Comic Book / Spider-Man/Deadpool

Isn't it Bromantic?

Spider-Man/Deadpool is a 2016 ongoing featuring Spider-Man and Deadpool by Marvel Comics as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event. The series is written by Joe Kelly with art by Ed McGuinness.

The comic focuses on Deadpool and Spider-Man as they team up to face various threats. While Deadpool is immensely pleased as he finally gets to hang out with his favorite wall-crawler, Spider-Man is initially all too disgusted with Deadpool, having previously quit the Avengers Unity Squad because Deadpool became a member. As they team up and hang out together, Spidey learns about the man behind the wisecracking mercenary, while Deadpool starts holding himself to a higher moral standard in order to get closer to Spidey. It's not all bromance and sunshine, however, as Deadpool has been hired to kill Peter Parker.

Things only get more complicated from there, as several foes from both beyond the grave and the very living realm serve to give these two a hard time, testing the mettle their (often contrasting) morals are made of.

The title was rebranded as Spider-Man vs. Deadpool following the launch of Marvel Legacy.

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Spider-Man/Deadpool provides examples of:

• Always Someone Better: Itsy-Bitsy repeatedly bests Spider-Man and Deadpool in combat. During the final issue, however, Spidey defeats her by giving in to his rage.
• All Your Powers Combined: Itsy-Bitsy is an assassin empowered by Patient Zero tasked with framing Spider-Man and Deadpool, having access to both of their combined powers (and a few others) and arsenal.
• Anachronic Order: The "Itsy-Bitsy" arc happens and is finished either before or after the "Till Death Do Us Part" arc In-Universe, but is interrupted by a Tie-In of the latter.
• Ascended Meme: In the last arc Silk meets an alternate future version of herself and they recreate the pointing Spider-Men meme. Wade asks the author for a blank version of that panel for meme purposes and he obliges.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In-universe at the very beginning. When Deadpool and Spider-Man are tangled together in Dormammu's web, Deadpool at one point, much to Spider-Man's disgust, acts as if he's having an orgasm, when he actually was dislocating his leg so they could get free.
  • Issue #13 begins by showing a gross combination of Spider-Man and Deadpool, with the implication that Deadpool's teleporting device caused the horrific thing. But then, it turns out Deadpool and Spider-Man are fine, if battered.
  • During the final issue of the "Itsy-Bitsy" arc, it seems Spider-Man has finally given in to his urges and killed Itsy-Bitsy, but it's revealed to be Deadpool using a holo-projector, much to Mephisto's chagrin.
• Big Bad:
  • Patient Zero, initially, as he is the one to hire Deadpool to kill Spidey, and creates Itsy-Bitsy. Later on, Itsy-Bitsy herself takes the role after Zero is killed.
  • Chameleon serves as this for the first arc of Spider-Man Vs. Deadpool, using Spidey and Deadpool's current animosity for his own ends.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: After repeated defeats at the hands of Itsy-Bitsy, Deadpool resolves to train Spidey in swordsmanship with the help of Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler), partially to up their chances of stopping her and partially so Peter can vent his frustrations.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: According to Deadpool most mercs see Arcade as "a weirdo, a creep and a creepy weirdo".
• Breather Episode: The sixth issue is set after the "Peter Parker's Assassination" storyline, but before the storyline dealing with Deadpool's employer. It's a Whole Episode Flashback set sometime shortly after the start of the series, and features a whimsical adventure in Hollywood that has a lot of commentary on modern superhero movies.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Discussed. The reason Deadpool kept his assassination of Peter Parker a secret to Spidey, aside from Spider-Man's known distaste for murder, is because Wade believes Spidey clearly looks up to Peter and he didn't want that image ruined, because Spidey's trust in humanity is, to Wade, one of his most admirable traits.
  • For the aforementioned reason, Deadpool won't let Spider-Man kill Itsy-Bitsy, as he holds Spider-Man to a higher standard and doesn't want him to become this.
  • Played for Laughs in the Til Death Do Us Part crossover. Cami Van Helsing was one of Deadpool's biggest fans... then she spent some time with him, and realized that he was far less impressive (and far more annoying) than she thought he was.
• Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Deadpool is hired by Patient Zero to kill Peter Parker, having been provided false evidence that holds Parker culpable to horrible crimes. At the same time, he wants to be best friends with Spider-Man. To drive the point home, after a night at the bar with Spidey, Deadpool assassinates Peter Parker and the first thing he does is call Spidey and thank him for the previous night, telling him he really needed a friend.
