2011's *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe* certainly lives up to its name. This gripping comic series showcases what happens when Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, goes completely off the rails and starts eliminating the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe. The popularity of this series led writer Cullen Bunn and artist Dalibor Talajić to reunite for a sequel, *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again* in 2017. Now, the dynamic duo is back for what they claim to be the final installment, *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe One Last Time*. This time, the stakes are higher as Deadpool unleashes his wrath not just on one universe, but the entire Marvel multiverse.
IGN recently had the opportunity to delve deeper into this thrilling conclusion through an email interview with Cullen Bunn. Before we dive into the interview, feast your eyes on an exclusive preview of the first issue below, and then read on to discover more about the fourth wall-breaking carnage that awaits.
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe One Last Time - Image Gallery
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Cullen Bunn has become one of Marvel's most prolific Deadpool creators, having written everything from *Deadpool: Killustrated* to *Night of the Living Deadpool* to *Deadpool & the Mercs for Money*. Amid his extensive work with the character, IGN was curious if Bunn always envisioned sequels for *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe*.
“I never knew that series would go anywhere or be anything more than me having a good time writing a comic,” Bunn tells IGN. “I can't help myself, though. I love thinking about where stories could go. I ask myself constantly... what's next? When I was first working on *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe*, my first pitch after I completed that series was *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Multiverse*. At least, that was one of three initial pitches, including *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Cosmic Universe*, *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Zombies*, *Deadpool's Secret Wars*, and *Deadpool Killustrated*. Two of those happened, but the Multiverse book was the closest to what we've got coming up. And, frankly, now is a much better time to do that story!”
The challenge with crafting a trilogy like this is to keep escalating the conflict. Starting with a series where Deadpool takes out the entire rosters of the X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four sets a high bar. For Bunn, expanding the scope to the multiverse was the solution. Readers can expect to see Wade battling everything from Cap-Wolves to Worldbreaker Hulks, along with entirely new and twisted versions of Marvel’s heroes and villains.
“The multiverse most certainly opens up a lot of new avenues of exploration,” Bunn says. “We wanted this to be different from what you've seen before in the series. We wanted to show Deadpool battling different versions of Marvel heroes (many readers will have seen before, many who are new). I spent a lot of time researching the 'worst' (meaning 'the best') variants of Marvel heroes and villains. What I didn’t realize when I set out is that we were creating the most epic Deadpool story of all time. How's that for an escalation? How's that for throwing the gauntlet down?”
Bunn is excited for readers to witness the carnage in the book, though he’s keeping mum on specific matchups beyond what Marvel has already revealed in the solicitation for issue #1.
“I'm not going to spoil anything in the book. If I had my druthers, I wouldn't have even mentioned Cap-Wolf and Worldbreaker Hulk,” Bunn says. “There are some cool, cool characters showing up in this series. Dozens and dozens of them. And Deadpool is battling some of the most powerful heroes and villains in the multiverse. How's he gonna manage to bring them down? There are some characters showing up in this book that from the ‘I've been reading comics a long time and love some obscure characters’ perspective that haven't been seen in over 30 years. Will those be the most epic of the battles? You'll have to see.”
Coming back to the idea of escalation, Dalibor Talajić brought a new level of visual flair to *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again* by frequently switching artistic styles, contrasting the bloody carnage with the sanitized vision inside the brainwashed Deadpool’s mind. Bunn promises that Talajić will continue to innovate visually with the grand finale of the trilogy.
“With *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again*, we wanted to play with different eras and styles of comics,” Bunn says. “With this new book, we're not changing the overall visual style for each kill. Where Dalibor really gets to shine, though, is in his interpretations of different worlds... different versions of our heroes... and a different version of [REDACTED] than you have ever seen before. Dalibor is a master of his craft always, but he's bringing some real insanity to the page in this!”
While we refer to this as being part of a trilogy, it’s important to note that the first two *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe* books aren’t directly connected. They offer two different scenarios for why Deadpool would start killing Marvel’s heroes. In the first, Deadpool becomes a nihilistic murder machine after discovering the full truth about his status as a comic book character. In the second, a different Wade is brainwashed by villains to do their bidding.
Art by Davide Paratore. (Image Credit: Marvel)
The question arises: how does the third book connect back to the previous two volumes? Is this another completely standalone story, or does it tie back to the previous *Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe* books?
“It's a fresh start... sort of,” Bunn teases. “The story stands completely on its own. You need not read any of the other series. At the beginning of the story, though, observant readers might pick up on a few interesting tidbits that may connect to what has come before. Most importantly, though--this is its own story.”
The previous two books weren’t just about mindless superhero carnage. In both cases, Deadpool was portrayed as a sympathetic figure despite his actions. One version was disillusioned by his discovery that he’s a pawn of the Marvel Comics Bullpen, while the other fought against being mind-controlled. Bunn teases that the Deadpool at the center of this sequel is an especially sympathetic protagonist.
“I think the Deadpool we see in this book is much more sympathetic than the killer Deadpool in the other series,” Bunn says. “With this, we thought ‘What if Deadpool killed the Marvel Universe... and we were rooting for him to succeed?’ It is definitely challenging to set the stories apart. With this one, Deadpool's mission... and his headspace... make this book completely different. His headspace. I can't wait for readers to get that joke.”
*Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe One Last Time #1* will be released on April 2, 2025.
For more on what's coming up from Marvel, check out what to expect from Marvel in 2025 and see IGN's most anticipated comics of 2025.
