What do you do when you have a movie starring the Merc with a Mouth and the raging Canadian that makes a billion dollars at the box office? Well, if you’re Marvel, you get a new Deadpool and Wolverine team-up book out as fast as possible. Thankfully for us, Deadpool/Wolverine: A Time of Stryfe is far more than just a quick cash-in on the mega-successful movie. Featuring the creative team behind the excellent X-Force run that ran during the Krakoan age of Marvel (my personal favorite of that era) – writer Benjamin Percy and artist Joshua Cassara (with an assist from Robert Gill) – Wade and Logan’s latest adventure together is the rare comic that is not only easily accessible for people who have seen the movie, but great for longtime fans as well.
After completing his latest mercenary job, Deadpool’s mind is taken over by a mysterious techno virus that compels him to “continue the mission”. That brings him to Wolverine, who’s nursing a beer at a dive bar and attempting to get away from others. As the two come to blows and attempt to discover the mystery behind the mind control that’s affecting Wade, the Earth is quickly attacked by a horde of undead zombies, all sporting the same eye effect as Deadpool when he’s under the mind control. The duo don’t have to wait long to discover who’s behind it all, as Stryfe, the evil clone of Cable, makes his triumphant return, calling Wolverine and Deadpool his “X-Cutioners”. But Logan isn’t under Stryfe’s control….oh wait no, now he is, leading to the two having to discover Stryfe’s plan and their place in it before it’s too late.
Marvel
Deadpool/Wolverine works as well as it does because it’s surprisingly self-contained. Despite a few nods to the just-wrapped Krakoa era, there are no other tie-ins or references to the larger Marvel universe, allowing Percy and Cassara to tell the story they want to tell. The interplay between our two heroes is extremely funny, and the way Stryfe’s backstory is filled out is done so well that I almost want Percy to handle all of the big ’90s time travel clone villain backstories from here on out.
Speaking of Percy, it’s no wonder he does such a great job here, as he has plenty of experience working with Marvel’s mutants, Logan specifically. His X-Force and Wolverine runs were some of the best titles in the very strong Krakoan era of X-Men titles, and that carries over here with the same taut and tense dialogue for Logan. Percy is a longtime fan of this character, and that love and care really shows through the script for Logan’s portions of them. What surprised me more though was how well Percy writes Deadpool. Full disclosure: I have a low tolerance for the Merc with a Mouth when he’s on his own, but whenever he can bounce off another character my enjoyment goes up a lot, so having him bounce off of a surly guy like Wolverine is pretty much as good as it can get. It’s not exactly like having Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman bicker at one another, but it’s as close to the live action thing as comics can provide.
Marvel
One thing that wasn’t a surprise here was the art, handled by Percy’s former X-Force artist Joshua Cassara. Cassara’s style was perfect for that book and the same can be said here. There’s a grittiness to Cassara’s art that’s perfect for the rough and tumble fights Logan and Wade get into, but there’s also enough looseness to it that allows for some great physical comedy from the two, whether it’s Deadpool cracking a weird joke or Wolverine’s subtle reactions to having to deal with him for another hour. Robert Gill jumps in to handle a few issues for Cassarra here, and it’s a real testament to him that I wouldn’t have really noticed there was an art change if the front cover hadn’t told me. While Gill’s style is close to the one Cassarra sets up, his take on the sillier aspects of superhero action serves his pages really well.
That all being said, Deadpool/Wolverine does have the same issue a lot of recent Marvel series have: an abrupt ending. Marvel’s current “10 issues and end it” mandate is in full effect here, as the story seems to start rushing to a conclusion right when it seemed like it was still getting good. That’s a larger issue that I hope the House of Ideas comes around to figuring out sooner rather than later, but on the other side of it, it’s nice that this is something you can have all in one volume.
One of the biggest issues with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and other comic book movies as well) becoming the big box office draw is that the audience for the movies sadly doesn’t translate to the comic shop. There’s a lot of reasons for this, but continuity and issue numbering is the biggest one that is cited, which is why it’s great that A Time of Stryfe exists, as it’s the perfect comic to give to someone who loved the Deadpool & Wolverine movie but is too intimidated to check out the source material. It could very well be the perfect entry point for them.
You must be logged in to post a comment.