Thursday's With Wade: Joe Kelly's Deadpool Revisited Part 3

Today’s reading: Deadpool: Sins of the Past #1-4 and Deadpool (Vol. 3) #3-5

Story by Mark Waid (Sins of the Past) and Joe Kelly (Vol. 3)

Art by Ian Churchill, Lee Weeks and Ken Lashley (Sins of the Past) and Ed McGuinness and Kevin Lau (Vol. 3)

Issues 3 through 5 of Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness’ Deadpool tell the book’s first long arc and give us more of a peak into Wade’s past than we’ve gotten previously.

Spiritually, these three issues act as a sequel to Mark Waid and Ian Churchill’s 1994 Deadpool: Sins of the Past miniseries, as they pick up two big threads from that four-issue story: They reintroduce Dr. Killbrew, the scientist responsible both for curing Wade’s cancer and disfiguring his entire body, and reteam Deadpool with Siryn, the X-Force member on whom he has developed a major crush.

We also get a pretty sweet fight between Deadpool and the Hulk, and we get to see what the mercenaries of Hellhouse get up to when Wade’s not around (Hint: It mostly consists of cowering in front of T-Ray).

A lot of what transpires in issues 3 through 5 depends on some working knowledge of Sins of the Past, so here’s some context: In Sins, Black Tom Cassidy, who was effectively turning into a living tree, had obtained the services of one Dr. Killebrew (note the spelling; it changes when he resurfaces in Kelly’s run) to help cure him. Killebrew believes the only way to cure Tom is to give him some of Deadpool’s regenerative cells (Note: Deadpool’s healing factor is itself a warped genetic copy of Wolverine’s). So Tom has some goons try to take Deadpool in, one of whom slices off DP’s hand, which Killebrew then affixes to Tom, red glove and all. The series ends with Deadpool taking Killebrew away in a boat, demanding the doctor fix his healing factor, as Wade noticed it was taking him an inordinately long time to grow his hand back.

… Except Deadpool apparently skipped out on the doctor shortly thereafter, never actually addressing the issue, according to Kelly. So when Deadpool loses a finger to Taskmaster in issue 2, he’s right back where he started, unable to grow back more than a wee nubbin.

Cue the opening of issue 3, and the arrival of a mysterious package at the Hellhouse that turns out to be Wade’s missing glove, along with a love note from Black Tom. Wade decides to go on a revenge run, enlisting Siryn – Black Tom’s niece – in the process. The two track Tom down to a chalet in the Swiss Alps, only to find not Tom – who at the time was busy harassing the students of Generation X – but Killbrew, and a box full of red gloves.

In addition to being spelled differently, Dr. K looks different, too. Churchill drew Killebrew with Sandy-colored hair and a little more wisdom in his eyes: Albert Einstein meets David Crosby. McGuinness’ Killbrew has grayish-white hair, a fuller mustache and is rounder of belly: Wilford Brimley meets Dr. Light from the Mega Man games.

Either way, Killbrew tells Deadpool he’s dying and wants to fix him as penance for past wrongs. The only thing that can save Wade is an infusion of gamma-irradiated blood, and only because he took that gamma bath in issue 1.

And so, Deadpool gets his biggest, greenest guest star to date in issue 4. During this period, the Hulk had taken over one of the Florida Keys and was in one of his more violent “Leave Hulk alone” phases. So after a fight that ends with Deadpool impaling the Hulk on a rusty street sign, DP gets his blood, Killbrew gets his cure and Wade can set about crossing “Kill Killbrew” off his bucket list.

… Except that Siryn gets between the two and pleads with Wade to spare Killbrew’s life, which he does, after much hemming and hawing. Siryn serves as the angel on Deadpool’s shoulder throughout this arc, getting Wade’s hopes up for a romantic relationship just enough to get him to do good, while making it clear to him that her primary duty is to X-Force – of which she had recently become a junior leader – and that they could only be friends, at least for now, and possibly moreso if Wade continues playing nice. That being said, she also reveals she’s cool with him essentially stalking her, knowing that he watches her sleep outside her bedroom window at the Xavier Institute, leaving her “safe t’dream.” Sorry, that’s just creepy.

The Siryn-Deadpool relationship never really develops beyond this. Deadpool, in fact, moves on rather quickly to a new woman who is in no way good for his mental health, and not long after that the living embodiment of Death, with whom he still maintains a relationship. Siryn bounces from team to team for a while, moving from X-Force to X-Corp to X-Factor Investigations, where she ends up impregnated with a clone of Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. According to writer Peter David, Deadpool made one cameo appearance in that iteration of X-Factor, off-panel.

As for Killbrew, we’ll see him again in about a year’s time, in a story that further fleshes out Wade’s experiences in the Weapon X program and introduces an even bigger threat from his past.

