Deadpool 23, Revolutionary War - Death's Head II 1

Deadpool 23
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Hawthorne (a) and Staples (c)

Deadpool is unleashed on the Ultimatum helicarrier and makes quick work of everyone he runs across while Preston argues for some sort of leniency. He tracks down Gorman on the ship, quickly falling out of the sky, and shoots him in the gut as the ship shakes. Gorman falls out of the helicarrier but he's strapped to a jetpack so it's possible he survived. Deadpool returns to the SHIELD helicarrier where Coulson and Adsit tell him that they've found a new body for Preston and thank him, a little warily, for bringing down the helicarrier.

The shortness of this review shouldn't indicate that it's not a fun issue or not an interesting issue or something along those lines. It's just a pretty quick issue to review because it's mostly fighting and killing and some quips and little jokes here and there. Deadpool still gets some solid characterization with his methods pointedly more brutal than they had been throughout the rest of the series. It also says a lot that he gets out truly unscathed from the attack, bringing down an entire helicarrier full of scientists and fighters and agents without so much as a scratch. In that way, it's a good Deadpool issue. Preston also promises that, when she gets her own body, they'll finish out the Butcher case and she'll attempt to track Eleanor, if she is still alive out there some where, but Deadpool wants the issue put to bed, demanding Preston not ever introduce them. So there's still plenty going on for Deadpool and there's more planned for the coming months as, presumably, Preston goes elsewhere for the first time in about fifteen or so issues.

Revolutionary War - Death's Head II 1
Lanning and Cowsill (w) and Roche (a) and Gandini (c)

Death's Head II was last seen knocking out and kidnapping Captain Britain but no worries, he's still a relatively good guy. He injected him with a tracking device so they could follow Mys-Tech and so that they have a man on the inside, though he maybe should have warned Captain Britain about the plan. However, he's betrayed pretty quickly and has to fight his way out from Mys-Tech's treachery. He contacts his pal Tuck from the future who goes back in time with the older Death's Head I model to help DHII. There's quipping and fighting and quipping and man, oh man, more quipping. Evelyn Necker, the face of the villain in this issue, even corrupts DHII at one point and forces DHI to "kill" him, allowing him to reboot and rejoin the good fight. They eventually manage to take down the villains and set things straight before Tuck and DHII set out to save the world.

This entire REVOLUTIONARY WAR event continues to suffer from a tone problem as it's really incredibly hard to tell how great this threat is since every book has alternated between "we are in dire trouble" and "we should probably make a joke that doesn't really read as a joke because it's so forced and/or so blatantly set-up." Between that and the fact that Death's Head I literally mugs at the camera at one point after being hit by Death's Head II while he mutters a "I knew I could be hard on myself, but this is starting to..." I don't know if Death's Head is one of the characters who typically breaks the fourth wall (though the slightest of wikipedia searches would make me believe he doesn't) but GOD is it irritating the couple of times it happens here. At first I was thinking I wasn't really onboard only because I don't know the characters so well but I'm beginning to think that it's not so much me having the problems here. Gillen's REVOLUTIONARY WAR - DARK ANGEL was definitely the top of the bunch here and hers was the only book where I didn't know any of the characters participating (her, essentially. Okay, I knew Mephisto, I suppose). There's something to be said about trying to have your cake and eat it too. It's a stupid saying but it's not wrong here.