Writers: Fabian Nicieza and Dan Slott
Artists: Kieron Dwyer/Nelson/Paul Pelletier/Clio Chiang
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $3.99
The Great Lakes Avengers (Now going under the name of the Great Lakes Initiative) are back – and they’ve brought Deadpool with them. That combination almost guarantees fun, as does the pairing of writers. It even says fun right there on the cover – see?
Fun is a relative term, however, and we start with a little bit of rug pulling – Squirrel Girl reminisces over her last few fun adventures – including her first kiss with bouncy fun superhero Speedball from last year’s one shot I Heart Marvel: Masked Intentions. Unfortunately, she also recalls a battle they had with insane verbose mercenary Deadpool, which leads him to spoil her fun, and show her what has happened to Speedball since then – specifically in Civil War: Front Line #10, the debut appearance of Penance.
Into the first story proper, and Deadpool teams up with the GLI against the forces of AIM who have made the world drunk. See? It’s fun. Although there are a few deaths along the way, most of those are Deadpool killing Mr Immortal who is immortal anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. The rest of the book carries on in a similar style – a short fun adventure with a murderous loony and a bunch of bunglers, and then a little interlude with Squirrel Girl off on her own mission.
Slott and Nicieza have done a magnificent job here, and this may have been as much fun to write as it is to read. The main stories form a brief arc with Deadpool joining, working alongside and eventually leaving the GLI, while Squirrel Girl’s story has her catching up with Speedball in his new guise as Penance. As is to be expected with this particular combination of writers and characters, in-jokes and continuity references abound – Deadpool’s appearance in yellow panties, Squirrel Girl’s victories over M.O.D.O.K., Thanos and Dr Doom, and Speedball’s time in the future with the “League of Losers”.
The best and most important scene in the entire book comes when Squirrel Girl and Penance finally meet up to discuss his current situation – which leads to the wonderful fun of Squirrel Girl pointing out in almost painful detail exactly what is wrong with the entire Penance storyline and why it doesn’t work. Seriously, even if you don’t buy a copy, at least flick through and read it in store, if only to discover the final fate of Niels the Bouncing Cat.
In fact, don’t read it in store. Just buy it. Buy it and love it. It’s fun. It says so right there on the cover.
-
Russell Hillman was born in London but now lives in Coventry. His hobbies include precious little. He doesn’t get out much, but thinks reading a lot of comics makes up for it. He’s wrong.