It's Really Over: Read Deadpool's Final Words By Creator Rob Liefeld
WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Deadpool Team-Up #5It’s the end of an era for Marvel Comics, as writer/artist Rob Liefeld leaves the publisher once more following the completion of his final Deadpoolminiseries. The superstar comics creator recently announced his rather messy divorce from Marvel Comics, marking this miniseries as his final brush with his signature character.
Deadpool Team-Up #5 – written and illustrated by Rob Liefeld – brings the action-packed story to a close in high style. Teaming up with fellow Liefeld characters like Cable, Shatterstar and Major X to fight a dragon lord in another dimension, Liefeld’s final Deadpool tale acts as a perfect coda to his time at Marvel.
Fittingly, Liefeld’s final lines for Deadpool himself sum up the entire storyline in a single pun, as Wade makes a joke that he's "draggin'" after the dragon-themed adventure he’s found himself caught up in.
Rob Liefeld Leaves Marvel With A Pun, Signifying An Amusing End To His History With Deadpool
Deadpool Team-Up #5 – Written & Illustrated By Rob Liefeld; Color By Juan Manuel Rodriguez; Lettering By Joe Sabino
Liefeld's decision to make his final line of Deadpool dialogue is apropos, because it would have been a miscalculation to attempt something overly profound instead. The Merc With a Mouth is celebrated as Marvel's most notoriously un-serious character, despite his initial conception as a non-nonsense antagonist. Further, Deadpool Team-Up's author is known for his sense of humor, as much as his over-the-top artistic style and sensibilities. Ending his time with Deadpool with a pun feels right for Rob Liefeld, especially as this is allegedly the last time he will ever write for Marvel.
Liefeld announced his departure from Marvel roughly a year ago before the release of Deadpool Team-Up miniseries, but recently shared some behind-the-scenes drama that made his decision pretty final. Liefeld felt he was slighted by not being invited to the after-party at the Deadpool and Wolverinepremiere last summer. Additional conflicts with Marvel on the publishing side further led the writer/artist to call it quits, making Deadpool Team-Up the last time fans will get to see Rob Liefeld make a Deadpool comic.
Deadpool Team-Up Marks the End Of An Era, As The Iconic Character's Creator Exits The Company
Rob Liefeld's Final Ride At Marvel Comics
Of course, Liefeld has walked away from Marvel a few different times throughout the years, most notably when he and six other artists left the publisher to form Image Comics in 1992. Liefeld would return four years later when Marvel hired him as a part of the Heroes Reborn initiative, which saw the publisher license out Captain America and The Avengers to Liefeld’s Extreme Studios and Fantastic Four and Iron Man to Jim Lee’s WildStorm. Liefeld later returned to Marvel periodically over the next few decades, with the last few years producing a host of Deadpool stories.
If this latest Deadpool story is truly his last, at least Rob Liefeld is going out with a bang. Deadpool Team-Up featured a number of guest stars across its five-issue run, with Liefeld getting to draw a bevy of characters including Wolverine, Spider-Gwen, the Hulk and Crystar. Yet even if this is truly Liefeld’s swan song at Marvel, the artist will be plenty busy as he prepares for a major relaunch of Youngblood this year at Image Comics. Deadpool and his time at Marvel Comics may be in his rearview mirror, but Rob Liefeld is far from done with comics as a whole.
Deadpool Team-Up #5 is available now from Marvel Comics.
- Created By
- Fabian Nicieza, Rob Liefeld
- Cast
- Ryan Reynolds
- First Appearance
- The New Mutants
- Alias
- Wade Wilson
- Alliance
- X-Men, Avengers, Astonishing Avengers, Deadpool Corps, Frightful Four, Great Lakes Initiative, Heroes for Hire, Mercs for Money, Secret Defenders, Six Pack, Thunderbolts, Weapon X, X-Force
- Race
- Mutant
