Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe

Title:
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe

ISBN:
9780785164036

Price:
$14.99

Publisher/Year:
Marvel, 2012

Artist: Dalibor Talajic

Writer:
Cullen Bunn

Collects:
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #1–4

Rating:
2/5

So in
this trade, our good ol' buddy Wade Wilson decides to go on a killing spree
against everyone. And when I say everyone, I mean the entire Marvel-U. Deadpool
takes on a mission, sent from god himself, to kill all of Marvel's superheroes
and villains. That's right, the Merc with a Mouth goes toe to toe with
Spider-Man, The Hulk, Thor, Wolverine, and even decides to go against the
Fantastic Four and The Avengers. Yeah, it's safe to say he's a nutcase trying
to take on everyone on his lonesome, but Deadpool does a pretty good job in
wiping out all of our favorite characters.

It
starts of great. Deadpool is shown slitting throats, beheading and stabbing a
lot of A-tier heroes to death. It's an awesome sight to behold. The cover explicitly
says "Parental Advisory! Not For Kids!" and as you can tell, that's
because this trade is pretty gory. We all know that Deadpool is a violent
psychopath, but when you remove the censors and have him as the title
character, you get some really gruesome deaths (and some, being terribly
funny). Not to mention any names, but Deadpool, at point blank range, shoots
the face of one of Marvel's most iconic heroes (literally turning one side of
his head into ground beef), and leaves him on the street to rot. It's pretty
damn ruthless. Of course, there's no way Deadpool is able to do some of the
things he does here (specifically against Thor and Hulk), but with a little
deus ex machina, anything is possible.

The
Deadpool humor is still here, as he breaks the fourth wall makes a couple of
pop-culture references, but none of the jokes really hit the mark. And speaking
of the fourth wall, it is that unique ability that causes Deadpool to go on
this crazed rampage to annihilate all of Marvel. A third voice in his head
convinces him that everyone he knows are nothing but puppets, and someone out
there is pulling the strings. And since Deadpool is the only one who knows that
he's in a comic book, he must go and find his answers. Yeah, this sounds like
something that can only happen in a Deadpool storyline.

Unfortunately,
while the book starts off at a full-throttle, it begins to lose its steam as it
draws closer to the finale. The first time we see Wade beheading our heroes and
shooting bullets into their faces, the shock of it all gets to us. But by the
time we reach the end, none of the kills make much of the same impact anymore.
Even the final battle against Taskmaster wasn't satisfying enough. Then, by the
time the last issue reaches its final pages, I was at a complete letdown. I
don't want to spoil anything, but I will say I predicted how this was going to
end (as I'm sure many of you would too, as long as you understand Wade's
acceptance as a comic book character), and while it was a fitting conclusion, I
was hoping it wasn't going to finish the way I thought it would. Cullen Bunn
did a decent job in writing, but he couldn't quite hit it home.

As
for Dalibor Talajic's artwork, I thought he did a fine job. He doesn't get too
much detail into the panels though, as most of the pages are filled with a more
simplistic look, but it does keep the pages turning and it works well with the
story being told. He also changed up Deadpool's outfit a bit, which I kind of
liked. The covers for the individual issues, on the other hand (done by Kaare
Andrews), were fantastic.

Deadpool
Kills the Marvel Universe gives a unique spin on everyone's favorite
self-regenerating mercenary, but while this series had a lot of potential, it
fell short from being something great. I'm sure Deadpool fans will get a kick
out of this four-issue series (which include some impressive fatalities), but
as an avid fan of Wade himself, I thought this to be a bit disappointing.