Wolverine Origins: Deadpool by Steve Dillon, Daniel May and Steven Segovia

Someone's hired Deadpool, the "Merc with a Mouth" to take out Wolverine. But is Deadpool up to the job? Sure, he's a product of the same weapons program that created Wolverine, but Wolverine is crazy good at what he does. And Deadpool is just- crazy.

They battle their way from where Wolverine had gone to eat dinner, all the way around the city, with explosions, showers of blood and body parts left behind in a trail. Deadpool might get the drop on Wolverine with a gun, but how can he fire it with no fingers?

Eventually, they fight to a literal standstil, each having taken out the other. But since both of them have a mutant healing factor, that's not the end of the battle, and Wolverine winds up chained and hanging over a large pool. Deadpool accuses Logan of having no sense of humor, and thinks that Wolverine should be more like him, always laughing, always cracking jokes.

They are interrupted by the arrival of Daken, Wolverine's son by Itsuko, raised in Japan with no knowledge of his father. He wants to kill Wolverine himself, and he thanks Deadpool for having incapacitated Wolverine for him.

But he isn't the one who hired Deadpool. He and the assassin fight, and while he is able to get the upper hand for a while, Deadpool fights back. Wolverine gets dumped into the pool, but when Daken knocks some of Deadpool's grenades into the same pool, Wolverine is blown out of it by the force of the explosion.

As Deadpool and Daken continue their fight, Daken cuts off both of Deadpool's hands, and then starts to go after Wolverine again, only to be taken out from behind by a shot from Bucky. Daken takes a Carbonadium bullet to the head, slowing his mutant healing factor to a crawl. He passes out, and Wolverine reveals to Deadpool who hired him- Wolverine himself. He set this all up to lure out Daken and capture him. Deadpool is somewhat annoyed to find himself used, and despite Wolverine telling Deadpool he'll really kill him if Deadpool tries to attack him again for real, Deadpool finds that more of a challenge than a turn-off.

Then we get to see why Daken grew up so twisted, and Wolverine takes him to a place he once guarded to try and rehabilitate him. But with the ghosts of the past awaiting both of them, will Wolverine's plans end in triumph, or defeat?

Much of the comic is the fight between Deadpool and Wolverine, and to someone who doesn't read a lot of the Deadpool comics it can be quite jarring when we suddenly see things from Dadpool's perspective- foes become animals or weak and powerless- the visual and auditory hallucinations Deadpool experiences are very strange- but apparently well-loved by fans of the character and his comic.

I only found it bizarre and somewhat off-putting. I didn't find the character and his jokes all that funny, but there are some truly funny moments in the comic, like the part where Deadpool goes to fire a gun at Wolverine, only to find all of his fingers cut off. He says, "Aw, I was going to need those..." His rage when Daken steals his thunder also rates at least a smile, if a small one.

Sadly, for me, Deadpool just wasn't amusing or funny. I found him interminable and boring and very unfunny. For those who enjoy him and his antics- great. This is definitely the graphic novel for you. For me, not so much.