Review: Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars

Quick Summary

Pros: The way in which this event is revisited is unique and interesting. The comedy works in some places, especially when it brings up obvious flaws in the original material. The artwork looks good.

Cons: There are other places where the comedy gets to be too much. Changes made to the original event actually rob it of some of its meaning.

Overall: This is a volume where the successes and failures end up about even. The collection has plenty of solid jokes and centers around a neat concept. However, it also has just as many poor jokes and poorly executes aspects of its promising concept. This book is for readers interested in seeing Deadpool joke about Marvel’s first big event, as long as they can forgive some annoying jokes and don’t take the event too seriously.

Story

Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars, by Cullen Bunn, is a weird comic book that works in some ways but doesn’t work in others. The positives in this comic mostly come from its unique concept, which revisits an already entertaining event, and its approach to humor, which works in a number of different places. However, both of these positive aspects also have an unfortunate twist to them. In many places, the humor ends up being overdone and, for a few plot points, revisiting the concepts actually damages the original appeal. Because of this, the collection has limited appeal but may work for readers simply looking for a ton of jokes fit into a few comic chapters.

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Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars starts out with a unique concept. It retells the happenings of the original Secret Wars (Review) event but, this time, includes Deadpool in the mix. This allows for a retelling of an already good story with some additional character development and humor to go along with it. It works as a way to revisit the event for older readers or as an interesting way to see the event for the first time for newer readers.

Another major positive in Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars is the way in which Deadpool’s humor allows the narrative to poke fun at the original Secret Wars event. He makes fun of the obvious mistake regarding the inclusion of Xavier’s wheelchair and the explanation justifying the mistake. He makes fun of the over-the-top division among the teams. And he makes fun of the general wackiness of the event’s core concept. As a fan of the original event, I enjoyed this lighthearted criticism and thought its presence worked for this comic.

However, there are also a number of places where Deadpool’s humor simply doesn’t work that well. His color commentary alongside the major happenings of the Secret Wars event, particularly near the beginning of the collection, is so frequent that it feels ridiculous. There are some solid jokes in the mix, but they are placed right alongside some noticeably lackluster ones. This definitely feels like a case where just a little less would have lead to a little more.

Deadpool’s contribution to the event also feels like a step backward for Secret Wars as a whole. His romance with Zxaji further complicates an already complicated love-triangle, giving it even less appeal. Plus, the revisions to the Wasp’s role make her seem unnecessarily petty and come across as slightly sexist.

However, the biggest problem is the way in which Deadpool’s contribution changes the conclusion of Secret Wars. Originally, the return of the heroes appeared to be due to Doom’s self-doubt and lack of control over his own subconscious. Now, it just becomes the work of a hero getting lucky. It reduces a wonderful examination into the villain’s psyche into something with far less substance.

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Art

The artwork in Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars is consistently positive the whole way through. Pages are structured well, allowing big moments to have plenty of room, and the general quality of the artwork rarely dips. Matteo Lolli’s work is modern yet manages to retain a simplicity that instantly feels evocative of the style of the original Secret Wars (Review). The same can be said about the volume’s colors, which also avoid getting too complex. The visuals in the book work well with the type of story being told here and are a definite asset for the collection.

Continuity

Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars is a mostly standalone miniseries. The entire miniseries is a flashback to events that took place in the original Secret Wars (Reading Order).  

This is a standalone story that does not specifically continue in another comic.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Deadpool references interactions with Tony Stark. This is likely a reference to Deadpool Vol 3 #7, collected in Deadpool Vol. 2: Soul Hunter.  
• The “wrong Iron Man” reference is due to the fact that James Rhodes, not Tony Stark, is wearing the Iron Man armor at this point. This change happened in Iron Man #169, collected in Iron Man Epic Collection: The Enemy Within. 
• The first issue of this collection contains a backup story that takes place during the Contest of Champions event.