I have hated this ‘Dark Reign’ ever since Brian Michael Bendis and his smugness of Secret Invasion turned the Marvel Universe into this depressing universe….even more depressing. But there was one thing that I couldnt wait for was the Deadpool crossover with Thunderbolts. Although I’m lying if I would be saying these were the Thunderbolts I was thinking about; the prospect of Deadpool hamming it up to Osborn seemed like a treat.

For the most part, this first part of ‘Magnum Opus’ works. It’s just setting up for the rest of this crossover, but Way still certainly knows how to entertaining the crowd. I should first off start by saying that I like Deadpool more then just the 10th grade humor. Wade Wilson can actually be a formidible ally or foe when he puts his mind to it. He might have the mind of a ‘special person’ but when things gets tough he always has a plan….no matter how insane the plan is. That’s what makes this crossover sound interesting on paper. Cause even if I dont like Norman Osborn overall as a character; his deviousness can definitely be a good match for Deadpool’s deviousness. There are a lot of jokes thrown into this issue, some good (mostly on Osborn’s hair, and some nice banter of Deadpool’s personality) and some bad but again the good jokes out weigh the bad for the most part. This issue also has probably the longest use of ‘Pool-O-Vision’ and it certainly is funny….although it does outstay it’s welcome after awhile. I wont spoil you what the big joke is, but that image of Osborn in Deadpool’s vision….certainly one of the funniest images of the year for me.

Again it’s a bit boring to repeat the same praise for an artist but Paco Medina certainly deserves it. He brings a great mix of beautiful designs with cartoony like visuals. It gives this comic a definitely distinct feel to the rest of the Marvel universe. Just because this universe is more depressing then ever, doesnt mean it cant be colorful. It also helps that the colorist and inkers have been top notched as well. Providing the colorful world I expressed in the previous sentence. This comic is probably hard work for artists; cause there is just so much going on in one issue per month. But thankfully Marvel and Daniel Way found the right artists to stay on board.

Overall this was a good start to the crossover. It’ll be interesting to see how much of a drastic difference there will be in the Thunderbolts issue. Diggle is a good writer, but it’ll be hard to match the quality by Daniel Way and the artist will have a hard time conveying the fun side of Deadpool on T-Bolts. But if this issue is any indication, this mini should be at most a fun romp in the ‘Dark Reign’ setting.