Review: Deadpool #33

COVER BY: Dave Johnson

WRITER: Daniel Way

PENCILS: Carlo Barbieri

INKS: Walden Wong

COLORED BY: Marte Gracia

LETTERED BY: VC’s Joe Sabino

PUBLISHER: Marvel

RELEASE DATE: February 23rd, 2011

Well folks it finally happened, Deadpool is back in the cosmos.  Not since the late nineties have we seen the Merc with Mouth tackle the idea of space, shooting it out with alien bounty hunters, or dare he try, hooking up with green women.

This issue starts off with the destruction and near genocide of an alien home world (which said aliens look a lot like the Drells).  Who could be responsible? Galactus? Thanos? How about Way’s newest villain creation…Id, The Selfish Moon!  Say what you want about Way’s portrayal of our main protagonist, but the man knows how to create newer, deadlier and humorous foes for Wade Wilson to fight every month.

This issue brings a new status quo to the book.  For the last year or so, Deadpool has tried to become a true superhero – yeah that didn’t work out – so he kills Macho Gomez (#1 merc of the cosmos) steals his Space Cadillac and begins his journey of restoring his mercenary rep.  What better way than go intergalactic?  Along the way Deadpool meets up with Macho’s old crew, that runs the Space Towing Service, and hooks up with Macho’s wife, who I refer to as “Space Alien Big Bertha.”  A few jobs and laughs later, working with Deadpool becomes too much for the alien crew so they pawn him off to the Drell-like aliens who offer him the job of killing Id, giving DP the validation he’s been searching for.

The main draw to this issue is the return of the pencil work of Carlo Barbieri.  Barbieri simply is the man for this arc and every page is more breathtaking than the next. His depiction of destruction and multiple alien locales is a sight to be seen.  In recent portrayal of DP, Barbieri’s style is the most polished and fun to look at.

With only things escalating further next month, Deadpool #33 is a great starting point for fans to hop back on.  There hasn’t been this much fun in this series since DP duking it out with Bullseye (vaya con dios loco).  While Way’s writing seems to be taking every science fiction cliché and blending it all into one big gumbo – I believe it works.   Its fun to see tid bits from other fields of work (Star Wars, Mass Effect, etc.) and how Deadpool interacts with it all.  This is a strong beginning to this arc and with Deadpool taking on Ego’s kin, it’s only going to get better.