Never one to pull his punches, Deadpool is calling out one of his own publisher’s characters as a derivative rip-off. Interestingly, the insult happens in a series from Wade Wilson’s famously outspoken original co-creator Rob Liefeld, suggesting that rather than an offhand remark, it may actually be a sincere criticism of the antihero.
In a preview of Liefeld, Chad Bowers, Jay David Ramos and Joe Sabino’s Deadpool: Badder Blood #3, Wade takes on Venompool – a monstrous version of the Merc with a Mouth who has combined with the Venom symbiote. While battling the attacker and searching for his X-Force team, Wade curses out his doppelganger, addressing the character as “you derivative piece of @$#%?!” It seems Wade isn’t happy to see himself merged with Venom, especially if the monster was used to kill his friends.
Deadpool Calls Out Venompool
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In Deadpool: Badder Blood #3, Wade is fighting to save his old friend ‘Thumper,’ aka Agent Daedalus, who has been turned into a superhuman enforcer after following him into the Weapon X program. However, this quest has brought him up against Arcata, whose robotic assistant Killville can create ultra-realistic illusions. Venompool is one such illusion, as are Deadpool’s X-Force teammates, with Arcata hoping to sell tickets to other villains to watch Wade trapped in a series of torturous scenarios. However, as a fun Easter Egg for fans, one such scenario is Wade battling the alt-reality antihero Venompool.
Venompool actually started life in the Marvel Contest of Champions videogame. The game has the rare honor of introducing multiple characters who were later incorporated into the publisher’s main comic lore, with Venompool being among their number. The idea of a Venom/Deadpool hybrid had been broached before – in Rick Remender and Shawn Moll’s Venom/Deadpool: What If? – but with a different design and origin, notably merging the symbiote with Wade’s costume rather than just turning him into a red symbiote. Now, Venompool gets the ultimate cameo as Killville manifests him to kill Wade.
Deadpool Faces Off Against His Venomized Double
Deadpool’s co-creator Rob Liefeld has never been shy about calling out comic creators when he feels they’re falling short, and has also insisted in the past that rumors that Deadpool himself is derivative of DC’s Deathstroke are false. It therefore makes sense he might have some genuine animosity towards Venompool as a near-joke character who does rip-off his own creation. Of course, it’s also possible that Deadpool is simply hurling insults – after all, Liefeld is clearly having fun drawing the hulking Venompool in combat with Deadpool, and it’s not as if Marvel has been coy about where the idea for the symbiote/mercenary hybrid came from.
Hopefully, Deadpool can triumph over his vicious symbiote ‘brother,’ however that’s only the beginning of the gauntlet of escaping Killville and Arcata, hunting down Thumper, and finding a way to save his old friend.
Deadpool: Badder Blood #3 is coming from Marvel Comics August 30.
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