Wouldn't mind a red Venompool, down the line.

The temptation is, to tell you all not to be thankful for anything, ever, since everything sucks and eventually everyone disappoints. Sure, probably; but every once in a while there are cheap comics and exclusive figures, or the two together! From earlier this year, Deadpool: Back in Black #2-5, written by Cullen Bunn, art by Salva Espin. And from GameStop, the Marvel Legends Deadpool: Back in Black action figure!

I remember seeing this solicited and being mildly disappointed it didn't feature the Marvel Contest of Champions Venompool, who was larger and red...and probably would've required a bit more sculpting and tooling. The BiB is mostly clever reuse, like the symbiote tentacles from Agent Venom, claw hands from the Ben Reilly Spider-Man, and I think an alternate head from Superior Venom. (If you can pick the latter out in the photo linked there. S-V is surprisingly spendy on Amazon as of right now; and it's always interesting how some figures are, and some aren't, even if produced equally with Build-a-Figure parts for a common character. Could be a lot of one-armed Rhinos out there, but I digress.)

This mini-series is set after 1985's Web of Spider-Man #1, a good six years prior to Deadpool's first appearance in New Mutants #98! But it's part of the joke, shared with Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars, that Pool was there for the 80's, and everyone including you the reader either didn't notice, or forgot, or blocked that trauma out. It's a running joke that may trace its roots back to Deadpool Team-Up #1! But this does tie back into Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars, as Pool reunites with the Klyntar symbiote that would later become half of Venom. After being rejected by Spider-Man, the symbiote finds a new and more receptive host in Deadpool; although it could be that Pool doesn't realize how much the symbiote is influencing him.

The whole thing fits in-continuity, although there is a sequence with Spider-Man, where he's knocked out as to not see either Pool or the symbiote. And he's not the only guest-star, since there's appearances by Power Pack, the Black Cat, Kraven the Hunter, and Obnoxio the Clown! Particularly in the second issue, there are also a ton of editorial footnotes referencing books that didn't happen, some of which sound pretty good.

It's not an essential figure or an essential mini-series, but both are completely fun, and if you can, grab 'em.