Deadpool (Vol. 3) Annual #2

Background

Deadpool (Wade Wilson) is a mercenary with the healing factor of Wolverine but with a much better sense of humour. He likes Spider-Man most of the time.

Recently Spider-Man's body was taken over by the mind of Doctor Octopus and he became The Superior Spider-Man. During his tenure, Superior Spider-Man experimented on and mind controlled The Chameleon (among others). Now Peter Parker is back as the Amazing Spider-Man and trying to undo Otto's handiwork!

Story 'Spideypool'

Spider-Man punches Deadpool to the roof of a building, demanding that he be left alone! Spider-Man doesn't believe that Deadpool is Deadpool so Deadpool, to prove it, shoots himself in the chest and begins healing! Spider-Man is relieved and explains that he has been targeted by The Chameleon for the last few days, his spider-sense has been going off non-stop and he's accidentally attacked bystanders believing them to the be Chameleon! He's been stabbed and worn down that he hasn't slept and is losing it! The police burst on to the rooftop and Spider-Men escapes down the elevator shaft! Deadpool follows down the stairs, not realising that one of the policemen was The Chameleon!

Inside the building, Deadpool finds Spider-Man threatening a woman! Deadpool tries to get him to calm down but, when Spider-Man lowers his guard, the woman injects him with a drug! Deadpool smashes the woman/Chameleon out of a window but Spider-Man, barely conscious, webs on to her so she doesn't die. He passes out and Deadpool evacuates the building! Deadpool drags Spider-Man into a storage closet where he switches costumes with him (not looking at his face when he switches masks) and promises to have revenge and track The Chameleon down... and kill him! He jumps out of a window and lands to his non-adoring public below! SpideyPool is approached by a young woman who asks if he is ok. He explains that his voice is weird because he's been partially drugged by a villain. She reveals herself to be Chameleon before disappearing, promising to inject him with a stronger drug and promising to make a suit from his skin! SpideyPool swings away but quickly spies a typical Spider-Man scene: a woman being mugged in an alley! SpideyPool swings down, kicks him unconscious, returns the purse and then, improving on Spider-Man's typical method of webbing the crook up for the police, he hog ties him to a moving police car! A job well done, he looks down to find dozens of snakes all heading towards a specific building. "Animal-themed villain! Classic Spider-Man."

SpideyPool enters a laboratory and finds the snakes surrounding a snake-themed supervillain who called himself The Master! The Master intends on using the laboratory to turn anything and everything into mice for snakes to feed on. SpideyPool attacks The Master (the dumbest villain with the dumbest plan he's ever met!) but accidentally destroys the control panels resulting in the machine reversing and converting both The Master and his snakes into one giant mouse! The random scientist who works there explains that SpideyPool can disrupt the unstable internal tissue to reverse the process as the giant mouse rampages down the street! SpideyPool swings off but is shot by a police sniper in a helicopter! He webs the police from the helicopter, knocking them out on the rooftop he stands on, and anchors himself to the roof with webs. He then proceeds to web fly (as if you would a kite) the empty helicopter into the mouth of the giant mouse, causing is to destabilise and revert back to The Master and hundreds of snakes! One of the police officers sneak up behind SpideyPool and injects him as The Chameleon! SpideyPool is reeling from the drug but Deadpool/Spider-Man leaps in and saves him! Chameleon realises that they've switched and transforms into Deadpool. SpideyPool doesn't know which one to shoot until the real Deadpool/Spider-Man yells at him not to kill the other. SpideyPool shoots Chameleon, who reveals that he has been tracking Spider-Man using the trace radioation from his new web formula (developed by the Superior Spider-Man). With that plot thread tied up, Deadpool/Spider-Man and SpideyPool knock Chameleon out!

That night, having swapped costumes back, Deadpool fills Spider-Man in on what happened.

General Comments

This is a genuinely good comic. It suffers slightly with the pacing of an Annual-sized comic, but Christopher Hastings managed to overcome some of this with the insertion of satire.

It is this satire that drives the story and, whilst plenty of writers attempt to make Spider-Man funny, Hastings succeeds because it is all underpinned by satire. The concept of switching is simple enough but Deadpool's enjoyment of being Spidey and his "knowledge" of typical Spidey behaviour makes for the shining moments of humour. Animal-themed villains, alleyway muggings and webbing up crooks all get the treatment and there was plenty more to be had too.

The Chameleon plot is fine but the first few pages involves, what feels like, a lot of repeated exposition. The link to Otto's new webs is a genius one though. Well done, Mr Hastings on brewing that one up!

Fleshing out the switcheroo plot is The Master and Hastings makes another great call in designing the stupidest plot for Deadpool to follow. It is the timing, reactions, overblown visuals and helicopter set-piece that makes this padding better than the Chameleon stuff.

Jacopo Camagni's art is equally good. It is consistent, makes great use of Spidey's mask for overblown and comedic expressions and delivers everything it needs to with choice selection over detail, background and panel layout. Whether it'd be Hastings or Camagni, the only flaw I can see in the art are the scenes where Chameleon disappears from panel to panel rather too quickly or smoothly.

Overall Rating

This is a well-worked stand-in story with plenty of genuinely funny moments that enjoyably make fun of Spider-Man's character.