One of my favorite issues from Joe Kelly’s classic run of Deadpool is him fighting the Hulk. It was a fun and action packed issue of Wilson trying to fight Hulk to get some of his blood. Immediately seeing the cover for this issue gave me a bit of nostalga of those old days. But when I open not only do I see a scrappy fight between these two, but I also see an underlying sense of depression over this story.

For a while now Daniel Way has somewhat hinted that Deadpool just wants to die. This issue finally explores that route as Deadpool thinks the only person that could kill him is Hulk. I would’ve loved to see more of Deadpool giving us more of a reason on why he wants to die. Way has given us a hugely depressing issue of Deadpool wanting to commit suicide (the one involving Ghost Rider) but this is more of a light hearted affiar. Still a book with the main character wanting to commit suicide is a bit of a risky. But Way mixes it up with Deadpool pissing Hulk off and the consequences for doing so. Not sure why we need to have a military action involved….Well actually if you set off two atomic bombs just to prove a point I guess that is a problem.

Bong Dazo replaces Carlos Barberi for this arc and apart from the ridiculous name I am a fan of his style. It’s very cartoony but it has this weird mix of weird detail and realism to it. It’s not always perfect, his human characters (not superpowered or wearing masks) look really freaky. I couldn’t even tell that was Bruce Banner until Deadpool said his name. But when it comes to situations like Deadpool in a hot tub with Death (don’t ask) or him fighting the Hulk; it all looks really good. Plus I love his recurring colorist Andres Mossa. This is a very bright and vibrant book and it really makes it a joy to look at.

While not as perfect as the old Joe Kelly days, I am happy to see this fight go for a second round. It’s a shame Way didn’t go further into Wilson’s reasoning to kill himself but in the end it’s all leads up to this epic fight so I can’t complain too much. Again from the silly name, Bong Dazo delivers another great issue and I wished he could get more of a stable job then just being ‘the’ fill-in artist for Deadpool books. Either way though, it’s a solid issue all around and I can’t wait for this fight to escalate because as we saw with Bullseye; it can only get better from here.