Deadpool #3 Review: Vito, The Magic Sword!

Deadpool #3 continues to progress the dead Presidents storyline at a steady pace. In the last issue we saw the inclusion of Ben Franklin’s ghost to the team, and now Doctor Strange is joining the festivities. Doctor Strange serves a good purpose in this issue and is somewhat the driving force in this story, and surprisingly delivers some funny lines. He’s brought in by Agent Preston to help figure out how to put the zombie Presidents back in the ground. We get some background on the necromancer who is responsible for raising the dead, but it isn’t an important part of the issue and kinda gets glossed over. I’m sure it will be visited upon again in the future though. We get some more development on the zombie Presidents, seeing more interaction amongst them. We also get some hilarious moments featuring Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. I’ll just say Nixon obviously hasn’t forgotten about Watergate, and Ford is as clumsy as ever. Also, there’s a fantastic joke about Lincoln’s assassination. That may sound tasteless, but I assure you it’s quite funny. I’m laughing right now as I’m typing this! This issue definitely had more story development than the previous two, but Deadpool kinda plays the part of a secondary character in this one.

Writers Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan do a fine job of fleshing out the story, but something about their humor in this issue was off. Each page is loaded with Deadpool delivering one-liners and jokes, but it’s extremely hit or miss. It seems the idea here is to overload the reader with jokes, and if one really falls flat, it won’t matter because another one pops up right away and usually sticks. It’s very schizophrenic and a bit distracting really, but I will admit the jokes are tremendously funny when they work. As for the ones that don’t work, they can just be really bad. They’re actually pretty damn corny and cringe-inducing. Deadpool has always told bad jokes, but they always have been written in a way where it was so bad it’s good. It disappoints me that’s not the case here. A positive note though is that we finally got a valuable Deadpool trait in this issue, and that’s him addressing the reader. Breaking the fourth wall is one of my favorite aspects of Deadpool, and it was used very well here but still not enough. I still think Posehn and Duggan are doing a good job with the material, but they need to pick their battles when it comes to Deadpool’s line delivery. It needs a shot of consistency.

Speaking of consistency, the one consistent thing about this run has been artist Tony Moore and nothing has changed here. I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but he’s just killing it! Everything is just so damn vibrant and colorful, and the attention to detail is fantastic. There isn’t nearly as many action beats in this issue compared to the previous two, which gives Moore less opportunity to wow us, but he takes what he’s given and still delivers. It’s very intricate art, and The Walking Dead artist continues to impress me.

Deadpool #3 gives us what the previous two issues had been missing, and that was some good old story development. Unfortunately, this was the least funny issue in the run thus far. Way more miss than hit, and when it missed, it hurt. Though I don’t believe there’s much cause for concern here. The first two issues were very good, and Posehn and Duggan have showed flashes of greatness. Their comfort level with the material continues to grow, and with the story staying strong, they should be able to settle in nicely with future issues. I think if you enjoyed the previous two issues, you should still be pretty happy with this one. If not, at least you still got Tony Moore’s pretty pictures to gaze upon.

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