Deadpool Creator Rob Liefeld on Mixing Fun and Violence in Deadpool: Badder Blood (Exclusive)

Rob Liefeld, the creator behind Deadpool, is adding to the Merc With a Mouth’s legacy in a new limited series titled Deadpool: Badder Blood. It follows in the footsteps of 2017’s Deadpool: Bad Blood, Wade Wilson’s first-ever graphic novel, and features familiar faces like Cable and Wolverine, along with even more new creations. Liefeld is a master at putting Deadpool through the wringer, delivering non-stop action and adventures in his signature, fan-favorite style. If you’re wondering what he has in store for Deadpool: Badder Blood, look no further, as we talked to the man himself to get all the details.

ComicBook.com spoke exclusively to Rob Liefeld about Deadpool: Badder Blood, where we asked him about adding to Wade Wilson’s rogues gallery with new creations like Thumper and the mysterious Shatterstorm, as well as some other new characters readers will meet as the series continues. We also picked his brain about how he goes about creating new characters, what attributes he looks for, if he has any plans to tell stories with Deadpool in the larger Marvel Universe, and more. ComicBook.com can also reveal pages from Deadpool: Badder Blood #1, Deadpool: Badder Blood #2, and the cover of August’s Deadpool: Badder Blood #3.

Shatterstorm

ComicBook.com: So you’ve talked about in the past how Bad Blood and Badder Blood are about building up Deadpool’s rogues gallery with antagonists like Thumper. And now we have Shatterstorm, who we briefly see in that first issue. What can you tell us about her story as it connects to possibly Shatterstar, who is my favorite character from your X-Force run?

Rob Liefeld: Oh, thank you so much. I’m so excited. Yes. Look, Shatterstorm is a doorway into a completely separate but connected storyline that you’re going to see with issue two. I called up Marvel and I said, “We need to put in the solicitations of, number one, that Shatterstorm is in here. We want to let people know this is the first appearance.” So, they added it in. So, it’s not a spoiler of this character they’ve used in the first issue. On the last page … I’m a huge cliffhanger guy. I think I’m four issues into Deadpool: Badder Blood, and I was raised on great cliffhangers. So, I try and give a great last page. Like, “What? I got to come back.”

So, Shatterstorm, I can’t really tell you a whole lot more about her. Other than this is her first appearance, and she is representative of a larger plot that we’ll see unfold. Deadpool constantly has a contract out on him. You’re not someone at his level, killing at his level, doing the deeds that he’s done without other bad people wanting to take you out. Something happens at the end of the first issue, where Thumper encounters a group that takes him away. And again, I’m just laying all the groundwork for this bigger saga as we build out the importance of Thumper. And literally, the importance of the entire Weapon X program, where we meet an early architect of also early-on in this story. So, it’s all connected. I just love that we’re getting a chance to lay all this out there and expand all of the mythology going back to when I was a kid.

Cable and Deadpool vs. Thumper

Creating New Characters

When you’re creating these new characters, what traits do you look for, both when you’re crafting their physical appearance and how their personality is going to play out?

That’s a great question. Whenever I am designing characters, first I’m looking for something interesting. Interesting in terms or along the lines of something that tickles an itch that I like, expanding on something. I mean, look, the very first mercenary that I became aware of as a child was Boba Fett in The Star Wars Holiday Special. Then, when they introduced the toy, I’ve always been like, “You don’t understand. I had to mow some extra lawns, do more yard work, get money to get that Boba Fett figure.” Because you had to send in three proof-of-purchases from three other figures. And man, every day I’d check my mailbox. You don’t understand. And then he finally came in this little Crest, basically, toothpaste tube. A little toothpaste box. That’s what it was like. You’re like, “Wait, they sent me toothpaste?” There was no glamor. It was a plain, white, little cylinder box. Boom. Boba Fett.

From the minute Deadpool was introduced, with Tolliver being the guy that he took a contract with, is my Jabba the Hut. Cable was Han Solo, Deadpool was Boba Fett, I wear it on my sleeve. I wear my influences on my sleeve at all times. And so with Thumper, I wanted a large mysterious masked character. I mean there are all sorts of familiarities. You could tell me that somewhere between Doctor Doom and Darth Vader is the influence for how the mask of Thumper is. But then at the end of Bad Blood, we introduced him to only find a more grotesque version of what we’ve seen with Wade Wilson. But certainly with Shatterstorm, people love the headdress. Okay, so I love headgear, I love it. I think it looks rad and the king of all headgear is Jack Kirby.

