Rob Liefeld reveals the new villains who will torment Wade Wilson in Deadpool: Badder Blood. The comic book creator admits the one major problem the character has, and no, it’s not about his enemies but the lack of having an archnemesis.
Deadpool was first introduced in The New Mutants #98 in February 1991. It has been over 30 years that he has been on the horizon, but he has yet to have an official villain. By the looks of it, the long wait is over, and just like any traditional superhero, he’s about to have his true rivals.
Deadpool Lacking Iconic Villains
In an interview on Comicbook’s Phase Zero podcast, Liefeld told the host Brandon Davis that the Merc with a Mouth “needs more bad guys.” Unlike Spider-Man, who has a list of archrivals like The Lizard, Kraven, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and The Vulture, Deadpool has no one.
“I mean, it was 'Boom! Boom! Boom!' [makes rapid chopping motion] In thirty years, I'm not sure we can identify a true Deadpool villain. Like, who's his Sabertooth? Who's his Joker? So, I'm just rolling up my sleeves..." he said.
The New Deadpool Villains
From there, the prominent artist and writer revealed the two major villains Deadpool would soon face: Arcade’s sister and Shatterstorm. And Liefeld provided more details about these characters and how he came up with this idea.
The first villain has a connection with the X-Men villain Arcade. With Ledfield’s love for Muderworld, an amusement park-styled deathtrap by Arcade, he thought of giving this assassin-for-hire a sister with a touch of 21st-century logic.
He explained:
I called up Marvel, and I said, 'Can I give Arcade a sister? Who thinks, 'Who makes murderous theme parks that cost billions of dollars?' Like so can we do some virtual reality? Can we apply some 21st-century logic here? And she doesn't like her brother. So, we introduce her: it's called ‘Killville’ instead of ‘Murderworld.’ So yeah, I'm just trying to add new layers.
The other one is Shatterstorm from the world of Shatterstar. No one knows the identity of this character yet, but he first revealed an image of her—yes, she’s a woman—in a post on Instagram in January 2018.
Letfield described her as someone who was “raised in the arenas and the gladiator games in the Mojoverse.” “Lots of different warriors look like him: this is a female warrior who was in the same caste system and is now here as a bounty hunter,” he continued.
Shatterstorm is introduced in Deadpool: Badder Blood #1 as the female version of Shatterstar. Though details about her remain scarce, she looks like a formidable foe for Deadpool.
Deadpool: Bladder Blood is a sequel to Deadpool: Bad Blood. The series explores Deadpool’s past while continuing his journey with new and old characters.
