Rob Liefeld Bringing The Pouch To Comics

Image Comics today revealed a very special Rob Liefeld variant cover to the #23 issue of Liefeld's Bloodstrike "Brutalists" arc, featuring story and artwork by Michel Fiffe (COPRA).

This variant cover introduces an all-new character: The Pouch!

"Since the moment I introduced The Pouch on my social media, the fans have exploded with support and enthusiasm!" said Liefeld. "The truest definition of 'because you demanded it!' The Pouch comes to life on the cover and in an interior story included in Bloodstrike Brutalists 2!"

The Pouch is a large, gun-toting figure covered from head to toe in pouches, created as a knowing wink at Liefeld's reputation for putting extraneous pouches on all of the costumes he designs.

Even The Pouch's giant, Liefeldian gun is seemingly made up of pouches.

The creator first shared a sketch of the character, including the caption, "Ladies & Gentleman, introducing, THE POUCH! You have no idea what he has in store for you!! Beware, he's always packing!"

One of the most glaring examples of the trend was demonstrated in a character co-created by Liefeld, Deadpool. In addition to an abundance of pouches, the character also regularly carried massive weapons, wore a backpack (presumably filled with more pouches), and various cutlery sticking out of said backpack.

Possibly due to the massive success of the Deadpool film, Liefeld happily poked fun at his earlier habits.

Of course, Deadpool 2 managed to do him one better, joking about his reputation for being unable to draw feet.

In the film, Deadpool doesn't really understand Domino's "luck" powers, and refuses to believe that Domino has any actual powers. The two continue to argue about it quite a bit, even as Domino is the only other X-Force member to survive the team's unnecessarily-fatal skydiving attempt. As Domino (successfully) attempts to retrieve the fan, Deadpool continues to remark about how he doesn't understand her "imaginary" superpowers. He then questions who would have come up with a female hero with these powers, saying that it's "probably a guy who can't draw feet".

As Marvel fans know, this is a pretty clever homage to Rob Liefeld, who created Domino, Deadpool, and Cable. Aside from bringing plenty of fan-favorite characters to life, Liefeld has become somewhat-notorious for the way that he depicts feet -- or, rather, the way that he sometimes goes to great lengths to hide characters' feet. While evidence of Liefeld actually drawing feet has become more prominent over the years, the joke has still lived on, making its appearance in Deadpool 2 even better.

You can see the official solicitation text for the issue below.

In BRUTALISTS Part Two, bureaucratic overlords with morbid agendas need love, too. What lengths will they go to? A string of gruesome murders, a deadly disease, and a dark conspiracy; for Bloodstrike, that's a Tuesday.

BLOODSTRIKE #23 will hit stores on Wednesday, June 27th.

The final order cutoff deadline for retailers is Monday, June 4th.

BLOODSTRIKE #23 CVR A FIFFE - Diamond Code APR180494
BLOODSTRIKE #23 CVR B LIEFELD - Diamond Code APR188129
BLOODSTRIKE #23 CVR C FRAGA - Diamond Code APR188130