Review by Ian Keogh

As there’s now more than one of pretty well every superhero you care to name at Marvel, so teaming two Deadpools with a pair of Wolverines was surely an inevitability. It falls to Cody Ziglar and Rogé António to take the rough and ready heroes with daughters – it’s complicated – to the foreign land of Symkaria where young mutant children are being abducted. None of the heroes consider that acceptable, and it’s not long after they begin investigating that some familiar villains crawl from the woodwork.

Ziglar tries some interesting things, such as a costume switch midway through, there’s some solid motivation for everything that happens and he builds toward a crescendo with feeling. However, the fact that Wade Wilson can’t die results in some poor taste jokes illustrated without restraint by António. Don’t be eating at the same time you read this.

Not that Javier Garron shows any more control in the first back-up where Deadpool and Wolverine – primary versions – go dimension hopping. Ryan North writes with a new universe with practically every turn of the page. There’s zombies, rom-com and planet of the moustaches as the pair hunt down whoever’s killing off alternate universes. It’s fun, and Garron puts in one hell of lot of effort with the art, sometimes racking up three packed alternate universes per page. North also delivers the best Deadpool dialogue.

The collection ends with more wackiness courtesy of a neurostimulator affecting perception. Wolverine’s in Madripoor to repay a debt, and Deadpool’s been hired to steal a well protected device. Christos Gage and Alan Robinson’s outing is the weakest of the three, serving a plot that’s more straightforward and art that doesn’t match the earlier material. It works its way to a good ending, but too much reads like padding to reach it.

It might be distasteful in places, but António and Garron’s art otherwise impresses, and it’s enough to make Claws & Mercs worth your time.