Todd McFarlane Reacts to Deadpool & Wolverine’s Hulk Comic Cover Homage (Exclusive)

He’s the best there is at what he does. Before comic book creator Todd McFarlane launched his adjectiveless Spider-Man at Marvel and Spawn at Image in the ’90s, he illustrated issues of the Peter David-penned run of The Incredible Hulk between 1987 and 1988. During his time at Marvel, McFarlane co-created the Spider-Man villain Venom and drew the classic (and often recreated) cover of Amazing Spider-Man #300. But it was 1987’s Incredible Hulk #340, depicting the grey-skinned Hulk in the reflection of Wolverine’s adamantium claws, that became one of the defining images for both characters.

The iconic image was recreated in Marvel Studios’ billion-grossing Deadpool & Wolverine, which pays homage to the cover when Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) — scouring the multiverse for a Logan variant — happens across a brown-suited Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) about to go berserker on Mark Ruffalo’s green goliath. 

ComicBook broke the news to McFarlane, who stopped by our San Diego Comic-Con booth to dish on new McFarlane Toys figures, his Spawn movie reboot at Blumhouse, and his line of 1:6th and 1:10th scale posed figures recreating some of the most famous Marvel Comics covers.

“Every now and then people will tell me that there’s something in a TV show or a movie — even sometimes I’m a Jeopardy! question. You don’t know it’s coming, so it catches you a little bit off guard,” McFarlane said. “You go, ‘Okay, I didn’t have anything to do with it, so I don’t know.’ I find that the neighbors get more excited, right? They’ll come knocking on the door: ‘Did you see The Big Bang Theory last night? They mentioned you.’ I’m bored of me.”

McFarlane acknowledged that the cover may be one fans have seen before “a million times” over the past 37 years because of how often it has been recreated on comic covers — from Marvel’s own Deadpool,Marvel Zombies, and Darkhawk, to issues of non-Marvel IP like Rick & Morty, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, and even issue #226 of McFarlane’s long-running Spawn comic.

“But God bless Marvel. They want to keep stoking the McFarlane fires, keep on going,” McFarlane said. “Why am I relevant 30 years later? It’s an odd thing to me, but thank you.”