Lately, fate would have it that I would once again be immersed in the marvel universe. Like a lot of people my age, I came up with and watched the X-men movies from FOX and the Marvel movies from Disney. After seeing Deadpool and Avengers Endgame, I figured my time with the marvel universe would be done for a long time, but I caught the comic book bug and here we are.
Deadpool
Duggan
Deadpool is one of my favorite Marvel characters, so he was where I started my trip back into Marvel comic books. Gerry Duggan’s run with Deadpool is amazing. It’s split over three parts, of which I read the 2nd and 3rd. I have to go back and read the 1st part, but I followed along very well without reading it. These comics see Deadpool struggle with balancing his newfound fame as an Avenger, the squad he’s assembled to help him not spread himself thin, and his relationship with his daughter.
My favorite thing about these stories is Deadpool,obviously. Duggan treated Deadpool with a lot of respect, making him a real character beyond the funny quips and 4th wall breaks. Deadpool is a good character when he’s funny. He is a great character when he’s facing adversity like he is here. When Deadpool gets serious, It’s a real joy to watch. That’s not to say I don’t love Deadpool’s sense of humor, but it’s better when he’s being a bit more well-rounded. Deadpool gets a bad rep for being just a bunch of memes, and certain runs/appearances of the character don’t necessarily fight that, but this one gives us a good mix of Deadpool. He’s goes through the gamut of emotions here. He’s on top of the world sometimes, a sad clown other times. I really appreciated it and it made me love the character more than I already did.
If you want a great Deadpool story, definitely Check out Duggan’s run. And start from the actual beginning, unlike me.
First part of Duggan’s run 2nd 3rd
Black, White & Blood
Black, White & Blood is a 4-issue run that features a bunch of different one-off Deadpool stories, each with different writers and artists. I lvoed this collection. While I definitely love some more than others, there wasn’t a single miss among these 16 stories. They’re all pretty silly romps with Deadpool being Deadpool in the best way possible. My favorite has to be the one where he and Bullseye are racing to be the first to kill a target while talking about dumb shit the whole way. That to me is the best kind of fun Deadpool story - Lots of cool action and a good straight man for him to bounce off of.
Samurai
Deadpool has his own manga in Shonen Jump a couple years ago. It’s a pretty brief and gorgeous looking story of Deadpool starting an Avengers unit over in Japan, being joined by Spider-Person Sakura-Spider and a singer with a Symbiote, with some cameos from other marvel characters along the way.
I had a lot of fun with this story. I wish it was longer, even. It’s only 2 volumes. The art was amazing and I loved how hard Deadpool was breaking the 4th wall here. There’s a really hilarious reference to the 2012 Avengers movie here, too.
House & Powers of X
House & Powers of X are two 6-issue comics that tell the story of the new status quo of the X-Men as they currently stand in the marvel comic universe. Of these two, House of X is the easier to jump into without context. Powers of X mainly provides more context for the things we learn in House.
These two were a really engaging way to reintroduce the world of mutants to me. I really like this idea of the mutants buckling down and making a safe space for themselves since humanity will not accept them. The fact that Professor X, magneto, and Apocalypse are all on the same side is fucking crazy to me. It’s really sick, though, to see them all come together in an understanding of what’s best for their people even if they have their differences. There are also some elements of this that have some crazier implications and potential for future interactions, mainly mutant resurrection. Mutants figured out a way to essentially “revive” their fallen, although they will lack recent memories, including the ones of how exactly they died in the first place.
X-Men
The X-men series is good, if a bit messy. It has good teams, good art, and good character interactions. However, these comics are more of an anthology than a regular series. My only gripe is that some stuff gets left off to be picked up in other stories. Otherwise, this series is great. it’s given me my Rogue & x-23 fix, and for that I am eternally grateful.
X-Force 2010
Rick Remeder’s X-Force is held in high praise, and for good reason. This series is a very engaging journey with quite the team of characters. We got Wolverine, Psylocke, Fantomex, Archangel, and Deadpool, later briefly joined by Deathlok and an alternate future Nightcrawler.
I’m not the biggest fan of Archangel, but I love Psylocke, and their romance and the tragedy of it was a pretty good story. Her relationship with Fantomex was also an interesting one, although because this series was my introduction to that character, I had to learn to like him just like she did.
Deadpool is pretty good here, having multiple straight men to bounce off of. This series is pretty dark and depressing, so Deadpool’s a much-needed laugh in the midst of all this. He brightens the mood in a way Fantomex’s snark just can’t. He also pops the fuck off during the final mission and his speech near the end by itself is enough to make you love him if you don’t already.
This run had some really fun stories and some really dire moments for our heroes. It stuck just about everything. It’s not as amazing as people claimed, but it’s damn good and I can see why people hold this in such high-esteem, because now I do, too.
X-Force 2019
This series is really good. The only thing that keeps it from being amazing is the way Marvel handles its current line of comics. In this current universe, a lot of these comics have crossovers and also bleed into each other. X-Force’s problem for me is that a lot of these really good storylines that start/take place in these issues resolve in other comics. A lot of issues end with “to be continued in ‘x series’”, and it pisses me off after a while. Now, I’m reading these online, so it’s not the biggest inconvenience, but I’d be even more pissed if I had to buy all these other comics irl. And just because I’m not too inconvenienced by it doesn’t mean it isn’t bad. I’d like for my X-Force stories to actually get their resolutions in X-Force issues.
Otherwise, this series is fire. I get to watch Domino be a badass. All is right with the world. This series also did something unexpected for me and got me to like Kid Omega of all people. Poor one out for my guy; ole girl broke up with him in a goddamn dream. That’s just cold.
X-Terminators
This series only recently started, but it’s a pretty fun one. Boom-Boom, X-23, Dazzler, and Jubilee are currently fighting Vampires after being kidnapped. Again, it only recently started, so that’s about all the plot I can give ya. It’s been a really nice ride, though. The artwork is great, it’s pretty funny, X-23 is in it(she’s bae, alright.). It’s hitting all the necessary check marks for me.
Domino
Domino is my 2nd favorite Marvel female character and one of my favorites in general, so I hopped on the chance to read her most recent solo series pretty quick. This one hits it out of the park for me. Domino spends the majority of this run learning about and fighting off this duo who have connections to her powers. It’s a really fun story that really shows how down her friends are for her and even drags in Shang-Chi of all people. Then they’re helping Morbius fight off other vampires. And then they’re helping a chick from Wakanda save the world. It’s a very fun time with great art and characters. I just love Domino, man.
Hellions
I honestly did not expect to enjoy this series so much, but Hellions is damn near the strongest one on this list. The premise is kinda like Suicidee Squad. The council of Krakoa, the mutant nation established back in House/Powers of X, agrees to put together a team of problematic mutants that will apply themselves to solve some rougher problems/do some dirty work(or whatever dirty work X-Force isn’t already doing). It’s literally a team of misfits + Psylocke, and it works out better than it has any right to. The final issue is a heartbreaker, too.
Wrapping up
It’s been really cool to get back to loving Marvel characters again. Comics are a nice change of pace from only reading manga and occasionally watching anime. I’ve revitalized my love for my favorite characters and learned to love some others.