In the 80's, DC Comics introduced a new villain named Ambush Bug. A couple of years later, writer-artist Keith Giffen reimagined the character as a satire on conventional comics tropes. Sales for a pair of mini-series went through the roof. However, Ambush Bug didn't have enough staying power, and hasn't been seen since prior to the New 52 in 2011.
A decade later, on Batman: The Animated Series, the Joker (Mark Hamill) was given an on-again-off-again girlfriend-sidekick, Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin, Days of Our Lives), who today is a card carrying member of the Suicide Squad, and has become more of an anti-hero, or, in the wrestling parlance, a tweener, in her own book, and, like Ambush Bug before her, Harley's solo book is mostly comical in nature, which explains my belief that DC has so far missed the boat by not pairing her with Daffy Duck. Instead, as reported the other day, "Mistah J" meets Daffy in August.
At Marvel, around the time Harley made her debut, the "House of Ideas" introduced Deadpool as a villain in the X-family of books. Predictably, an editorial decision was made to turn Deadpool into more of a comedy character, who, like Ambush Bug, satirizes conventional comics tropes. Unlike Ambush Bug, however, Deadpool has made it to Hollywood, and, as with almost everything at Marvel, he's being pushed to the moon.
In "Deadpool 2", mutated assassin Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) wants to settle down and start a family with his girlfriend, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin, Gotham). Unfortunately, we're spared the thought of seeing how much more of Wade has been disfigured as he doesn't get the chance to get busy with Vanessa, and that will be all I'll say about that.
The core of the plot involves a New Zealand teenager, Russell Collins, who in the books was an American youth. Abused and bullied in the orphanage where he was raised, Collins lashes out, demonstrating pyrotechnical abilities, which gives him the name Firefist. Deadpool, accompanied by Colossus and a couple of other minor X-Men, tries to stop him. Instead, Firefist & Deadpool are captured.
And, then, there is Cable (Josh Brolin, "Avengers: Infinity War"), who has come from the future to try to kill Collins before he becomes a threat in Cable's lifetime. As with the first film, "Deadpool 2" makes with a ton of inside references and jokes, too many to keep track of. It also takes advantage of the R rating to turn the air a dark shade of blue in terms of language. Well, it worked the first time. Just too many F-bombs, even from Colossus.
The soundtrack is eclectic, kind of like the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies, but boasting a lineup that includes Air Supply, Cher, Celine Dion, and Barbra Streisand, in a clip from "Yentl".
This trailer is one of the cleaner ones I could find:
No cameo from Stan Lee this time. Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) appears briefly as a member of the newly formed X-Force (which was not actually founded by Deadpool in the books, as it was the team he first fought). Other trailers include not only the predictable "Solo" (next week) and "Ant-Man & The Wasp" (July 6), but also "Sorry to Bother You" (July 6), which was a harbinger of things to come with heavy doses of F-bombs. Doomed to fail, that one. The other one was for "Ocean's 8", a distaff remake of "Ocean's 11", with Sandra Bullock, Mindy Kaling, and Rihanna as part of the gang.
"Deadpool 2" merits a A-.
2 comments:
Just saw this one in theaters unday. It was OK - I had to explain the Yentl clip to my niece who had trouble getting it.
Stan Lee was not in the film in the flesh but his image was there on a wall portrait.
I fear Stan is not long for the next world. Word I hear is he is very ill and can't even see anymore. Worse still is the rumor about his daughter taking advantage of him in this condition.
Stan's had a lot of people, including his own Pow! Entertainment, "taking advantage of him" of late. To paraphrase Grandpa Jones on Hee Haw back in the day, it beats me how he's lived so long.
I figured the Yentl clip was just a favor to Josh Brolin.
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