Deadpool‘s back with the final trailer for his second movie, and the Merc with a Mouth’s creator Rob Liefeld celebrates with a new poster for the sequel. More than that, the image (illustrated by Liefeld and colored by Mike Caprotti) homages a key issue in Marvel Comics history.
The poster, seen below, is a recreation of Liefeld’s cover for New Mutants #98, which is known to longtime X-Men fans as the comic that introduced Deadpool and Domino to the Marvel Universe in 1991. Of course, it’s not an exact replica; Colossus takes the place of Gideon, for starters, and Cable’s alone in the background where the original cover had him joined by several members of the New Mutants.
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“The cover to New Mutants #98 has become an iconic image, and it is the comic that introduced Deadpool and Domino to the world,” Liefeld explained to Fandango. “New Mutants #98 has become a key image in the comic book pantheon, so I thought it would be great to pay homage with the movie cast… and I gotta be honest, man — it turned out better than I imagined! I teamed up with a guy named Mike Capprotti, who I have worked with several times on many Deadpool covers. He has such a beautiful palette, and so we jammed together and came up with this great piece.”
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Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 stars Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus, and Karan Soni as Dopinder, with newcomers Zazie Beetz as Domino, Josh Brolin as Cable, Julian Dennison in an unknown role, and Jack Kesy as a villain widely thought to be Black Tom Cassidy. The film hits theaters on May 18.