This week, we will cover: Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #1, First X-Men #1, and Harvest #1.
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #1
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Dalibor Talajic
Company: Marvel Comics
Company: Marvel Comics
A trade in for the old Marvel What If? books, Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe is fun enough. It's a more serious take on Deadpool, seeing the trappings that have made his current book as popular as it is (the yellow and white boxes that depict the various voices in his head), turned on their head and transformed. I imagine fans of the character will revel a bit in the fact that after some mental mojo by the Psycho-Man, which is a cool use of the character, he becomes a much more accomplished bad ass psychopath, able to take down heroes with a single slice of his katana. The action reminds me a bit of what Millar did during his Wolverine Enemy of the State run, which is still a story that I rather like. Cullen (Sixth Gun) Bunn handles the story and throws in some surprises. Talajic's art works as well. It's straightforward, but the clean nature of it is really appealing. It also doesn't hurt that he has some history with the Deadpool character, what with him working on the Deadpool Team-Up book. All in all, a fun sideways story of murder, death, and craziness.
The First X-Men #1
Writers: Christos Gage and Neal Adams
Artist: Neal Adams
Company: Marvel Comics
Imagine, if you will, a story that begins with a Chicken which is then followed by an egg. Fairly linear, right? Now imagine that a new part of that story is added to the beginning, a Rhinoceros if you will. It doesn't work very well, does it? It could be a great story, but the Rhino will always feel like a puzzle piece that someone is cramming into a pre-existing world that people already like. That's kind of what First X-Men feels like. Writers Christos (Avengers Academy) Gage and Neal (Batman) Adams form a fun enough tale, a getting the band together event, as they have Logan recognizing the growing abundance of mutants (before Xavier) and trying to form a team to help them. It's wonky, but viewed out of continuity, it works. I like the back and forth with Sabretooth and the fun factor and thought that's put into Holo's appearance. Adams' art is fine. It's scratchy and a bit all over the place when it comes to facial expressions, but the action is nice and I found the monsters and other assorted "smaller" things to be immensely enjoyable. It's a strange book that is by no means perfect. It actually feels more like a slightly darker, slightly off-kilter, riff on X-Men First Class, but there are some story beats that are interesting and I'm curious to see where they will eventually go.
Writer: A.J. Lieberman
Artist: Colin Lorimer
Company: Image/Shadowline
Does anyone else remember the movie Playing God? The one with David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton? Well, if you do, then you kind of get where Harvest is coming from. If you don't, then let me tell you that Harvest is indeed about organ harvesting. It also deals with cocaine addiction, burned out doctors, ghosts, and generally bad dudes that may or may not be demonic in nature. So okay, the Playing God vibe only goes as far as that an organization is hiring surgeons who have been fired and will never be hired by a reputable hospital ever again. Ultimately, the story is very hit and miss. It jumps around, skipping between characters that may or may not have anything to do with the overall story. Focusing on a single character or even spending a few more panels with one or two of them could have fleshed things out. Lorimer's artwork is actually quite good. The darkness, which the story definitely is, is used well and he draws some fairly gory, yet good, scenes. I will state that there's a bit of photo realism, i.e. stiffness, in his characters, but it doesn't detract from the story. Honestly, this one fizzles a bit. Nothing really new is brought to the table, and like I mentioned, there aren't any characters to sink our hooks in and care about.
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