Writer Cullen Bunn has had Deadpool fight the Marvel Universe, Popular Fictional Characters, and even multiple version of himself.

Carnage and Cletus Kassidy have been put through the ringer, writers pushing them to new goals that ended up killing both. Death was unable to stop them and Bunn brought them back as one single entity, ready to take them back to their simple roots of chaos and carnage.

What happens when these two psychopaths cross paths?

Deadpool vs. Carnage: Round One

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Salva Espin
Colorist: Veronica Gandini
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Cover Artists: Glenn Fabry & Adam Brown
Editors: Frankie Johnson & Jordan White
Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso

Long Story, Short: Deadpool decides to hunt down Carnage. They cross paths, Deadpool takes the upper hand, but Carnage isn’t operating alone.

Short Story, Long: I’m not sure how I felt about this issue. It had some really fun moments and for round one of a larger series, it delivered on the opening salvo of the fight. But, I felt like there could have been so much more.This review will focus mostly on Character and the Fight.

Character: The issue is split fairly evenly between both Carnage and Deadpool, though it hopes to skew Deadpool as the protagonist. The fun side of the issue comes from Deadpool, who’s experiencing that most horrible fate of having a boring day. He decides he’s going to kill Carnage and spends most of the issue trying to figure out how to hunt down Carnage. From the television telling him what he has to do to having Deadpool embrace his inner psychopath and wander through the city, the laughs come quick and often but don’t really linger. There’s nothing in here that’s worth more than a chuckle, while Deadpool’s own series (and especially the Infinite series) deliver hearty laughs in abundance. Bunn’s Deadpool is not bad, but it’s a pale comparison to Charles Soule’s Deadpool or Gerry Duggan’s Deadpool.

Carnage also feels underwritten. He’s basically reverted back to his Carnage USA ambitions of enslaving towns and killing, but he has none of the menace that writer Zeb Wells gave him. He spends a good portion of this issue in his underwear (he’s a fan of the tighty-whiteys apparently) and… well, he really doesn’t work at all here. He’s making Arnold Schwarzenegger Mr. Freeze level puns here and it’s groan worthy. So while I’m glad the reset switch has been hit on Carnage’s ambitions, he’s not handled well here.

The Fight: This too, was serviceable but not great. You like symbiotes using generic symbiote powers? Do you like explosions? Do you like one-liners? Then oh boy, have we got the fight for you. But if you’re looking for something new here, you won’t find anything. Salva Espin draws one pretty looking fight sequence though and Bunn brings in Shriek on the last page to mix things up for next issue. I feel like I should say more on the art, but it too is nothing amazing, just really nice and fits the light-hearted story of two psychopaths well.

Verdict: I don’t know what else to say. It’s not bad enough to abandon ship, you’ll find some nice things in here. But it’s not great either, so I guess maybe hold off on buying this quite yet, until we know whether it plummets, gets better, or remains more of the same. Do you agree or disagree with me? Let me know in the comments below

Pros:

• Deadpool’s approach to finding Carnage
• Carnage’s reset switch
• The explosions look pretty

Cons:

• Everything feels done before…
• … And done better
• No More Puns

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