Just flip through any 10 issues of either Thor or New Gods that Jack did, and we’re still not to the level of headgear and headdresses that he designed. He is literally the greatest costume designer. And George Lucas will tell you his work influenced Star Wars. Somebody today had the “Doctor Doom at the head of a table as the Fantastic Four are brought in shocked against Darth Vader” scene from Empire Strikes Back, I mean all very comics art. And those designs and those illustrations from the ’60s and ’70s are still so influential. Not only to me, but again the greats like George Lucas.

So look, I’m always feeding off different influences, but with Shatterstorm, got to get that headgear and keep her in the visual same realm as Shatterstar. If I do a random sketch of Shatterstar and I put it on social platforms, people flip out, they still love him. Some people say this is my favorite character you ever created. This is my second favorite. I mean, he’s up there. People love him, which is why people went into trauma in Deadpool 2. But yeah, so I’m always pulling for stuff that influenced me as a kid. But I would say the number one influence on me is any of the New Gods or Thor, headdresses, armor, soldier pads, stuff like that. Obviously, I like gear. I think the quickest answer to this was I really like gear.

Cable and Wolverine

Arcata and Killville

Some of the solicits have also talked about two more new characters that will meet down the line: Arcata and Killville. Have we seen either one of them on the covers? Cause I know there’s one cover that has the big Deadpool face with the tongue coming out of the person’s mouth.

That’s Venompool. I called up Marvel and I said, look, I need to warn you that issue three is a giant fight scene, the likes of which I haven’t seen you guys publish in a long time. And I said, I have four double-page splashes in here, and I kid you not. But you got to remember, again, going back to Jack Kirby, that dude, whether it was Black Panther, whether it was Eternals, whether it was Devil Dinosaur, especially when he came back to Marvel and he wrote and drew all his own stuff, he would do a splash page, a double page splash page later on, another double page, splash page, and then he’d end on the splash page. And comics were only 17 pages back then.

So he is literally taking almost a third of the book in splashing images and you know what kids like me, fans like me, we went crazy over that stuff. I think comics needs more pow and there’s nothing more pow in your face than Venompool and Deadpool and a whole bunch of guest stars we haven’t identified yet. Issue three may be my favorite thing I have ever written, laid out, designed, illustrated, and inked. I cannot wait to get it out there. I think it comes out in August and I think hopefully it’s like a milkshake. A Slurpee. Two Reese’s Peanut butter cups. It’s a sugar rush, man.

You’re going to be like, wow. So I’m really excited. The detour into Killville and who’s pulling the trigger, who’s pushing all the buttons in Killville is another great reveal. I mean, I’m just having literally the best time and then by literally issues four and five things take a really sinister turn and I think we are going to end with just a huge bang and just keep people on this rollercoaster ride. The reason I do comics is fun. F U N first, foremost, always. But I love mystery. It’s one of the things, going back to your question about what I look for in characters, mystery is the first thing I love. I love characters that you can peel away and they have more and more layers, and you get the sense that everything about this person isn’t upfront and you’re going to have to learn more. So that’s the kind of stuff that drives me.

Deadpool vs. Thumper

A Violent Deadpool

Series like Badder Blood and Bad Blood give you the opportunity to revisit Deadpool over the years. Are there any things that you rediscover about the character that surprises you at this point?

No, here’s the thing that surprises me. It surprises me that more people don’t lean into the violent and action aspect of the character. I think it’s one of the things, and if you go back and look at in the Deadpool movie to 2016, the first one, a very low-budget movie. But yes, he was funny, but the body count in Deadpool is severe and he’s killing people in fairly graphic fashion. But the bottom line is they didn’t forget the action of the character. Sometimes I read Deadpool and I get it, if you want to do an all-humor issue of Deadpool, great, but Deadpool is a man twisted by the procedure that he gave himself over to save himself. 

