Review by Ian Keogh

Don’t get your hopes up for this one! To begin with, the titular “Marvel” in practice only means a combination of Deadpool vs. Carnage, Deadpool vs. Thanos and Deadpool vs. X-Force, none of which rank among Deadpool’s finest moments.

Starting at the bottom for an ascending order, Deadpool’s visit with X-Force props up the quality list. Duane Swierczynski is more concerned with Cable than the remainder of X-Force, and while Cable and Deadpool have crossed paths on many occasions, the novelty here is of it being their first meeting. It’s a time-travelling extravaganza with X-Force’s mission being to prevent Deadpool from messing up history, a mission that might have been prevented altogether with just a little bit of knowledge on Cable’s part. The lack of appeal is underlined by art from Pepe Larraz basic in telling the story and making no effort with period detail.

Pitting Deadpool against Carnage ups the ante slightly. Both are unhinged, dangerous and very difficult to kill. Cullen Bunn is responsible for a fair number of good Deadpool outings, but this is Bunn going through the motions. Carnage regenerates and sets off on his usual senseless killing rampage, while Deadpool’s involvement is initially rather random, but eventually makes sense in an unpredictable finale that’s the best thing about the set-to. This has the feeling of Bunn coming up with that idea first and not being greatly concerned about how he filled the pages leading to it. Seen as the sample page, Salva Espin’s art is a definite step up.

Deadpool’s meeting with Thanos, and indeed other immensely powerful denizens of the Marvel universe is the highlight here. Tim Seeley writes a gloriously pompous Thanos, shows a gift for Deadpool’s stream of consciousness wisecracking, and piles in the ridiculous situations. He also plots the story to change from chapter to chapter as Deadpool and Thanos are forced by circumstances to team up. Elmo Bondoc is a versatile artist able to switch from out and out comedy to actual serious moments and delivers an assortment of characters in defining poses.

Seeley and Bondoc’s Thanos story doesn’t rank with the all-time greats, but it’s fun and the only thing worth reading here. That being the case, why not just pick up the slimmer paperback with just that story?