Strikeforce comes right out of the gate as cringy. It begins with things I normally am in favor off, a recap of the previous story thus far and a cast list primer. While the recap is just fine, doing its job, its the cast list and “bios”“ that made me wince. Some writers at Marvel think its either cute or fun to add in information that they think is edgy or humorous. Telling me that Spider Woman “didn’t need a man to get pregnant”“ or “Spectrum once led the Avengers, don’t give her **** about it”“ does NOTHING for the comic or the characters. I could honestly write a full review about just how stupid and awkward these little cutsie pie bios are and why they suck. Back in the 90’s into the 2000s you would just get something like Hulk: Invulnerable, strength increases in proportion to rage, and that would do the job and do it well. Honestly Marvel, just stop this because it is put me off before the comic even got started. I know this comic has Deadpool in it, BUT it’s NOT a Deadpool comic.
Honestly I feel like Tini Howard would be better suited to writing a Deadpool book. The Deadpool scenes work, the characterization is on point and the jokes land. With only a few exceptions these are the only parts of the comic that work. While characters like Angela and the foe the team is assisting, Count Ophidian, seem to remain in their proper character, Blade and Spider Woman do things that don’t make sense. Blade makes a deal with monsters (an inconsistency even pointed out in the comic but glossed over). Spider Woman breaks ranks to inexplicable solve the crisis own her own. The reason given that she is eager to return home to her child, as she is missing precious moments. While I can appreciate a mother wanting to return to her child as quickly as possible she makes it sound as if she has been away for months. Taking on the role of a superhero demands certain sacrifices and really what was she going to achieve on her own? In fact at the first sign of trouble she turns tail to run while calling out that she will get her team. If she can’t do anything on her own then, why leave your team behind without telling them she was slipping off mind you and yet somehow they easily locate Spider Woman. So when she later gets in a fight with her teammates (out of spite, no joke) it almost feels like Tini has Jessica easily kick their butts to make up for her seeming cowardliness just moments before.
Thankfully this was intercut with a very nice scene between Ophidian and Angela as she gives him advice on how to handle his situation as well as the appearance of the villain Brigit. The scene is ruined by Blade’s betrayal of Ophidian to basically pass the buck. Its another move that makes little sense and ultimately solves nothing and may have even made the situation worse. Even if his plan was to contain the situation as he claimed Blade’s improvisation didn;t allow for a sure way for him to actually clean up the mess he’d made.
ART
I’m gonna start with the cover, while most of the line art looks great (love the monster designs), the pastel colors on the heroes just don’t work. In fact they make Spectrum and Blade look white instead of black. The composition of the heroes is clunky as Angely looks as if sh is both screaming at an stabbing Wiccan instead of focussing on Deadpool as the rest of the team are.
While the interior art isn’t bad it’s actually way to clean and pretty for a story arc dealing with monsters, as even the heroes are equated to monsters by Deadpool. The actual monsters end up looking like something created by Pixar. At least the colors set the mood and are vibrant.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Given that this comic has some of my favorite characters in it, I wish I could say this was fun or exciting but instead I found it to be boring with confusing character portrayals.
SCORE: 2 out of 5
Writer:Â Tini Howard
Art:Â German Peralta
Colors:Â Guru-eFX
Publisher: Marvel ComicsÂ
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