In Deadpool Killustrated #1, the Merc with a Mouth took on Don Quixote and Moby Dick.

Who’s next? [Insert Goldberg theme song and chant here.] And… Is It Good?

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Deadpool Killustrated #2 (Marvel)



“I’m your Huckleberry.

AiPT Fun Fact : Deadpool Killustrated #2 is preluded by an homage to the second chapter of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer:



That Deadpool sure do care about his killin’.

Slick touches like this prove that series writer Cullen Bunn is having a gay ole’ time crafting the Killustrated storyline and the enthusiasm is starting to grow on me.

The references are bonuses for fans of the classic works and for those who aren’t (or for our scholarly AiPT readers feeling all lugubrious over the fact they have to slog through the reading in school), well, our boy Deadpool’s literally murdering all the characters that made you fail your last English report — so there’s a little something here for everyone.

The issue begins with one of the scientists that helped Deadpool breach his way into the literary dimension relaying a holographic distress signal to a smarmy looking British detective:



”Help us Obi-Holmes. You’re our only hope.”

After massacring the big white sperm whale, Deadpool boards the Pequod and swabs the deck… with the crew’s vital organs. Things get pretty messy. Then it’s on to Captain Ahab himself, who slings hurtful Melvillian insults like the sharpest of harpoons at our protagonist:

As Deadpool traverses each work of literature we are granted more insight into why he keeps catching ephemeral glimpses of Marvel Universe mainstays in lieu of the book’s intrinsic characters while getting his slay on (He’s seen General Thunderbolt Ross in place of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick, Dr. Strange in place of Dracula, Ghost Rider and Green Goblin in place of the Headless Horseman, etc.):

It’s not just his aberrant mind playing tricks on him; the conclusion he comes to is that offing archetypal characters from the timeless classics might simultaneously wipe out their myriad derivatives:

It’s refreshing to see a Deadpool that is deranged yet gifted with a commensurate sense of proficiency. This Deadpool gets s--t done and doesn’t waste panel after panel with egregious and excessive internal monologues.

7.0 Solid art by Mateo Lolli.

Plenty more classic literature favorites brutally murdered. Storyline hasn’t progressed much further than it did in issue #1.

Few moments of funny dialogue.

Is It Good?

This issue is mediocre at best. It’s fun to see Deadpool take on classic literary figures and make them his bitches, but we aren’t much further along than we were in the first issue in terms of storyline progression. The issue’s end reveals the formation of a team of some of classic literature’s biggest bad-asses sent to eliminate our boy Wade, so hopefully next issue’s action/battles will hold greater significance.