Deadpool and Wolverine have reunited on the big screen, and this friendship is extending to the comics as well. Deadpool & Wolverine is the superhero movie of the summer, providing Marvel Studios with the bonafide hit it sorely needed after a couple of misses on the big and small screen. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s depictions of Wade Wilson and Logan, respectively, captivated audiences worldwide, but Deadpool and Wolverine first became household names through comics. Marvel is bringing the duo together in a new series titled Deadpool/Wolverine next year, and while there’s some legitimate excitement for its debut, we can’t help but notice how a continuity error brings the whole premise crashing down.
The announcement of Deadpool/Wolverine by frequent collaborators Benjamin Percy and Joshua Cassara came with the news that they’d be working together against a returning X-Men villain while exploring the shared history Deadpool and Wolverine share together. It’s definitely an enticing setup and reason to have a Deadpool and Wolverine team-up, fans should also consider what the two characters are doing in their solo titles. Logan is taking time off from the X-Men in Saladin Ahmed and Martin Coccolo’s Wolverine series, and Wade Wilson is fighting a new hero named Death Grip in Cody Ziglar and Roge Antonio’s Deadpool. The last couple of Deadpool issues brought his fight with Death Grip to a startling conclusion, with Deadpool being killed and replaced by his daughter Ellie. So if Deadpool’s dead, how is he able to team up with Wolverine in another Marvel comic?
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How did Marvel kill Deadpool?
Wade Wilson officially met his demise in Deadpool #6, released on September 18, 2024. After bonding with the Muramasa Blade, Death Grip was able to bypass Deadpool’s healing factor to deliver fatal wounds. This caused Deadpool to sit out a mission while his daughters Ellie and Princess (a four-legged symbiote), and Taskmaster took care of it for him. This allowed Death Grip to get the drop on Deadpool alone, using some sort of mystical spell to drain the lifefore out of Deadpool.
Ellie is dealing with her father’s death by dressing up as him and taking on the Deadpool name, with Taskmaster along for the ride as her mentor. We imagine at some point Ellie will seek to avenge her father, setting up a rematch with Death Grip down the line. But for now, there’s only one Deadpool in the Marvel Universe, and that’s the young Ellie. Luckily, she has her father’s healing factor to keep her safe, though she’ll have to avoid any life-threatening wounds from Death Grip when that matchup takes place.
Marvel’s Deadpool/Wolverine needs to address Deadpool’s death
Benjamin Percy and Joshua Cassara are no strangers to Deadpool and Wolverine. The duo were the creative team on the X-Force comic during the Krakoan era, where Wolverine was a central part of the cast and Deadpool dropped in from time to time. Plus, Percy wrote Krakoa’s Wolverine series from beginning to end, and was a writer on the Wolverine: The Long Night podcast. You won’t find any two individuals more for qualified for Deadpool/Wolverine than these two gentlemen. But that doesn’t address how Marvel can heavily promote killing Deadpool while also getting fans pumped up for the Merc With a Mouth teaming up with Wolverine?
The easy answer is just forget about continuity when it comes to Deadpool/Wolverine. It seems Marvel certainly wants readers to. There’s some examples of this coming into play on several occasions, even with the Wolverine solo series in X-Men: From the Ashes. Wolverine is taking a sabbatical from the X-Men to head back to Canada, where he’s withdrawn from society following the Fall of X. However, Wolverine is also a part of the cast of Gail Simone and David Marquez’s Uncanny X-Men – at least when the title kicks off. Logan eventually tells Rogue that he’s leaving, with Logan’s story moving over to Wolverine. So opposing story arcs can take place at the sametime. But at least Uncanny X-Men addressed the elephant in the room right away. It remains to be seen how Deadpool/Wolverine will work Deadpool’s death in, if it even chooses to.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see the general audience not care about Deadpool being dead in one comic and coexisting with Wolverine in another. If you enjoyed watching Deadpool & Wolverine in theaters – and at home on demand digitally – then you’ll watch to check out Deadpool/Wolverine #1 when it launches in January 2025.
