Deadpool has become one of the most popular characters in Marvel over the last thirty years, and has forged relationships with many different heroes out there. While everyone loves Deadpool and Cable together or Deadpool and Spider-Man, there’s only one Deadpool team-up that has made a billion dollars — Deadpool and Wolverine. Since the blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine hit theaters, Marvel has done everything they can to replicate the success of that film in the comics. Marvel has already released Deadpool/Wolverine as a comic, with the two of them teaming up against a villain that is basically the ’90s personified. However, that isn’t all, as Marvel also decided to team the two of them with their daughters, which leads us to Wolverines & Deadpools #1, as the two families team up to investigate the disappearances of the children of a small village.
Wolverines & Deadpools #1 has its problems, but one of the coolest parts of the book is a Deadpool deep cut that many newer fans of the character have no idea about. As Wolverine and Deadpool hunt for clues, they find themselves confronted by a foe who knows Deadpool very well — Agent X. Agent X is an interesting story in and of himself, his creation opening the doors on another era at Marvel. It’s a story that involves Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld, as well as the realities of what made books sell in the early ’00s.
Agent X Was a Way to Cash In on the X-Men’s Fame
So, Deadpool came to prominence in the ’90s, and eventually got his own solo ongoing series. Deadpool was fairly popular for a while, but eventually started to fade away, especially after writer Joe Kelly left the book. Deadpool kept falling down the sales charts, but that wasn’t the only problem — Rob Liefeld was vocal about royalties that he thought Marvel owed him for X-Force, Cable, and Deadpool. Liefeld denied this, but whatever happened, it resulted in Deadpool, Cable, and X-Force to be rechristened Agent X, Soldier X, and X-Statix. At the time, Marvel claimed they were doing it to more closely tie these books to the X-Men comics, hoping that putting an X on the cover would make fans pick these books up. Of course, this was an asinine idea, and most fans didn’t believe Marvel or Liefeld’s protestations about why they changed the titles of these books. The books sold somewhat well, but eventually, the whole thing would be used as yet another joke in the history of Deadpool.
Because this was a Deadpool book, jokes were made about whether Agent X was actually Deadpool or not. The character would sometimes refer to himself as the “Earth-2 Deadpool”, but eventually the truth would be revealed. Agent X wasn’t Deadpool, but Nijo Minamiyori. Nijo had believed Deadpool responsible for the death of his brother, and was pulled into a scheme to kill the Merc with a Mouth by the Black Swan. All three of them were caught in a bomb blast, and parts of Deadpool’s mind and healing factor got put into Nijo’s body. Everyone who met Agent X assumed that he was Deadpool, and it wouldn’t be until later that the truth would revealed. Agent X has his share of adventures, and would get pulled into a scheme to take revenge against Black Swan. The whole situation would be fixed, as Nijo and Deadpool would both get their memories back and have several more confrontations over the year, with Deadpool saving Nijo’s life. Nijo would eventually move to the mutant island of Krakoa, which was the last place he was seen before showing up to fight Wolverine and Deadpool in Wolverines & Deadpools #1.
Agent X Is the Puppet of a Greater Power
Wolverine and Deadpool encountering Agent X in Wolverines & Deadpools #1 is a big shock for everyone involved. Agent X is a mercenary, so seeing him work for the highest bidder isn’t that surprising. However, the fact that this whole situation involves the kidnapping of children is the real shock comes in. Agent X would do a lot for money, but him working with someone kidnapping children and killing their parents definitely isn’t the kind of thing that Agent X would usually be involved in.
Of course, Agent X isn’t the only surprise in Wolverines & Deadpools #1, as Laura and Ellie, the daughters of Wolverine and Deadpool respectively, face off against Lady Bullseye. This is another mercenary who usually wouldn’t work for someone going after kids, but it all starts to make sense once the end of the issue reveals exactly who’s behind the whole situation — the mind-controlling Shadow King. Agent X and Lady Bullseye are under the control of Shadow King, and the Wolverines and the Deadpools have their work cut out for them.
Wolverines & Deadpools #1 is on sale now.
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