Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I'm mobile, I'm less depressed, and I'm reading again.   So yay!   That being said, I want to focus on more Marvel stuff today and tomorrow.   I will.   

This is the last full volume on MU of this particular Deadpool run.   I'm figuring in a month or so issue 34 will pop up and then I'll have volume six.   I think it might be good to have some time away from Deadpool.   Even with his character going somewhere, he's so over the top, so much so that too much Deadpool at one time can overwhelm me.  

He's a lot of fun in small doses, however.   A ton.   Not very political correct, but done in such a clever, meta, stick his tongue out at everything way that it's genuinely funny.   He also satires a lot in a way that makes a political statement, and all this combines to make it something that I feel okay about laughing about.  It reminds me of what I said about Mel Brooks a while ago: he skewers himself, and everyone else, too, and so he kinda gets away with stuff that he might not otherwise.   (Add this with also skewering things to make a statement, and yeah, Mel Brooks is just considered funny.)

Arguably, the way in which they - Deadpool and Mel Brooks do these - are not the same.  Oh, there are bound to be some similarities, and the goofiness seems to be one of them.   (And may be part of the necessity of doing this kind of humor; couching it in the ridiculous may make it more palatable to the majority of readers/viewers.   And they are businesses.)

The one thing I really have a beef with is the way that mental illness is played with in this book.   Everyone knows that Wade is unstable, hears voices in his own head, and is a mass murderer.   Regardless of the tragic and sympathetic backstory, something should be done for him.   (I recall he was in an institution once, but that was also played for laughs.)   It's done in a much more casual way with no resolution, no real social statement made, and is a constant source of mockery.   The more I read of this title, the more it bothers me.   And it may be bizarre, but I want to read more to see if someone actually takes his mental illness seriously and does something for him.   

Even getting married, and finding that relationship that could stabilize him doesn't help.  In fact, he marries a monster who eats people, and who believes he's pretty awesome for his violence.   There's a vicious circle where the mentally ill are portrayed as lovable only by monsters - and even then Wade's 'friends' make comments about holly shit, how did he find someone to marry him.   (The wedding issue was all about his failed marriages previously, which were all in his mind, manipulations of the situation to get something, or rapey.)   And yes, that probably has to do something with his appearances, because this: 

But some of it is about the mental illness, and the violence, which seem to go hand-in-hand in all of his titles.   It's bothersome, at best, and dangerous at worst.   It portrays the mentally ill as monsters, and unlovable unless monsters are loving them. 

I... ugh. 

So, yes, I love this, despite it's horrible message about the mentally ill for a variety of reasons.   It's genuinely funny, and if it took the same tack with the mentally ill as it takes with everything else, I'd have less issues with it.   It has this panel: 

Which, yes, plays for laughs, but also makes a point about transgendered people, as well as getting in a point about violence used to rehabilitate people.   (Although the second point is less murky.)

My point is - there's one really awful thread through this, and there's a lot to like.   There's a lot of meat to it, if you care to look behind the jokes.   There's a lot of meta moments, that speak to how readers interact with the material they're reading. 

It's good.   It's thoughtful, except for one point that seems to be so built into this character by this point, I'm not sure how a writer would, or could, write around it because it seems to have become an essential part of Deadpool. 

I can't do anything but say that despite loving this, it's highly flawed.  I think the best thing that can be done is have discussions about how and why it's flawed, and make people aware of this.   And while, yes, I believe that Marvel is getting better about a lot - women for example - lately, no company is perfect.    Deadpool is, quite frankly, one of their weak spots.   

Yes, I'll continue reading, but yes, I'll continue pointing out what I feel are flaws.   The high rating is for the quality of the majority of this run, and this volume in particular.   I'm glad Wade found some happiness, even if I don't like the how.   I knocked one star off for the fuckery that I already explained.