunderstandings, symbiote sibling munching, goon squad punching, and multiple double on double crossings sure work to keep things interesting. Pretty much par for the course when throwing the Deadpool and Spider-Man clans into the same space.

For a little extra spice, sprinkle in some godly gamesmanship and it’s a real party going down. Heralds arise and sides are chosen as Cody Ziglar, Andrea Di Vito, Guru-eFX, and Joe Sabino deliver the penultimate issue of this mildly bloody crossover event.

Cohesion, stakes, emotional resonance., and some juicy developments, mixed in with some off-the-walls action.

That’s generally a good formula for any crossover, and really the least a reader can ask for. It’s fun that Marvel has an exhibit A and exhibit B for how to and how not to (respectively) run crossovers, happening at the same exact same time. What a coincidence!

Look, I’m not here to bash on other books when reviewing this one. That being said, this is clearly the superior crossover happening right now. Ziglar and company have a plan and have executed it splendidly. We were tossed some more crumbs to the overall story and the pieces involved. We got some really kick ass action sequences, and got the introduction of a ‘new’ (but also not so new) character.

Can’t ask for much more than that.

Good thing we don’t have to ask Ziglar, who just keeps delivering over in this corner of Marvel. Plenty of good laughs help round things out, adding to the really solid character beats we’ve come to love in both these series.

Capturing a more fun, loose, yet still very hefty feeling is right up Di Vito’s alley. He brings big bold artwork that sits squarely in the realm of more fantastical or whimsical most of the time, without sacrificing any of the emotional or personality beats to do so. There are just enough rougher textures popping into play to add to that depth and heftier overall feeling.

There is just something about this art that screams superhero/cape book. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, despite what some of the internet will say.

This is a well that Guru-eFX taps into readily as well, allowing certain color palette choices to reach their peak brightness. This gives the pages a lot of vibrant lush colors, chiefly around costumes and powers, to match the more baseline ones. The base is more toned down in vibrancy and other aspects to let the more natural color tones to show up. This doesn’t take away from the darker more shadowy additions that add to the depth and definition as well as keeping the color palette styles separate but connected.

A whole lot of words and emotions are flying around here. Various characters have very particular showy voices to them. Per usual, Sabino handles all of that with that veteran sense of ease. Shifting colors, fonts, and bubbles are all over the place to allow each character room to fully be themselves. Their voices are  accurate as their words dance around the page fluidly.

Deadpool #12 is now available from Marvel Comics.