AXIS Tie-In: Deadpool #36-Or, What is Deadpool Doing To Iron Man?
By Roger Lee
As the Marvel Universe lurches through yet another crossover event, this time AXIS, Deadpool #36 shows us the backstory to Deadpool’s participation in the villain attack on Red (Skull) Onslaught.
If nothing in that opening sentence made sense to you, stop here and read at least the first three issues of the AXIS crossover (also known as Avengers & X-Men: AXIS), since this Deadpool #36 review will unleash spoilers to the nth degree. If you have an idea of what is going on, AXIS-wise, then sit back and take in the behind-the-scenes tale of how Deadpool got himself attached (magnetically, in a sense) to the villains who came to the rescue.
AXIS: Deadpool #36 Cover with Iron Man
In many ways, this is a typical split-personality type of Deadpool story. It contains pieces from the past several storylines involving our favorite Merc with a Mouth (His marriage to Shiklah, his search for his missing daughter, the North Korean Faux-Men, and so on), but the main emphasis in this Deadpool book is how Wade ended up appearing with the Villain Cavalry (who came to the rescue at the end of AXIS #2), and what happened to him as a result of the Inversion spell cast by Dr. Doom and the Scarlet Witch. (More on that spell later…).
Deadpool and Shiklah in Deadpool #36
And the tale of Deadpool being recruited/drafted into Magneto’s little cavalcade of crooks is actually pretty interesting, as one of the asides mentioned by Deadpool in the AXIS books relates to him not being a villain (as he poses next to Magneto, Dr. Doom, Carnage, Sabretooth, and other mass murderers), but this is the ride he was able to hop onto for the battle.
Basically, Deadpool is initially offered a ride by the X-Men to go to Genosha to help out the Avengers fight Red Onslaught. In one of his typical loopy hallucinatory episodes, Deadpool misunderstands everything everyone is telling him, and he goes off on his own merry way as the X-Men fly off to Genosha. Later, ‘Pool is more or less drafted by Magneto, as he is collecting powerful villains to go back to Genosha with him to battle the Red Onslaught and his hero-killing Sentinels.
After the villains and Deadpool join the fray, we see Deadpool more or less blackmail Iron Man into making Wade an Avenger for a day, which is reflected in the rather funny cover art to Deadpool #36. The battle ends when Dr. Doom and the Scarlet Witch cast their Inversion spell, causing the remnants of Professor Xavier’s mind in Red Onslaught to become dominant and shut down the villain. Ok, so the spell worked, but it also, as we soon learn, inverted more than just the minds of the Skull and Xavier. It is not obvious at first, but the personalities of the heroes and villains were also inverted. Who was once bad is good, and the good become bad (which is seen more fully in AXIS #4-which is a good read, by the way! For more detail, check out Nick Tylwalk’s great review of AXIS #4).
AXIS: Deadpool and Iron Man
But what about Deadpool, whose mind is already messed up enough to keep a convention of shrinks busy for a month? Well, first of all, being actually more self-aware than most other comic book characters, Deadpool does notice that he feels different, but he can’t quite put his finger on the problem. As he goes back home, he has a conversation with a more Zen-like version of his personality. For Deadpool, that is not necessarily a strange thing, but when the regular Wade persona decides to let the Zen-Wade take over, we see the beginning of a more peaceful-seeming Deadpool. Which, if that holds, will totally mess up his little business of being a killer mercenary!
Deadpool #36 is recommended for anyone who loves Deadpool, naturally, as well as those following along on the AXIS cross-over. This issue does provide some good background for what is happening in AXIS. Check out our review of Deadpool#37 about a month from now to see what happens next!