Before we part ways, let’s check in on the other denizens of that marvelous mercenary meat market, the Hellhouse. Issue 5 ends with a look at T-Ray inside his lair after a big hit, where it’s revealed his powers involve some kind of magic, and his back is covered in a large, horrific scar, with names carved into his flesh below it, including Wilson’s. He’s clearly being built up as a big-bad for Wade – one who has no qualms killing children for money, it turns out. Exactly why he hates Deadpool so much will be revealed much later, and then retconned and unconned and may or may not involve Thanos. But for now, let’s enjoy T-Ray for the menacing, alabaster Street Fighter knockoff he is (speaking of which, keep your eyes peeled for the Kevin Lau-drawn Zangief knockoff hanging around Hellhouse).

Next time on Thursdays with Wade, we’ll cover Deadpool’s Flashback Month issue, which tells the story of Wade’s ex-girlfriend, Copycat, and just how long Landau, Luckman & Lake have been keeping tabs on the man in the red pajamas.

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.

Greetings from Battleworld: Secret Wars Week 17

Secret Wars continues to roll on  as Dan looks at the SW romantic comedy/bromance of Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde, while I watch Peter David bring down the curtain on Future Imperfect...

Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde #3

Story:  Sam Humphries

Art:  Alti Firmansyah and Jessica Kholinne

Back when Secret Wars #4 came out, Matt and I ranked all the various tie-ins that had been released to date. Were we to redo that list today, this book would be in my top five.

Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde is a love story between a space-hopping scoundrel and (the Age of Apocalypse proxy of) his globetrotting mutant nerd girlfriend, but it turns out it’s also a love story between a space-hopping scoundrel and his space bros.

Yes, in the end, Peter Quill gets to kiss an alternate-reality version of his fiancée from the 616 universe, but he also gets to keep the anomaly Kitty was tracking down when the story began: Rocket Raccoon’s tail. Rocket – 616 Rocket, anyway – got iced during the fighting waaaay back in Secret Wars #1, just before Quill got teleported onto Reed Richards’ Raft. It’s another reminder of a home that doesn’t exist anymore, and the people he loved and lost.

But as Kitty returns to Doomgard and Quill is left with a tail and a little bit of lipstick on his face, he also has a new friend in the Manhattan Domain’s version of Drax, an ebullient, pompadoured, pop-culture loving now-ex-nightclub manager who would dress up like God Emperor Doom and break into a museum to save his golden-voiced lounge singer buddy. It’s a Casablanca ending in a movie filled with Disney references, but it works, because if Frozen taught us anything, it’s that there’s other kinds of love besides the romantic kind.

As for the book’s primary antagonist, Gambit has made the perfect villain for this story, perhaps even moreso than when he was a horseman of Apocalypse. Here he gets to play the full-on sleazebag we always knew he could be; the Gaston to Kitty’s Belle, as it were. And when the chips are down, he can throw one of Longshot’s bone knives and run away to sleaze another day. Even when he’s staring down the business end of four Thor hammers (Hey, it’s Eric Masterson again!), he’s got one last lucky, kinetically charged knife to play, because hey, it’s Gambit. He’s a total creep, but he’s a beloved total creep.

Future Imperfect #5
Story: Peter David
Art: Greg Land, Jay Leisten, & Nolan Woodward

Peter David wraps up Future Imperfect with one final appearance from a classic character from the original series. The Rick Jones of the original series pops up as The Guardian of the wishing well that sits at the center of Doom's power, and holds the Destroyer armor the Maestro, the evil Hulk, has been searching for to take on God Emperor Doom. I love the way David writes Rick, still willing to snark and stand up to the more powerful Maestro, doing his duty to Doom. I also got a kick out of Peter David's little meta-commentary moment about Rick's time as A-Bomb; I love David's talent for working those commentaries in seamlessly, so it doesn't come off as too much of a wink at the camera. And when Maestro reaches the armor, we get the battle between Doom and Maestro. Greg Land does a solid job drawing what is a clash of the titans, as Maestro uses the Asgardian might of the Destroyer armor to prove himself Doom's equal. Most of the issue is dedicated to the fight, coming back around at the end for one final bit of commentary on being careful what you wish for. I know there are going to be some people who hate the ending, and feel like it's a cop out, but David lays out the framework well enough that the twist makes perfect sense. It's hard to talk about the ending, since any comment on it will give away the twist that was built in, but I think it makes sense, and as we know Maestro will be back after Secret Wars, it makes me wonder if this was setting up this Maestro as the version in Contest of Champions, but we'll see. All I can say for sure is that any chance Peter David has to gather some of his best characters, and put them together in one mini-series is something that everyone should check out.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 9/2

Beyond Belief #2
Story: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Art: Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur, & Mauricio Wallace

