With Deadpool/Wolverine dominating the box office for the past several months, it should come as no surprise that this superhero Odd Couple pairing has seen a resurgence in Marvel’s comic book universe as well. Marvel fans got a taste of what happens when Wade Wilson and Logan share the page in the miniseries Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII. Now it’s time for the main course.
IGN can exclusively reveal Deadpool/Wolverine, a new ongoing, monthly series featuring the further adventures of these two bloodthirsty anti-heroes. The series will reunite X-Force writer Benjamin Percy and artist Joshua Cassara, as the two characters are once again brought together to deal with a returning X-Men villain and new revelations about their shared history.
Check out the cover to Deadpool/Wolverine #1 below, and read on to learn more about the new series from Percy himself:
As mentioned, this new series serves as a reunion for Percy and Cassara, as the two previously explored Wolverine’s misadventures as part of the Krakoa-era X-Force squad. Unsurprisingly, Percy was thrilled to be able to rekindle that partnership with Deadpool/Wolverine.
“Josh and I really hit it off when we were working together on X-Force and became great friends,” Percy tells IGN. “When he made the jump to X-Men, it was honestly a little traumatic for us both—but if you get the opportunity to draw a flagship title, you have to go for it. And he drew the living shit out of that series. We never stopped texting or hanging out at cons. We’re always trading stupid jokes (and many hundreds of Arnold Schwarzenegger GIFs). I even helped his wife locate one of the elusive 12-foot Home Depot skeletons recently, so we’ll both be celebrating Halloween like bosses. This is all to say: we were both so damn excited to get the band back together. Deadpool/Wolverine is us cartwheeling onto the stage and shredding our guitars once more while smoke machines churn and pyrotechnics explode all around us.”
The key difference between the X-Force days and now is that the Krakoa era is over. Marvel recently launched a new status quo called From the Ashes, anchored by books like Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman’s X-Men and Gail Simone and David Marquez’s Uncanny X-Men. But though Krakoa is gone and the X-Men are back to fighting for survival in a world that hates and fears them, Percy doesn’t see this as a major pivot from his previous Wolverine work. It’s all part of a single, larger story he’s been telling since 2017.
“Well, in some ways it simply feels like business as usual,” Percy says. “Since 2017—with the Wolverine: The Long Night podcast—I’ve never stopped writing Logan for Marvel, and this is simply the next chapter in his journey. But of course things have changed for the mutants, and we’re leaning in to this new normal in the series.”
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As for the movie, while it’s impossible to ignore that particular spandex-clad elephant in the room, Percy notes that the new series began development well before Deadpool/Wolverine hit theaters, and it isn’t necessarily inspired by the movie in any direct way. That said, those who enjoyed the dynamic between Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in the movie will find plenty to love here.
“The film was both a hit and a hoot, but we started working on this series long before we ever saw Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds tear each other apart in a Honda Odyssey,” Percy says. “So I can’t say it was an influence, but I can say the dynamic between the characters will feel familiar to theatergoers: fun, thrilling, and both adversarial and bro-mancey (not to mention violent as hell).”
As for said violence, expect no shortage of blood and gore in the new series. Deadpool/Wolverine is being billed by Marvel as “a never-ending action movie.” As Percy explains, the tone and content of the book are influenced by classic ’80s action movies like Commando and Rambo: First Blood Part II.
“That was the vibe that Josh, I, and Mark Basso (our fearless editor) agreed upon: non-stop thrills, insane action set-pieces, and a gonzo 80s action movie precedent,” Percy says. “We want you to feel like Stallone/Schwarzenegger/Van Damme could be a guest star in any of these issues.”
Deadpool & Wolverine: Easter Eggs, Cameos and References
Marvel is mostly keeping the plot of Deadpool/Wolverine shrouded in mystery for now, though we know the book will feature an overarching mystery involving an old mission neither Wade nor Logan seem to remember. Percy teases that this subplot “will be a canonical cousin to a legendary ’90s X-Men storyline.”
Deadpool/Wolverine will also feature the return of a major X-Men villain in issue #1. Once that reveal hits, fans will have a much better idea of what the future holds in store for Deadpool and Wolverine.
“That’s a big crazy reveal at the end of Issue 1, so I’m not sure I should say just now,” Percy teases. “But both the future and the past are coming together in the present in a cataclysmic way, and it’s up to our favorite superhero odd couple to save the day (and maybe the world).”
Deadpool/Wolverine #1 will be released in January 2025.
For more on Deadpool and Wolverine’s MCU future, check out IGN’s Deadpool & Wolverine: Ending Explained breakdown and find out why we think Avengers: Doomsday could be an Avengers vs. X-Men movie.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Wade Wilson and Logan are taking their bromance from the big screen to the printed page, as Marvel launches a new ongoing series called Deadpool/Wolverine. Read More