Deadpool & Wolverine smashed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and teased Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and a brown-and-tan-clad Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) vs. the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). But the cameo scene, which paid homage to Todd McFarlane’s iconic cover of 1987’s The Incredible Hulk #340, cut away from the action before the Merc with a Mouth and the berserker mutant could face off against the angry Avenger. The new issue of Rob Liefeld’s last Deadpool comic, Deadpool Team-Up #3, delivered on that fight.
The circumstances are similar. But instead of the Void, Deadpool and Wolverine end up in Weirdworld, a domain composed of former magical realms. After a ninja clan tasked Wade Wilson with — deep breath — collecting dragon eggs that have been hidden by Ral Dorn, Dragon Lord, Wade learned that the warlord Baron Skagerackrakor stole Ral’s sacred staff so he could overthrow Ral as the rightful ruler of his home dimension of Rammatpolen and take revenge for his father’s defeat at Ral’s hands (in 1981’s Fantastic Four Annual #16).
Ral reclaimed his Dragonstaff and opened a portal to Weirdworld, where the heroes met a long-lost hero from the 1980s: Crystar, Lord of Crystalium, who hid the sacred dragon’s eggs within the catacombs under Crater Lake on Weirdworld. As they waded through the swamps, they were attacked by a towering Swamp Serpent, so Ral, calling on the sorcery of Rammatpolen, opened a portal to summon a champion: “A savage dragon to fell this serpent.”
Instead of Image’s finned, green-skinned superhero, Ral accidentally called forth another green goliath: the Hulk. This week’s Deadpool Team-Up #3 begins with Wade, Wolverine, Ral, and Crystar trying to convince the “Dragonslayer” to help them find the eggs, but an enraged Hulk only wants to smash the puny humans. Hulk shatters Crystar (whose body of enchanted crystals can reform itself) and goes toe-to-toe with Wolverine, who has “181 reasons” to put Hulk down (a reference to their first fight in 1974’s Incredible Hulk #181).
The rampaging Hulk swats Wolverine away, but the adamantium-clawed X-Man is as small and fast as Hulk is big and slow. Wade shoots Hulk in the face to prevent him from hitting what he can’t see, but Hulk gets his hands on Wade and slams him into the ground. Ral, who has no need for the emerald warrior now that he defeated the Swamp Serpent, ends the fight and sends the Hulk back to his realm on Earth. They find the eggs, and the issue ends with Wade wielding a golden sword: the Dragonslayer.
Just then, three Liefeld creations step out of the shadows to warn that taking the dragon eggs would be “the end of everything”: Cable, Lady Deadpool, and Major X, the son of Cable and the mutant goddess Storm from an alternate future. Deadpool Team-Up will conclude with a fifth and final issue on Jan. 22.
The MCU teased a Deadpool & Wolverine vs. the Hulk fight. The Marvel Comics made it happen. Read More