Lately I just seem inundated with comics containing multiple stories. Somebody’s doing this on purpose.
If I did social commentary this is where I’d do it.
The Unbelievable Gwenpool #1
Marvel Comics (June, 2016)
WRITER: Christopher Hastings
LETTERER: Clayton Cowles
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Heather Antos
EDITOR: Jordan D. White
untitled prologue
ARTIST: Danilo Beyruth
COLORIST: Tamira Bonvillain
main story
ARTIST/COLORIST: Gurihiru
Before going into this: Gwen “Poole” came off as another Gwen Stacy when she first showed up because around the same time we had “Spider-Gwen”, or “Ghost Spider” in extended media like the Heroes Rising and Spidey & His Amazing Friends cartoons when she exists in a world with Peter Parker as Spider-Man and isn’t his dead fiancé. Instead, her deal is “if Deadpool was a girl who came from our universe, ended up in the Marvel universe for reasons not explained in this issue, and didn’t have his powers, or training and only does mercenary work against bad guys”. Even the costume is a pink variant with her mouth exposed, and her word balloons are in pink instead of white. I will say I like her more than actual Deadpool but I’m still not going into this with a positive impression of the concept. It just feels odd for the Marvel Universe when it could, and maybe should, have been an original story of a girl who becomes a mercenary because she knows all the tropes and is kind of psychotic. Instead they shove her into the Marvel universe. I would have liked it better if that was what happened, so now you know my bias going in and can judge the review accordingly.
The prologue has Gwen trying to open a bank account, which is hard considering her social security number only exists in her own universe. That’s interrupted when robbers try to rob the bank and Gwenpool kills all of them except a computer hacker named Cecil, who was dragged into this by his uncle and wanted to do everything electronically to…well, to not have happen what just happened. Lucky for Gwen’s plot armor the cop bringing her in is sick of all the nonsense that happens in New York and takes her money to go live elsewhere and lets her and Cecil go…with the cop car.
In the main story, Gwenpool and Cecil defeat a group of Sentinels but because she wanted to give the mutants who hired her a show she blows up part of their building. She decides to take a very risky job in which the Temudians are hiding out in New York harbor before moving on. However, when Gwen arrives someone else is already running through the boat killing the aliens, so after he’s done Gwen kills him and takes the credit. This earns her the attention of MODOK, who sent the first guy and hires her whether she wants to or not, and kills Cecil to ensure “or not” doesn’t matter.
I’m breaking my review formula too much lately but…I’m annoyed Cecil died. I liked their dynamic, and it’s the only complaint I have outside of whether or not this is supposed to be 616 or some alternate universe, given MODOK’s stupid mohawk. Of course this could be a parody of comic deaths and Cecil will get brought back to life or cloned or something. Gwenpool is a comedy series and it’s admittedly a rather fun one, which makes Cecil’s death all the stranger unless he is going to be brought back to life. It’s the only issue I have available from my ComiXology library. Otherwise it’s a waste of a good character. The people in Gwen’s life think she’s crazy for believing she’s in a comic book but it is a parody of the comic tropes and I like the art style.
If this is supposed to be separate from the main Marvel universe I’m all for it as a Marvel parody. If this is somehow supposed to be 616 then I’m less than positive about it.
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