(Main story)
written by Zeb Wells
drawn by Greg Capullo (pencils) and Tim Townsend (inks)
colored by Alex Sinclair
25 pages. That's the most important thing readers need to know about this overpriced monstrosity of a "special edition." The story that was used to hype the first intercompany crossover between Marvel and DC in over 20 years only comes to a paltry 25 pages, despite the comic book itself sporting a hefty 7 dollar cover price, which comes to even more when it's sold overseas, like here in the Philippines.
Oh, sure, there are a whole bunch of supporting stories featuring other crossovers, like Captain America and Wonder Woman, and Daredevil and Green Arrow, but let's be frank, none of those are what people paid a small fortune of their hard-earned money for. Truth be told, I won't even bother reviewing any of the backup stories because it's kind of insulting that they even threw them in here. Throwaway stories like that used to serve as teasers for full-sized comic books, but now they're patched together into an anthology to justify a bloated cover price. This only works, however if there's a good, solid main story anchoring everything. The question is: is there?
No.
Short version: The Joker hires Deadpool to capture Batman so that he can take part in another of his death traps. Batman outsmarts Deadpool and Joker, but it seems that he can't disable Joker's death trap, set to poison all of Gotham, without dying. Luckily, the basically unkillable Deadpool, who has turned against the Joker, triggers the trap, saving Gotham and defeating the Joker. Pretty standard stuff, and in truth, as stories go, it's not even that bad.
What's egregious, for me, is the execution. It's been a while since I've read a script that has felt this perfunctory, this by-the-numbers. This isn't even bare-minimum stuff. Deadpool doesn't even break the fourth wall here, even though there were a wealth of opportunities. His wisecracking is painfully unfunny, and he even manages to fumble the open-goal jokes about Batman and his succession of strapping young male sidekicks. Who wrote this crap, anyway? Oh, right, Zeb Wells, the ***hat who took Marvel editorial's assignment of splitting up Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson to new low by having his self-insert stick his d**k inside her. For creating a character as universally-loathed as Paul Rabin has become, Wells has apparently been awarded the plum assignment of writing the first DC-Marvel crossover in over two decades...and this is what he gives us.
The only good news is that Greg Capullo's art is sensational...but then...twenty-five pages.
Save your money, folks.
5/10 (and ONLY for Capullo's art).
