Late to the Party: A Review of Night of the Living Deadpool #3 and #4

(writer) Cullen Bunn
(artist) Ramon Rosanas

When I reviewed the first two issues of this miniseries I honestly didn't quite see the point, other than to cash in on the "Walking Dead"-inspired zombie craze and to showcase some gorgeous art by Spanish artist Ramon Rosanas. As it turns out, there's a method to all this madness. It doesn't quite justify what has been a largely hollow experience, but at least it ends on a high note (which I will not spoil). I got both these issues late, but given that I already reviewed the first two I decided to finish off the miniseries.

In issue #3, Deadpool deals with the genocidal old women he met at the end of issue #2 and is welcomed into what seems to be a thriving community of survivors. It is there that he meets former Advanced Idea Mechanics scientist and learns that he caused the outbreak in the first place. Also, a bite from a zombie that Deadpool sustained in issue #2 comes back to haunt him in a big way.

In issue #4, Deadpool sets out to cure the world of the zombie malady by heading back to where it all started: the laboratories of A.I.M., but what he finds out is not quite what he expected.

Considering that Wade Wilson/Deadpool was originally conceived as a parody of DC Comics' Slade Wilson/Deathstroke the Terminator, it is only fitting that he is placed smack in the middle of a parody of one of the most well-worn pop-culture genres, the zombie apocalypse.  The first two issues went through the laundry list of zombie story tropes, seemingly without much new to say, but the third issue picks things up a little bit, and the fourth issue delivers a surprising, if somewhat anticlimactic finale. Still, it's a very, very "Deadpool" way to end the miniseries.

 My favorite Deadpool miniseries remains to be "Wade Wilson's War" because of how unabashedly crazy it was, and how both writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Jason Pearson captured that insanity in the four issues spanning the miniseries. This series is nowhere near the acid-trip that series was and, really, is just yet another zombie book with a nice twist at the end. Bunn turns in a serviceable story but really, it never did stand out, even as a parody.

Ramon Rosanas' work, though, is really something wonderful to behold, and I for one would really love it if he worked on a more mainstream book someday.

7/10 (both issues)