Warning: Spoilers for Deadpool: Team-Up (2024) #4 ahead!
AlthoughRob Liefeldmay be leaving his career withMarvelandDeadpoolbehind, his final series for the publisher is more than worthy of the Liefeld legacy.Deadpool: Team-Up (2024)is more than just a who’s-who exhibition of some of Liefeld’s most popular matchups and characters:the series is also chock-full of the classic Liefeld style that has elevated the man to the status of a living meme.
InDeadpool: Team-Up#4 – written and illustrated by Rob Liefeld – and the preceding issues of the series, the author’s personal touch is immediately apparent: static action poses, barely any panels with background or scenery, and the bulk of exposition takes place via alternating panels of chest-height closeups. However, the real treat is when Cable arrives, making his grand entrance by breaking up a fight between Wolverine and Lady Deadpool.
This version of Cable embodies the artist’s hyperbolic form in all its glory – making it especially fitting for his final Marvel outing.
Rob Liefeld Says Goodbye To Marvel In The Most Rob Liefeld Way Possible
Deadpool Team-Up#4 – Written By Rob Liefeld; Art By Liefeld; Available Now From Marvel Comics
Everything about Cable here is classic Liefeld: the character’s legs are obscured, the weapons and shoulder pouches are massive, the proportions are noticeably off, and Cable’s hands barely seem to interact with the gigantic cannon he’s holding. Liefeld’s artistic style has become infamous over the years, and his announcement that he would be officially “retiring” from writing Deadpool, and working for Marvel Comics in general, set readers' expectations high for what his ultimate outing with the character would offer. So far,Deadpool Team-Uphas not disappointed.
Rob Liefeld Talks the Youngblood Revival, the Birth of Image Comics, Saying Goodbye To Marvel, & More (Interview)
Comic artist Rob Liefeld spoke to Screen Rant about the return of his pioneering Image Comics series “Youngblood,” his swan song at Marvel, & more.
Few people in the comic book industry have a legacy to match Liefeld’s. He and his compatriots whofounded Image Comics in 1992had a direct hand in shaping that decade’s “grim and gritty” aesthetic of buckled, gun-toting, katana-swinging protagonists, leaving an indelible mark on a generation of comic book fans.Liefeld is also responsible for creating several beloved Marvel charactersthroughout his thirty-odd years with the publisher: although “Merc-with-the-Mouth” Deadpool is undoubtedly his most popular character, the time-traveling mutant Cable is a respectable second and the probability-altering Domino remains a perennial member of the mutant team, X-Force.
Rob Liefeld’s Over-The-Top Art Defined A Generation Of Comics – Marvel Is Central To His Comic Book Legacy
Deadpool & Cable’s Creator Goes Out In Style
However, Liefeld is most well-known for his peculiar art style, which has earned him just as many fans as it has detractors. There are dozens upon dozens of internet articles pointing out Liefeld’s bizarre grasp of anatomy, reluctance toward drawing feet, over-reliance on gearing up characters with straps, belts, and giant weapons, and so on. For his part, Liefeld appears to have taken his elevation to meme status with surprising grace, displaying little to no ill-will about his notoriety and often joining in the conversation to chuckle at his own expense.
Figures like Cable and Deadpool are Marvel icons. As such, it’s an appropriate send-off to see them depicted here one last time in the “proper” way: that is to say, the Rob Liefeld way.
This picture of Cable is worthy of being included with the best of Liefeld’s iconic art, and withDeadpool: Team-Upbeing Liefeld’s last series for Marvel, it’s something of a relief to see that at least one last meme-worthy imagemade it into the mix. While Liefeld still intends to work in comics by revitalizing hisYoungbloodfranchise, figures likeCable andDeadpoolareMarvelicons. As such, it’s an appropriate send-off to see them depicted here one last time in the “proper” way: that is to say, theRob Liefeldway.
Deadpool: Team-Up (2024) #4is available now from Marvel.
Deadpool
The merc with the mouth first appeared in an issue ofNew Mutantsin 1990, and since then has gone on to get his own series and a massive cult following. With his incredible powers of healing and regeneration, Deadpool was initially depicted as an X-Men villain but went on to become an anti-hero. After getting his own movie series starting in 2016, the third Deadpool movie finally brings the wisecracking, fourth-wall-breaking character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
