A year sure flys by fast. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was lamenting the drought of Deadpool, and now here we are, with a year’s worth of new Deadpool issues for us ‘Poolheads to covet. If I were asked to describe this past year of his book, however, I would say that it was incredibly tie-in heavy. All but two issues of this series has been a tie-in to either Secret Invasion or Dark Reign. It’s a minor and hollow complaint, however, being as how this book mightly plowed though these events with enjoyable stories, whereas other books become derailed and disjointed after being dragged through an event (like JLA).

But that’s all in the past now! After 12 issues of tie-in issues, it seems that Deadpool is ready to take off the training wheels of editorily mandated events and ride on his own again. Wade has proven to really shine when left on his own with a competant writer, and Daniel Way seems to fit the bill perfectly. It seems Way usually struggles with his dramatic stories, as they come off as bland and vanilla. Say what you will about these stories, the man has perfect comedic timing and portrays Deadpool’s madcap humor perfectly. It’s a good thing he does, being as this issue was more of a comedy-heavy outing and light on action. In Way’s hands, the jokes are delivered beautifully and helps the story move along.

The art was nothing to phone home over, as it was a simple yet zany style that wasn’t ugly, yet wasn’t amazing either. It kind of looked like a cleaner version of Bong Dazo’s art (now being displayed in the atrocious Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth).

I’m very happy this book is sustaining itself and provides a very funny story each month. Under the write writer, Deadpool can really shine, as he’s doing under Way’s reign of bullets and Schizophrenia.