"Deadpool: Paws" by Stefan Petrucha

 

            The following is a review of the prose novel “Deadpool: Paws” by Stefan Petrucha.

            Okay, this is another one of my standard Marvel prose novel reviews. For those who have never read a review of a Marvel prose novel that I have written, I have a particular structure. First I give a brief description of the main characters for people who know nothing about characters in the book (in this case, Deadpool and a few supporting characters). Then I tell the main plot trying to avoid spoilers (unfortunately, they do slip in). After that, I give my thoughts on the novel, and I’m usually very hard to please). Then I tell you what background knowledge I recommend you know before reading the book (accessibility, as I call it). Finally, I give it a numeric score from one (the book was so awful I regret reading this garbage) to ten (I love this book so much it’s back on my queue of books to read) and my reasoning for this score. Then I apologize for ranting as long as I did and thank you for being THE BEST by staying and reading up to my standard sign off.

            So, first, I’ll give a background crash course of the character of Deadpool in six sentences. Wade Wilson had cancer. He wanted a cure. He went to the Weapon X program to save his life. It gave him a healing factor making him virtually unkillable. It unfortunately severely disfigured it. He then became a mercenary.

            A supporting character was Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division/Supercharged Housekeepers Into Employing Lackeys for Dirty Jobs (S.H.I.E.L.D.) Agent Emily Preston. (The second acronym is a Deadpool joke, not official, and I did not personally make that up, I’m not THAT clever). She is actually a Life Model Decoy (LMD). The REAL Emily Preston died, so they made a robot of her as close to how the real Emily Preston was when she was alive. She’s usually no-nonsense, but does tolerate Deadpool to a certain extent.

            We also had Althea (Blind Al). She’s blind (Blind Al does actually describe her accurately) and a longtime friend of Deadpool. She has a warped sense of humor, usually laughing at people’s (especially Deadpool’s) misfortunes.

            The main villains were Dick and Jane, but that’s all I’ll say because anything more would be a MAJOR spoiler.

            Petrucha also gives the reader a few guests. It featured Peter Parker/Spider-Man, May Parker/Aunt May, and Bruce Banner/the Incredible Hulk. I’ll leave their parts out just to add to your desire to read the book.

            Okay, I’ve explained the characters, now let’s talk about the plot. This actually won’t be long for two reasons. The first is that the storyline is straightforward, all one story that builds on itself, so there’s really not all that much to tell. The second reason is because this blog site is restrictive of content and I want to keep this blog G-rated.

            In this book, Deadpool is working for S.H.I.E.L.D. to round up dogs that have been experimented on to become giant monsters. First, Deadpool must locate these dogs before they turn into monsters, then Deadpool must find who created these monster dogs and put a stop to their nefarious plans. That’s basically all there is to say to avoid spoilers and save this post on the site because of content.

            Now I’m going to give my thoughts on the book. The narrative was rather interesting. Anyone who has had experience with Deadpool (either with the comics or the movies) will likely know Deadpool breaks the fourth wall. In other words, he talks directly to the reader and is aware that the Marvel comics are all works of fiction. Well, the narrative is told in first person-present tense. In other words, the story is told by Deadpool personally to the reader as the story happens (there are also points where the narrative timing is broken, but that is just meant to be a joke from Deadpool). The personal touch, letting Deadpool talk directly to me while I read this book gave me a sense of intimacy with Deadpool and totally built up suspension of disbelief. I was totally in Deadpool’s mind, which was really fun. I should mention Deadpool is nicknamed “The Merc with the Mouth,” and he constantly jokes. There were several times I smiled, BUT! I NEVER LAUGHED OUT LOUD! The jokes were just never funny enough. This was VERY disappointing as when I read Deadpool comics and watched the movies I get laugh out loud moments all the time. So being in Deadpool’s mind told by Petrucha was just not Deadpool enough for me. There were also points where I didn’t feel like Petrucha doesn’t truly know Deadpool’s character. I’ve been reading comics with Deadpool for almost twenty years and there were points I felt were out of place for Deadpool’s character. This was also disappointing. The chapter lengths were also an issue. Sometimes I felt the chapters were not long enough and broke off at inappropriate points in the narrative, where the train of though was broken at points that should have been longer. That said, this does often happen in first person present tense novels, but I’ll say there were chapters that ended and began at places that should have been more connected. But the shortened chapters made for an easy read. Sometimes easy reads can be good, sometimes easy reads can be bad. This book actually tends towards the latter. Not spending enough time in the narrator’s mind coherently is very hard to enjoy. There’s a joke where Deadpool skips chapter 13 and goes from 12 to 14 just didn’t seem funny, and also came out rather annoying, and there is a chapter that suggests dissociative identity disorder and was not at all amusing to me. I was just feeling like I was hoping for more.

            Okay, I’ve dumped on the book long enough, let’s talk about accessibility. I feel like if you know nothing about Deadpool to maybe watch the movies or pick up some Deadpool graphic novels before you read this prose novel. I think a non-fan might have a difficult time picking up Deadpool’s sense of humor and his appearance isn’t described well enough. Petrucha also didn’t give much of Deadpool’s backstory, so if you’re just reading this post out of loyalty for my blog with no Deadpool knowledge, I’d suggest not just jumping into this book.

            Well, let’s move on to the ever important numeric score. We’ve established EVERYTHING leading to this score, so I’ll just throw the number out there: four. It’s not that I didn’t like the STORY, I didn’t like the way it was TOLD. I think there are some writers who could take this story and present a better narrative, sorry to say Mister Petrucha, but I think that with his particular writing style there are other characters he could tell me a more enjoyable narrative. If he wrote other Marvel prose novels, I’d likely give him a chance. This book just didn’t do it for me.

            Alright, it’s time for my signoff. This blog has TONS of prose novel and graphic novel reviews, as well as short stories, editorials, complaint pieces, and free-verse poetry here already and plenty more upcoming, so I hope if you enjoyed this post there are other posts you might try to read as well. And if you’re here, still reading up to this point, you are THE BEST! I appreciate your support. Feel free to leave comments (you will be the first as no one has EVER left comments), if you found me on Twitter please follow me, and until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!