Film Review : "Deadpool & Wolverine"

 What a world we live in. Its a world where writers must keep a careful balance of internet theories to please their audience. In fact, Deadpool's entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe pokes fun at this in its smartest moments. It also pushed the bounds of what you expect Disney to allow as the studio shows there is more wiggle room than expected since even half the adult audience might have to Google the meaning of jokes about pegging. Then it is too late, and they already have the money of the more prudish patrons in hand. I am impressed by how they worked in a wide swathe of the company's media output making "Loki" almost required viewing before going into this. Also, the bulk of the Fox films could help when some characters are marched out.  Spider-man and Ghost Rider were the only corners of the bigger Marvel Universe not touched upon with only a few winks in the direction of Peter Parker.   If you are touchy about spoilers then go see the movie, nothing happens that was not part of wider speculation and had not already been spoiled. 

Reynolds and Jackman, make this a buddy cop team-up that works well against the absurdity of premise. The fight scenes between the two were some of the movie's strongest action sequences. The various incarnations of Wolverine worked better than the varied incarnations of Deadpool, I mean where was Gwenpool? Though like many aspects of the movie, If I blinked I might have missed it. Plotwise there was little surprise, stop this and save your world tropes. I have read critics praising the movie villain Cassandra Nova, and it really just felt like Emma Corrin was doing her best Tilda Swinton impersonation as there was no clear motive or really anything to flesh her out, I think Mojo would have made more sense and been a more inspiring link to the X-Men, would have given the baby Deadpool an ore sensical role. Paradox, worked better as his two-faced manipulations of things, with no real powers held more weight. 

It would be misleading to say there were no X-men in the movie, as Colossus, X-23, and Gambit are all part of the team. I think what they were looking for is Storm, Cyclops, or Rogue, and get a glimpse at how they are going to be brought in. We can pretty much not rest assured that Henry Cavill is not going to play Wolverine, as look what happened with the Reed Richards casting in Dr. Strange, just enough fan casting then take a left turn. My favorite parts of the movie were the NSYNC dancing at the beginning and the brief appearance of the Hulk during the search through Wolverine variants. Overall the chemistry between the two leads was strong enough to carry the film in the classic Hollywood formula even when given the Marvel spin. It did not make apologies for being a super-hero movie which is a must for any such film. 

This Week in Marvel 5/11/16

Agent Carter gets cancelled , which is fine by me the show was a snooze fest. Jessica Jones showed how a female lead can work, Carter showed how it can fail, it's really a role of the dice as to how Black Widow and Captain Marvel would pan out. I think the rule of thumb should be if you can't hold a solo title of your own, then a movie more than likely won't work either. This casts a grim light on Black Panther which I won't be seeing in the theaters. But now onto what matters the comics.The second issue of black Panther, supports my theory that Black panther will hard pressed to hold a movie together on his own as the second issue already lost considerable steam.


Deadpool's 11th issue is rough story wise. Magneto showing up was the best part otherwise this arc with Sabertooth was drawn out an issue too long. I'm still unsure about the new Wasp. The 9th issue of the All New Avengers, focus equally on Vision as it does the new Wasp, but it is Jarvis who makes it feel like an Avengers book.Time travel once again becomes a crutch for questionable writing in the All New X-men's 9th issue that finds Kid Apocalypse and Beast blown back in time to do what a better writer col have done with the character in this reality. The 7th issue of the Ultimates might have decent art, but it is a waste of time to just establish Thanos return and that the team disagrees leading into Civil War 2. The 6th issue of guardians OF infinity comes across like an 80's Space opera, a few shades better than Space Balls. Even more silly is the 7th issue of Web Warriors , which is the jumped shark when Ducktor Doom 2099 comes into play. While it' well drawn the 7th issue of Venom Space Knight has some holes in it's story. The 7th issue of Illuminati is a little bit of a mess as the team falls apart.


The second issue of Gwenpool is an improvement. Jane Foster Thor and MODOK helped the book out. But they are trying to make her their Harley Quinn.Uncanny Inhuman has a really well-written 8th issue that has a lot of heart and makes the Medusa & Johnny Storm thing make sense. Which is a much better use of flash back than what happens in Vision's 7th issue, when we are taken back into a history we already know.The 5th issue of Agents of Shield works pretty well in bringing Grant Ward in and makes good use of the Marvel Universe as it's back drop in a way that serves the comics much better than the show.Silk's 8th issue is decent enough, the whole Spider-women arc seems to be holding it back from telling the story the book wants to tell and the Black Cat arc needs to get some where.I do like the fact Black Cat is gaining some traction in the Spider-World lately.