Deadpool V Gambit #2 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Mondays

You Jade Tongued Devil

Written By: Ben Acker, Ben Blacker
Art By: Danilo Beyruth, Cris Peter, Joe Sabino
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 6, 2016
Publisher: Marvel Comics

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Going into Deadpool V Gambit, I just figured that we'd get two great characters coming together, fighting, maybe teaming up and then probably fighting again before going their separate ways in the series finale, but to my surprise it seems that this series has more depth in that the story is based around a heist........ and who doesn't love a heist?  In the previous issue we saw our two title characters run into one another and reminisce about the last time they pulled a job and how it all went so wrong, after the man who brought them together (Raul Chalmers, the former Black Fox) double crossed them.  All of that is in the past now though as Raul has brought them back together for another job and as most things like this are considered, it's apparently the score of the century.  Let's jump into this issue and see how Deadpool and Gambit's heist works out now that they're in the thick of things or if history will repeat itself.  Let's check it out.



Explain It!:

Our issue begins with our title characters finding out that their job consists of getting their mark's fingerprints in order for Raul Chalmers to access his personal safe, containing a priceless relic known as the "Dragon Tongue"........ and really, from the get go this heist seems pretty simple.  All our heroes have to do is get into a disguise, get the fingerprints transmitted to Raul and they collect 3.6 million dollars........ Which really, for 3.6 million, I think Wade would have done almost anything from the looks of him reacting to the money here.  That's where everything in this book seems to stop being fun though because the rest of the issue seems like the flick "I Love You To Death", where Tracy Ullman and River Phoenix attempt to kill Kevin Kline, but keep fucking it up.......... but just not as much fun........ or sexy because River Phoenix isn't included here.  The comparison I'm trying to make here is because Gambit and Wade (Who's disguise is ridiculous, even with an image inducer because he only looks like Freddy Krueger with a mustache) spend the majority of the book trying to knock their mark, Pang Lai out in various ways like alcohol, tranquilizers and even magic, but nothing seems to work.

The book though just seems to run on and on with no end in sight and since the situation wasn't all that interesting to begin with........ except for Gambit trying to get a little tail on the side while he was working, which didn't really pan out in the end, the book just really came off boring because a lot of the jokes just didn't seem to hit as well as I thought they did in the previous issue and even the situation..... as ridiculous as it was, became even more ridiculous after our characters completed their mission and Deadpool went to go check in on how Raul was making out with the safe......... and ninjas come out of nowhere.  After Deadpool returns the relic to the raging ninjas, they leave and we find out the whole thing was a bait and switch with Wade's image inducer and that he actually gave them a candy bar in disguise.

In the end, after all the peril seems to be gone, Wade is given the money to rub allover himself and do whatever one does when they're presented with a shit-load of cash.......... sadly, I wouldn't know anything about this, but then all at once the man they stole the gem from shows up and Raul, the money and the Jade Tongue are gone and our Merc with the Mouth is left to stand toe to toe with the man they stole from.  From what Raul told Wade and us in this book, it seemed that the gem they stole is actually the source of power that Pang Lai drew from, allowing him to beat the shit out of a ton of people in this issue and not being able to be knocked out by conventional means, but since when does anyone expect Raul to tell the truth?  As it turns out this man's name isn't Pang Lai, that's merely where he's from and his power is derived from some sort of mystical deal-y because we find out that he's actually the Fat Cobra, who not only defeated Iron Fist in the past, but the dragon who's tongue Raul stole............ So yeah, he's a bit of a bad ass and Wade seems a bit worried about what his odds are in taking this monster down.

That's it for this issue of Deadpool V Gambit and even though I had a lot of fun in the previous issue and couldn't wait to see where this story was going, I couldn't help but be bored to death with the situation presented here.  This issue seemed like the book that would never end and the jokes fell flat for the most part and that's possibly because the main joke of the book seemed to be all about how Wade thought his disguise looked like Steve Zahn from the HBO show: Treme....... and since I never saw that show...... or heard of anyone watching that show for that matter...... it just didn't work.  It was made even worse when I tried to research the bit (which is terrible all around) and found that I didn't think Wade looked anything like Steve Zahn in that show and I just became mad.  All in all though, the jokes didn't really work here, the story was pretty boring at times and the double page panel layouts seemed tedious and clustered.  Even with all of that though, I'm still looking forward to what happens next in the series because with a title like this one, it should be fun.

Bits and Pieces:

While I was really looking forward to this issue coming out, I found myself really disappointed with the final product because while the main story is about a heist, which is a little different from what you'd expect from a title like this, it ended up just being boring instead of being fun and the jokes just didn't hit the way they should have.  The art was still decent, even though things got a little clustered with the panel layouts, but I'm still hopeful that this series will bounce back and be the treat it should be to read.

4.5/10