Deadpool: Samurai

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Who knew that Japanese author/s could do a nuanced take on a Canadian character created by an American?

If a nuanced Deadpool take is the fourth wall breaking character talking like a Jump editor who wrote the entire script of the series after bingeing the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe catalog from Iron Man to Avengers: Endgame (including the now MCU canon Fox X-Men movies) and peppered with a bunch of manga inside jokes. Then yes, this is a nuanced take on Deadpool.

This manga is a decent take on Deadpool and feels similar tonally to the movie version made popular by Ryan Reynolds. That is because of ... the backstory and the jokes.

Manga Deadpool is still the Merc with the mouth, and this series is still violent, but toned down if your Deadpool experience is by the way of Ryan Reynolds or Marvel comics. He is still the regenerating degenerate, but the gore is dialed down as well.

If you're a manga reader and this is your first Deadpool, you might enjoy it.
If you discovered Deadpool by the way of Ryan Reynolds, you might enjoy it.
If you're a Deadpool fan from way back, from Rob Liefeld, to Joe Kelly, to Gerry Duggan, you will get this Deadpool.

Deadpool is an unpredictable agent of chaos that would give you more than you expect. If you keep your expectations realistic, manga Deadpool should surprise you. Or not. There are better takes on the character, and better stories. Still, this is the only manga Deadpool, and it's as Deadpool as its going to get.

Before I read the first volume, I was excited to check it out, a Marvel x Jump manga with All might as a cameo? That sounds good.. but unfortunately, when I finished it, I was left feeling underwhelmed.

So one of Deadpool: Samurai's characteristics is obviously its comedy. Breaking the fourth wall, meta and unconventional jokes, deconstructing tropes, etc. But that's it. There's no other thing going for it: no interesting story or characters and anti-climatic action sequences. I get that it's making fun of tropes and that the story is pratically non-existant, because it's a comedy, but when your shtick is making fun of ... something and doing cameos althroughout the story, 1. the story falls flat without any balance and becomes one-dimensional and 2. it becomes its own trope, so in other words: making fun of tropes becomes the trope of the story and when it repeats it all the time. it becomes boring and predictable. So basically, it's on the same level as a generic fantasy/isekai story except that Deadpool is self-aware of tropes, but isn't aware of its self-awareness if that makes any sense. Also, I'm pretty sure Thanos, the Avengers and All Might were just thrown in there just to say that they were in the story.

To finish it off, don't take this review too seriously, Deadpool Samurai is meant to be stupid and funny, it's just that I don't think it's that good of a story.

So that's why I think Deadpool Samurai is a You're not going to die if you don't read it/10

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!! - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

There's 3 reasons why i think this manga was a complete mess:

1) I was promised crossovers. From what i read about this manga the way it was marketed was "Deadpool's gonna team up with My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer and One Piece and it's gonna be epic!!", literally one chapter of All Might and that's it, the rest were, cute, but tiny eastereggs. Overhyping your audience is never a good move

2) The humor doesn't land, this is Deadpool, wisecracking Deadpool, The Merc With A Mouth, how can you make a character so full of vitality feel ... so flat? I know it's a manga and the writers are gonna put their own spin on the character, of course i don't expect it to be a copy and paste of the classic Marvel comics, but i expect it to be Deadpool

3) There was nothing special or creative about the story, the script was so lifeless i ended up skimming thru the remaining chapters just to search for cameos and eastereggs

Best scene in the whole manga is Thor's addicted to anime, yeah, when that's the best scene in an action manga you know you have a problem