• Continuity Nod:
  • During the events of issue 5, Deadpool breaks Peter out of the afterlife, having discovered he was innocent. While there, Peter encounters Mephisto, who rubs in his face that no matter what he does, a part of him will always feel empty because it's lacking something fundamental. Peter, on his part, only vaguely recognizes Mephisto.
  • Patient Zero only hates Peter Parker as well as Deadpool because of a time travel incident where Wade sabotaged his position with Oscorp and disguised as Peter Parker got him into alcohol and weapons dealing.
  • Spider-Man mentions quitting the Avengers Unity Squad because Deadpool joined it.
  • Much of Deadpool's Hidden Depths that Spidey discovers were a part of Wade's Character Development in the past few years.
  • Issue #6 features a throwback to one of Spidey's first adventures in Amazing Spider-Man #14 and Daredevil's origin story.
  • Deadpool also mentions that Norman Osborn knocked up Spidey's girlfriend and killed her, as part of a fourth wall-breaking sequence. Spidey's reaction sells it. It's also worth noting Deadpool doesn't know Spider-Man's secret identity.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Basically Patient Zero's endgame, in regards to Spider-Man, and he's gonna have a hell of a time messing with Deadpool while he is at it.
• Crapsack World: Issue #13 has the duo regrouping in Weirdworld because of it's compressed timeframe and have to deal with multiple crises in quick succession. Eventually lampshaded by Wade because they keep popping up on page turn reveals.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Patient Zero hired Deadpool to kill Peter Parker, partially so that he could pose as him and take over his company. It's the reason nobody starts looking for Peter after Deadpool kills him.
• Deal with the Devil: Patient Zero made one with Mephisto: Get out of hell in exchange for corrupting Spider-Man's soul.
• Evil Costume Switch: When he resolves to actually kill Itsy-Bitsy so that she won't keep going on a murder spree, Spider-Man dons a costume closely resembling that of the Superior Spider-Man, which Deadpool comments on.
• Exiled to the Couch: Shiklah tells Deadpool that he's sleeping in the "nail room" after he makes out with Death.
• From Bad to Worse: During the "Oldies" storyline. Not only does the Deadpool LMD summon an army like him, they recover the pieces of their creator, the Master Matrix, who proceeds to enact a plan to Kill All Humans.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Itsy-Bitsy was a recovering drug addict who lamented not being able to change the world until Patient Zero gave her her powers.
• Good Counterpart: Master Matrix to Itsy-Bitsy, Both consider Spiderman and Deadpool to be their dads and genuinely want to make the world a better place but they don't have a very good grasp on morality and end up becoming very powerful Super villains who hurt a lot of people and cause their "fathers" a great amount of physical and physiological harm, but while Itsy-Bitsy believed Murder Is the Best Solution refused to listen to others and only wanted things done on her own terms, Master Matrix was much more willing to hear them out and ultimately resolved their issues and his own moral ambiguity by talking things out.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Mephisto, who hasn't forgotten his last interaction with Spider-Man and now seeks to corrupt his soul, and resurrects Patient Zero into the realm of the living to execute his plans.
• Heel–Face Turn: Spider-Man and his future self are able to convince Master Matrix to abandon his plans of destruction, and he looks to present Spider-Man and Deadpool to help him decide what to do next.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: Deadpool and Spidey at one point go out for a night of drinking. It ends with the two of them performing a striptease to appease Thor and Spidey's succubus date. In a later comic, they celebrate the holidays together before a God representing the Christmas spirit of old crashes the party. It's worth noting Deadpool originally had an Avenger Exclusive party where Spider-Man wasn't invited to, but then the other heroes kicked Deadpool out of his own party for making a joke about the second Civil War.
• Hidden Depths: From Spider-Man's point of view, Deadpool has them. Spider-Man initially only recognizes Deadpool as an insane Professional Killer Deadpan Snarker fond of Ludicrous Gibs, but is shocked to learn that he has an altruïstic side and, even more poignantly, a daughter.
• Incest Subtext:
  • Itsy-Bitsy likes to tease her daddies... in a creepy way.
    Itsy-Bitsy: I don't want to hurt you... Unless you like that sort of thing, Daddy.
