You Are Deadpool #1

You Are Deadpool #1
Written by Al Ewing
Art by Salva Espin

Covers by Rahzzah, Salva Espin, & Ron Lim

Over the past couple of years, Marvel has been experimenting with the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ format. Several titles such as a 2016 Halloween ComicFest edition of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is an example of such trial and error. Unfortunately, the use of arrows and mutli-page flow charts haven’t made for the easiest of reads in terms of presentation.

Now Marvel is at it again with a 4-issue miniseries in which you the reader gets to be the Merc with a Mouth! Only there’s a twist to the formula- you are gonna need dice.

You Are Deadpool has you taking Wade Wilson on a clandestine mission through a secret research laboratory. In this book, there’s several D&D elements involved. Along with needing a six-sided die, you will need a pen and paper to add and subtract from Deadpool’s emotional points, as well as keeping inventory of items you can pick up throughout the adventure.

Back in the 80s, there was a series of paperback gamebooks call Lone Wolf. The books had charts and forms for the reader to maintain their health meter as well as develop an inventory and develop certain skills needed to complete the adventure. You Are Deadpool is the comic book version of this and it’s quite the accomplishment.

This Al Ewing and Salva Espin collaboration was a lot of fun. The first 4-5 pages explains the rules of the game. There’s even a page where you could cut out and make your own die (with some added help)- if destroying comic books is your sort of thing. With an easy numbering system of panels, not pages, there’s quite a bit of action to be had. But I think the real fun is still to come.

The Deadpool emotion points dictate whether you continue on to issues 2, 3, or 4 of You Are Deadpool. Normally when I say that I’m going to wait until the trade comes out, I usually mean that I am on the fence about a title. Not willing to go any further until the series is collected, I end up waiting for the title to show up at my local library for free. I am going to wait on reading the rest of this game-style comic but I will not wait for the trade.

Since you need all 4-issues to fully enjoy this Marvel experiment, it was smart of the House of Ideas to publish all needed copies within a 4 week span. Doing this book at a monthly might very well result in the loss of readership.  As for myself, I will continue to show up at my LCS at obtain the other 3 books. But I am going to wait until I have the entire game, as well as time and patience to sit down and play it in one sitting.

If the next trio of issues are as adventuresome and funny as this debut book, I hope that Marvel will continue to expand on this premise, possibly even making a game for more than one player.

Marvel’s comics have had a lot of low points lately. But You Are Deadpool is not one of them. A fresh idea that entertains as well as redefines everything you known about sequential art. This miniseries promises to be the most innovative and immersive comic book of the summer.

You Are Deadpool #1 debuted in stores and digital media on May 2, 2018.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

This review published concurrently at Outrightgeekery.com.