Deadpool Syndrome is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover High School AU fanfic by Ricky Pine
, combining characters from The Amazing Spider-Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Big Hero 6. Oh, and of course, the title character, Deadpool, who is undoubtedly disappointed that he's not even the star of the show...not that he doesn't try to be.
Instead, the fic centers on Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, who alternate as first-person narrators every two chapters. They initially have no memory of their past adventures, believing themselves to be Ordinary High School Students, until the day when Tony Stark tries to show off his shiny new AI Ultron at the science fair. After considerable craziness ensues (largely thanks to Ultron going haywire and trying to hijack Baymax, and Peter unexpectedly saving Hiro Hamada's life), Skye and Agent Coulson show up and take Peter with them on what proves to be yet another nonstop adventure, during which time they try to figure out the driving mystery of who de-aged so many Marvel movie characters down to their teens, and why they sent them to an alternate universe. Deadpool seems to know a little something about it, but only because he's got a direct telepathic link to the writer...or so he claims. And then there's the involvement of Doctor Strange to take into consideration...yeah, it's very much designed to confuse.
The fic has been written up to Chapter 20 as of April 8, 2015. It can be found on Wattpad, DeviantArt (in individual chapters), and Archive Of Our Own. Pine has announced on his Wattpad profile that a sequel will happen, but the title has yet to be revealed.
Deadpool Syndrome contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: As the fic goes on, it becomes clear that this Ultron isn't nearly as villainous as his film counterpart.
- Adaptational Villainy: Doctor Strange, who is revealed in Chapter 18 to have erased Tobey Maguire's version of Peter Parker from existence, along with the entire rest of the Raimi trilogy's cast. However, at the same time, Tobey asserts that Strange is "on [Garfield!Peter's] side" and doesn't want to have to erase him from existence as well.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Dear God, Ultron. He starts out as a simple music-searching program (and Japanese tutor) before developing a mind of his own. Thankfully, he's not so outright evil - although his being The Snark Knight makes him quite a nuisance as far as the main characters are concerned.
- Ambiguously Brown: Skye takes advantage of this to pass for Hiro and Tadashi's sister while undercover at Augustine High. She later points out that while she is a close racial match to the Hamada brothers (being a similar white-Asian mix), she's half-Chinese as opposed to half-Japanese.
- Artistic License – Physics: The Tesla coil explosion in Chapter 15. As Gwen accurately points out in the next chapter, that really should not happen.
- Author Avatar: Arguably, Peter. Which, given his Everyman nature, makes sense. The point is hammered home by the fact that Pine even uses Peter as his profile pic.
- Better than a Bare Bulb: Almost no reference, and no bad joke, goes unnoticed by Peter or Gwen. Especially the former, who has a considerably wider pop-culture knowledge base.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Deadpool, natch. Peter also catches himself addressing the audience from time to time - increasingly often after his first encounter with the Merc with the Mouth.
- Captain Ersatz: Played with. The various Marvel movies exist in the alternate universe under the same names, but the actors and characters are different, for obvious reasons. For instance, in the alternate Amazing Spider-Man, the title character's real name is Cade Clarke, and he's played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: One of Wattpad's more popular features, used by Pine to come up with a detailed cast list for the various characters, including the teenage versions of the Avengers et al. Many are lifted directly from the films the fic is based on (for example, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Chloe Bennet, while others are made up for the purposes of the fic (Nathan Kress as Clint Barton, Emma Watson as Maggie Carter, and Dylan O'Brien as Tony Stark.)
- Continuity Lock-Out: Unless you're up to date on all the films and TV shows mentioned above, this fic may not make much sense to you - and, in fact, you may end up severely spoiled, particularly in regards to various characters' deaths (namely, Gwen's.)
- How's Your British Accent?: Subverted. Upon learning that he's played by a British actor, Peter immediately tries his hand at the accent. The result is atrocious, to say the least.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every chapter title is taken from the lyrics of a different song. The song selections are pretty disparate, too - in the first four chapters alone, the titles are taken from songs by Fall Out Boy, Michael Jackson, Cake, and Talking Heads.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Lance Hunter does a toned-down version of this on his first appearance, asking Peter for his autograph.
- Ludicrous Gibs: The Dark Elves sometimes leave this, but perhaps none more so than the one that gets a grenade shoved into its mouth by Deadpool.
- Metrosexual: The teenage version of Steve Rogers is described as such by Gwen."...he goes more unnoticed in [Starbucks] than the rest of us. All he needs is a pair of hipster glasses and he'd be totally invisible."
- Mistaken for Gay: Loki, largely due to the negative publicity he received after the incident where he catfished Barton by pretending to be Natasha on Facebook. Thor has to inform the rest of the group in Chapter 20 that Loki's into more than just males.
- Mythology Gag:
- The e-mail from J. Jonah Jameson (here a journalism teacher rather than the Daily Bugle owner) with the subject line "WRONG!!!!!"
- A really subtle one at the end of Chapter 7 - check out the positioning of the different superhero uniforms on the wall of Stark's office. Spidey's uniform is between those of Iron Man and Captain America. May also count as Foreshadowing, especially given that Civil War gets more references later on.
- Oh Crap, There Are Movies Of Us! The whole story runs on this.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Pine incorporates new Marvel movie details and plans into the story practically as soon as they come out. Chief among them - the February 2015 announcement of the re-rebooting of Spider-Man and the subsequent cancellation of Sony's Amazing Spider-Man franchise.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Gwen, sort of. The fic takes place after The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and after seeing the "real" version of the same film (that is, the "actual record" of events), she actually remembers the moment of her own death.
- There's also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line from Skye in Chapter 12 referring to Tadashi's death - but as with Gwen, he's still alive and well in the story.
- And don't forget Uncle Ben - who, upon learning that his nephew is Spider-Man, immediately asks if that means he's going to die.
- A Wizard Did It: Invoked so many times to explain some of the story's more outlandish phenomena, courtesy of Doctor Strange, that it's practically a Running Gag. There's at least one "strange magic" joke in the story as a result.
