New Beginnings - Night of the Living Deadpool #1

by Matt Puddy

Hot on the heels of his Deadpool "Killology", Cullen Bunn returns to the Merc With A Mouth with a loving homage to most of the mainstream zombie movie ideals. Entitled Night of the Living Deadpool, the cover points directly at George Romero, whilst inside there are nods and winks to the current king of the block, The Walking Dead.

This is the first part of a four part series where ol' Wade Wilson finds himself in quite the predicament. After being rudely awoken by screams after overeating in Chimichanga’s, Deadpool is left in a small dilemma. Having been in a food coma for the past few days, the world has simply passed him by. However in that time - here come the first shades of The Walking Dead or of course 28 Days Later - the world has descended into a post apocalyptic zombie filled zone.

Now for the normal person this may be a shocking revelation but in true Deadpool style he can’t believe it and thinks it’s all some sort of prank. It’s only when he starts to move through the city that he comes face to face with the recently deceased that it all finally hits home. It takes an attacking horde and a pickup truck with a mounted machine gun to round it all up, adding the punctuating note that Deadpool may actually be the last remaining superhero in the world.

There are some interesting changes to the genre norms that I noticed that Bunn has made. For instance the zombies have a semblance of cognition and even talk a little, begging for him to finish it. 

Ramon Rasanas has given us the artwork and I really like it. It has two really strong aspects that grabbed me. Firstly it has great line work with a lot of detail in pretty much everything. Secondly the art style has more than a cheeky wink to The Walking Dead. The zombies are arguably reminiscent of Tony Moore's in the early days of the Image zombie comic, while the monochrome presentation is reminiscent of Cliff Rathburn's grayscales and tones throughout the same series. It is further enhanced by the colouring - or rather lack of - using only red for Deadpool himself, other than a few full-colour flashback sections.

This is another good example of how Deadpool is best used - parody and comedy. He was created for that exact reason after all. I can understand why this will probably work best as a limited series, but at the same time I’m a little sad that it won't last a little longer. Deadpool fans will most likely lap it up and with the ongoing popularity of the zombie genre there could also be a few zombie fans who pick it up as well.

Matt Puddy is hungry for BRAAAAAINS!