Marvel Multiverse Missions: You Are (Not) Deadpool by Tim Dedopulos // Book Review
Whether you’re a long-term fan of The Merc with The Mouth, aka Deadpool, or if you only know him vaguely, it’s probably easy to imagine why an adventure game book is perfect for this irresistibly outrageous, fourth wall-breaking, anti-hero. Embroiled in Deadpool’s destiny, as well as your own, you now have control (well, some at least) over events in one of the wildest corners of the Marvel universe.
You Are (Not) Deadpool is the latest title in the Aconyte Books’ Multiverse Missions collection, where you aren’t just the reader, but the player too. It’s your job to forge an unlikely alliance with Deadpool and uncover sinister goings on in New York and beyond. Along the way, you will build up your skills, collect items, and make no end of tricky choices. With the aid of a six-sided dice, your character must forge a path across an intricate timeline where skill and measures of luck will determine whether your story ending is filled with happiness, untimely despair, or a great number of permutations in between.
The Multiverse Missions collection is a fun and fascinating addition to Aconyte’s growing ensemble of books, and it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that an interactive role-play experience finds its way onto the Aconyte roster. After all, the Arkham Horror and Zombicide novels are direct expansions from board games, and therefore generate an appeal not too distant from the ‘choose your own adventure’ tropes found in the Multiverse Missions books. Not only is the reader called upon to decide their character’s next course of action, but the added novelty of dice-determined turn-based combat, alongside a growing expanse of points, resources, and achievements, guarantees that the experience remains engaging from start to finish.
In other words, stay switched on and exercise patience! The puzzles you face will often be fiendishly difficult. You can also expect to retread familiar ground should you become lost in the pages of the book, and the intricacy with which the narrative pathways are constructed ensure that honesty and fair play will too offer their own rewards. One can only express awe at how much planning and mental wiring a platform like this must require before it reaches the masses.The end result is something that greatly surpasses its quantity of pages and, as with anything that has game in the description, takes a great deal of time to master.
However, structure and strategy alone does not make for a fulfilling experience, which is why Aconyte have utilised the services of experienced writer and puzzle designer, Tim Dedopulos, to ensure that the Multiverse Missions books are not just perfectly functional, but also highly entertaining. Dedopulos draws from the finest conventions of the present day Marvel universe alongside painting a vivid and unmistakable portrayal of Mr Deadpool himself, a character who specialises in weaving as much trouble and collateral damage as is humanly possible. All the tropes that Deadpool fans know and love are alive and present, including the wise-cracking mouth, the stark disregard for personal wellbeing, and the uncanny talent for breaking out of storyville and directly addressing you, the audience. Yes, that really does happen in the book!
This writer cannot stress enough that the character of Deadpool is the perfect fit for this format. As his unwitting fictional sidekick you are responsible for surviving his hazards, cleaning up his mess, suffering the consequences of his recklessness and, when necessary, going against his demands altogether. Of course, he is not the only fictional entity you’ll have to contend with, as You Are (Not) Deadpool, is rife with villains, allays, henchmen, otherworldly entities and more than a few traps, each providing their own challenges, violent altercations and rewards. It’s a heck of a ride.
Though ‘choose your own adventure’ stories are not appealing to all, this book is by no means an elitist piece of work, and takes care from the first page to coach you through its mechanics in a friendly, entertaining and easy to understand manner. The skill in Tim Dedopolus’s writing is his ability to make the reader feel welcome and instantly utilised at the same time. This may well be your first ever Multiverse Mission experience, and that’s okay, because it may also be the one that hooks you for life. You Are (Not) Deadpool, is an interesting, clever and ridiculously fun experience where genre and format are in perfect balance. You’re playing a game, you’re reading a book, you’re traversing one of the most anarchic plains of Marvel lore and having a blast along the way. It is probably the most unboring reading experience you're likely to have all year, and yes, it’s absolutely fine to keep reliving the story until you get the ending you want… just so long as you don’t cheat along the way. You Are (Not) Deadpool might just catch you out on that too…
To reveal any more would spoil the surprises. “Sshh!”
