Amazing Spider-Man #611
This review written by James Hunt on Nov.12, 2009.
Joe Kelly’s run on Deadpool in the late 90s was arguably the character’s defining moment, blending looney-tunes madcappery with fourth-wall breaking action. I’m not much of a fan of the character, but even I know good jokes when I read them. True to form, this issue is full of them. Which is lucky, because there’s a lot else about the issue that doesn’t quite work.
The constant interruptions from the editors, for example, are a little self-indulgent. The occasional interjections actually work okay in a regular issue, where they evoke the maverick editorial style of Marvel’s early output. When the entire editorial team is trying to out-do both the writer and one another for craziness, though, it can’t help but feel embarrassingly forced. There’s a time and a place, guys. When you’re trying to compete with humour as sublimely funny as “Lady Stilt-Man”, there’s no way you’ll succeed.
The artwork, too, is a little self-consciously zany. I won’t deny that cartoonish and exaggerated styles make sense applied to Deadpool, but in a story that also has to worry about portraying scenes where Peter brushes his teeth, and the villains set up the next big Spider-plot, it doesn’t quite work. Indeed, at one or two points things fall apart entirely – I found myself staring at pages without any idea what I was looking at. Characters don’t resemble themselves. Establishing shots don’t establish. Panel transitions don’t make sense. Canete’s style isn’t by any means bad – it’s energetic and expressive, recalling present-day Jim Mahfood to some degree – but there’s no doubt that this isn’t the right showcase for his work.
Kelly’s gags and comedy set-pieces (the Spider-Man/Deadpool “Yo Mamma” competition) do save the issue from being a total wash-out, but had Kelly been working with a more restrained editorial team and with a different artist, it could’ve been so much more. The one thing that really kills the issue’s chances is the choice to tie the issue into ongoing plots. Under the present Spider-regime, there was more than enough space to make this a one-off, self-contained slice of hilarity. It seems clear that that’s what the comic wanted to be – why stand in the way of that?
November 13th, 2009 on 11:01 am
I’ve never been much of a Deadpool fan, “funny” characters depend on how funny the writer is and so often mainstream comic writers just aren’t (or are too constrained by making it ‘all-ages’) and that “whackyness” is just unbearably naff. On the other hand, that cover is amazing!!! I might even buy it.
November 13th, 2009 on 3:58 pm
Skottie Young’s covers are routinely fantastic, he’s one of a very small number of cover artists capable of coming up with a memorable and iconic image that ISN’T a homage to something else. In fact, he should probably stop doing them, just because they’re usually far better than the contents.
November 13th, 2009 on 8:27 pm
Unless Young’s on interiors as well!
November 16th, 2009 on 3:57 pm
Haha, yeah I always love his covers when I see them, but they’re rarely on things I want to read.