Deadpool (3rd Series) #39

Issue Date: 
October 2011
Story Title: 
Operation: Annihilation (Part Three: Women and Children First)
Staff: 

Daniel Way (Writer), Bong Dazo (Pencils), Joe Pimental (Inks), Andres Mossa (Colors), VC’s Joe Sabino (Letters), Dave Johnson (Cover),  Jordan D. White (Editor), Nick Lowe (Senior Editor), Axel Alonso (Editor-in-chief), Joe Quesada (Chief Creative Officer), Dan Buckley (Publisher), Alan Fine (Executive Producer)

Brief Description: 

Deadpool quickly talks to the teacher of the daycare center and tries to make her realize what is going on. She is too scared to listen to him, so he pulls out a gun and takes them hostage. The Hulk smashes into the building and brings it to the ground as Deadpool gets everyone on a school bus. The nearby military decide the only way to calm the Hulk down is to remove Deadpool from the equation, so they order an attack on him. Deadpool drives the school bus away from the Hulk and manages to keep it going as the street and buildings are destroyed by the goliath. Deadpool finally comes across the army, but they don’t realize he has children on board, so they fire at him. Fortunately, they miss and hit the Hulk, who turns his attention to them. On the bus, Deadpool is angry and the teacher manages to get him gun and shoots him. The bus crashes and the children escape, but the Hulk finally catches up with Deadpool. The Hulk is calmer and he realizes that Deadpool has been doing all of this to trick the Hulk into killing him. The Hulk is hesitant until he realizes how dangerous and disturbed Deadpool is. He punches Deadpool so hard his head explodes. Some time later Deadpool is brought back but is severely injured and requires machines to keep him alive. Steve Roger tells his doctor that Deadpool is to be taken to Crossmore Prison, which is now a mental institution.  

Full Summary: 

Inside the daycare center, Deadpool addresses the frightened teacher and the young children. He tries to tell them his plan but the woman is having none of it, vehemently guarding the children. She tells him that the police are on their way but Deadpool points out that so is two-thousand pounds of gamma-powered stranger danger.

The woman seems confused, so Deadpool outright tells her he means the Hulk and then wonders if she knows what “stranger danger” is too. A young girl peeks from behind her teacher and tells Deadpool she knows what stranger danger is. Deadpool asks her what she is supposed to do and she replies that they should run away. Deadpool snorts and says that he should have been dealing with the little girl to begin with. With that, he pulls out a gun, cocks it and then fires it in the air, causing the teacher and her children to flee in terror.

The Hulk soon looms on to the scene and Deadpool gets his attention. As the green goliath leaps high into the air, one of Deadpool’s inner voices wonder where the children went. The other voice replies that they are probably holed up in the building somewhere. The first voice retorts that it will be fine, unless the building comes down, which is a real possibility. Deadpool looks up to see the Hulk come crashing down through the ceiling.

High above, a military helicopter circles the scene and the soldiers inside realize that the Hulk has lost control. They see that Banner is no longer in control of his alter ego and the pilot wonders if they should call the Avengers. His lieutenant tells him they probably already know and are keeping their distance for the same reason the helicopter is… attacking the Hulk will only make him stronger and more destructive.

The pilot asks why they don’t take out Deadpool, as they already have him on satellite. All they have to do is dial him in and a smart bomb will drop on to his location. With Deadpool out of the picture, there is nothing for the Hulk to rage about and he should calm down. The lieutenant agrees it is a good idea and tells the pilot to lock on to Deadpool’s location whilst he makes a call. The pilot suddenly alerts the lieutenant to the fact it is a bad idea, as Deadpool appears to have taken hostages.

