#454 - Holiday Reading 2022: Black Panther vs. Deadpool #1-5

My reflection on all the comics I read during my recent holiday continues here.

For the second day of my holiday week I read Black Panther vs. Deadpool, a 5 issue mini series by Ricardo López Ortiz, Felipe Sobreiro, VC's Joe Sabino and Daniel Kibblesmith. This series followed the Merc with mouth who, after placing Mailman Willie Lumpkin at death's door during a highly dangerous rescue of a bus full of school kids, ventures to Wakanda to acquire the vibranium needed for a highly risky cure. However, standing in his way is the Black Panther who, while trying to develop a new invention that could help millions, finds himself forced to defend his nation and its precious resource from the questionable Deadpool.

Now, this comic would not really have been onecwhich would have originally hit my radar, particularly due to its inclusion of Deadpool (a character I have almost always struggled to enjoy). However, Comixology's free offering of all five issues back when Chadwick Boseman passed gave me the chance to add it to my library and see if the inclusion with the King of Wakanda could offset the Merc with a Mouth's more 'offputting' tendencies.

Surprisingly, Black Panther vs. Deadpool did manage to win me over (although not as impressively as it might have hoped. As was feared, I once again struggled with the inclusion of Wade Wilson's alter ego. The problem that I have with the character is that he is always (or almost always, though the 'almost' is one of those once in a blue moon type deals) so acerbic and grating for me that he's never a protagonist I can relate to or get behind. With T'Challa, however, while he isn't always a character I can get behind, certainly has a better success rate and his entire attitude towards Deadpool feels so ripped from my life that it helps ingratiate the Panther to me very well.

Of course, this wasn't the series' only strength as I thought Kibblesmith found a connection between the two Characters to focus on  I.e. life and death. This seemed fitting for Deadpool, an ever-living killer and the Back Panther, the Kong of the dead as Kibbersmith managed to mine some good ideas from both characters that help pique my interest. On top of that, the two heroes and their contrasting personalities really bounced well off of each other in a buddy cop sort of way (the T'Nehisi Coates conversation between the two was an excellent bit of meta).

As for the art, well, Ortiz's style was a little too rough for my liking to begin with, feeling almost unfinished in its look. However, that's a poor choice of words because I think it was probably a style chosen to represent the chaos of both Deadpool and the nature of death (hence why Wakanda's first appearance in this style came during their day of the dead style festival). Either way, whether it was for these reasons or not, it certainly became a style that I got used to as the issues wore on and became I look I ended up liking a lot more at the end than when I started.

Long story short though, this was an interesting enough read and one that, to my surprise was almost bordering on 'good' by the end. However, while it certainly defied my expectations, I'm not convinced Black Panther vs. Deadpool is a comic I regret not buying when it first came out, or that my view on the Merc with a Mouth has changed at all.