Reader's Diary #1229- Cullen Bunn (Writer), Ramon Rosanas (Artist): Night of the Living Deadpool

Deadpool is not a character I knew much about and the little I'd picked up hadn't particularly interested me. I thought his suit was too much of a rip off of Spider-Man and his reputation as the "Merc with a Mouth" made me feel it would be a lot of trying too hard to be edgy. The upcoming Ryan Reynolds movie has done nothing to assuage my fears. If anything they've added a new one: Deadpool is going to be a bro.

It doesn't help that my 10 year old has a fascination with the character and it doesn't look like I'll be taking him to see the film. I've lightened up a lot. I've even watched Daredevil and Jessica Jones with him on Netflix. Still that Deadpool movie? If the trailer is any indication, the questionable stuff is going to be relentless.

Still, he's a Marvel character and Night of the Living Deadpool involves zombies, so I figured it might be tolerable.

I ended up not only really enjoying the book, but even liking the Deadpool character.

Bunn has fun with zombie story tropes (Deadpool wakes up from a food coma, rather than a regular coma to find the world has gone full blown zombie-assault) but also adds enough unique elements to keep the story... er... fresh. These zombies talk. And not the "braaaaaiiiins" grunts either. Instead they yell things like, "God no, what am I doing?!" as they bite into a man's face. It adds a nice, if slightly horrific touch, to think they're helpless to control what their bodies are doing.

Deadpool, while he does come across as hilariously insane, also comes across as caring— more a hero than a anti-hero and because I'd been led to believe that he'd be more of a self-centered type (look at how twisted and funny I am!), this was a welcome surprise. I don't mean to suggest that it's a sentimental cheese-fest either. When he gets gets taken in with a group comprised in part by an old lady and a couple of kids, he tries to save them, seems to genuinely care about their well-being. They die of course, and Deadpool copes and moves on rather quickly, but still, for a moment there, he showed some humanity behind the punchlines.

Thankfully the punchlines were still there. I laughed out loud for a couple of scenes at least. At one point a character is whisper-shouting for the lost kids (he doesn't want to attract the zombies). Deadpool quips, "Yes! Great plan! Let's call for them in a whisper! That way, if they're just a couple of feet away, they'll come running!" Hilarious, and it doesn't make Deadpool himself necessary for the joke. 

The art too is great. Mostly in black and white, Deadpool himself is still red. For all of the above whining about Deadpool being an attention-whore, I actually liked this element. If nothing else, it set the book apart from generic superhero art and I've been whining about that for even longer.