WOLVERINE #88 – December 1994

It’s D-D-Deadpool, Folks!

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Adam Kubert & Fabio Laguna (pencilers), Mark Farmer & Tim Townsend (inkers), Pat Brosseau (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

As a favor to James Hudson, Wolverine goes to San Francisco to check on Kane. When he enters the apartment Kane shares with Vanessa, he discovers Deadpool. Deadpool attacks, seriously wounding Wolverine when he stabs him in the back. Deadpool sees a photo on the wall of Kane and Vanessa at a local theatre and leaves. Wolverine works past his pain to catch a taxi and follow Deadpool. At the theatre, Kane and Vanessa are rehearsing lines for a play when Deadpool enters, wanting revenge on Vanessa for leaving him. The pair fights Deadpool while the breaks go out in Wolverine’s taxi. He rips open the passenger side door and uses it to glide down the street to the theatre. Deadpool throws two swords, one at Kane’s head and the other at Vanessa’s heart. Wolverine enters in time to stop the sword from killing Vanessa, while Kane knocks away the other sword. Deadpool drops a smoke grenade and teleports away. As Wolverine leaves town, he tells Vanessa not to feel bad about Kane stopping the sword aimed at him instead of the one Deadpool threw at her. He reasons that if Kane were dead, he wouldn’t have been able to get her help, or stop Deadpool from killing her some other way.

Continuity Notes

Kane and Vanessa are working as actors in San Francisco because they’ve retired from their violent lifestyle. This doesn’t last, and I think this story was just ignored when they were brought back.

This is presumably the first meeting between Deadpool and Wolverine. They seem to only know each other through reputation (Wolverine asks, “Deadpool, ain’t it?” implying that he’s never met him).

Wolverine’s healing factor is returning to its full strength, after being damaged after Magneto’s attack in “Fatal Attractions”. Deadpool claims that he has a “mutant healing factor” even though he’s not a mutant (he might simply be joking, though.)

“Huh?” Moment

In-between panels, Kane’s clothes change from normal street clothes to his elaborate superhero outfit with a bandoleer and other accessories.

We Get Letters

There’s a letter from a reader who refuses to read any X-comic that’s had an appearance by Apocalypse in the past, because he’s offended that the name of God’s judgment day is being used for a villain. He’s thankful that Apocalypse never showed up in Wolverine, so he can keep buying this book. The editor’s brilliant response is to bring up a Wolverine special from 1990 where Apocalypse actually did appear.

Review

This is the infamous Fabio Laguna issue, the one with a direct Jim Lee swipe on all of his pages. The Swipe of the Week website got all kinds of material out of this one. Even Wizard magazine called Laguna out by printing a letter from a fan who noticed the swipes. I was more than willing to go along with the Jim Lee clones when I was fourteen, but I couldn’t take this one even back then. Once the Adam Kubert pages stop, this turns into a really hideous looking comic. The story just seems to be killing time until Wolverine can get back to the mansion to confront Sabretooth before the “Age of Apocalypse” crossover begins. Deadpool is back to the creepy “kill my ex-girlfriend” motivation he had almost two years earlier in X-Force, which undermines the work done to develop his character in his two miniseries. The opening fight scene between Wolverine and Deadpool with the Kubert art isn’t that bad, but the rest of the issue is pretty dire.