Um, Hey There!

It's been a while, hasn't it? Things have been crazy for me, and I've been slacky on my posting. I'm going to at least try to get a couple of posts in a week, now that things are slowing down a little.

Since today is Wednesday, I'm going to continue with my last Deadpool post and talk about Chapter 2 of Daredevil/Deadpool Annual '97.

If you don't remember where we last left off, Deadpool & Daredevil had teamed up to hunt down Typhoid Mary, each with their own reasons. Daredevil wanted to bring her in and get her the help she needed, and Deadpool wanted to find her because she owed him money. In the last page of the book, after they had briefly separated to find her, Daredevil came to 'Pool's rescue after Mary stabbed him. And that brings us to Chapter 2.

This section opens with Deadpool & Daredevil monitoring the Viper Club. Turns out that Mary is gunning for the mob, and they've all holed up inside together, which brings us to one of the best moments I've seen today: a Tick reference from Deadpool:

(Isn't that awesome?)

The story then cuts to a restaurant in the Village where the two sidekicks, Foggy Nelson & Weasel, are pigging out on pizza. Weasel starts asking Foggy whether Daredevil makes him clean his weapons or hack into CIA computers, but it turns out that Foggy and old Horn Head just hang out together. No forced labor here; they're just buds. That depresses Weasel, and he asks if Daredevil could use another pal. Poor guy. . .

Back to the boys. DD & DP crash in through the skylight and begin to take on all the gangsters there. DD finds his senses overwhelmed by the sheer number of people, and old Wade starts to shoot all the baddies, but Daredevil stops him and tells him not to kill anyone. Of course, Wade doesn't like that and whines about it a bit, but saves Daredevil's life in the meanwhile.

Upstairs, the mob bosses are relishing in the mayhem below via a wall of televisions. However, their entertainment is to be short lived. Mary shows up to enact her vendetta against them.

Back downstairs, the boys have taken care of the mob and are taking part in a little witty banter.

Daredevil rushes upstairs to deal with Mary, but she has anticipated him and hits him hard by yelling, "Hello, baby!" into a microphone. The amplification from the club's huge speakers take down Daredevil & overwhelm his senses, leaving him open for Mary's attack. She manages to get in quite a few hits before Daredevil begins rallying, but just as he's planning a punch to take her down, Deadpool grabs his fist and prevents him from following through.

We get another break from the drama by cutting back to Foggy & Weasel. This page is just too cute not to share, so here it is:

And we switch focus once more. Deadpool knocks Daredevil down with a hard fist to the jaw, and then poses with Mary in what shouldn't be one of the hottest comic panels I've ever seen, but it is:

(Unf!)

Mary takes Deadpool's advice to heart and starts wailing in on Daredevil, but amidst all her attacks, she reveals a bit of vital backstory. It seems that when Deadpool knocked her out of a window in a past meeting, the fall released a concealed memory of Mary's, a memory involving Daredevil:

She tries to blame her splitting into multiple personalities on Daredevil, but Matt just won't take it. He's lived with massive guilt all these years, thinking he killed the girl he accidentally knocked out of the window, and now he's released of that. He tells Mary that he refuses to accept responsibility for the person she became, and she tries to skewer him with her kitana in response.

They battle back and forth with Daredevil lecturing her all the while (and while I understand where he's coming from, I really kind of think he's being a bit heavy handed in his approach):

Deadpool scoops Mary up in his arms and tells Daredevil that this his goal all the while, to get the two of them together, to make Mary confront her demons head-on to cause a breakthrough. Daredevil tells Deadpool that he's not about to let him walk out with her, and Wade replies with one of the most heartbreaking speeches I've ever seen in his book:

Daredevil has a little bit of soul searching while he stands on the roof, watching the police & ambulances deal with the mess in the club. He feels that he's finally found some peace since he now knows that he's not a killer.

And it wouldn't be a Deadpool book if it didn't end with a little levity. Foggy wakes up the next morning to find that Weasel has skedaddled, leaving only a note on the TV which says that he had a great time and that Foggy's poker tab is paid in full. Foggy can't figure out what he lost until he notices that Deuce, his dog (and former guide dog for Matt), is missing.

Cut to Deadpool recapping events for Blind Al. All in all, he thinks his little escapade with Typhoid Mary was a good thing, that he made a little progress with her, and he decides that the "quasi-heroic stuff isn't an exact science, you know. . . but it's a good thing." (cue the awwws from the peanut gallery). Al wants to know where the present Wade promised her is, and he hands it over:

It was nice to revisit this book. I don't remember caring for it much when I got it when it first came out, but I enjoyed it much more this time. And an interesting little tidbit is the title of the issue, "Whomsoever Fights Monsters. . .". It's a nice little variation on the classic quote, "Those who fight monsters should take care that in the process, they do not become monsters." I really think that quote kind of sums up Wade at this point in his life. He's trying hard to do a little good, and he's not afraid to go into that dark abyss, but he's standing on the tip of the sword. One little push could send him either way. As much as I love the jocular Deadpool, I do wish we'd get a little more of the conflicted Deadpool we see in this issue. What can I say? I dig the angst.

I'm not sure if my next post will be tomorrow or a couple of days from now, but I'm thinking of something to cover. I might do a post that dips a little bit into the mind of Alan Moore, something that touches on the wickedest, trippiest and grossest scenes from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen & Lost Girls. We'll see. That will definitely be a post eventually, though.