Book Review: Deadpool Killogy by C. Bunn et al.

Deadpool Classic Volume 16: Killogy written by Cullen Bunn with art by Dalibor Talajic, Matteo Lolli, and Salva Espin

A trilogy of stories tell how Deadpool goes on various killing sprees, so naturally the trilogy is called a "killogy." If done right, the story could be a fun bit of light entertainment, right? We'll see...

The story starts out with Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. Deadpool is taken by the X-Men to Ravenscroft Asylum where they specialize in rehabilitating people like Deadpool. Unfortunately, the main doctor turns out to be the villain Psycho Man. In attempting to mind control Deadpool, Psycho Man accidentally releases a new personality in Deadpool who decides to destroy the entire Marvel Universe, heroes and villains alike. So Deadpool goes on a joke-filled killing rampage. It's not quite funny enough to justify the gore and the ending is a rather obvious use of breaking the fourth wall. I wasn't too satisfied with the first part.

The next story is Deadpool Killustrated. In an attempt to eliminate heroes in all the different Marvel multiverses, Deadpool uses science (!) to go into the "Ideaverse," where he can kill off all the classical literary inspirations for the Marvel characters. That would eliminate even the possibility of the heroes existing. The idea is fun, especially when they link characters like Moby Dick's Ahab to Hulk's General Thunderbolt Ross or Pinocchio to The Vision. But too many of the links are just random. At one point, Deadpool complains that killing these classical characters is a lot harder than it should be. That point was when he was taking out the sisters from Little Women, which really should have been a cakewalk for him. His complaint is completely unconvincing. So Deadpool Killustrated is hit and miss.

The book ends with Deadpool being told he is "the progenitor of all things" so in order to eliminate them he has to eliminate himself, thus Deadpool Kills Deadpool. But there's a good Deadpool out to stop the evil Deadpool, and a bunch of other Deadpools on each side. How many weird Deadpools can they come up with? My favorite was Pandapool, "the species that endangers you!" The self-aware and meta- shtick only goes so far, and this story outruns the fun by at least twenty pages.

Throughout the book, Deadpool mentions how he is a comic-relief or side character, and this book shows that, in spite of a lot of creative ideas, he doesn't carry a whole story without looking non-sensical and ridiculous (and not in a good way). I know it's intended as light entertainment, but it just doesn't hit the mark for me. I can't recommend it, in spite of some very creative ideas.