Now that the live stage show and podcast of The Thrilling Adventure Hour have ceased on a regular basis, it's great to have the comics return to help give me my fix of all my favorite characters. After helping their friend Donna get her house clear of ghosts, mediums Frank and Sadie Doyle head across the street to help a little girl named joy and her imaginary friend Mr. Fuzzypants deal with a monster problem of their own. The story is a perfect Beyond Belief, with clever plots and wheels within wheels storytelling; there are the imaginary friends of imaginary friends, monsters born of monster hunters. And the Doyles are as ever brave, not afraid of anything (the fact that they're gleefully drunk as ever doesn't hurt). AS with the other TAH comics, the story takes advantage of the visual medium in a way the podcast cannot, with Frank fighting creatures instead of simply talking them into defeat like the monster hunter he was before he met Sadie and settled down. Artist Phil Hester is one of comics best, an artist who brings his A game to anything he does, be it superheroes or monsters, but this issue he stretches his artistic legs. Some of the pages of the story are told by joy and Mr. Fuzzypants, and for that narrative, the backgrounds shift to a childlike crayon design, which gives it the perfect feeling of childlike imagination. While the Doyles are dealing with all this, we find out a little more about the neighborhood Donna has moved into, as we see a party going on down the block, attended by Joy's parents, among others, and well, I don't go to a lot of parties, but I didn't think human sacrifice was a part of most get togethers, and when things don't go as planned, well, let's just say it looks like the Doyles will be coming to the rescue again. As always, these horror tinged precedings are told with the usual TAH tongue planted firmly in cheek, balancing the scary with Doyles usual dry and urbane wit. I will happily read anything Thrilling Adventure related, and fortunately, Bne Acker and Ben Blacker continue to give their fans quality stories of walks in realms Beyond Belief.

Daredevil #18
Story: Mark Waid
Art: Chris Samnee & Matthew Wilson

All good things must come to an end, and so ends Mark Waid and Chris Samnee's impressive run on Daredevil. After over four years, Waid bows out this issue, having written two volumes of the series, of which Samnee drew the majority. Waid has done an impressive job of balancing the brooding with the funny, moving Daredevil away from the character that Frank Miller crafted, the tormented Catholic who loses everyone he loves, and into a character who looks on his life with a bit more of a smile. It's not to say that Daredevil's life is easy or the comic is a comedy. Going into this issue, Matt Murdock, Daredevil has rarely been in more dire straits: his whole life laid bare by the Shroud and the Owl, his reputation ruined, and the two people he loves most, his best friend Foggy Nelson and his girlfriend Kirsten McDuffie, in the hands of his archfoe, the Kingpin. The story spotlights everything about Daredevil that makes him a great character: he uses his mind to set up Kingpin's downfall, and then he uses his fists to aid in it. And Waid gives Matt a big win as well as the losses here, keeping the balance just right. A lot of this series has been about Matt discovering things about himself and dealing with all the issues that years of being beaten down by his enemies and fate have given him, and at the end, before he has to go out and talk to the reporters and explain exactly what happened to him during his time in San Francisco, he breaks down. Not nervous breakdown collapse breaks down, but talks to Foggy and Kirsten about what being a man without fear means, and it's not all for the good. But he perseveres and pushes through, We get to see Matt in his traditional costume again, and Chris Samnee gets to draw not just the impressive fight scenes that have been his trademark on Daredevil,  but also some of the personal, quieter scenes that show off a different set of skills, with strong acting from the faces and body language that flow in a different way than combat. Chris Samnee was an artist whose work I enjoyed before this run, but after it he's become an artist I will follow wherever he goes. I'm looking forward to seeing what Charles Soule and Ron Garney are going to be doing on their new run on Daredevil, but they have very big shoes to fill; this run is as definitive to Daredevil as Waid's run on Flash as to Wally West. It was a swashbuckling story of crime, the law, superheroics, and a man trying to make the world and his life better. If you never tried it, or are curious about Daredevil after you saw his Netflix TV series, it's really something worth checking out. It's not like any Daredevil of the twenty years before it, and I think it will be the standard the next twenty years are measured against.


And Dan Grote reviews this week's battle between two of our favorite characters...

Deadpool vs. Thanos #1

Story: Tim Seeley

Art: Elmo Bondoc & Ruth Redmond

A long time ago (2002) on a space throne far, far away, Thanos, the Mad Titan, killer of stuff, cursed Wade Wilson with immortality, on account of Wade was getting too cozy with Thanos’ main squeeze, the living embodiment of Death.

The splash page on which this happened was the final page of writer Frank Tieri’s run on Deadpool, which cleared the way for Gail Simone and Udon Studios to take over the character. Thirteen years later, that coda is being explored in greater detail in a four-issue miniseries by writer Tim Seeley (Grayson) and artist Elmo Bondoc (the Loki issue of Ms. Marvel).

