Before Watchmen‘s Rorschach #1
Well here it is. The one we’ve all been waiting for. Whatever your feelings are on the Before Watchmen series, having Rorschach in his own four issue limited series is enough to make any Watchmen fan interested but what has the combination of writer Brian Azzarello and Artist Lee Bermejo managed to deliver?
Well, as expected we are getting an account straight out of Rorschach’s journal. We’re hitting late seventies New York with all its nastiness and from the get go Bermejo’s work is magnificent. The already great artist is really bringing his A-game to this project and the level of detail within these pages is quite mesmerising at times. I guess this was to be expected because let’s face out, however successful this Before Watchmen series actually turns out to be, it’s the Rorschach issues and collected editions that will sell and sell once this is all over and done with. There’s a nice build to actually seeing Rorschach and when we do, this almost real world approach to the art works very well for the character, bringing New York to life around him in all its grimy goodness.Anyway, with Rorschach tracking down some drug lords we essentially get to see our masked hero doing his day (or is that night) job. Beating on thugs, getting into fights he can’t possible win and commenting on the state of the world we live in. Rorschach is easy to love with his combination of Batman and Travis Bickle approach to filth on the streets. This issue portrays what we love about this character very well but given it’s a set up first issue and really we’re only given what we knew we’d get anyway, I can’t say that this was the big event I thought it would be somehow.
I don’t know whether Rorschach’s appearance in Nite-Owl stole this issue #1’s thunder a little bit but I much prefer what we’re seeing of him over in the Nite-Owl comics. Maybe it’s just something to do with the nostalgia of seeing Nite-Owl and Rorschach together or I prefer the 80s setting over in the other Before Watchmen series but beyond the dazzling artwork here, I never quite got the excitement I had from seeing Rorschach pop up in the Owl ship in Nite-Owl#1 or the “I like it when they run… but not at much as he does” moment in Nite-Owl #2.Rorschach#1 set up the playing field, dropped a few hints about what’s to come (and I have to say, seeing two familiar detective again was great) and it looked glorious while doing so. It’s a solid first issue for sure and I’m certain that this title is one that is going to work better the further we travel into the tale. DC did well leaving this issue to so late, just to build up a second wave of excitement for these prequels but personally I came away a tiny bit underwhelmed. Dr. Manhattan teleports in next week and something about meeting up with the blue guy again has got me really excited.
OverALl it is a 4 out 5
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #3
“What if everything you thought was funny about Deadpool…was actually just disturbing?” That was one of the lines in the promo blurb for this mini-series, and in this third issue, that really locks in.
Due to Psycho Man screwing with Wade Wilson‘s messed up head, a new voice has emerged in Deadpool‘s noggin’ – cancelling out the old voices and giving him a ‘clarity of vision’ that he never had before. Deadpool’s now either loopier ever – or the only one that ‘gets it;’ that what we’re reading isn’t real, everyone’s just a Marvel comic book character getting their strings pulled by Marvel, and he’s had enough of having his strings pulled–he’s gonna take out the Marvel Universe! Hero or Villain, look out – the Merc with a Mouth is gunning for you!
Deadpool’s been busy since last issue; witness to the body count he’s been racking up in the days that have passed, we see Venom, Madrox and the Green Goblin are all now among the dead… Taskmaster‘s been hired by some of Wade’s previous hits’ bereaved to take him down, and following his trail, he comes across the smoking remains of kid-superheroes Power Pack.
Tasky sees this as the point where Deadpool’s crossed the line; he would’ve been happy to find and kill Wade for money before – but now he’s going to do it because Deadpool deserves to die…
It’s from this point that my earlier quote from the Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe promos started to sink in; for all Deadpool’s ‘This is just a funnybook’ evangelizing, we are following a twisted killer here – the fun and funny side to Deadpool has taken a back seat to psychosis, and any humor now is tainted with sickness.
This is evidenced further as we cut to Wade torturing Professor Xavier – whom he’s taken hostage inside a building that he’s rigged with inventive, twisted booby traps – as he attempts to educate Charlie X on his beliefs, while the X-Men show up in a vain attempt to rescue him – and fall foul of Deadpool’s maniacal machinations.
Deadpool tries to get through to Charles; to get him to see that all Marvel characters are just puppets being played by the Big M for the amusement of the general public, but the Professor is more concerned with the slaughter Deadpool’s traps are wreaking, and determines to get inside Wade’s mind and shut it down…
…But this backfires. Professor X can’t handle what he finds in Deadpool’s brain and is rendered a vegetable by connecting with it. Whether this is because of Deadpool’s unspeakable insanity, or whether Charles has discovered what Wade’s saying to be true and it’s blown his mind, is left ambiguous.
Meanwhile, believed dead at Wade’s hands last issue, Wolverine‘s healing factor has restored him and he’s arrived at the building – making short work of super-villain Arcade, who’s built Wade’s traps for him – to take on Deadpool, who’s now wearing The Beast’s fur as a hunting trophy over his costume; another flash of trademark Deadpool humor, but again one steeped in his new sickness.
Once more breaking the Fourth Wall, Deadpool informs Wolvey that it isn’t Logan’s healing factor that truly keeps bringing him back, it’s his popularity – *Wade slicing Wolverine’s head off* – but that all the popularity in the world can’t save him from what he has planned.
…At Dr. Strange‘s place, Taskmaster arrives to find Strange and his man-servant Wong murdered, and that Deadpool’s ransacked the place looking for a magik book – and found it – and what’s suggested inside the book makes issue #4, the conclusion of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, for me, unmissable.
Artist Dalibor Talajic once again hits the right feel for the book, and Cullen’s Bunn‘s writing again falls slightly short. As with the first issue, this one has another moment or two where suspension of disbelief is called for; particularly in how Taskmaster finds what he does at the end of the ish. But this book is exceeding my expectations in terms of its (Fourth Wall-breaking) angle; a maguffin that continues to make the book’s intrigue exceed its shock ‘n’ schlock (which ain’t bad either) value for me
5 out 5