Deadpool, Vol. 1

Deadpool (2022)

by Alyssa Wong (Writer), Martin Coccolo (Cover Art), Geoff Shaw (Illustrator)

Marvel's top merc is back is business and better than ever! We all know Wade Wilson is one of the leading guns-for-hire in the Marvel Universe (even if he is simultaneously the most annoying one), but now he's pushing to make that recognition official. Deadpool is auditioning for the elite group of assassins known as the Atelier, and he has 48 hours to kill one of the world's most famous super Doctor Octopus! Only problem? He's been kidnapped, and something…strange…is growing inside him! Things are going to get gross as writer Alyssa Wong (STAR DOCTOR APHRA, IRON FIST) and artist Martin Coccolo (HULK VS. BANNER OF WAR) take out their pent-up aggression on everyone's pizza-faced, jabber-mouthed, misguided, hate-to-love, love-to-hate fave! Collecting DEADPOOL (2022) #1-5 and material from NEW MUTANTS (2019) #30.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Superheroes, Humor, Fiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published June 20, 2023

About the author

Alyssa Wong studies fiction in Raleigh, NC, and really, really likes crows. She was a finalist for the 2016 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her story, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” won the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Short Story and the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Locus Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her work has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, and Tor.com, among others.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deadpool? More like Dead awful! It appears that now Deadpool has an Asian female writer, the whole tone and character of Wade Wilson has to change to fit her optics? With a trans love interest for Wade, yet Wade makes no jokes about them? The volume itself is nearly all fights, violence and banal humour. On top of that there are awful representations of Doc Ock and Lady Deathstrike. Funnily enough the only interesting thing about this volume is the trans character (Valentine Vuong)'s duplicity. Just about a 2 out of 12 , One Star read!

2024 read

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

"If you know what's good for you, you'll come quietly, Deadpool." -- Harriet Bromes, a.k.a. the duplicitous villainess Harrower

"Ha! I've never done so in my life!" -- Wade Wilson, a.k.a. Deadpool, our title character

"I could have died happily without that knowledge." -- Otto Octavius, a.k.a. the grimacing villain Doctor Octopus

Deadpool falls in love whilst auditioning for a seat at the table in an exclusive assassins guild known as the Atelier. (His target? Doctor Octopus, that classic nemesis of Spider-Man.) But then . . . you're probably not reading a Deadpool volume for the plot. No, the narrative is often an excuse for zany or irreverent scenes to be punctuated by steady off-color dialogue. Here, Deadpool is also intentionally infected with a virus which increasingly causes moments of gross-out humor, sometimes recalling a few of those squickier events from director John Carpenter's 1982 reimagining of the sci-fi/horror story The Thing. It was an amusing if disposable romp featuring lots of slice-n-dice action.

[johnny ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

so you're saying i got a shot with wade wilson, huh???

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read on a whim, with zero expectations, and was very pleasantly surprised. Deadpool is delightfully unhinged, the action is over the top and gory, and the story fits the character. Wong introduces some new characters who I don't really expect to escape the next couple of volumes, but I like them and I want to see where this is going. Valentine in particular is a character who just keeps getting more interesting the more you see of them. Great fun.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Gross. And waaay over the top. Loved it. Wong is good.

[Nikakioy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der Auftakt einer neuen Deadpool-Reihe. Die Handlung hätte gerne etwas aufregender sein können und auch der typische Humor ist bisher noch nicht an seinem Höhepunkt. Aber mir gefällt die Richtung, in die sich die Geschichte bewegt.

5/10⭐

[Matthew Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. The only knock on this one would have to be how busy and rushed things were in a few moments, but aside from that, this one was action-packed, ridiculous, entertaining, and hilarious. The quips and jokes that Deadpool gives worked so well in this one. One of my favorite aspects of this is how this is stylized and structured like all of the other Krakoa era X books. I love the self-dialogue we see from the titular character more than when he’s interacting with others, but it’s all good stuff. The side characters in this one were great too!

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Im done trying with Deadpool. Ive tried all the main writers and a few off shoots and it just doesnt work. You cant write quick witted. This character and ideas just arent for me.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t read a solo Deadpool story in so long but I’m happy I’m committed to keeping up with the X-Men’s Krakoan age because this was a fantastic read. So funny and full of nasty action infused with strange symbiote nonsense. I’m excited to keep reading and see what they do next.

[Trevor Dailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, harmless read. Technically takes place during the Krakoa era, but this stands alone. I think it's hard to write for Deadpool because of the random fourth wall breaking and the #Random of it all.