In Deadpool vs. Thanos, Death has gone missing. Not just taken a holiday, but completely disappeared. As a result, not only can no one be killed, but the dead are coming back to life (Yeah, I know, more zombies; let’s not dwell on it). Which totally messes with Deadpool’s assassination of Dr. Doom, who attempts to return the favor. While Wade heals from the more successful attempts on his life, he visits a place between life and death where he gets, let’s say, conjugal visits with Mistress Death (and a sweet, outside-the-mask mustache). This time, though, Death is trapped behind a mirror and begging for Wade’s help.

When he comes to, Deadpool seeks the expertise of Black Talon, a voodoo practitioner and rooster-headdress aficionado, who turns DP on to the idea of tracking down Thanos. After a fun montage featuring the Avengers, Cable, a poop joke and a Muppets reference, Deadpool shows up at Thanos’ space-doorstep, and tall, purple and rock-chinned commences straight up mega-murdering our anti-hero, having rescinded his decade-old curse.

Except it doesn’t take. Whoever took Death out of the picture, it’s not Thanos. And so the two realize they must team up to set the balance of life and death aright. Hope you like zany antics on a cosmic scale, because they’re gonna ensue.

For continuity geeks, a recap page lets readers know this story takes place before Deadpool’s Marvel NOW! relaunch of just a couple years ago. So don’t look for talk of Battleworld, incursions, the ghost of Benjamin Franklin or SHIELD agents who look like Pete Hornberger from 30 Rock. But if you’re a fan of DP’s retconned misadventures, such as the just-ended Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars, you’ll no doubt enjoy this, too.

The Players on the Other Side: A Guide to Your Anti-Bats

Years and years of reading Batman comics have shown me something very interesting: writers love the idea of the anti-Bat. I'm not talking an opposite; The Joker is the opposite of Batman. Joker is chaos to Batman's order. I'm talking that villain who is the cracked mirror version of Batman. Most superheroes have one villain like that, but with Batman it seems like they could form a club. So I was thinking, as something fun for this Friday, to run down the anti-Bats, and end with a mention of a character who isn't a DC character who is, in my opinion, the ultimate dark version of Batman. I won't be drawing in any of the other characters from outside DC who are takes on Batman, so fans of Nighthawk of the Squadron Supreme or Darkwing of the Guardians of the Globe (or Darkwing Duck, for that matter), I understand your love, and there might be s piece someday about alternate takes on Batman. But today, let's bring on the bad guys.

Killer Moth
First Appearance: Batman (Vol.1) #63

Killer Moth is looked on a kind of a joke character now. I think the striped leggings don't help much in that respect, to be honest. But when he was introduced, he set himself up as the Batman of the criminal set. He had a Mothcave and a Mothmobile, and criminals would hire him to help them escape the police and Batman. This goes about as well as you might expect, with Batman shutting him down repeatedly. When he first appeared, he even had a millionaire secret identity, as Cameron Van Cleer (who sounds like the jerk rich boyfriend in a 80s movie). Over time, he became more of a generic 60s villain, performing all sorts of heists and capers. He's probably best remembered as the first villain who fought Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. He would pop up occasionally throughout the 70s and 80s, and in the 90s, he got one really great story, "The Misfits", in Shadow of the Bat, a new secret identity, Drury Walker, and was one of the villains who got a serious Underworld Unleashed treatment, transformed into a giant moth monster called Charaxes in Robin. As opposed to a lot of the villains from that crossover, this change stuck, and he remained Charaxes until he was killed in Infinite Crisis. While there was another Killer Moth briefly after Charaxes's death, and one who has appeared in the New 52, he has mostly returned to obscurity. For a villain who hasn't been a major threat, well, pretty much ever, Killer Moth has a pretty interesting career in other media. He never made Batman '66 (although there was a test short of Batgirl with him as the villain), or Batman: The Animated Series. However, he did make The Batman, both in his Killer Moth costume and his Charaxes form, and pops up a couple times in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He is also a recurring villain on Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, where his form is closer to Charaxes than Killer Moth. Starfire's pet grub, Silkie, is a product of Killer Moth's experiments. I list him as the first anti-Bat, though I will admit that Deadshot, who pre-dates him by a year, did start out as something of an anti-Bat as well.

