Full disclosure: I'm not a fan of Mad Magazine-style, sight-gag-and-double-entendre-based humor. It has its merits, and I'm not saying I'm any funnier than writers who work in that style, it just ain't my cuppa. Also, I like Deadpool. At least, I like the idea of a wise-cracking anti-hero mercenary with a cool power-set and I've been pretty happy with the work of the creative team behind the main Deadpool title of late (with a few exceptions, like that pirate thing a few months back). This issue though? And the whole Deadpool Team-Up thing? I just don't get it.

I don't get why this secondary (tertiary) title was needed. I don't get why they're counting down from #900 (though I hope they don't keep it up for 893 more issues). And at the risk of treading way too deep into comic-geek territory by trying to apply logic where there should be none, I don't really buy that Deadpool's travelling the world all Kung-Fu style looking for team-ups. He's a kooky character, to be sure, but he's a character nonetheless, with all the motivations and identity issues that entails. He's a mercenary. Why would team up with a raccoon? (That is what happened a couple of issues back, right? I honestly didn't make it through that one.) I'll buy that Deadpool would align himself with the X-Men temporarily, as he did in his main title, but not a raccoon.

As for this issue in particular, I don't even know what happened. I don't know exactly what's going on with the whole Franken-Castle thing right now, as I don't read the Punisher. But I shouldn't have to read the Punisher to enjoy a Deadpool book. The story begins at the end - a common conceit these days - but even by the end of the book I still had no idea how DP got hooked up with the mobstress that sent him after the Punisher. And the last scene indicates somehow Wolverine's wrapped up in this, too, but the teaser for the next issue indicates that Wade'll be teaming up with Captain Britain (I think) is jolly ol' England. Maybe the whole point of this book is to tell madcap, out-of-continuity tales, but even then I expect an understandable narrative that'll at least support the weight of one issue at a time.

The art was equally inconsistent to me. It got better as the book went along, but those first couple of pages were... well... in a state.

I still count myself among Deadpool's fans, but I'm 'bout to drop this title like it's hot.

The "toonces" reference was pretty funny, though.