[Kai Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

read on unlimited. best dp run so far 💘

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faz tempo que Deadpool vem ganhando volume atrás de volume e essas "temporadas" acabam durando muito pouco. Esta aqui, de Alyssa Wong, uma ótima escritora, - que é responsável pela Doutora Aphra, de Star Wars -, também durou muito pouco lá fora. Mas isso não é sinal de que as histórias são ruins. Pelo contrário, são melhores que muita história duvidosa do Deadpool que andaram saindo por aí nos anos 2010. Melhores que a média das histórias em quadrinhos de muitos super-heróis, como Batman e Homem-Aranha (já que são tantas). Na trama, Deadpool e Lady Letal são contratados para matar o Doutor Octopus, mas no meio do caminho Deadpool se apaixona por ume pessoa não-binárie e também acaba tendo enxertado em seu fígado um broto do simbionte Carnificina. Já dá pra imaginar a confusão. Só que dessa vez, pelo menos, a coisa não cai nas piadas chulas do Deadpool que a gente está acostumado. É engraçado, mas também é uma história bem definida. Os desenhos ótimos de Martín Coccolo ajudam a trazer essa sensação de equilíbrio mesmo sendo uma história over do Deadpool. Gostei e que venha o segundo volume!

[kesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

first dp comic so i can’t say i’ve read enough to understand the spectrum of the character written badly to really well.

most definitely wong’s fan fic for deadpool (valid)

just what the doc ock ordered after reading flashpoint mayunnn that shit fucked me up. interesting plot, full of witty one liners, funny commentary and breaking of the fourth wall.

only thing is my understanding of x-force titles w the branding is that it’s part of hickman’s x-verse but this felt more stand-alone-y so that sets me back to the stone ages w my marvel game.

curious to see if this will change in the next few issues otherwise i’m js gonna sit down cause it’s js not that deep (js gives me more trust issues #allwritersarethesame 😔)

3/5.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stupid I like. Deadpool is definitely back in the “brain damaged or just moronic” category. Which is as it should be.

But the jokes seem…tame. First draft-y? Needs a writer’s room? Like season 6 of Supernatural level of weak tea? Not that they’re bad, but I’m so used to such sharp writing in the few entertainments I enjoy (early Archer, early R&M, any season of Harley Quinn, that amazing season of Shrinking) that any “normal”/PG-13 humour just doesn’t jolt me out of my crusty undies at the moment.

I find the romance subplot a little forced - like, he’s found his soulmate after one brief encounter, and then acts thirsty-thirsty for the rest of the book - like Pepe LePew, dreaming of that kiss ever after? I want to like the non-binary romancee, and they at least have a spark of personality. I hope this gets fleshed out further so it doesn’t seem so middle-school-crush.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reminded me of the 2016 Deadpool run a lot, which is what I grew up reading as a kid lol, so I really enjoyed this. Was funny, Deadpool was portrayed pretty well, and the story was interesting.

[Lui H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carnage Dog

[jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alyssa Wong write Deadpool forever challenge.

[Lucas Savio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que gibi divertidoo, amei a dinâmica, a arte e a diversão. Gostei por ser uma história mais fechada.

[Alex Sarll]

Deadpool gets folded back into the X-books, though bar a brief prelude that has very little to do with what follows, you wouldn't really know it from the story, only from the design, data pages and such - where the attempts to muck them around with the obligatory fourth-wall-breaking silliness rarely feel like they're as funny as they could be. The comic itself, on the other hand, is enormous fun. I wasn't convinced by Wong's Doctor Aphra, but maybe that was just my increasing weariness with modern Star Wars, because this was a hoot, starting out with a fairly basic Wade premise (he's auditioning to join an elite society of assassins) before piling on one ridiculous complication after another, so that we're soon in the territory of ultraviolent farce. Coccolo and Menon's art isn't outright Skottie Young cartoonish, but draws just enough on that to sell the silliness as well as the gloriously excessive gore. And threaded through it all, somehow never feeling out of place, there's also a surprisingly sweet romantic plot.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily the best Deadpool book I've read (which isn't saying a whole lot - I've read very few Deadpool books). With his penchant for breaking the fourth wall and living life without a plot, I've never found Deadpool super compelling. You enter a given volume of his and find a bunch of madcap adventures that amount to little more than a few chuckles.

Alyssa Wong's Deadpool is different. There's an actual plot (though it's paper thin) and the chuckles numbered more than a few. Several, at least! Deadpool is trying to get into the Atelier, a secret society of assassins and mercenaries. To do this, he needs to take out Doc Ock. This quickly becomes difficult when Harrower injects him with the Carnage symbiote.