I meet a lot of people who forget that it’s X-Force #2, six months after Deadpool’s first appearance in July of 1991, where we established that Deadpool came from the Weapon X program. He is battling, at that time there was only Weapon X who was Wolverine. And so I cleared with Marvel, based on the Twins movie. If Wolverine is Schwarzenegger, then Danny DeVito is Deadpool. I said, can he be Weapon 9? They said, yes. I said, well, I’m also introducing Weapon 11, who is Garrison Kane, who establishes in that opening shot that he’s also from the Weapon H Program and they hate each other, but they know each other. They’re familiar from that, and that’s what connects them. People have really forgotten that aspect of the story. And so anytime we can go back to those roots, and the other thing is with Bad Blood, I wanted to establish, you got to understand, I called Marvel up and I said, you’ve never portrayed him as a child.

I need you to confirm this in junior high, high school. And they came back and no one was more shocked than I was. They’re like, yes, Rob, we have never portrayed Wade as a teenager. So I gave you glimpses of him back in grade school. And there was a kid who looked up to him because Wade was his idol. So of course when he learns that Wade went to this program, he went to this program and it’s like the kid that idolized you became an even bigger monstrosity than you did. And that’s where you get Thumper. And then when we introduce our mysterious doctor in our first few pages of Badder Blood. We’re really starting to go more into the mystery and the horrors of what happened in Department H and Weapon X. So that’s my big tease.

Deadpool and Shatterstorm

Deadpool Team-Ups

Circling back to a comment you said earlier about the headgear and Star Wars and Darth Vader got me thinking. Are there any other characters outside the X-Men franchise that you’d like to pair Deadpool up with? Because I’m thinking like a cosmic Deadpool with the Guardians of the Galaxy would definitely be an idea.

Oh my gosh. So for the Deadpool Nerdy 30, I did a Rocket Raccoon and Groot cover for Guardians of the Galaxy. And a couple of years back, Marvel had me do a variant cover with Groot and Rocket. And I’m telling you, here’s the deal: So I had a meeting with Disney last summer. They wanted to run some Deadpool 3 stuff by me, and I can reenact that if I had it within my reach. But look, Rocket Raccoon and Deadpool on screen would be just gold. But in the comics, they look great too. But I reminded Disney, you have your own, because I don’t know the fate of Rocket Raccoon. I haven’t seen Guardians 3, I don’t know what’s going on. I said, look, you have a character. This is the best.

I’m on a Zoom like this with the Disney people, producers on Deadpool 3. And I said you guys got to put Dogpool. You have to put Dogpool in Deadpool 3. And they’re like, there’s a Dogpool? I said, yes. And he talks to Deadpool and only Deadpool could understand him.  And behind me, I have Dogpool statues, action figures, I have the covers that I did. And so I showed them that. And look, I don’t want to give too much away, but there is perhaps a return of Dogpool in Badder Blood. And because I just think we haven’t seen that little dude in a long time. And I think Deadpool has his own cool best team ups. I think Deadpool Corps also was ahead of its time because I wasn’t prepared when they offered me Deadpool Corps.

I thought they were talking about the Marine Corps. It was going to be a badass bunch of mercenaries. And they’re like, no, we want to put them in space. And I’m like, oh boy, should I have said yes to this because I’m committed. Oh crap, we’re on spaceship. Okay. Because when I introduced the Deadpool Corps separately, they weren’t cosmic Lady Deadpool. None of them were cosmic. Suddenly we’re out in space. And it’s like the Green Lantern Corps. I mean, they even took an oath in the last issue. It’s ridiculous. But look, there’s some great stuff in Deadpool’s own universe that we don’t have to go far. And again, the reason I love Rocket Raccoon is he’s just a great cantankerous little animal. But I mean, Deadpool has his own cantankerous little animal in Dogpool. And trust me, there’s just so much more to do with all things Deadpool. So that probably didn’t answer your question, but I gave it my best shot.

Working on Deadpool in Main Marvel Universe

Would you ever be up for doing anything with Deadpool in the main Marvel universe, or are you just enjoy doing it off in your own corner?

So here’s the deal. Basically, since the early, late ’80s, early ’90s when I was in the X-Office and transforming the New Mutants book… take it from the guy who brought Deadpool into the world, who brought Cable into the world, who brought Shatterstar into the world, imagined them, created them, sold them to Marvel. I had my work cut out for me. I had to establish them first and foremost. And I feel like when you give yourself over to the larger Marvel universe or the crossovers, of which many I opted out of, just because they were the sideshow. And I read an interview from Chris Claremont for the 60th anniversary, who said that the crossovers always seemed to get in the way of his stories, but he knew that they were successful and they wanted to do them.