  • Later on, when Spidey is actively trying to kill her, she comments that she "always wanted to feel his body against hers... but not like this."
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: When Deadpool witnesses Peter's spiritual energy while in the afterlife, he is shocked at how bright it is, saying that Parker would have to be one of the greatest, purest people he's ever met. Ironically, during the same issue we are also reminded he once made a Deal with the Devil, and the Devil very much remembers it. (Then again, he did it to save the life of his aunt.)It's eventually revealed that the core plot of the comic is Mephisto trying to corrupt Spider-Man, and when it fails, the demon is highly displeased.
• Ink-Suit Actor: A bell ringer that gets decapitated by Saturn in issue 12 is modeled after Brian "Q" Quinn from Impractical Jokers.
• It's Personal: Spidey is very, very pissed that Itsy-Bitsy is killing criminals in his name. He even considers putting aside his No-Kill rule, and eventually tries to do just that. Deadpool won't let him.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Issue #6 has a lot of commentary on modern Superhero movies, including a Take That! at Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Spider-Man commenting that Hollywood just reboots stuff until they get it right.
  • The same issue also mocks the Deadpool (2016) movie, such as how it could only afford "two action set pieces", and the use of Colossus as a "co-star".
    Deadpool: But I've barely ever said two words to him...
• Kick the Dog:
  • Chameleon has a Kraven LMD working as his Number Two, solely for the pleasure of bossing around a facsimile of his hated older half-brother.
  • The Kraven LMD returns the favor after betraying him, mocking Chameleon by claiming even an imitation like him is more worthy of the Kravinoff name than Chameleon is.
• Knight Templar: Itsy-Bitsy desires to use her new powers to finally bring true change to the world after feeling powerless for so long, and essentially goes on repeated killing sprees to make it happen. Spider-Man actually goes full Knight Templar as well trying to stop her.
• Literal Metaphor: Weirdworld is a pocket dimension, as in it's literally a pocket on Eternity's pants.
• Mysterious Past: The Master Matrix, Super Prototype for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Life Model Decoys. His blueprints were discovered on an old HYDRA base, blueprints HYDRA itself discovered some time before that.
• Never My Fault: Patient Zero (aka Weasel) hates Deadpool for killing him, but he ignores the fact that Deadpool only did that because Weasel betrayed him (and not for the first time, either).
• Not Quite Dead: Deadpool seems to have killed Itsy-Bitsy by pushing her body through a plasma breeder, but she turned out to have survived and began to slowly grow back, being stuck in the form of a small spider for the time being.
• Off with His Head!: During their swordsmanship training, Spidey finally decapitates Deadpool (who has a healing factor) when he resolves to kill Itsy-Bitsy. Deadpool uses his time in the realm of the dead to interrogate Patient Zero before he heals.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Peter is so driven nuts over Itsy-Bitsy's antics that not only does he decide to dump his Thou Shall Not Kill policy (which was something the Dan Slott run smashed constantly), but also don the second Superior Spider Man costume to fight her. Deadpool has to try to talk Spidey down.
• Razor Floss: Itsy-Bitsy can produce organic webbing sharp enough to slice someone into pieces.
• Retgone: After Master Matrix undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, thereby averting the Bad Future Old Man Deadpool and Spidey came from, the two future heroes fade out of existence.
• The Reveal: It turns out that Patient Zero is actually Weasel.
  • Later on, it's revealed Weasel made a deal with Mephisto to be resurrected on the condition that he corrupts Spider-Man's soul.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Deadpool, after being decapitated by Spider-Man during a practice session, uses his time in the afterlife to interrogate someone. Normally this is not permitted, but being married to the queen of the underworld gives him an "in".
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Old Man Deadpool and Old Man Spidey travel back to the present to prevent the Master Matrix from rising to power (which led to one of his LMD army (in the form of Deadpool) crippling Spidey.
• Sex Is Violence: Itsy-Bitsy has a mad hard-on for Spider-Man and Deadpool, and actively tries to get Spidey to give in to his murderous urges.
• Shout-Out:
  • Spider-Man is really into Overwatch.
  • Deadpool asks Spider-Man if he can borrow his phone by referencing E.T: "D.P phone hommmmme."
  • Soon afterwards, Deadpool tells Spidey to give him a call if he wants back up or "binge-watch Faces of Death or Grey's Anatomy or whatever".
