Image editing technology makes just about anything possible these days, so you can rarely trust the things you see online.
Despite this fact, we couldn’t help but speculate about the future of the MCU after seeing a viral photo of Captain America and Deadpool in the same room. The two characters are unlikely to see any crossovers — particularly now that Cap has made his MCU exit — but we can’t help but dream up a future in which the two characters share screen time.
There’s even an established Marvel storyline that could see their paths cross, but we assume it’ll never see the light of day. Plenty of people would love to see Chris Evans and Ryan Reynolds exchange a few quips, but the MCU simply doesn’t have the courage to bring one of Wade’s more impactful — but lesser-known — storylines to the big screen.
Wade and Cap could face off in the MCU — if the franchise had the chimichangas
Wade Wilson’s history in comics is a bit shaky, as various fresh artists and writers worked to shape his story into something on par with the greats. One of his best storylines is nestled right into the middle, as writers worked to move him past his gritty early days into a more hero-adjacent future.
Unlike the Deadpool movies, which have worked hard to paint Wade as a sadly misguided hero, the Deadpool comics don’t shy away from his dark side. Wade is generally a bad guy in his early comics, despite the fact he often ends up doing the right thing — typically despite himself. Still, efforts to see Wade make his transition into “a hero at last” didn’t really pay off until mid-way through his dedicated comics arc.
Wade gets his moment to shine during a storyline in which a supposed alien “Messiah” is headed to Earth. The planet’s strange first pick for a hero, Deadpool, is initially tapped to stop the dreaded Tiamat — a being seeking to destroy the Messiah — from preventing the alien’s arrival on Earth. Once it gets here, the Messiah will supposedly eliminate hunger, wars, and pretty much everything that keeps us, as humans, separated, and a group of powerful humans wants to ensure it arrives on the planet safely.
But Deadpool fails to defeat Tiamat. And, soon after, retreats into a depression and his usual non-heroic shenanigans, leaving a vital space to fill. And filled it is, by the most obvious choice for Earth’s savior: Captain America himself.
A supposed utopia resides on the other side of the Messiah’s arrival, but — unsurprisingly — all is not as it seems. True, Tiamat was sent to Earth to stop the Messiah from bringing ultimate peace, but for good reason. Because with the Messiah’s ultimate peace comes a removal of our free will and planet-wide enslavement to the many-eyed alien’s whims. The alien being is powerful enough to frighten the Watcher, who notes its harrowing ability to “rival Galactus himself.”
That’s no small task, so it’s no surprise Tiamat is a uniquely powerful foe. It’s also no surprise he defeats Wade the first time around and, when Cap is tapped to take up the mantle of “Mithras,” it’s not surprising he gives the First Avenger a run for his money, too.
Mid-way through the fight with Tiamat, Wade re-enters the ring and lends his aid to Captain America. But too late — the Messiah has already arrived. And in the midst of all that chaos, Captain America — and everyone not sporting a strange, alien headpiece — is instantly brainwashed by the powerful alien being. This puts him and Wade at odds and leads to one of the shortest fights Cap has ever engaged in. Wade, unwilling to actually test his mettle against one of Earth’s finest heroes, takes the easy route and plants an eye-watering kick between Steve’s legs, laying him out.
This leaves Wade — newly informed as to the Messiah’s real aims — to take down a being that promises serenity — and absolute mindlessness — for all of Earth’s inhabitants. Despite an overarching fear of being the guy who robbed the world of peace and serenity, Wade accepts that to have free will is to be human and cuts the Messiah out of the sky. Soon after, those who suffered a minor case of brainwashing were back on their feet and baffled to realize that Wade Wilson — of all people — bested Captain America to become the hero our planet needed.
It’s a fun arc, and — while Wade and Steve don’t exchange any words outside of Cap’s bliss-filled rantings — it also serves as a hilarious crossover between two of Marvel’s most unexpected characters. It also reveals a surprising tie between Cap and Blind Al, but we’ll get into that in an alternate article.
If the MCU ever decided to go completely off the rails, this storyline could present a delightful opportunity. Sure, the Steve Rogers of the MCU is retired, but that’s not to say he couldn’t return. Or, alternatively, who’s to say Wade can’t come to blows with Sam’s Cap? Regardless of who holds the shield, the idea of Captain America falling short, while the Regenerating Degenerate saves the day, is a delightful bait and switch that would leave theatrical audiences in a stupefied daze.
If only the MCU had the cojones to give it a shot.