Cue the madcap adventures, but in this case they progress logically, building on each other until the big conclusion, at which point a few hints of future storylines are served up. This Deadpool book is designed to fit with Hickman's X-verse, but it's barely related at best. That's fine! The whole package works well enough. I'll be around for another volume for sure.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back to Deadpool, true to form! This is something I've missed for a long time. So funny, action packed, truly Deadpool to the core.
Highlights:
- Initial story reprint from New Mutants about Deadpool helping train the team very violently, which gets him kicked off Krakoa, hilariously.
- Introduced to new villain, The Harrower, a kind of Poison Ivy for Marvel, she has captured Wade to use his powers of regeneration to help grow a Carnage symbiote she can use.
- Wade has been sought out by the Atelier, an elite group of assassins, who give him a chance to join if he kills their next target, Doc Ock
- Joining him (after hilariously getting left behind) is Lady Deathstrike. She shows up and assists in the battle, but Ock and Harrower together prove to be too much.
- Wade's contact with the Atelier is a mutant whose hands end in hypodermic needles, and can create substances for heal or harm. Her name is Valentine Vuong and her and Wade fall for each other.
- On a zoo date with Valentine, unable to overcome it any longer, the symbiote releases from Wade and is definitely a form of Carnage. In fact, soon after, Cletus Kasady is born from it (with help from Harrower). (THIS is how he was alive in the recent Carnage Volume I read!)
- Secrets revealed: Doc Ock called out the hit on himself. Why? Because he was ordered to by Valentine and was paid with a symbiote dog. Definitely something there....
- At the end, Valentine and Deadpool run away together and the Atelier unleashes their full forces to finding and killing them both.

Overall amazing. A great place to start if you haven't read Deadpool before. Really excited for the next one.
Strong recommend.

[Nelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

The humor was good, and the plot was good enough. Twist at the end was pretty predictable, and the art, of course, was great.

Edit: Only just noticed that Valentine is nonbinary but that’s so cool that Deadpool had nonbinary romance interest!

[Bekka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wade and Valentine are adorable together, and everything with the symbiote is so much fun too!
TW for human experimentation, cancer mentions, guns, attempted murder, actual murder, slight body horror, blood, gore.

[Christopher Funk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deadpool has a freakin dog. That is all.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deadpool is invited to audition for the elite group of assassins known as the Atelier, and he has just 48 hours in which to kill his target: Doctor Otto Octavius. While trying to accomplish his mission Deadpool is kidnapped and has a Venom/Carnage sample planted inside him to grow. Hilariously disgusting and violent hijinks ensue, Deadpool falls in love, and ends up a massive Carnage hound as a pet.

[anaeliteratura · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5*

[tony dillard jr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new series of Deadpool has the Merc with a Mouth invited to join an illustrious team of assassins. In order to secure membership, Deadpool has 48-hours to kill Doctor Octopus! Should he fail, Deadpool will never again be given a chance to join a team that has been Wade Wilson's dream job for all of about 30 minutes.

With just a couple of hours before Deadpool's time limit is up, the mercenary awakens to find himself strapped to a table in a strange looking lab, being attended upon by one strange lady. This isn't the type of trap that Deadpool should have any trouble escaping from. He's done this kind of thing a million times before. The part where he's got an experimental symbiote taken from the DNA of Carnage, that's another story.

Alyssa Wong's debut as Deadpool writer was an enjoyable one. Wong carries themself much like previous Deadpool writers have when it comes to the character- with little to no reverence about anything. Though I would say that Alyssa Wong's Deadpool isn't as juvenile in terms of bathroom humor. But those pop culture references and non-sequiturs are just as brilliant as ever.

The issues reprinted in this book introduce readers to the character of Valentine Vuong. According to several online sources, Valentine is Marvel's first openly non-binary character to use They/Them pronouns. I'm sure comic book scholars are debating that claim to this day. Regardless, Valentine becomes Deadpool's love interest in this book.

I had written a while back that I had difficulty following works that use non-binary pronouns because based on decades of English lit classes and readings, I was used to he/she, etc. Well, I don't think I am the only one that has a problem with this. On several occasions Alyssa Wong uses she/her pronouns to describe Valentine Vuong. And according to Wong's Wikipedia page, the writer uses they/them pronouns!

Plus, Wade keeps referring to Valentine as his 'girlfriend'. For a non-binary character is that even pronoun accurate? According to Quora: NO! The appropriate non-binary term world be 'enby' or 'enbyfriend.' Maybe Deadpool doesn't know Valentine is non-binary? Maybe Marvel or Wong thought while readers might understand they/them, adding enby might be too much? Regardless, it's not just amateur reviews like this Madman that gets those pronouns confused. Nor do we all stay consistent with them!

Speaking of a lack of consistency, the artwork by Martin Coccolo was varied. All of the heroes are draw with very clean, thick lines. The villains are illustrated in thinner lines about as hard to clearly see as strings of gossamer. Put both parties together and the pages look like they were drawn by 2 different artists. The first time we meet the character of Deadpool's crazed researcher captor, Harrower, she is extremely stunning with this luscious full head of hair. Yet over the course of these first 5 issues, Harrower's hair obtains less body and seems no more than shoulder length. I'd possibly blame the inker on this. However, it appears that Coccolo was both the penciller and inker on this book. Therefore, I can't really forgive the lack of cohesion in the overall artwork.

