One of The X-Men’s Most Dangerous Foes Is Back (& It’s Bad News for Deadpool’s Daughter)

Deadpool and Wolverine have always made for a pretty good team, but they weren’t a billion dollar team until Deadpool/Wolverine hit theaters. Since the success of Deadpool/Wolverine, Marvel has went all in on giving people more of the two of them together. There’s already one team-up series between the two, and Marvel has decided to give readers yet another one with Wolverines & Deadpools, a book that combines Wolverine and Deadpool and their daughters Laura and Ellie, who have both worked with their fathers as superheroes. The foursome is called to a village in Simkaria, where children are being kidnapped and their parents murdered by some mysterious beings.

Wolverines & Deadpools #1 takes readers on a ride, and gives readers three big shocks to keep them invested in the book. The first two are Agent X and Lady Bullseye working with the big bad, with Agent X fighting Wolverine and Deadpool, and Lady Bullseye going after Laura and Ellie. While both of them are mercenaries, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense that these two would have been working to kidnap children and kill their parents. However, the last shock of the book makes the others make sense — Shadow King is behind the whole situation, trying to find a new body. The Shadow King is one of the X-Men’s most dangerous foes, and the heroes don’t really have a whole lot of chance against him.

The Shadow King Is a World-Shaking Threat

The Shadow King first appeared way back in X-Men (Vol. 1) #117, in the guise of Amahl Farouk. The Shadow King was revealed as a supremely powerful telepath who in years past had made him home in Cairo. The Shadow King ran a gang of thieves in the city, one of who was Ororo Munroe before she left the city and became a goddess on the Serengeti. Professor X would confront the Shadow King while looking for young mutants to recruit, and the grudge between the two of them would begin. See, the Shadow King only wanted one thing — complete and total control of all life on Earth. Shadow King had the telepathic power to make that a reality, and the only person standing against him was Charles Xavier. The two of them battled on the Astral Plane multiple times over the years, and Xavier was always able to defeat the Shadow King. However, there was more to the Shadow King than anyone ever expected.

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The Shadow King wasn’t actually Amahl Farouk; he’s something much more sinister. The Shadow King is a manifestation of the dark side of humanity, spawned by the first time a human had a nightmare. The Shadow King tried to spread his darkness across humanity many times over the millennia, but was always stopped. Eventually, the Shadow King saw young Amahl Farouk, and decided to take over the young mutant’s body. Together, the two of them were more powerful than they ever were apart, and Farouk became a greedy monster. Farouk eventually found a way to regain complete control over his life, and joined the mutant nation of Krakoa. Everyone expected the Shadow King to take control of Farouk again, but it didn’t happen (although he did cause his share of problems without the Shadow King inside of him). However, fans did wonder exactly what had happened to the Shadow King, and it looks like Wolverines & Deadpools #1 is showing the Shadow King’s next move. The monster needs a new body, and the children he’s stealing aren’t cutting it.

The Shadow King Has a Plan for Deadpool’s Daughter

The most important Shadow King story of recent years was “The Wild Hunt”, as it established that Amahl was back in control of his body, and the Shadow King was nowhere to be found. The Shadow King usually resides in the Astral Plane, and uses corporeal bodies to interact with humanity outside of their minds. The Shadow King made Amahl Farouk into the monstrous glutton he’s became, and is on the look out for another body to corrupt. Wolverines & Deadpools #1 establishes that the Shadow King is kidnapping the children to find a host, and the perfect one is Ellie.

This makes a lot of sense, honestly. The Shadow King can keep host bodies alive indefinitely, but only if they don’t get into any physical trouble. The Shadow King’s hosts can still die if they are attacked by enemies. If the Shadow King can take control of Ellie, it won’t have to worry about that. Ellie’s healing factor is on the same level as her father’s, and that makes her the perfect new host for the Shadow King. It remains to be seen how Wolverine and Deadpool will be able to defeat a telepath as powerful as the Shadow King.

Wolverines & Deadpools #1 is on sale now.