The Wrath
First Appearance: Batman Special #1

Created by Mike W. Barr in one of his numerous excellent Batman stories, The Wrath is one of two villains on this list whose origins directly mirror Batman's. In his one appearance in the one-shot, "The Player on the Other Side," (from which I drew this piece's title), Barr and artist Michael Golden created the Wrath as a criminal whose parents were shot by police in Gotham, and who trained around the world as a hitman. He comes back to Gotham on a contract, and plans to take out the officer who killed his parents, namely Jim Gordon. This is an excellent issue, and it's been collected a couple of times, but only in recent years. The Wrath never popped up again after his death in this issue, but an apprentice of his appeared as a new Wrath in a Batman Confidential arc by Tony Bedard and Rags Morales, and Jonathan Layman and Jay Fabok introduced a New 52 Wrath during their run on Detective Comics. Interestingly, the Wrath also appeared on an episode of The Batman, along with a Robin-like sidekick called Scorn. This was towards the end of that series, when it was firing on all its cylinders and was pretty solid.

Bane
First Appearance: Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1

Right before The Dark Knight Rises, I wrote a long piece about Bane's history, so I'll just give a quick rundown here and you can go and read that of you want to read more about probably the most infamous of the anti-Bats. Created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, and Graham Nolan, Bane was a child raised in an island prison, paying for the crime of his father. There, he trained his mind and body to perfection, escaped, and went to Gotham to prove himself by defeating Batman. While Bane isn't as much a direct visual counterpart to Batman as Killer Moth or Wrath, he is the self-made man, the man who pushed himself harder than anyone else to become the pinnacle of human achievement. His use of the super-steroid Venom also makes an interesting parallel, as Batman was addicted to the drug during its first appearance in Legends of the Dark Knight, but kicked the habit. And as Bane grew, he also spent time as the chosen heir of Ra's al Ghul. The great thing about Bane (at least before the New 52 reset him to being similar to his original incarnation) was that Bane grew out of his role as an anti-Bat and became a fascinating character in his own rights, mostly thanks to Gail Simone's tremendous work with the character in Secret Six. Bane is a solid part of the Batman mythos now, entering that highest echelon of Batman villains, He has appeared in all modern animated forms of Batman, as well as in both movie series, and had a prominent role in the Arkham video games series.

Prometheus
First Appearance: New Year's Evil: Prometheus #1

Prometheus is a character created by Grant Morrison, so you know you're in for a trip right off the bat. Prometheus's basic origin is the same as the Wrath: criminal parents killed by the police. But while the Wrath's parents were petty crooks, Prometheus's were like the couple from Natural Born Killers. And instead of training with the best people the mob could find, Prometheus trained with evil monks and the like, and got his Batcave as a house in a void dimension. So, yeah, totally Morrison there. He decided that if he was going to make an impact, he had to kill superheroes, and set his sights on the Justice League. He also had a helmet that enabled him to download the fighting styles of anyone, so it's interesting to note that, as much of a parallel to Batman he might be, he cheated to do it. And when Batman finally defeated him in Morrison's final JLA arc, it was by exploiting the helmet. When Prometheus next appeared, he had inexplicably gone from a guy who could face down the whole Justice League to a henchman for another villain (more on him later) who Green Arrow took out handily. It was eventually revealed that the Promethus from those stories was in fact the apprentice of the original Prometheus, who the original killed when he recovered from his defeat by Batman. Prometheus was the main villain in the much derided Justice League: Cry For Justice mini-series, where he exacted vicious revenge on any superhero who crossed his path, and was killed by Green Arrow. He has not appeared since.

Hush
First Appearance: Batman (vol.1) #608

Hush is a tricky character. Created to be the mastermind villain of a mega-arc in the ongoing Batman title, Hush was Tommy Elliot, a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne who came from a privileged background. But as opposed to the loving Waynes as parents, the Elliots were terrible people, and so young Tommy tried to kill them. He would have succeeded, if Thomas Wayne hadn't saved his mother's life, and so years of slow planning began for Tommy to get his revenge on Bruce. When he was pulled into a conspiracy with Jason Todd, Riddler, and Scarecrow, Tommy took on the identity Hush, and became a criminal mastermind.I think a lot of the problems people have with Hush comes from the fact that he came from out of nowhere, was an obvious suspect, and there were various structural issues with the story, and that the next stories featuring the characters were an awkward series of stories in Batman: Gotham Knights where he and Prometheus teamed-up with Prometheus as the lesser partner (see, I said there'd be more on this later). Paul Dini did a great job rehabilitating the character in his run on Detective Comics and Streets of Gotham, making him a fully formed character, and even making him more of an anti-Bruce Wayne by Hush having surgery to look like Bruce and try to take his place. Hush popped up recently in Batman: Eternal as one of the suspects for mastermind of that conspiracy, but has not been seen since that series wrapped.