Yes, I want to get my hands on volume 2 when it comes out. Yes, I liked this book. However, I did find that while it seems to fit within the Marvel Universe, each issue seems to want to contradict the one before. Are the mistakes first time jitters, like how the first season of a popular TV show has to work out some production errors and kinks to get things right? Or is this just another sign at the lack of care in quality by the editorial staff at the House of Ideas. I hope it's the kinks. My gut tells me it's all due to the worst level of editorial control at Marvel since Bob Harras.

[Luka Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alyssa Wong's take on Deadpool in Volume 1 is nothing short of a masterpiece in the world of comic books. If you're a fan of the Merc with a Mouth, you're in for a wild ride filled with humor, mayhem, and a healthy dose of heart.

What makes this volume stand out is its ability to balance the absurdity of Deadpool's antics with moments of genuine emotion and depth. Wong's writing captures Deadpool's unique blend of comedy and tragedy, making you laugh out loud on one page and empathize with him on the next. This emotional rollercoaster keeps you engaged from start to finish.

The artwork in this volume is top-notch. The vibrant and dynamic illustrations bring Deadpool's world to life, and the action sequences are both visually stunning and easy to follow. The character designs are on point, and Deadpool himself is as visually captivating as ever.

One of the highlights of this volume is the way it delves into Deadpool's complex psyche. You get a deeper understanding of the character beneath the mask, and his internal struggles are portrayed with remarkable sensitivity. It adds layers to Deadpool's character that are often overlooked in other portrayals.

Of course, Deadpool wouldn't be Deadpool without his trademark humor, and Alyssa Wonf delivers on this front in spades. The witty one-liners, meta-commentary, and fourth-wall-breaking moments are all here, and they're executed with finesse. It's a comic that doesn't take itself too seriously, which is precisely what makes it so much fun.

[Roman · Rating 4 out of 5]

​​За останні декілька років популярність Дедпула в коміксах досить сильно впала. Настільки, що обидві останні серії про нього змогли протриматися всього 10 номері. Тим не менш ран Келлі Томпсон мені в свій час сподобався, а тому вирішив глянути чи вдалося Алісі Вонґ написати щось хороше.

Зав'язка першої арки полягає в тому, що Вейд повинен вбити Док Ока для того, щоб стати частиною елітного клубу вбивць. Однак коли Дедпул вже збирався напасти на Октавіуса його вирубила лиходійка Гаровер після чого помістила в нього шматок Карнажа.

І я приємно здивований, як і у випадку з Блейдом, я не мав якихось очікувань, однак Вонґ тут написала досить хорошу та веселу історію. Жарти загалом були непоганими, особливо повеселив Октавіус який на початку історії взагалі не розумів, що відбувається і що від нього хочуть. Щодо того що найбільше сподобалось в коміксі так це малюнок Мартіна Коколо з доситт хорошим колоринґом від Нірадж Менона.

З суперечливих моментів назву лише місцеву любовну лінію. Суть у тому, що Вейд закохується у Валентайн Вуонґ, яка працює в організації в яку намагається потрапити Дедпул. Моя основна проблема в тому, що деякі жарти які стосуються цієї лінії стають досить репетативнимм та швидко надоїдають. Хоча збрешу якщо скажу, що хороших жартів взагалі не було, той же твіст з тим, що Вейд був настільки зосередженим на Валентайн, що забув, що він повинен вбити Октавіуса разом з Леді Смертельний Удар був дуже смішний. Плюс кінцівка натякає, що з Валентайн все не так просто як може здатися на перший погляд.

В результаті перший сюжет у цій серії вийшов доволі непоганим і я сподіваюся, що другий теж не розчарує.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biggest problem with this volume is that Marvel totally misrepresented it. They claimed it was Deadpool's return to the X-Verse. They even dressed it up in X-Force's red branding. But, it has absolutely nothing to do with Krakoa. They actually had to include an excerpt from the New Mutants that showed Wade getting kicked off the island to tie it in at all.

As for the comic: it's pretty decent Deadpool. Wong is funny, though not as funny as the best Deadpool authors. There are some interesting characters in the League of Assassins that Deadpool is trying to join (trying to infiltrate?). If anything, this is more a Spider-Man comic, which is pretty weird, but Doc Ock and Carnage are two of the other major antagonists.

I'd give it 3.5 stars and would have rounded up if I'd been wanting to read a bone-standard Deadpool comic rather than the Krakoa Deadpool that was promised.