Warning: Spoilers for Deadpool: Team-Up (2024) #4 ahead!
Although Rob Liefeld You may be leaving your career with Wonder and Dead Pool ago, his latest series for the publisher is more than worthy of Liefeld's legacy. Deadpool: Team Up (2024) It's more than just a who's who display of some of Liefeld's most popular clashes and characters: the series is also filled with the classic Liefeld style that elevated the man to living meme status.
In Deadpool: Team #4 – written and illustrated by Rob Liefeld – and in previous editions of the series, the author's personal touch is immediately apparent: static action poses, almost no background panels or scenery, and most of the exposition occurs through alternating panels chest – tall close-ups. 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 suitable for his latest Marvel outing.
Rob Liefeld says goodbye to Marvel in the most Rob Liefeld way possible
Deadpool Team #4 – Written by Rob Liefeld; Liefeld Art; Available now from Marvel Comics
Everything about Cable here is classic Liefeld: the character's legs are obscured, the weapons and shoulder bags are enormous, the proportions are noticeably off, and Cable's hands barely seem to interact with the gigantic cannon he holds. Liefeld's artistic style has become famous over the years, and his announcement that he would be officially “retiring” from writing Deadpool and working for Marvel Comics in general raised readers' expectations about what his final outing would be. with the character would offer. So far, Deadpool Team did not disappoint.
Few people in the comics industry have a legacy that compares to Liefeld's. He and his compatriots who founded Image Comics in 1992 had a direct hand in shaping that decade's “dark and gritty” aesthetic of hunched, armed, katana-swinging protagonists, leaving an indelible mark on a generation of comic book fans. Liefeld is also responsible for creating several beloved Marvel characters over his thirty-odd years at the publisher: although “Merc-with-the-Mouth” Deadpool is arguably 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 comics legacy
Deadpool & Cable creator exits in style
However, Liefeld is best known for his quirky artistic style, which has earned him as many fans as he has detractors. There are dozens and dozens of articles on the Internet pointing out Liefeld's bizarre understanding of anatomy, reluctance to draw feet, overreliance on equipping characters with straps, belts, and giant weapons, and so on. For his part, Liefeld appears to have handled his elevation to meme status with surprising grace, demonstrating little to no ill will about his notoriety and often chiming in for a laugh at his own expense.
Figures like Cable and Deadpool are Marvel icons. As such, it is a fitting farewell to see them portrayed here one last time in the “correct” way: that is, the Rob Liefeld way.
This image of Cable deserves to be included among the best of Liefeld's iconic art, aand with Deadpool: Team Being Liefeld's last series for Marvel, it's a relief to see at least one last meme-worthy image entered the mix. Although Liefeld still intends to work with comics, revitalizing his young blood franchise, figures like Cable and Dead Pool they are Wonder icons. As such, it is a fitting farewell to see them portrayed here one last time in the “correct” way: that is, the Rob Liefeld path.
Deadpool: Team Up (2024) #4 is now available from Marvel.