After the 90’s era mashup of ‘Deadpool vs X-Force,’ the writing crew over at Marvel have decided to shake things up and give us a case for both Hawkeye and Deadpool to work on together. Straight out of the pages of the ‘Hawkeye’ solo comic, we get both the visual styling as well as the type of humor that would be found in this Avengers’ stand alone comic – and it works. Deadpool is a great fit to play off against Clint and even when the two are completely disagreeing with the method to solve the case, it all comes together quite beautifully.
Gerry Duggan firmly delivers the best mash up that he has written so far. This isn’t about bringing Deadpool into Clint’s comic or bringing Hawkguy into Deadpool’s world. Duggan just blends the two together in both seriousness and humor in a way that just works. From a hacker who has stolen secrets from S.H.I.E.L.D. to even dipping into the current state of New York’s crime network with Black Cat consolidating her power, this is all staying true to form of what is actually happening in the Marvel Universe.
To compliment Duggan’s writing, Matteo Lolli makes great use of the style used in Hawkeye without taking away from the madness that is Deadpool. Truly some great artistic work in blending them together here. You get the subtle tones from Hawkeye’s book and when the action kicks in there is a lot of over the top awesomeness that fits more in Deadpool’s world.
The humor really carries the issue with Wade and Clint bantering back and forth. The best though is probably every scene that Kate Bishop is in. From the age comment to talking about Deadpool’s Halloween costume, seriously, there are some moments here that truly shine. For those of you unfamiliar with Kate, she was the female Hawkeye from the ‘Young Avengers’ line and has also made quite a few appearances in Hawkeye’s self-titled series.
My only mock complaint is that Wade isn’t taking every opportunity that he can to call Clint, ‘Hawkguy.’ Honestly there really wasn’t anything bad about the book and if it only captured my attention a little more it would have had a perfect score.
If you are looking for a fun and entertaining read you can’t go wrong with this one. However, the title may be misleading. While the two are approaching their investigation in the comic in a different way, they aren’t exactly fighting one another, in this issue at least. I know they did in the issue #0 of this mini-series.
Overall, ‘Hawkeye vs. Deadpool’ #1 delivers what you expect from Hawkeye’s stand alone series as well as what you would expect from Deadpool. Wilson appears to be a little toned down from his over the top narrative in this one and to be fully honest you almost wouldn’t even notice with how well he fits in here. Of all of his recent Vs titles this is probably one of the better written ones from the past few years, at least so far.
HAWKEYE VS DEADPOOL #1
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Matteo Lolli
