So the "Death of X" variant cover for Nightcrawler is him getting burned at the stake; and for Deadpool it's...him dying in bed, surrounded by loved ones, evidence of a life well-led, and a cat and a rubber chicken? Oh, that seems fair...from 2016, Deadpool #15, written by Gerry Duggan, pencils by Mike Hawthorne, inks by Terry Pallot. This cover's by Dan Brereton; there were four covers total for this one; and the amount of series just titled "Deadpool" made this a bother to sort out. And it's a Civil War II crossover, so I'm just getting more irritated.
Deadpool's Mercs for Money have ransacked Pool's office, and along with "so much porn" they've discovered he's been skimming them, presumably cheating them out of the profits. Pool also had a safe deposit box in "Ho-ho-kus New Jersey," and Solo advises they should check that for the contracts Pool made them sign. (Wouldn't the skimming be a breach of contract on Pool's side? And why was Pool skimming?) The guys barely get along, and Foolkiller is accidentally-on-purpose knocked unconscious, but they head for the box. Meanwhile, Deadpool himself sneaks into the Ultimates' Triskelion headquarters, to see--and possibly kill--the Inhuman precog Ulysses. Pool claims he doesn't believe in Ulysses' powers, since "you can't possibly know my future, because even I don't know what I'm going to do from minute to minute. It's like what happens next isn't even written." Subtly meta for this book; but Ulysses suggests if Pool really meant to kill him, his powers would've given him the head's up. He seemingly contradicts that after Pool asks about his daughter, claiming he only sees massive disasters, not little stuff. On the other hand, he sees the Mercs headed to Pool's box; looks like it's on channel 4?
Placated, Pool storms off, and immediately runs into the Black Panther, who is not amused. Especially when Pool ducks out to "deliver a glorious upper decker." Bastard! After exchanging kicks to the groin, Panther knocks Pool out a window, and mangled and broken Pool is somehow able to get away, even as Panther throws a toilet at him. Somebody probably had to clean that up, man! Pool is also able to get to Ho-ho-kus as the Mercs finally find the right deposit box, with the contracts and tapes of "the event that made him famous in Washington D.C." That refers to the first issue or so, I think; but Solo tells them that wasn't even Deadpool, it was him. That shocker is followed by another: Pool lobbing in a bomb, and telling the Mercs he was going to have to let them go..."into a fine pink mist."
I only read this run sporadically, so I'm not sure why Pool is such a dick to the Mercs? Did he need the money that badly, something with his kid maybe? Did he hate them because he hated himself? Was being the biggest jerk the only way to keep them in line? Or was he messing with them just because?
I was annoyed by the Civil War II tie-ins, until I decided Duggan was making fun of the concept by having Deadpool get into fights each issue that could be easily avoided if people just talked like reasonable humans. Like here, Wade is leaving. The Panther could just let him go and it would be over, but he decides to get into a pissing contest with a highly unstable person instead.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember right, Wade's spending the money that's supposed to be going to the Mercs on the Avengers Unity squad he was part of (w/Rogue, Quicksilver, old geezer Steve Rogers, some other people I can't remember). Wade was also spending all his merchandising money and whatever else he got from being really popular at that time on the team, too.
It's kind of sad, because 'Pool really tried to be a good Avenger, but then they did that whole bit where Cap got turned into HYDRA Cap and everyone's like, "we should have known something was wrong when he let Deadpool on the Avengers." Like Bendis didn't have Wolverine, with his body count equal to a small war, on the Avengers for 10 years.