Deadpool #31 Comic Book Review

Deadpool #31 Cover

The latest chapter in Deadpool‘s life as a married man (long story–trust us-it is weird!), continues as he champions his lady-love against the forces of the mighty Dracula, while his friend, SHIELD Agent Preston searches for his long-lost daughter, who may be in danger.

Warning: Some spoilers are below. Nothing major…we think…

Since taking over the writing chores on the regular Deadpool series, Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn have put the “Regeneratin’ Degenerate” on an emotional roller-coaster. In recent issues, Deadpool (Wade Wilson) has married a succubus named Shiklah, gone on a wacky and blood-filled honeymoon in Japan, taken charge of Shiklah’s war on Dracula and his vampire army (Drac was supposed to marry Shiklah and is a bit ticked off at Wade for getting in the way), all while connecting our favorite insane mercenary with the Marvel Universe-spanning Original Sin crossover event.

So, in this 31st issue of the most recent regular Deadpool series (he also has two other titles going on now), the reader is presented with two distinct sub-plots. In one sub-plot, Wade has spent the last couple of issues recruiting the mutant Dazzler (via stealing a time-travel device from the now defunct Fantastic Four and travelling back to the 1970s disco era to bring back an earlier version of Dazzler) to help him kill vampires. All this vampire-killing is to protect his new lady Shiklah from the evil machinations of her former fiance, Dracula. While Wade and Dazzler traipse about New York exposing vampires to her bright-light powers, the other, and frankly, more interesting, sub-plot is developing.

As part of the Original Sin tie-in, Agent Preston was exposed to a secret involving Deadpool’s daughter. In prior issues, Agent Preston discovered that this long-lost daughter, Eleanor, was living in Winnetka, Illinois. In issue #31, Agent Preston finds Eleanor and ends up fighting to protect her from a heavily-armed team of assassin-kidnappers. One clue that may prove Eleanor is truly Deadpool’s daughter is the almost comic way that she is amused and fascinated by the excessive bloodshed and gore resulting from Agent Preston’s fight against the bad guys. The writing in this part of the story is particularly good. The interactions between Preston, the girl, and her guardian are very well done.

Deadpool and Dazzler from Deadpool #31

The art, however, is sub-par. John Lucas’ style is not working for this comic. Lucas had produced better work in other titles, so perhaps he is drawing Deadpool in a more cartoonish manner due to the presumed un-seriousness of the character. Regardless of his inspiration, while the art for the fight scenes more-or-less work, the way Lucas shows the faces and the facial expressions of the characters is very rough and looks almost rushed and incomplete. I am looking forward to the day when an artist who knows how to draw Deadpool comes on board this title.

Overall, this book is worth buying and reading if you like Deadpool, are following the Original Sin crossover, or are fans of the writing of Duggan and Posehn. While the sub-par art is a distraction, the storyline involving Wade’s daughter and the courage of Agent Preston is worth the cover price alone. Plus we get to see Deadpool waste some evil vampires along the way.

Oh, and the final scene, where Wade is trying to hitch a ride to Illinois to help save his daughter, is both emotionally touching and hilarious. Not to give anything away, but he manages to convince another hero to umm…give him a lift, as it were. You have to see it. Hilarious. Oh, and ‘Pool is wearing a 70s disco afro as well. Check back for our review of the next Deadpool issue, where we see if Deadpool ends up being a big noise in Winnetka.

Also check out our retrospective look at the Deadpool vs. Carnage mini-series  if you want more info on the Merc with a Mouth.

For your further edification on the qualities of this Deadpool comic, check out our video review below, where you can see the art for yourselves.