So bringing Deadpool into the greater Marvel universe, I have too many stories I have yet to tell in my own Deadpool Universe because again, I was a very willing, young, hungry 22-year-old kid who knew. I read their agreements. So if I give this character to you, I have in effect sold him to you. But that’s a big deal. How many people can sell characters into the Marvel Universe, right? I have a lot of stories I still have yet to do. Last year C.B. Cebulski, Marvel’s Editor in Chief, came out around the time of the Star Wars Celebration that was being held in Anaheim. So he came out and we had dinner and we started talking and he’s asking me about Cable stories. And I ran home that weekend and pretty much drew an entire first issue of Cable. I’m not going to tell you what it’s about, but it’s definitely scratching a new itch.

And I sent it into him and he’s like, “Rob, Rob. Can you just stay focused on Deadpool?” And I’m like yeah I just got excited. I just want to show you this. And they’re like, no, no, no. Stay focused. Between Cable, Deadpool and Major X, I have a ton of stories that I still have yet to tell, and I feel like I’m in my prime. I really like the way the work is coming out. And before I go completely blind or my hand fails me or I die of an overdose of energy, I’m trying to get all these stories told.

The Cable story that I have is a great story because it deals with the past and the present simultaneously. And that’s all I’ll say. I’m hoping, given that I’m in the back half of drawing Deadpool: Badder Blood #4, so that’s the September issue. And then I’ll wrap up Deadpool: Badder Blood. And so I just want to keep crossing off the last bunch of projects that I have with Marvel because I mean, I’m not going to kid myself. I don’t think that I have another five years of this stuff in me.

I know there are some really robust creators out there, but I have been producing around a hundred or so, 120 pages a year, which is not a big number, but it’s way bigger than most of my peer group. I’m still the old man who, I’m obsessed with comics. I love comics. I want to make comics. I draw comics on Big 11 x 17 boards. I don’t draw them on an iPad. It’s a more laborious thing. Start top left, go bottom, right 11 x 17. I’m doing what I did when I was a teenager, so I’m not sure how much more I have left in me. So I’m just trying to bucket list everything I can. So this one Cable story, I believe would be my last story. I think there’s a sequel to Major X, and I really believe Deadpool: Badder Blood will warrant the trilogy, the final, the Baddest Blood. Okay. So take that.

Deadpool: Badder Blood #3 Cover

Looking Ahead to Badder Blood

What else can fans look forward to in Badder Blood as the series continues? What else do you want to leave fans with?

So we do have some surprises. We’re not going to reveal those here or anywhere as of yet. I think really, again, I put a giant premium on fun and I go to the comic store, I look over lots of comics. I believe that we need to find our way back to fun. And fun involves a lot of big splashy moments. That’s what made me fall in love with comics because you know who picked up on that, on what Jack Kirby was doing was John Byrne, his celebrated X-Men run that they keep wanting to adapt. It’s so popular, so beloved, so acclaimed. It’s the stuff they keep mining. Did the same thing. Splash page, double page splash ends with the splash. Comic books were 16 to 17 pages back then. Okay, you’re taking a third, but you’re taking a third of your product and you’re making it the biggest, splashiest. I mean, that stuff connected.

The stuff that I grew up on with Frank Miller and John Byrne and Jack Kirby, Jim Starlin, that’s the stuff that informs me. So I’m just trying to stay true to the fun of it all. And look, fun means twists, turns, mysteries, new threats. And there is no better person to take on these rides than Deadpool. I laugh out loud at some of the predicaments. So in issue two and in issue three, I got to tell you, there’s a bit in issue one that I think is great too. I mean, how many people are going to revisit Gorr the Golden Gorilla? You may not have seen it in color, but come on here.

That’s 1976, man. That’s my introduction to Gorr. And I’m like, I’m putting Gorr the Golden Gorilla in Deadpool: Badder Blood #1. And it’s fun and it’s a premium on fun. So I’m just going to keep saying that word. And I hope people see Deadpool: Badder Blood and have a great time here. I’m having a great time.