  • Deadpool at one point mentions Game of Thrones.
  • At one point when Deadpool and Spider-Man dance together, Spider-Man lifts Deadpool over his head all Dirty Dancing-style, which the two of them later lampshade as they crack up.
    Deadpool: No hesitation. None at all!
    Spider-Man: You literally said "Do the lift!", what else was I supposed to do?
    Deadpool: Spider-Swayze.
    Spider-Man: That makes you Dead-Baby. Wait, that's not funny...
  • In issue 18, when Deadpool tries to persuade Peter that there are better methods for stopping Itsy-Bitsy besides killing her. His last attempt?
    Deadpool: Collect all the Dragon Balls and wish her away!!!
    Spider-Man: ...
    Spider-Man: I did not think of that. Oh. Wait. They don't exist.
  • While fighting some freaky villains in volume 3, Deadpool says they're "like Inside Out and Zootopia had a litter of embarrassing idiot children".
  • Spidey is concerned that Pool Fuel energy drink contains several ingredients he's never heard of, including goloka root, Miraclo and vitamin 2X.
• Super Prototype: The Master Matrix is one to the original S.H.I.E.L.D. LMD units, who were all reverse-engineered from him by Richard and Mary Parker.
• Super Spit: Itsy-Bitsy can spit a powerful acid at her opponents.
• Take a Third Option: Deadpool doesn't want Spider-Man to kill Itsy-Bitsy, but he also acknowledges that she is extremely dangerous. His solution? Just kill her himself. Or at least, he tries to.
• Take That!: This comic sure likes to take jabs at Zack Snyder...
  • Issue #6 features a movie cover that reads "Hyperion vs. Nighthawk: Yawn of Boredom" with the smaller subtitle "You won't believe their mothers share a first name!", while Spider-Man and Deadpool discuss the movie's several flaws.
    Deadpool: Ugh. None of that made sense. Why were they fighting one minute, then best friends the next?
    Spider-Man: And don't worry about scenes that set up the next eight movies. Just make this one satisfying!
  • Issue #12 has a similar moment when comparing Saturn to what would happen if Zack Snyder made a movie about Santa Claus but instead of giving out presents, he murders people.
  • Issue 46 begins the "Infinite House of Civil yet Secret Crisis War Invasion" arc, a satire on Crisis Crossover events where Spider-Man and Deadpool return from the Negative Zone to a bad future. The main villain of the arc is an apparent cosmic being called "The Manipulator" who kills, resurrects and retools superheroes and supervillains alike to engage in whatever conflict he makes them and imprisons them when he's not using them. A specific jab is taken at Secret Empire's Fauxlosophic Narration when Doctor Octopus exposits his most recent outing using Meaningless Meaningful Words which are lampshaded by Spider-Man as such.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: The main reason Spidey initially takes beef with Deadpool is because Deadpool is a known mercenary. When Spidey later on considers forsaking this rule, however, Deadpool resolves to stop him from doing so.
  • It's deconstructed when Spider-Man eventually begins to lament that not killing Itsy-Bitsy essentially just permits her to rack up her death toll and cites how supervillains never stay down after defeat, even when by all accounts, they should be disappearing in prison for life. He begins to wonder if this just makes him an accomplice to her murders, as it is his responsibility to save as many people as possible.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Anna Maria worries that Deadpool is this to Peter, but eventually it's shown to be the reverse: Deadpool tries to be a better person so he can stay friends with Spider-Man, and even resolves to keep Spidey from killing Itsy-Bitsy when the webhead begins losing his patience.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Spider-Man has been slowly beginning to act careless with his actions which Deadpool finds disconcerting. He eventually resolves to kill Itsy-Bitsy, with Deadpool resolving to stop him.
• True Meaning of Christmas: Issue 12 deals with Spidey and Deadpool trying to convince Saturn to accept his holiday being appropriated into Christmas by showing him it can be just as debauched as Saturnalia. This convinced Saturn to resurrect all the people he brutally massacred for celebrating Christmas.
• Unsound Effect: When Spidey hurls Deadpool onto a roof, he impacts with the sound effect "ASPHALT!"◊
• Was It All a Lie?: Spider-Man asks Deadpool if he had completely faked wanting to be friends and turning over a new leaf so he could get close to and kill Peter Parker. Deadpool really did start to like Spider-Man however and admits to being a screw-up.
• What You Are in the Dark: Mephisto's goal is essentially to prove that Spidey can give in to his murderous urges as much as the next guy, so he can claim his corrupted soul.

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