Spider-Man/Deadpool #14 Review

Spider-Man/Deadpool #14

Writer: Joe Kelly

Art Team: Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Jason Keith

Marvel Comics

Release Date: February 23, 2017

Cover Price: $3.99

Spider-Man’s Itsy Bitsy Breakdown

How do you make a comic featuring Spider-Man and Deadpool, two of Marvel’s biggest heroes, even more appealing?  Why throw one of the fan favorite X-Men into the mix why don’t you! That’s right Nightcrawler makes an appearance in this issue in an attempt to talk some sense into an out of control Spider-Man, who even Deadpool is having trouble controlling lately. Yes, that is typed correctly. So let’s stop all this introduction nonsense and see what the red and blue trio are up to … swing on inside and find out.

To start our issue off we see our title hero Spider-Man talking in a church, to this issues guest star Nightcrawler, about his sudden conflicting moral stance when it comes to dealing with what seems to be an unstoppable villain in Itsy Bitsy.

Since Spidey and Deadpool have failed to stop Itsy-Bitsy at every turn, her body count has continued to pile up, so Spider-Man is discussing with Kurt whether or not it would be morally correct to kill her putting a stop to this madness once and for all.  Kurt makes it clear he isn’t here to influence Spidey either way, that he’s only here to listen to his friend, and help him reach a conclusion he can live with.

The story progresses, while flashing back to several moments, highlighting how Spidey has reached this direction of extreme frustration.  We really dive into the inner thinking of Spider-Man, at this point in time, while dealing with Deadpool making counterpoints to Spidey, stating why this is a horrible road to begin going down.  Through this back and forth between the heroes Deadpool unknowingly hits a cord when referencing something that reminds Peter of Gwen dying, pushing Spidey over his limit. We see Deadpool dare Spider-Man to go through with what he’s been thinking, and to the surprise of everyone who’s ever read a Spidey book, he actually kills his new partner in super heroics.

Now we are dealing with Deadpool here so ‘dead’ is a difficult word to throw around.  When we catch up with Wade, we see him ‘dead’ in Hell, talking to his wife.  That conversation ends uneventfully as Deadpool then moves onto Patient Zero in his travels, the villain of the first arc killed previously by Itsy Bitsy in this series, out of Hell. Deadpool has limited time to talk, since he’s being repaired by BAMF’s as they speak, but we do finally get a big reveal as to who Patient Zero finally is … its none other than Weasel, former friend of Deadpool! 

Weasel goes on to explain to a confused Deadpool why he came after him and how he was resurrected. At this point our story starts to pay off and come together a bit if you’ve been following since issue #1.  Deadpool also discovers Weasel had helpescaping from Hell the first time, and since we’ve been seeing Mephesto over the course of the series, to go along with few visual clues in this issue, it’s safe to assume Weasel was working with Mephesto initially, so in a way also responsible for contributing to Spider-Man current mental state.  This is HUGE for any long time Spider-Man reader because Mephesto is the one responsible for basically resetting Spider-Man and Mary Janes marragie, where part of that deal was he is to leave Spider-Man alone forever.

Back to Deadpool, who eventually heals, and springs to life in the church Kurt and Spider-Man are talking in.  Initially confused, after just having been ‘dead’ for a period of time, thoughts starts rushing back to Deadpool, and he starts hollering out what he remembers all before he forgets again.  When Deadpool finally gathers his baring’s he discovers Spider-Man has moved on and only Kurt is left alone in the church with the few BAMF’s to helped put Deadpool back together.  Deadpool glances up to see a note left by Spidey stating “Do Not Follow” written in webbing. 

Our book ends with Spider-Man swinging thru a city on the hunt for Itsy-Bitsy armed to the bit with a bunch of swords like hes Lady Shiva and he means business. The narration picks up as Nightcrawler talks to Deadpool urging him to stop his friend before he makes a grave mistake he’ll regret forever.

Overall this book, when it’s addressing the main story, continues to be fantastic. Joe Kelly is getting back on track here for me after what I considered a minor hiccup story wise last issue.  Kelly has managed to bring out a side of Spider-Man, pretty naturally over the course of this story, which is an unexpected point for our beloved character to reach. I can’t wait to see how the arc ultimately concludes but it continues to be interrupted and dragged down with so many filler issues put in-between the story I actually care for.  For anyone only interested in the Itsy-Bitsy story, like me, it will continue again in MAY, that’s a long break after just coming back only two issues ago to address our main conflict again. 

Ed McGuinness with Mark Morales on inks and Jason Keith on colors have done a fantastic job anytime they are at the helm of art duties for the series.  However they also only contribute to the main story as well so the book really loses some of its luster when the main team is on break.   

Bits and Pieces

Brothers from other mothers, Spider-Man and Deadpool, taking on the likes of Itsy-Bitsy continues to be enthralling, but its release schedule is less than ideal, taking another break until MAY! However Kelly and McGuiness, when present on the title, make it worth paying attention too. The revolving door of guest writers, outside that main team though, make it hard to recommend on a month in and  month out basis when they’re absent too often. 

8.5/10