Honestly, Deadpool’s first mini-series is nothing to write home about. It’s pretty rough around the edges and suffers from a lot of the same problems with character design and a lack of compelling characterization and motivation outside of “shoot things, get the macguffin” typical to 90s comics. Deadpool has some decent lines, but I often found myself begging the story to just get on to the next scene so I could get it over with already.
Nonetheless, The Circle Chase gets four stars purely because of the simple scene at the very end, which casually came into my home and murdered my family after 4 so-so issues: Wade pulls Vanessa into his lap and begs her to touch him so she can heal faster, confesses that he still loves her, and she tearfully tells him that, while she once loved him deeply as well, he needs to move on. This scene provides the building blocks for their history together and overall capacity for deep and sincere love, the tragic things they’ve both been through, the ways their memories and selves have been messed with, Vanessa’s fight for agency in a world loathe to give her any, and the fact that Wade is often pulled toward doing something good in spite of himself, which are some of the things that I personally find most compelling about both Deadpool and Copycat as characters.
Maybe that’s just me “being a girl” about my super(anti)heroes, but I love Wade not just for his carefree violence and quips that rival those of Spider-Man, but also because Wade is deeply tragic and hurt and soft and oh so very human beneath that glorious murder machine we all know and love. The Circle Chase is the first time we are promised a glimpse at any of what Deadpool will become, as the Mithras, as a sometimes-Avenger, as a lover, as a friend, as a father, and as a hero.