They look down to see Deadpool firing a gun wildly in the air, as the school teacher and her class are ushered onto a yellow school bus. As Deadpool gets in the driver’s seat, the teacher asks where he will take them. He shrugs and tells her someplace safe, to which she asks if he will let them go once they are there. He spins around and yells at her to stop asking stupid questions. As the school starts to collapse, he slams the bus into action and drives off. The teacher hears a loud noise as the school collapses in on itself and she wonders what it was. Deadpool points out that it was another stupid question and yells for everyone to put their heads down. As the teacher covers the children in the back of the bus, Deadpool can see an angry Hulk emerge from the rubble.

As he drives off, one of Deadpool’s inner voices tell him it isn’t going to work. Deadpool disagrees and says that it will, as he has the Hulk so pumped up he wants to smash him into sub-atomic particles. The inner voice tells him it wasn’t talking about the plan, which will work of course because it is super-sweet. The other inner voice chips in and asks if it meant the street, to which the first voice confirms it was. Deadpool wonders what the voices are talking about until they point out the street he is on right now also contains the Hulk.

Deadpool looks in his rear-view mirror to see the Hulk raise both his fists in the air and slam them on the street, creating an enormous shockwave. Huge ripples radiate through the ground, destroying everything in their path. Deadpool swerves the school bus as he tries to navigate the shockwaves, as well as the debris falling off buildings. Somehow, he manages to keep the bus upright and, once the main shockwaves are over, he hits the accelerator again and the bus screeches out of sight. Deadpool checks that everyone in the back of the bus is okay and gets them to keep their heads down. He turns around to see a huge wall of helicopters and tanks charging in his direction. He tells the kids the good guys are here and that they are safe now.

In one of the helicopters, the pilot tells his lieutenant that one of the squads on the perimeter has spotted Deadpool. The lieutenant asks about the hostages but apparently no one can see them, so they assume he let them go. After a bit of deliberation, the lieutenant tells them to hit Deadpool with everything they have. 

The tanks start to fire on the school bus and Deadpool swears as he swerves out of the way. One of the rockets narrowly misses the bus, but manages to hit the Hulk square in the chest. As the windows explode out of the bus, Deadpool muses on the fact that the Hulk will now probably go after the army guys instead. He declares that it isn’t fair, as alls they did was shoot him by accident once, whereas he nuked the Hulk twice on purpose.

The teacher gets up and assumes Deadpool must be with the soldiers. He denies it and tells her he is just a man that is trying to die. The woman grabs his gun, points it at him and tells him it must be his lucky day. She shoots him and the bus loses control and flips over.

A short while later, Deadpool wakes up in the wreckage and immediately asks about the children. The Hulk tells him they are fine and that Deadpool lied to him, as it has now been over an hour. There are no more nukes. Deadpool pulls himself from the wreckage and wonders if he should admit it. The Hulk grabs him and yells that he could have killed the children. Deadpool tells him he can still kill him if he wants as he deserves it. The Hulk drops him and realizes that it was the plan all along, to get him to kill Deadpool. Deadpool admits it is true and explains he has a healing factor. He thought the Hulk could smash him into total annihilation so there is nothing to come back from.

As Deadpool once again offers himself, the Hulk calls him insane. Deadpool replies he already knows that but the Hulk adds that he is deeply disturbed. Deadpool agrees and points out it will only get worse unless someone does something. The Hulk tells him he can’t let him go on like this and it has to stop now. Deadpool excitedly agrees with him until the Hulk punches his head so hard it explodes into tiny pieces.

Some time later, Deadpool is completely covered in bandages and strapped into some highly sophisticated medical devices. Steve Rogers is standing nearby talking to a doctor, who confirms that Deadpool is officially back. Steve says if it had been five days earlier he would have been able to go to his own trial. The doctor tells him that maybe he can make it to the sentencing. Steve replies that it happened yesterday and he is to be sent to Crossmore Prison in England. The doctor seems a little surprised that the place is still running and Steve tells him it is now a mental institution.

Characters Involved: 

Deadpool
Hulk
Steve Rogers

Pilot
Lieutenant

Teacher
Children

Doctor

Written By: