You Are Deadpool

“Deadpool” miniseries have been so prolific over the past few years that you could probably walk into a comic shop and hit one simply by swinging a dead dog around.  Now would be the perfect place for me to ask a rhetorical question like, “How do you know what one to read?” except that the answer is obvious: Read the one with a creator you like.  Which is how I came to add “You Are Deadpool” to my library as it’s written by Al Ewing. Though it’s been disappointing to see excellent series he’s written like “Loki: Agent of Asgard” and “New Avengers:  A.I.M.”/”U.S.Avengers” languish in sales, I know that I can always count on him for an entertaining read. That holds true here even though this wasn’t what I was expecting.

With a title like “You Are Deadpool” I was expecting some meta-take that tried to actually place the reader in the title character’s tights.  What I got instead was a choose-your-own-adventure story with some light pen-and-paper RPG elements. The story is just some nonsense about Deadpool being asked to steal a time-traveling helmet which is just a plot device to allow Ewing to have fun skewering Marvel’s swingin’ 60’s, the supernatural 70’s, and gritty 80’s via the irreverance of the Regeneratin’ Degenerate.  He’s helped along with some fun and energetic art from Salva Espin and Paco Diaz who deserve some kind of award for making the choose-your-own-adventure aspect play out as clearly as it does on the page. Most importantly, the comic is a lot of fun to experience whether or not you actually “play” it or just cheat your way through.

(And if I’m being completely honest, this comic is worth reading alone for Kieron Gillen’s cameo and the “combat roll” pun he brings along with him.)