Comic Review: Deadpool Assassin #5

Deadpool Assassin #5

Marvel Comics

Writer: Cullen Bunn

Artist: Mark Bagley

I’ll come out and say it right here at the start: I think this should be the main Deadpool series. The other series so far hasn’t actually felt like Deadpool yet. I’m still holding out hope that it’ll get better, but Deadpool Assassin has been Deadpool proper the whole time.

Deadpool is trying to get out of the mercenary business and retire. To do that he needs money, and to get the money he needs jobs. So, teaming up with his old pal Weasel, he ends up crossing the Assassins guild and has to kill his way out of it. In the last issue, he hired a bunch of mercenaries from the New York Hellhouse to fight the guild. Now in this issue, the two sides fight and only one mercenary lives.

Deadpool seems like a tricky character to write. If you lean into the serious side too much, it stops being Deadpool. If you go the other way, and try to cram in all the jokes and fourth wall breaks it becomes too much Deadpool (there is such a thing). I think Cullen Bunn writes Deadpool well. There are jokes and Deadpool talks straight at us, the readers, in front of other characters. But also at the same tie, Deadpool is only in this situation because he’s not a cold-hearted killer and wouldn’t protect someone who did something to a child.

The art in this is also pretty good. As you’d expect when a group of assassins fights a group of mercenaries, it gets bloody. It’s not a blood-soaked “children should not read this” kind of bloody, but it’s there. And it looks good. Mark Bagley’s art is a good fit for this. Nothing is lost in the action, and nothing is what I would describe as “excessive”.

My main problem with this issue has to do with the ending of it. So, Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t read it, but I’ll try and keep it light.

Weasel’s death feels a little out of nowhere to me. I don’t think he’s a big enough character to safely say he’ll come back, but I could be wrong. His wife, who we don’t know at all (this issue is maybe the most we’ve seen of her) is pregnant, and that for sure is out of nowhere. And then Threnody, who from my limited knowledge is an established X-Men character, kidnaps the wife to feed on her energy for a baby? I’m not a newbie in the comics world, but I will admit I had to do some google searches.

This is a limited series, so however they choose to wrap this up, I can’t help but think it’ll feel rushed and incomplete. Overall this was a good issue though. I think the ending just stumbled a little, but even then I enjoyed it. The art is good, and the action is plentiful. Deadpool is a good mix of jokes and seriousness. I’ve been with this mini-series since it started, and I can gladly say I will be picking up the next issue.