Today’s reading: Deadpool #18 and #19, July-August 1998
Story by Joe Kelly
Art by Walter McDaniel and John Livesay
Ilaney Bruckner is having a bad day. Actually she’s probably
been having a series of bad years, but it’s hard to tell, given what little
backstory she has.
No sooner does she get home to her remote alpine cabin from
collecting firewood than a masked man in a red-and-black bodysuit and tattered,
oddly form-fitting overalls arrives at her door with a man who resembles Wilford
Brimley with a ponytail slung over his shoulder. The masked man demands shelter
so he can nurse his companion – whom he does not seem to actually like – back
to health. He also slings a never-ending series of fat jokes at both the
Brimley-esque fellow and his hostess, who while thickly proportioned is still
curved in all the ways that count by ’90s comics standards.
Feeling threatened, Ilaney grabs her shotgun and fires off a
shot or two, but the masked man is agile and dodges the bullets. He commandeers
her weapon, apologizes to her in her native German and then asks to use her
snowmobile. Someone is coming for him, with a menacing voice that echoes across
the Swiss Alps. The masked man, whom his pursuer identifies as Wilson, fires
off Ilaney’s last bullet at his target, an armored hulk of a man. Wilson
misses, the but the sound triggers an avalanche, burying the man Wilson
identifies as Ajax and in the process destroying Ilaney’s house, her refuge
from the unclear events of her past. Not only that, but as they make their
getaway, the weight of three people wrecks her snowmobile, her lone means of
transport.
Wilson, who at this point is wearing only a mask, pants and
boots, his bare torso resembling one giant, muscular scar, says Ajax will not
stay buried and will come for them. He explains that a long time ago, he blew a
hole through Ajax with two automatic assault rifles at point blank range. Killebrew,
his portly, elderly companion, rebuilt Ajax, and so Wilson believes the doctor,
presently slumbering in a cave by a roaring fire, knows how to stop him. Ilaney
questions his life choices, and Wilson fires back at her about being a hermit.
“You don’t know … you don’t know me,” Ilaney says. “And I do
know hate. … Oh, do I know hate.”
Just then, Killebrew comes to. Ilaney offers to get Wilson,
who’d left to find more firewood, but Killebrew stops her, confessing he has no
idea how to stop Ajax.
When Killebrew finally admits as much to Wilson, Wilson
throws him clear across the campsite. The two men argue about whether cycles of
violence can be broken and how to let go of hate and anger. Wilson would seem
to think such things are not possible – it’s hard to tell when they argue in
English – and appears ready to deliver a killing blow to the old man. So she
whacks him across the head with a torch. Asked why she did it, she tells
Killebrew once more that she knows about hate, and that she’s tired of running,
though there will be much more running before the day is done.
That’s when Ajax shows up again. End first issue.
The second half begins with Deadpool and Ajax wailing on
each other. Ajax clearly has the upper hand. Ilaney and Killebrew watch,
helpless, as the masked freaks go at it. Finally, Killebrew says goodbye to
Ilaney and jumps on Ajax’s back with gasoline and a torch in a bid to slow his
creation. As Ajax burns, he picks up Killebrew and snaps his neck. Wilson and
Ajax’s Dr. Frankenstein gets to die a hero.
Ilaney grabs Wilson and runs till they hit a cliff, Ajax
screaming “YOU’RE NEXT! YOU’RE NEXT” behind them. At this point, Wilson starts
arguing with no one (It’s actually the
ghosts of the Weapon X rejects, but she doesn’t know that). With Ajax
barreling down on them, they jump into the water below. The plunge knocks
Ilaney unconscious. Wilson revives her with mouth-to-mouth, then makes sex
jokes. More arguing, as if someone were telling Wilson to leave Ilaney behind.
As Ilaney shivers in Wilson’s arms, she hallucinates
reliving her past.
“N-no, colonel … I don’t want to b-be safe anymore. … D-done
that to d-death. … I want to fly again. … I’m a g-good pilot, sir. … I tried. …
T-tried to save them. … But after the accident. … I c-c-couldn’t sleep …
because I could hear them screaming … sm-smell burning. … B-but hiding. … N-no
g-good any more … I want to live. … I want to f-fly. K-Killebrew changed. … He
got what he wanted. … I w-want to change. … I want m-my life back-k. Can I fly
again, sir?”
“Yeah, kid. … You can fly,” Wilson tells her as she slips
into oblivion.
A lot of other stuff happens in these two issues. Deadpool
drowns Ajax and cracks his neck at the bottom of a lake. Killebrew becomes a
Force Ghost. The reject ghosts don’t move on after Ajax dies and question
whether they should have sent Deadpool on a blood quest given how hard he’s
been trying to become a hero. Montgomery the precog lets Zoe Culloden know her
superiors have tapped the
substitute Mithras in case Deadpool doesn’t make the cut. Blind Al dithers
on leaving the Deadhut again.
But on rereading this story for the first time in years, it
occurs to me this two-parter should have been Ilaney’s story. In the age of Rey
and Furiosa, Ilaney appears woefully underwritten, and it’s a shame she was
created just to die. It would have been interesting to see her narration boxes
tell the story of Deadpool and Ajax’s final battle, on top of her terrible, horrible,
no-good, very bad day.
As for Ajax, he’ll stay dead and buried for a good, long
time, till 2015’s Deadpool vs. Thanos miniseries, when
he shows up because Death (capital-D Death, as in Deadpool’s ex) has
disappeared, leading to resurrections all over the universe. The man born
Francis Fanny will also be the big bad in next month’s Deadpool movie, played by Ed Skrein.
Next time on Thursdays with Wade: Deadpool and Monty do
Monte Carlo, as we get back to this Mithras Directive business. See ya then!
In addition to writing
for The Matt Signal, Dan Grote is now the official comics blogger for The Press
of Atlantic City. New posts appear Wednesday mornings at PressofAC.com/Life. His
new novel, Magic Pier, is available however you get your books online. He and Matt have been
friends since the days when Onslaught was just a glimmer in Charles Xavier's
eye. Follow @danielpgrote on Twitter.
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