Marvel’s Mulan used her skills to help take down the most destructive version of Deadpool in the Marvel multiverse.
After months of delay, Disney’s live-action reboot of Mulan will finally be available beginning Friday on-demand through digital platforms. This retelling promises to introduce a more action-oriented version of the heroine as she fights to defend China and her family’s honor. Losing the songs and humor of the 1998 animated film, it certainly seems this Mulan is a significant departure from Disney’s animated original. However, another warrior Mulan already made her Marvel Comics debut, where she was integral to the defeat of the multiverse’s deadliest Deadpool.
Before Hua Mulan entered the scene, the story of her eventual target began in the 2012 miniseries, Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, by Cullen Bunn and Dalibor Talajić. In this parallel reality, Wade Wilson was locked away in a mental hospital by Professor X and the X-Men, who had decided that it was time for the Merc with a Mouth to receive the help he so desperately needs. Unfortunately, his doctor, Psycho-Man, accidentally unlocked a new voice within Wade’s mine in his attempt to control him: one whose self-awareness of his comic book origins led him to complete insanity. Killing his captor, this Deadpool became determined to free everyone, himself included, from the control of their creators by killing them.
Managing to kill the Avengers, X-Men, and even celestial beings of his own universe, Wade continued his murderous spree throughout many parallel worlds until he came to the conclusion that he was nowhere close to reaching his ultimate goal. Enlisting villains who feared for their own lives, their research led to the concept of the “Ideaverse.”
Since he could spend an eternity killing multiple versions of the same hero, Wade found that he could wipe every version from existence by merely killing their literary inspirations. With no classic stories, there would be no heroes to be created from their legacy. Thus, Deadpool’s new mission began in the pages of Deadpool Killustrated by Bunn and Matteo Lolli.
Desperate to stop the madman, the villains were able to send a warning of his intentions through the void before their own untimely death. This warning was received by Sherlock Holmes, sans his sister, who began to recruit heroes from other literary stories in their own pocket dimensions. Among these heroes, Sherlock turned to his trusty partner Dr. Watson, monster-hunter Beowulf, tracking expert Natty Bumpo, and Hua Mulan as the party’s warrior. With this group, the heroes hoped to save all of existence from the works of the Merc with a Mouth.
After following his bloody trail, the group eventually came upon Deadpool, and his other voice given form in the body of Frankenstein’s monster, in the world of The Three Musketeers. While Beowulf worked to defeat “Franken-pool”, with the help of Dr. Watson, it was up to the rest to confront the actual Deadpool, whose grasp on reality had been almost completely lost. Overwhelmed by his injuries and the return of the voice within his head, Deadpool attempted to escape through his transporter. Luckily, Mulan was able to remove Wade’s means of escape by removing his hand. And thanks to Mulan, Deadpool lost the means to continue his killing spree.
After Mulan stopped Deadpool’s plans, Wade was forced to use Sherlock’s own device to move through the literary realms. This time around, it was up to Sherlock to stop Deadpool. After a short fight, Sherlock threw Wade from the ship, leaving him adrift, while he used his remarkable mind to repair the stories that had been destroyed.
Ultimately, this version of Deadpool would return and be defeated by the main Marvel Deadpool, along with the Deadpool Corps. However, Mulan still saved the better part of fiction when the foundations for every reality were threatened and every character imaginable could’ve lost the very basis for their existence. Hopefully, the next live-action version of Mulan can reach the same heights when she arrives on Disney+.
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