Soooo are we gonna talk about Deadpool/Wolverine WII?!? (analysis kinda)
(Ok, ok I know that people HAVE technicaly made posts about this but I will indulge myself and you guys further) Now this might be hard without actually using some of the panels but I will try to not use tooo many.
We start of our story of strong with Logan seemingly having a nightmare involving past versions of himself as he is having this very deep almost nihilistic monologue about existence and how insignificant we truly are and that all succumbs to entropy in the end. Upon first read I brushed these first pages off because I gravely misjudged the energy this comic was about to give, but now that I know what I know, Logan is scared of himself here. Logan thinks that with each time he has a "rebirth" he only gets worse, succumbs to his instincts and strays further from man. And man does this tie a fucked up little bow to bring the whole thing full circle...but for now all you need to know is that Logan was doubting himself from the damn beginning.
From this we jump to Wolverine's explanation on what he is up to and apparently an old friend has asked him for a favour to track an especially grizzly violent serial killer back in Canada. And it just so turns out our bud Wade was ALSO payed asked to take care of the same man. Now funny interactions aside. There are a few interesting things to point out here in the next few pages.
THIS! Although nothing special at first Wolverine will keep using variations of this phrase numerous times throughout the comic, each time becoming something more if you will. So just keep that in mind.
The second is actually a bit weird and abstract but bare with me, it feels like there is something intentional here... The guy they are fighting has seemingly fully lost his shit, like incoherent lost his shit but what he says fells a bit like an allegory.
"Our relationship hurts sometimes, I know, but that's just the skin. You don't need the skin, Summer."
"I just want to talk, but you..."
"Summer... changes her skin. How can I know love is real if... how do I know real is real?"
"Everything is ash. Stop changing. Just be real with me. Please."
While looking at Deadpool "You aren't real."
Then when Wolverine lunges at him "You're... different. You're real. HELP ME!"
Now it might seem crazy what I'm about to say~, but the more I think about it the more this just feels like a hint at Wade and Logan's relationship here reflection of Wade's thots and what happens later on. Put a pin on this for now, and sit tight oki? Good.
Logan projecting something something, a parallel being drawn between the two of them again, something something.
Sigh...Oh Wade... See, I honestly think both of them are projecting sooo hard here. This with the page above gives the idea that they both are kind of under the belief that they are monsters, animals, undeserving of mercy or help, that they are something that can't be helped. That the only thing to do is kill them. But the thing is? nether of them can die. It is exactly this page here we decent into something really raw.
Again, this feels important to me. Something about what the bartender said feels important I just can't put my finger on it... It feels to me like Logan was planing to just do what he usually does but the dude's words got to him and he decided to do something different this time and go find Wade instead...
First I love how he agrees with Deadpool's "Diabetes and desperation" comment lol. But, that remark, there it is again. Also, while Logan says "Lucky break" he very quickly catches on that it is actually just Wade leaving him bread crumbs to find him.
Logan gets attacked by guys who smell like the serial killer they put down in Vancouver here. But to not drown us with unnecessary pages I will just mention an important monologue he has here.
"Pain is a powerful motivator. Sometimes, it's the only one that'll work on a person. I can't afford the luxury of giving over to pain. That's how MY monster comes out. In spite of appearances, I don't want to be that monster...never again. It @&#%4 hurts... but I swim through it. As a man."
Once again, Logan is showing that fear he has of who he is deep inside. Tries desperately to hide it away, act as a human, too scared of the reaction he will get, scared he will be rejected, scared he won't be able to help himself and hurt somebody he didn't mean to.
Anyway he kills everyone and a man comes in the room to drop a letter of to him and Logan hits him in a fit of rage, and the information ends up taking him to Kolybel where he stumbles into a gala like event with people expecting him and applauding his way but also acting like unhinged superfans who feel like they deserve to do whatever they want. He walks in deeper following a red carpet and pulls red curtains apart revealing this.
Which immediately triggers Logan's ptsd from back when they were in Weapon X. I fully believe he was looking at Wade and seeing the ghost of his past "Weapon X" self like gazing at a mirror. Which is funny considering the next page... but a thing I like to mention is that "Upgrade or perish" is actually something Deadpool says earlier to the serial killer while on Wolverine's shoulders.
And this is the title. Wade Willson III. Get it? I am just salty people keep calling it "World War III" sigh... but anyway this name thing is still kind of important soooo keep that in mind.
Now... I can't share my thots just yet. We need to go deeper into the story for that first... But I think you see where this is going.
At this point our big bad is having a monologue just like the one Logan has at he very beginning, one that is both made to mirror and contrast.
We move to Wolverine and Wade fighting with Logan trying to snap him out of it with a "WADE! You ass, focus it's me!" while he shares his thots in the background. "Generally speaking, I don't much care for Deadpool. Specifically speaking, I hate his z%@#z guts. But I got a soft spot for idiots whose brains get scrambled for the entertainment of rich maniacs. So it's hero time, I guess." Which honestly sounds like he just admitted he has a soft spot for him period and something more.
