Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I'm not gonna lie: it's exciting to see something so well done written by a woman.   There aren't that many women writers in comics, and while it's gratifying to see any, well, more so when they're excellent writers.   

Simone creates a near perfect collection, taking all the lose ends and tying them together into a story in a way that makes it almost impossible to resist looking at one more panel.  I stayed up until about midnight last night, not only because driving home from concert, but also because... just one more panel.  

Midnight is super late to me, so that's a big deal.   There's a large cast of characters here, and I loved all of them: they each had full personalities, flaws and redemptive qualities, that made me want to know them.   They grew.   They learned.   

They made the same mistakes over and over again sometimes, because sometimes people do that because habits are hard to break sometimes.   And while there were some stand alone stories - or two issue arcs - there's a lot that leads up to the finale: who is Alex Hayden and where did he come from?

Look, no spoilers in saying that Wade Wilson comes back.   He's on the cover.   Deadpool Classics Volume 11 exists.   There are current Deadpool comics.  I think saying that he comes back isn't really a spoiler.     And he's more and more like what I expected. 

Alex loses Inez/Outlaw to Texas, and it's kinda okay, because there's always Sandi. 

But it gets more explicit. 

But he also is in love with Outlaw, so...

The Fight-Man issue was good, but I couldn't find Fight-Man issue one, either for purchase or in Unlimited.  I didn't read that, but I liked it for Agent X, not Fight-Man so I don't feel motivated to track Fight-Man one down, actually.  One of the other reasons I liked the issue was the robots.   And robot jokes. 

And:

Amongst others. 

If you're looking for tons of Deadpool, you will be disappointed though.   He only shows up in the last three issues.   Look, I love me some Deadpool, but, y'know what?   This is enough fun without him, and it's tangentially Deadpool related.   I found it important enough to his history to be worth reading, although the last three issues?   Are the most important. 

He also comes back injured, and like a child.   So when they have to fix him in a horribly painful way, and don't wait for him to mentally grow up, there's this panel which made me feel incredibly squicky.

I didn't feel right explaining all the 'he plays with his junk jokes,' so, ah, I didn't screen cap this.   This gets really, really wrong.   Like super wrong.  In all the right ways. 

Here, have another not-so-horrible Deadpool screen cap to distract you from the possibilities of all that wrongness.   So, so wrong. 

But, yay, the little yellow boxes are back!  This panel felt most like the Deapool I'm used to, too, so yay!

Ah, I'm sorry to see the Simone run go, but... Merc with a Mouth?   Here I come!