Alright. If you’ve read my reviews of ‘Deadpool’, you already know that I’m not a fan of the character. His voices-in-the-head fourth-wall-breaking antics serve only to annoy me. At the end of the ‘Dead’ story arc, I swore I’d never read another Deadpool comic for a while. Then Marvel had to go and toss the character in with my favorite Marvel character, Spider-Man. So that’s how I find myself reading another Deadpool story so shortly after I swore I wouldn’t do this again. So let’s get this over with already…

The premise of the Spider-Man/Deadpool team up is this. In an Inception-like move, someone is trying to take control of Spider-Man’s mind. To that end, they’ve delved deep into his consciousness. Now, for some reason, it’s up to Deadpool to save Spidey before the “bad guys” get the upper hand. What ensues, as is often the case where Deadpool is concerned, is total and utter Chaos.

The story opens on Peter Parker dreaming of being in school. He’s having the cliche dream about being at school in your underwear. Then, out of nowhere, Deadpool arrives and starts blasting bullies left and right. He explains to Peter about the mental takeover plot and that they are in “level 4” of Peter’s mind and that they have to find their way back out. See? Inception.

As they progress through Peter’s mind, each level is different and weird. The duo do battle against bullies, teachers, RPG geeks, and even end up in a parody of a classic ‘80s movie. When they finally make it back out into the real world and wake Peter up, the villain behind it all is too awesome to even hint at!

Okay. Okay. Fine. I admit it. In the weird anything goes context of someone’s dreams, Deadpool actually worked as a character. I was laughing at the fourth wall breaks and the killing of random pedestrians. It reminded me of the over-the-top humor of the early ‘90s ‘Lobo’ comics from DC. Even the artwork was very ‘90s and reminiscent of Doug Mahnke’s work on ‘The Mask’.

It was a good issue, despite my usual dislike for Deadpool, and I am actually looking forward to where this will go… especially with that villain reveal! I just hope that pulling Deadpool out into the real world doesn’t make his antics annoying again.

Final Score:

 

AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #12
Story by Kevin Shinick
Art by Aaron Kuder
Cover by Shane Davis, Mark Morales, and Matt Hollingsworth