Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe is one of those particularly strange mini-series story that doesn't seem to take place in the main continuity of the Marvel Universe. But it certainly involves quite a number of mainstream Marvel characters all meeting their respective gruesome ends.
Deadpool is known for his wisecracking and his tendency to break the 4th wall. This book however focused more on the fact that he's also rather insane and literally dealing with voices in his head. And how those voices direct his actions is what eventually leads up to this particular story and why Deadpool goes on a killing spree.
Synopsis: Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe is a 4-issue mini-series written by Cullen Bunn with art by Dalibor Talajic. It actually represents the series of stories for this particular incarnation of Deadpool.
The story begins with surprising enough scene - the death of the Fantastic Four. And the murderer is none other than Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth. But this Deadpool is a bit more unhinged than usual and his inner voices aren't necessarily providing comic relief but actually dark whispers and sinister urgings to kill everyone in sight - or at least every hero in sight.
But the reason for all this is a misguided effort by the X-Men to get him cured of his insanity. They managed to get him committed to Ravencroft Asylum, but were unaware that his primary physician was actually Psycho-Man in disguise. Psycho-Man tried to use this time to brain wash Deadpool and bring him under his control, but instead he only manages to clear out the current voices in Deadpool's head only to have them replaced by darker ones. And these new voices are the ones that start him on his killing spree.
The book largely feels like an extended What If... sort of story, and I don't just say that since it exists outside the main continuity. I say this because the story felt a little shallow and more than a little bit rushed in is construction since it focuses on a very simple premise. The whole Psycho-Man story aside, the bulk of the series just focuses on how Deadpool would manage to come up with ways to kill everyone.
Deadpool is very dark here, although still a tad funny at random intervals. But if you were looking for the usual sort of lighter crazy Deadpool fare, then this is not the book for you. Instead you have him pretty much using his wild insanity and randomness in a most lethal way, thus he manages to kill pretty much everyone in the Marvel Universe one step at a time.
The story also relies on Deadpool's tendency to break the fourth wall, since here he's pretty much determined to find a way to escape his comic book existence, and thus escape the controls set in place by the writers and editors crafting the story. To some extent not even the reader is safe, since Deadpool has always been able to address us at random moments - he just wasn't so nihilistic before.
But the story largely feels repetitive since it's just scenario after scenario of Deadpool coming up with new ways to kill each her despite unique power sets. We don't even get to see the planning or anything like that - instead we just focus on the outcome and how he finally defeats his foes as he executes his latest crazy strategy. It can be a bit of fun at times, but it can also get repetitive.
Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe is obviously not a book meant for younger readers since it focuses on Deadpool killing everyone we love in increasingly gruesome and graphic ways. It's not an overly compelling title on its own, but the resulting story does prove to be somewhat interesting. Thus the title gets 3.5 really bad ways for heroes to die out of a possible 5.
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