Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth #13

August 1, 2010

Writer: Victor Gishler
Penciler (Chapters 1 & 4): Bong Dazo
Inker (Chapters 1 & 4): Jose Pimeltel
Colorist (Chapters 1, 3 & 4): Matt Milla
Artist (Chapter 2): Kyle Baker
Artist (Chapter 3): Matteo Scalera
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Cover: Arthur Suydam
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This issue ends both Deadpool’s adventures in the zombie dimension and this series that was a miniseries, then it wasn’t, then it was again. Deadpool and Headpool (the disembodied head of Zombie Deadpool), along with a few scientists they’ve picked up along the way, are planning to make their run for the portal that will get them out of the zombie dimension and back to good ol’ Marvel Earth-616. Which won’t be easy, considering that there’s an entire universe full of zombies hungry for living flesh out to track them down.

This is the book that made me a fan of writer Victor Gishler. The man manages to mix horror and comedy in a way that’s really only suitable for the likes of Deadpool. Some of the stuff we get in this issue gets into the realm of the grotesque, but still in a wonderfully amusing way. Mixing in some time travel stuff, guest appearances by Brother Voodoo and the Man-Thing, and a deliciously crazy gambit that Deadpool pulls off like nobody else, we get a really fantastic adventure that leads into the current Deadpool Corps series pretty neatly.

One thing that does hurt the book a little, though, is the terribly inconsistent art. Matteo Scalera’s third chapter fits with the Bong Dazo art on chapters one and four pretty well, but Kyle Baker’s chapter two feels like it belongs in a different book entirely. The art isn’t bad, far from it. Baker is an excellent artist and visual storyteller. But his style is so different from the other two artists that it wrenches you completely out of the story as soon as his chapter begins, then does it again when you transition from his work to Scalera’s.

I’m a bit sad to see this series go. It’s been very entertaining, a bit more than the Deadpool Corps book which has already replaced it, but it’s given us a year of amusement. I’ll take what I can get.

Rating: 7/10