The superhero genre frequently fails to take death seriously. In a way, that’s the nature of its episodic format: if a story never really ends, then no one can ever really be gone. There have, of course, been exceptions, and some great comic arcs that give iconic heroes and villains an equally-iconic end. But more often than not, those deaths can easily be reversed or subverted, ultimately taking the impact out of anything truly substantial.
That cyclical theme has long created problems in Marvel and DC comics, and we’re now seeing history repeat in the films adapting those stories for the big screen. This feels especially apparent with Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel’s latest effort to expand its multiverse. Following Disney’s merger with 20th Century Fox, Marvel now has the rights to characters like the X-Men and Fantastic Four. But rather than putting all of its efforts into new incarnations of those superhero teams, the franchise is first taking another spin around the block, bringing back characters and actors that have since become fan favorites.
Deadpool & Wolverine is self-referential nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, wielding its cameos in a way not too different from Spider-Man: No Way Home. That’d be fine if it didn’t put so much emphasis on Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, who returns to the role after a seven-year retirement. Deadpool & Wolverine works overtime to justify Jackman’s resurrection and side-step his hero’s definitive death in Logan. In the process, the film solves one problem by creating another, one that could seriously hurt Marvel’s future plans for the X-Men.
Spoilers ahead for Deadpool & Wolverine!
Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t exactly keep its promise to honor Logan’s sacrifice in Logan, and it’s not under any illusions about that. But the film does up the character’s importance in both the Fox-verse and the MCU by making him an “anchor being,” a figure whose life is tethered to their timeline. When they die, their native universe begins a slow process of degradation... and that means that the Fox-verse literally cannot survive without Logan.
Deadpool does end up reversing that mandate and saving the world, but he has to team up with a new Logan in order to do so. He encounters one version of Logan after the next in a montage through the multiverse, and they all look like Hugh Jackman (excluding Henry Cavill’s Logan, of course). It’s a visual gag mostly played for laughs, but it also reinforces the idea that Jackman’s Wolverine is the only one that truly matters.
Eventually, Deadpool partners with the “worst Wolverine” in the entire multiverse. Like the Logan of the Fox-verse, he’s the last X-Man standing after a tragedy he could have prevented. He bears that burden like a curse, and you certainly feel his pain — but with no other X-Men appearing throughout the film (with one surprising exception), it really starts to feel like the Logan Show.
Logan’s role in Deadpool & Wolverine isn’t anything new. It’d be more surprising if the film chose to subvert his importance altogether. But it’s still a big step down from the X-Men stories we’ve gotten recently, like X-Men ‘97. The animated series chose to take the emphasis off of Logan, focusing instead on other members of the team like Cyclops, Rogue, and Gambit. Logan was still a valuable member of the ensemble, but by no means the main character that Deadpool & Wolverine makes him out to be. It was a smart way of distancing the X-Men property from the Fox films, especially given the fact that Marvel will be rebooting the team in live-action very soon.
That Jackman has appeared in this MCU-adjacent project kind of undermines any anticipation for the X-Men reboot. One of the film’s best jokes is a meta jab at the actor’s obligation to Marvel: “They’re going to make him do this ‘till he’s 90!” It’s hard to disagree — neither Marvel nor Fox have ever known how to say goodbye to Jackman. It’s conditioned fans to associate the role with him exclusively, and that doesn’t bode well for his successor in the MCU, whoever he turns out to be. The next Wolverine will have massive shoes to fill, partially because Marvel projects can’t seem to let go of the Wolverine they once had.
Deadpool & Wolverine is a fine send-off for Jackman, and for his native universe. But the thing is... he already had a great send-off in Logan. Bringing him back for one last F-bomb-filled adventure will certainly make some fans happy, but it’s high time to move on. The best thing that MCU can do is actually let Jackman rest, because the more the franchise fiddles with his legacy, the less it’ll actually matter in the long run.