Owlman
First Appearance: Justice League of America (Vol.1) #29

Owlman is a little bit of a cheat for this list, as he is simply a version of Batman from another universe, specifically Earth-3, the Earth where good guys are evil and bad guys are good. However there are some wrinkles that made me want to call him out. One is that he has interacted wit the "real" Batman in various battles between the Justice League and their evil opposite numbers, the Crime Syndicate. Also, he's an interesting character in his own right; in his various origins, Thomas Wayne Jr. either killed his parents or watched his brother, Bruce, and mother killed, and decided to become a criminal. Grant Morrison reintroduced the Crime Syndicate in his excellent JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel, and the Syndicate popped up a few times after that. Since the DC reboot, there have actually been two Owlmans. One is this version, the alternate Thomas, who is still lurking out in the DCU after the events of Forever Evil. The other is Lincoln March, the ally of the Court of Owls, who claims to be Thomas Wayne Jr. of Earth Prime. He was a centerpiece of the "Court of Owls" storyline, and appeared at the end of Batman: Eternal, where he was recaptured by the Court. What will happen to him next remains a mystery.

Grendel (Hunter Rose)
First Appearance: Comico Primer #2

OK, here's my pick as the greatest anti-Bat in comics, and he wasn't even created to be one! The assassin/mobster/bon vivant Hunter Rose, better known as the first Grendel in Matt Wagner's epic cycle, shares many of the same cultural roots as Batman, with the pulps as the backdrop (although I have to imagine Batman factors in somewhere in that cultural DNA as well). Hunter is a self-made man, who as opposed to Batman didn't have everything laid out in front of him. He pulled himself up, as an exceptional person in a world of ordinary people. And while Batman had legions of good influences (Alfred, Leslie Thompkins, etc.), Hunter was only noticed by Jocasta Rose, a woman who became his lover and confidant at an impressionable age. With her loss, Hunter decided that he would never be mundane, he took the flashy name of Hunter Rose, he became an internationally best selling novelist, and when that wasn't enough, he took over the New York mobs. Hunter is as cool, as calculating, and as brilliant as Batman, but everything he does is for himself. Except for one thing. He has a young ward, Stacy Palumbo, who he took in after he killed her uncle and saved her from a child pornography ring. But, in another inversion, instead of this being the thing that saves them both (as I feel Bruce Wayne taking in Dick Grayson kept Bruce in touch with his humanity), when Stacy discovered that Hunter was in fact Grendel, she manipulated events that led to his death, and her own eventual slide into madness. Hunter is a phenomenal character on his own, with no Batman necessary, but Wagner's Batman/Grendel is an excellent showcase of the two characters and how they relate. Seriously, it's the best batman related intercompany crossover ever, and should be in the collection of any Batman fan.

Thursdays with Wade: Joe Kelly’s Deadpool Revisited Part 2

Today’s reading: Deadpool #2

Story by Joe Kelly

Art by Ed McGuinness

Issue #2 of Kelly and McGuinness’ run on Deadpool introduces someone who will become a mainstay in Deadpool’s world: Taskmaster.

Taskmaster, real name Tony Masters, was created by David Michelinie and George Perez and first appeared in 1980’s Avengers #195. He is a master combatant, gifted with the ability to mimic the moves of anyone he watches fight. Over the years, he and DP develop what can best be described as a frenemyship, as Deadpool tortures him the same way he does his other friends, and Tasky occasionally seeks revenge for it.

Over the years, Taskmaster has become a fairly big presence in the Marvel Universe. He starred in his own miniseries in 2002 and 2010, the former of which was drawn by Udon Studios, who also drew Tasky and his ex-girlfriend, Sandi Brandenburg, during Gail Simone’s run on Deadpool/Agent X. After Civil War, he was hired by SHIELD to train heroes at Camp Hammond (and kept on after Norman Osborn started running things in the wake of Secret Invasion). He’s also appeared in other media, including as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and as an evil substitute gym teacher on Disney XD’s Ultimate Spider-Man.

It’d be nice to think all that started with his earliest appearance in Deadpool, but likely no one had that foresight. In fact, this is Taskmaster’s only appearance during the Kelly run. He doesn’t appear again until issue #35, by which point Christopher Priest had taken over writing duties. If anything, Priest wrote the first legitimately memorable DP-TM arc, in which the two, along with the Constrictor, join a new version of the Wizard’s Frightful Four.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The Taskmaster of issue #2 is more your standard skull-faced villain with a training school in the Nevada desert. And he’s got Deadpool’s best bud, Weasel.

This ain’t no kidnapping, though. Not in the traditional sense anyway. Taskmaster is offering Weasel a job. “Ten G’s a week, a private, top-of-the-line workshop, the Playboy Channel,” which was a big deal in 1997 considering not everyone had access to free Internet porn at the time. Deadpool, naturally, gets jealous and responds the only way he can, by defeating Tasky in battle using unpredictable, chaotic movements that mostly just incorporate dance. Perhaps this is the ur-text for when Star-Lord challenged Ronan to a dance-off in Guardians. Either way, Taskmaster is humiliated, Weasel decides not to take the job and Deadpool celebrates by giving his friend a wedgie before things get too bromance-y.

