Fear Itself: Deadpool/Fearsome Four Review (Christopher Hastings, Bong Dazo)

Christopher Hastings and Bong Dazo’s Deadpool tie-in to Fear Itself proves the rule that event spinoffs are usually better than the event itself!

Deadpool comes up with a convoluted get-rich-quick scheme that takes advantage of the nonsense going on in Fear Itself. He steals an ordinary hammer, glues on some cheap plastic jewellery, tricks a brain-dead Z-list villain – in this case, the Walrus – to terrorise a one-horse town, then gets paid by the scared townsfolk to beat up the hammer-wielding doofus. Except this is a Deadpool plan so, of course, things get FUBAR’d up almost immediately!

Christopher Hastings has written one of the most entertaining Deadpool stories I’ve ever read with this miniseries. In just three issues he concocts an intricate farce that’s actually funny – most Deadpool comics are meant to be amusing but more often than not aren’t. I loved how silly the Walrus was with his laughably low goal of stealing video rental cards and that all he does when he receives what he believes is a magic hammer is smash up some cars! What I liked the most though was seeing Deadpool trying to be cunning and thinking he’s clever and then realising he’s neither of those things. 

The suitably named artist (for a Deadpool comic this daffy) Bong Dazo has fun with the many Beatles and hammer references in Hastings’ script, drawing wonderfully trippy visuals like Wade as the Eggman (goo goo gajoob) and Deadpool as MC Hammer was brilliant. I loved this comic - Fear Itself: Deadpool was a flawless victory!

Unfortunately, Brandon Montclare’s Fearsome Four tie-in, also included to beef up this volume, was the polar opposite. Nighthawk, She-Hulk, Frankenstein’s Monster and Howard the Duck are the (arbitrary) Fearsome Four who have to stop Man-Thing from blowing up the world or some such tedious rubbish. I couldn’t have been more bored with this trite, forgettable and utterly pointless crapola. It was cool to see Simon Bisley’s art but that’s the only noteworthy aspect of this otherwise worthless four-issue miniseries.

Five stars for Deadpool, two stars for Fearsome Four, I’ll give this volume four stars overall. Definitely worth checking out for Deadpool fans – just remember to skip the other half of the book!