BATTLEWORLD BATTLEWORLD
ROUND 1, BATTLE 14
MRS. DEADPOOL AND THE HOWLING COMMANDOS
VS
MARVEL ZOMBIES
Ah, I love the smell of parallel issues in the morning. And I love the scent of sandalwood at night. And a nice barbeque mesquite in the afternoon. I could go on and on about the corresponding scents to time of day I prefer, but we’re here to get another round of Battleworld Battleworld on, and there’s no room for chicanery or shenanigans.
No. Time. No matter how fun it looks.
As much as we here at yourpopfilter, and other comic aficionados around the interglobe, have discussed Secret Wars as being another in a long line of “world changing†summer events, Marvel is slyly putting their money where their mouth is. And it’s not by having Universe-altering ramifications from the bombastic set pieces, it’s by truly fleshing out their numerous characters and by putting forth tons of female and minority heroes to view the MU their eyes. And instead of screaming it from the pages, they’re letting the work speak for itself. It’s fucking awesome, even when it doesn’t work. The not working is almost as important as what works, because there’s not a fear of letting non-white, non-male heroes take lead. Traditional heroes have shitty books all the time, for the entirety of comic history, but that doesn’t make the powers that be question the gender or race or sexual preference of the characters as a factor. Only when it’s a minority. And I think these books are a step towards that going away. It’s not fixed yet, but baby steps are better than no steps at all.
If Superman was a girl, he’d only be a punchline after this.
Back to the parallels. Both Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos and Marvel Zombies feature use their first issue as the start of a bigger arc, instead of trying to cram in how the whole world works. They are very much not complete stories, and that’s okay. They just need to hook you. Both books focus on a heroine adventuring into an unknown land, with dangers all around, and few allies among them. In Mrs. Deadpool, Shiklah, queen of the monsters, had to go out and find a way to resurrect her brothers and Deadpool while under heavy guard. In Marvel Zombies, monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone finds herself on the wrong side of the Shield, the only thing guarding the realms of Doom with the zombie horde. Both books feature minor (MINOR) characters as their respective protagonists, which has obviously become a smart move on the masterminds of Secret Wars’ behalf. Every time a minor character takes center stage, the possibility of telling a story that can stand on its own two legs, and be compelling on its own merit without a myriad of references grows exponentially larger. And both protagonists are strong female characters who take center stage, not just by virtue of being the main character of their books, but by making the decisions that push the story forward and by knocking the dudes in the story around. The first part of that (decision-making) is the important one for a strong character, but the second is a nice bonus.
Also not cancelled after huge embarrassment.
While both books are steps in that right direction, they’re far from equal. Mrs. Deapool and the Howling Commandos is straight up fucking dumb, and poorly written to boot. I know Gerry Duggan has a hard on for all things Deadpool, and it’s hard to imagine any bit of gravitas in a book about his widowed monster wife on a mission to take down Dr. Acula and his Monster Squad goons, but this entire book feels like the creative team looked at their cast and gave up immediately. Comics can be dumb AND fun, especially when given such outlandish characters. But this issue forgot to be fun. The narrative device of Ghost Deadpool comes off like a big fan of Deadpool wrote it, rather than a professional who’s been with the character for years. Or maybe the character has been stretched too thin, and just can’t work beyond a tertiary character within the comics anymore. By using the narrator to crack “jokesâ€, the burden of exposition rests on the dialogue, where almost everything any wooden character (which is all of them) says is to explain to the reader what’s going on and what’s going to happen. There’s a chance that could change as the story continues, but there’s no evidence of that.
If Spider-Man was a girl, we wouldn’t have endured a decade of this.
Marvel Zombies on the other hand, while not a flawless book, sets up an extreme adventure, fleshes out the protagonist, and creates an interesting dynamic within the mysterious partnership between Elsa and her young, bald companion. It sets up the stakes and background efficiently, while still remembering comics can be a ton of fun. Like Deadpool, Elsa is a character designed to mock the EXTREME badass characters the comic-world is filled with, but Simon Spurrier gives her a pathos and humanity not afforded to Deadpool. She’s funny (partly because she doesn’t know it), and she can actually have a character arc which is a huge bonus for getting readers hooked into a story. We need to know the characters can grow and change based on what they’re about to go through. And Elsa has already been built up as a character worth caring about.