In non-Taskmaster developments, issue #2 opens with Deadpool creeping outside Siryn’s bedroom at the Xavier Institute (X-Force was living at the mansion at the time), watching her sleep, a move he fully admits is stalking. Siryn’s going to keep popping up in the first trade’s worth of issues, but before long there’ll be a new woman in his life, one more in tune with his mental state.

Before any of this, though, before Panel One, even, note that the book uses a recap page to catch readers up to speed and remind you who the players are. At the time, it was one of the only if not the only Marvel book to use the convention, but soon and for a while the practice would become more widespread, with the company introducing a standard linewide format for recaps.

Next time on Thursdays with Wade, a de-powering DP is forced to turn to the man who made him for help, while Siryn tries her hardest to keep Wade from murdering him. Oh, and the Hulk shows up! So your suggested reading is Deadpool issues 3 through 5, and for extra credit, reread Deadpool: Sins of the Past, which introduces both Dr. Killebrew and Wade’s hots for Siryn.

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.

Requiem for a Comic Shop Guy: Remembrances of My Time at Dewey's

I've been looking at a blank screen for much of the past week, trying to think about what to write; this was originally supposed to go up Friday, but I hadn't found the angle yet. You see, this past Wednesday was my last day working regularly at Dewey's Comic City. For those of you who are people who buy comics week in and week out, you know how important a comic shop is; it's like a neighborhood pub, only with more arguing about The Hulk. It's where you go to meet and share your interests with your people. I've been shopping at Dewey's since 1998, and have worked there since 2000. That's a long time. And whole my life is entering a whole new exciting phase (including, I hope, a new exciting phase here on the blog), it's still something I'll miss and want to look back on a bit.

Right around the time i started this blog, I wrote a post about what was great about comic shops and Dewey's in particular (you can find it here). And all of that is still true to this day. Maybe even more so. Because to be frankly a bit maudlin, Dewey's is where I have made many of my closest friends. Many co-workers and former co-workers were at my wedding. They're people I will miss seeing every week. And I'd like to think that is how they, and some of our customers, will feel about me. Because a comic shop is a community. It's where you go when you really want to vent about how Cyclops was right (yes, still a sore spot for me) or about how the newest TV project based on a comic was awesome/ok/lackluster/whatever. And if done right, it's a judgement free zone, where you don't have to worry about someone being a jerk because you love this stuff.

When I started shopping at Dewey's, the store was in this little alley off of a main street. I don't even know how I found it, but when I found out there was a comic shop within walking distance from my new college, I went the minute I had some free time. It was a good shop, I could tell; a bit more space given to trades then at a lot of other shops, but it was still the late 90s, so there were a good number of back issues too. And the guy at the register, who turned out to be the owner, Dan Veltre, seemed a nice guy. Plus, there was a section I hadn't seen at any of the shops I had frequented before: a section of small press and indy comics. No longer just superheroes for Matt, oh no. It's thanks to Dewey's I encountered work from Daniel Clowes, early work from Ed Brubaker, and work from a pre-Tiny Titans Art and Franco, the adorable Patrick the Wolf Boy. And that was just in the first couple years! I don't think I'd be as well rounded a comics reader I am today without Dewey's, and for that alone, I owe Dan's more eclectic tastes.

After a couple years of working at Borders (remember Borders? I miss Borders), I got lucky to have an opening in my job schedule at the same time the store did, and I started working at Dewey's the first Wednesday in February. And I was in heaven! First grab at any of the new comics? Sign me up. That would have been halfway through my sophomore year, and after being broken in as the new comics day guy, I started working behind the counter that summer, and pretty soon I was working three days a week running the show. Between times when I was working inventory with cycle sheets (hand filling in counts of books on gridded paper; how far we've come in a handful of years) and helping customers, I started to get to know some of those regulars, and I'm happy to say many are still Dewey's customers today. Summer of 2001 involved the arduous task of moving the store out of the alley onto the more spacious and more visible digs Dewey's still resides in today, on the corner of Park Avenue in Madison. Dan always swore that we would never move again, and I'll be honest: if he broke that promise, I think I would have run. You try moving an entire comic shop in August. Not fun.

I could sit here and wax rhapsodically about all the adventures since then. The Free Comic Book Days, the sales, the creator appearances (I've gotten almost as many sketches at Dewey's appearances as I have at conventions, and from some tip top creators). I am not going to sit here and tell customer service stories. Many of those can come off as snarky, which is against this blog's purpose, and I respect the inclusivity of the comic shop. Not to mention, as Dan says, it's not like we have any higher number of oddball customers than any other business, it's just the stigma of the comic shop makes it stick out more. What I will say is I never stopped enjoying working at Dewey's, even when what was a twenty minute commute became an hour, became two hours.

