That was a letdown--Prelude to Deadpool Corps.

Prelude to Deadpool Corps
I will now review the mini-series that led into the series (which is canceled with issue 12 so I guess it was a maxi-series). 5 different artists, 5 different issues, Victor Gischler from Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth on the story. That was decent, so this can't be too bad, right? Well, "Bad" is a strong word...

So, Deadpool goes into various dimensions to recruit Deadpools from other worlds for a quest to save the universe. The story is decent enough, not as funny as Merc With a Mouth so that hurts my rating, but where this series really had issues was the art. Dear god, look at this:

My eyes are bleeding.

That is Kyle Baker, yet again messing around with computer-generated art instead of using his natural drawing talent, resulting in what looks like vomit spread about a page. That is the last and arguably worst issue of this mini-series, with the story featuring the Deadpools fighting robots and what looks like...gummy bears. Yes, gummy bears. The first issue is almost as weak with Rob Liefeld phoning it in a bit more than usual. I admit it, sometimes I like his art even though many hate it, but here he doesn't seem to be trying much. It may be the lack of backgrounds or confusing story-telling flow, but it just isn't good.

This female Deadpool has an absurd body-shape for even Liefeld!

Issue two has some nice art by Whilce Portacio, but this is one of the issues where the story is not too great. Imagine Deadpool if he were an annoying teen, Charles Xavier if he were written as a creepy womanizer, and Cyclops as a huge dork--you now have created almost all the jokes for this issue.

At issue 3 things finally click and the art by Phillip Bond works great with the story. Maybe its because its about a Dog so we don't have to put up with Gischler trying too hard to make a Deadpool crack jokes, but I liked this issue enough that I can say it is my favorite.

Who's a good dog?

The art in issue 4 is done by the regular artist of Deadpool, Paco Medina, as it takes place in the normal Marvel Universe and brings back the fan-favorite of the Zombie-Head of Deadpool--so why does the issue with the best art have such iffy writing? I don't know, but it just seems Deadpool is extra violent and blood-thirsty, it just threw me off a bit as this seemed more like the Deadpool of the 90s as opposed to the one we see today in the main Deadpool book who has never been this into killing dudes. Again, great art though.

Issue five was a nightmare, as discussed, but I wonder how well this series sold? Did many have to suffer that last issue?

Image borrowed from www.thedeadpoolbugle.com without permission. I told them about this post after the fact though so if you still see it they were cool about it.

Hm, that's a steep drop, maybe shouldn't have led with such a weak first issue. Still, above 28k is good for a comic. I honestly don't think it deserved the sales, as this series went from weak, to pretty but lame, to good, to pretty but lame, to terrible. A good comic this trend does not make. I already have the first volume of the series proper that I bought cheap on Black Friday so I'm going to read it, but I'm a bit worried about what I'm going to get. As it is, I wouldn't pick up this comic unless you have a severe fetish for Deadpool. Read one of those Cable and Deadpool collections instead.
2 stars out of 5.
Deadpool Corps Prelude (Marvel Premiere Editions) if you still want to buy it despite my negative comments.