You Are Deadpool #5

After your time-travelling adventures in issues #2,3 and 4, you, as Deadpool, have made it to issue #5. Here, all of your running around in the Marvel Universe timeline has created a seemingly infinite number of Wade Wilsons. Now in order to finish the game you have to unravel some of the mess made to the timeline.

You will need a calculator for this issue of You Are Deadpool. There's some serious math to be done and using fingers and toes will not get this job done.

My least favorite issue of the miniseries/RPG adventure. Like I said, there is some quite difficult mathematics to be done in this final issue. It felt a little bit lit algebra and I really hate algebra. 

Thankfully, there are some very funny moments thanks to writer Al Ewing. Plus Aco's art is second to none. It's just that this last chapter, LEVEL was quite complicated. Maybe if I get around to playing You Are Deadpool again, I will enjoy the ending a little more now that I have some experience with it. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

You are Deadpool #2-4

Generally, when I review a series, I read each book in order. Then I post my reviews of the individual issues in order starting with issue #1. I then review all of the numbered issues until I reach the final issue. However with You Are Deadpool issues #2-4, I can't do that.

You Are Deadpool is a RPG comic book. Based on your score in the first issue, you then proceed to issues #2, 3 or 4. If your score is not in the right range, you may not get to issue #2 until you score enough points in issue #4. Also, there are certain special items that would benefit you if you don't do the issues in order. Being that You are Deadpool is a game, you also might have to go in a different order in order to win. 

Yes- in You Are Deadpool, you can die and have to start over as well...

Since I do not want to ruin the fun of game play, here's a general overview of issues #2,3, and 4...

Issue #2: Due to the time machine device you stole in the first issue, you end up in the 1960s. Here you must find the proper fuel in order to re-power the device in hopes of getting back to the future. Your travels will put you either at the origin story of the Fantastic Four or the Incredible Hulk or face-to-face discussing art appreciation with Grasshopper Man?!

Issue #3: Due to the time machine device you stole in the first issue, you end up in the supernatural swamps of the 1970s. Here you must collect a certain number of mystical gems in order to transport yourself through a magical portal in the heart of the swamp. But be careful- if you don't have enough gems, you die and have to start over. Featuring appearances by Man-Thing, a jive-talking eye-patchless Nick Fury and a face-to-face battle with Richard Nixon's minion, Grasshopper Man?!

Issue #3:  Due to the time machine device you stole in the first issue, you end up in the corporate raiding 1980s. Just as you are admiring the Big Apple before Disney got a hold of it, your time device is stolen. In order to get it back, here you run afoul of gritty superheroes such as Daredevil and the Punisher and a souped-out Grasshopper Man?!

I really enjoyed these levels of game play by Al Ewing and Aco. This is the type of Deadpool insanity I have been missing since Wade Wilson became a baddie again thanks to stupid ole' Secret Empire. My favorite issue was the issue #3. I like the 1960s Marvel era very much. But I grew up reading the 70s stuff with it's madcap titles such as Master of Kung-Fu and Werewolf by Night. The 80s was a hit-or-miss time for me when it comes to Marvel and so I wasn't such a fan of that book. Still, this was a lot of fun to read and play and unlike some of those Choose Your Own Adventure books, I actually went back a few times and did the other scenarios to see how things would play out. 

Issue #2- Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
Issue #3- Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.
Issue #4- Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
Average rating: 8.333 out of 10 stars,

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.