But all good things, etc. etc. As I prepare for a new step in my professional career, a traditional Monday to Friday schedule has become important, and so those convenient Wednesday off are not as convenient anymore. So, I am now a man who doesn't work at a comic shop anymore. And while I'll be getting my weekly books at a shop nearer to home now, I left my reserve card in place at Dewey's, as there isn't a better shop for finding trades and indy books in New Jersey.

I have too many regulars I would love to call out here, too many former coworkers who are still friends to this day. But specifically to Dan, my boos and friends for 17 years, and to John Bush, current manager and long time friend, thanks guys. I'll be seeing you soon. And if you ever need anyone to explain the history of Hawkman, or to discuss who is the best opposite number to Batman, I'm just a phone call away.

Greetings from Battleworld: Secret Wars Week 16

Hank Johnson, Agent of Hydra

Story: David Mandel

Art: Michael Walsh and Matthew Wilson

Did you ever look at Jim Steranko’s 1960s SHIELD art and think, “Man, he’s really doing some cool, trippy stuff, but you know what this needs? Some funny observations about the male midlife crisis!”

Hank Johnson is your average Hydra-hailing schlub in a green tunic and yellow suspenders. He gets kicked in the head by Original Recipe Nick Fury on the regular, has three kids and a wife with whom he engages in typical couple’s spats such as whether to hire a nanny or whether they should leave boring parties without saying goodbye, and all he wants are some tickets to next weekend’s Nets game.

There are some great bwa-ha-ha moments in this book, which was written by an executive producer of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Watching MODOK sing “Amazing Grace” at a Hydra funeral is alone worth the price of admission. For Halloween, the Johnsons dress up as the Avengers, and Hank cosplays as Rage (Remember him? Wore a yellow luchador-ski mask thing on his face and a leather jacket with the sleeves ripped off?). And there’s a great subplot in which Hank is sexually harassed by Viper, aka Madame Hydra.

Also, just because you work for an evil organization doesn’t mean you can send your kids to school with peanut butter sandwiches. Wolfgang von Strucker Elementary is sensitive to its students’ food allergies.

Artist Michael Walsh appears to be channeling both Steranko’s psychedelic spirals and panel play and the expressive minimalism of Hawkeye’s David Aja. It’s a great mix.

The otherwise-mundane-life-of-a-henchman bit is nothing new. The first Austin Powers movie – which also takes its cues from 1960s spy flicks – included two bonus scenes on the subject, and two of The Venture Brothers’ early breakout characters were Henchmen 21 (now 1) and 24 (now dead). But Battleworld has a way of making old tropes seem fresh. Just look at Thors (police procedural) and Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde (romantic comedy/adventure).

Actually, with the exception of the Secret Wars logo on the cover and the inside-cover boilerplate Battleworld explainer, there’s no mention of God Emperor Doom, the Thors, domains or any of that SW stuff. So feel free to enjoy this book on its own merits.

Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #4

Story: Cullen Bunn

Art: Matteo Lolli and Ruth Redmond

So what did we learn from Deadpool’s adventures in the original Secret Wars?

Well, if you believe Deadpool’s fractured, twisted memories (apologies in advance for spoilers), he helped Captain America defeat Dr. Doom during his first brush with godhood, was briefly made handsome, slept with the Wasp, made a deal with the Beyonder to resurrect the alien healer Zsaji (she who so famously broke up Colossus and a too-young-anyway Kitty Pryde) and may have played a direct role in Spider-Man’s black symbiote costume turning evil. And no one remembers any of it because the Wasp wished really hard to erase DP from her memories, forlorn both because Wade loved Zsaji more than her and because he was back to his original pizza-faced self.

Does any of this matter? Is this continuity now? Meh, who’s to say? On the one hand, Cullen Bunn’s Deadpool minis (Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Deadpool Killustrated, Deadpool Kills Deadpool) are generally non-canon romps full of violence and free from consequences. On the other, Deadpool’s flashback stories of the past few years have had consequences in the present, which is why he has a daughter now. Best to not sweat it and just enjoy the mayhem.

That said, there is one panel that sticks out a bit: When Deadpool meets the Beyonder, he realizes he might be a character in a comic book. Had this actually happened in 1984 (and Deadpool actually existed then), it predates the canonical first story about Deadpool’s fourth-wall breakthrough, during Christopher Priest’s run on the book, by more than 15 years. Chalk it up to Wade’s broken brain, maybe. Still, it’s funny how, in a story that is essentially one big retcon, this minor point sticks out.

Anyway, in case you were worried you were about to experience a Deadpool-shaped hole in your pull list (as IF), fear not, for this week marks the start of Deadpool vs. Thanos, a new mini by Tim Seeley and Elmo Bondoc. That said, if for some reason you can’t spend Wednesdays with Wade, there’s always Thursdays (see what I did there?).