By Mike Benson & Adam Glass (Writers), Carlo Barberi (Pencils), Sandu Florea (Inks), and Marte Gracia (Colors)
Some Thoughts Before The Review: Deadpool: Suicide Kings is a fun, tasteless, gratuitous romp through the seedier side of the Marvel Universe. It isn’t high art or anything, but it’s entertaining.
The Story: Deadpool (obviously) recovers from a bullet to the head and finds himself teamed up with Daredevil and Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Tombstone asks The Hood for some help and Punisher finds out that he didn’t quite make a kill-shot.
What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: One thing you need to know is that I laughed out loud at the very first page of Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4. So, needless to say, Mike Benson, Adam Glass, and Carlo Barberi start things off on the right foot. The rest of the book is pretty good as well. I like that The Hood is brought into the storyline, especially because, on his own, Tombstone just doesn’t seem all that threatening to a guy like Deadpool. In addition, I think all the guest appearances help to keep Deadpool from being his own worst enemy. Too much ‘pool is a bad thing sometimes and the balance that comes from Spidey and the others really help to keep the Merc with a Mouth in check.
Mike Benson and Adam Glass are clearly having fun writing Deadpool. The characters’ interactions with Punisher, Daredevil, and, in particular, Spider-Man are genuinely funny and go a long way towards elevating a storyline that’s– let’s face it, pretty generic and predictable. In addition, Benson and Glass seem to pace the storytelling much better in Suicide Kings #4 than they have in any of the other issues of the mini-series. Everything just seems to move forward at a pace that feels much better than it has in the past.
Carlo Barberi once again puts in some nice work for Suicide Kings. He handles the extremely violent action scenes well and his character work is lively and expressive. His storytelling, however, leaves something to be desired. While it gets the job done, a few scenes are awkward or look really rushed. The flaws are unfortunate because when Barberi gets it all right, his work is perfect for a book like Suicide Kings.
Conclusion: Flawed but a lot of fun, Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4 is worth picking up if you’re sick of all the “serious” Marvel stuff.
Grade: C+
-Kyle Posluszny
Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Adam Glass, Carlo Barberi, Comic Book Reviews, Daredevil, Deadpool, Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4, Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4 review, Kyle Posluszny, Marte Gracia, Marvel Comics, Merc With a Mouth, Mike Benson, Punisher, Sandu Florea, Spider-Man, Spider-Man, The Hood, Tombstone, Wade Wilson, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review, weeklycomicbookreview.com
