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Deadpool has battled the best fighters in the Marvel Universe, but he brought them together for a terrible reason in one future timeline.
While the mercenary Deadpool originally debuted as a wise-cracking assassin hunting Cable, he’s evolved from a full-on villain to sympathetic antihero to a card-carrying member of the Avengers. His humor, tendency to break the Fourth Wall with self-aware comments and impeccable fighting skills made of Marvel’s most popular comics characters and multimedia stars.
Regardless of his moral alignment or the role he plays in the Marvel Universe at any given moment, one of Wade Wilson’s most consistent character traits is his pettiness. And in one of his most petty acts, he kidnapped the best fighters in the Marvel Universe and forced them to fight simply because he was bored in 1998’s J2 #11, a story that follows the future son of the Juggernaut by Tom DeFalco, Ron Lim and Jim Novak.
Also known as MC2, Earth-982 was created as a result of What If? #105 by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz and Chis Eliopoulos. That story explored the next generation of Marvel heroes in a future alternate timeline. While the story focused on May Parker, the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane Parker, it also introduced Zane Yama, the son of Cain Marko who is also known as the Juggernaut. Shortly after, Zane received his own series, which followed him through his high school years as he discovers he possesses the same powers as his absent father. Similar to the Hulk, Zane is able to transform himself from a teenager into a giant hulking man wearing armor that is akin to his father’s appearance.
J2 #11 starts off with Zane arriving at the Avengers complex to try to decompress and unwind after school. Shannon Carter, known as the American Dream, presses Zane to train to improve his skills and to not purely rely on his strength and invulnerability. Their conversation is interrupted by an ‘urgent’ letter inviting Shannon to a tournament to test her martial arts skills. Uninterested, she tosses it out along with the amulet that was included only to have Zane’s curiosity piqued. Upon picking up the amulet, Zane is transported to an island filled with other heroes and characters including Howard the Duck, Shang-Chi and Iron Fist. As Howard tries to train Zane, he reverts back to his teenage form, prompting Howard to tell Zane to hide and stay out of the way. While exploring the island, he meets Deadpool’s longtime friend Blind Al, who echoes similar warnings to Zane.
As Zane investigates who is hosting this tournament, he finds out it is none other than Deadpool. Transforming back into J2, he and Deadpool square off where he explains to Zane he put this whole event together just because he was bored and wanted an excuse for a ‘super-brawl.’ Needless to say, Zane and the other participants — including Iron Fist and Shang-Chi — are not thrilled by this as they all turn on Deadpool. Having gone through this experience, Zane eventually takes American Dream up on her offer once he is transported back to the Avengers’ headquarters.
Even though the Deadpool character has transformed over the years to become a major player in the Marvel Universe, he still possesses many of the traits that he had in his debut, New Mutants #98, by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza. Through the decades, Deadpool’s pettiness and self-absorption have become defining traits of his personality, even in this alternate future timeline.
While the MC2 was short-lived, Deadpool’s one and only appearance in the alternate universe highlighted one of the Merc with a Mouth’s less-than-appealing personality traits, which is still very much a part of the character in Marvel’s main continuity too.
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