We find out that Wolverine's appearance was not intended and that he is quickly beginning to wreck the initial performance planned by Delta for his guests/funders. Basically to summarise and dumb it down there there to witness Wade's "Becoming" (basically what Delta calls his forced kind of rebirth) and he realises this is getting out of hand and makes his assistant teleport them elsewhere. Logan is done reasoning at this point and just goes at Wade saying "I've been there. Brain full of probes. Out of my damn mind... Only one thing ever shook me out of it... Pain. Pain speaks to savage an' savant the same way." Just..the parallels ugh. Anyway before they even realise it they were already teleported in the middle of the tundra.
Delta confronts Wolverine starting to explain the situation and when Logan asks what they did to Wade trying to fight the urge to gut him and Delta tells him "Exactly what he asked for...The opportunity to achieve his quantitatively best self...his Becoming." continuing saying that Wilson the Third serves a higher purpose with no self-destructive
ego to derail him. Which makes Wolverine ask even more franticly. And so Delta threatens that if he concerns himself with Wades wellbeing so much he might give him a "Becoming" of his own.
And when Deadpool is finally shaking out of it and we get this interaction AGAIN. But also I will never get over Wade's reaction to realising Logan is there. (I REALY have to apologise for the absence of ya know the analysis bit I just need to get some stuff down first.)
Now they are left to fend for themselves and while Logan is trying to get them to move somewhere higher Wade tries to tell him to leave him and part ways for the better of both of em.
At this point Wade is still desiccating pretty hard and wants to detach himself from past self but we find out that the reason he wanted Logan to follow him is because he was scared. We hear the "Third times the charm" yet again and it starts to become apparent that Wade believed that maybe he needed his "third time" just like Logan. Then we get this.
Wade is sick, very sick. But the "once a pickle can you ever become a cucumber again" thing is strangely deep lol. At this point Wade is coming to and cold dread about the procedures done to him is settling in. Wade is starving and Logan realises if he doesn't do something he will die.
OH I AM SORRY YOU DIDN'T EXPECT WADE EATING LOGANS FLEASH HE COOKED FOR HIM?!? ME NETHER! WADES REALISATION OH MY GOD.
OK...ok Wade and Logan have a heart to heart and this is where aaaall the pins start to come into play. Remember the bar and the conversation with the bartender? THIS is why that was important, both TRY so fucking hard to forget, to drown the voices with substances even when they KNOW it doesn't work, but do it again anyways. And Logan now knows this, sympathises. And then we get hit again.
I fully believe that Logan was getting mad and lashed out here more so at the idea of what Delta made him believe more than actually at Wade. Because Delta is basically insinuating that their lives don't matter, that the parts of Wade that are Logan are the problem and what makes him, what makes THEM, a monster. But then Wade comes out and basically admits he sees Logan as a man not monster like himself and desperately wanted to join him, to try and be human like him, with him. He sees Logans life in cycles that mirror his and thinks that maybe if he has his "third time" maybe he can be like him.
And Delta pushes those buttons. Mirrors Wade and Logan. Forces Logan to look deep and realise that him and Wade are the exact same monster. That his life has been just as much of a sloppy ugly mess as Wade's, a misery, he has just had the time to hide it to learn to pretend.
Delta tries to give Wade the option to restart his "Becoming", be his past self no more and leave the monster behind. Leave LOGAN behind. And what does Wade do?
Leave Logan behind? Yeah...Hell no.
And there we go that phrase again. But Wade is not winning here...
Oh...Logan is scared. Wade is dead and Logan is now all alone and he is not taking it very well...
Yeah...Logan is losing it. Folks is it normal for your every second thot to be that your Wade is dead? Asking for a friend. Anywho Delta is pressing Logan's buttons again.
Remember at the beginning when I said that the ramblings of that guy remind me of their relationship? Well...Lets look at those again trough Wade's perspective towards Logan.
"Our relationship hurts sometimes, I know, but that's just the skin. You don't need the skin, Logan."
"I just want to talk, but you..."
"Logan... changes his skin. How can I know love is real if... how do I know real is real?"
"Everything is ash. Stop changing. Just be real with me. Please."
"You're... different. You're real. HELP ME!"
Now when you put it like this does it not sound like a very eery allegory for them? That deep down Wade wishes that maybe if Logan sheds the "skin" and lays bare, the monster beneath then maybe they could stop fighting? That Logan desperately tries to bury the monster, even if it means changing skin to do so, even when it costs him his relationships? How Wade is not sure what Logan thinks of him but wants that connection, wants to be real with him? Begging Logan to stop, to wait for him, to just be real with him, together, to strip the skin just for him because he is the only other man who watches everything around them as it turns to ash? Because he is different just like him, real...
Logan gives in and sheds the skin. Wade has other plans...
Heh...Funny how that happens huh?
I have reached the image limits so I will just have to Finnish it off in a repost. This took me like 5 hours???
Special thanks to poor @poolverine-enjoyer who's excitement unbeknownst to them fulled my delusion to keep going for 5 hours straight. lol
