Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII (Comics) | Review

What happens when you take Marvel's most volatile partnership and force it through a meat grinder of body horror and existential questions? Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII, a three-issue mini-series answer that, which landed in 2024 ahead of the blockbuster film.

Written by Joe Kelly (JLA: Trial by Fire, Supergirl: Identity) and drawn by Adam Kubert (Avengers Vs. X-Men, Captain America: Winter in America), this isn't your typical buddy comedy wrapped in violence. It's a darker examination of identity, self-worth, and whether people defined by their ability to regenerate can ever truly change.

Kelly returns to the character he helped define in the late 90s, bringing understanding of Wade Wilson's fractured psyche while Kubert delivers visceral brutality. The series positions itself as both movie tie-in and standalone meditation on what makes Logan and Wade who they are.

Timed perfectly for audiences hungry for more Deadpool and Wolverine content following the blockbuster film's success, WWIII offers something the movie couldn't provide: the space to let these characters sit with discomfort and examine why they keep destroying themselves.

The setup begins with Wolverine responding to a call in Vancouver, stumbling into Deadpool mid-fight with a villain called Wither. Before either can process it, they're hit by Delta, a new antagonist obsessed with facilitating radical transformation through forced evolution.

Delta believes in unlocking potential through forced evolution, amplifying abilities to their absolute limits regardless of cost. His methods involve pain, psychological manipulation, and an audience of wealthy spectators he calls Those Who Watch, who treat superhuman suffering as premium entertainment for their amusement.

Wade becomes Delta's primary target for transformation. Captured and subjected to Delta's process, Deadpool emerges as Wade Wilson III, a disturbing reimagining sporting energy-blade claws reminiscent of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but executed with actual menace this time.

His healing factor gets supercharged beyond recognition. His cancer accelerates alongside his regeneration. Most unsettling, his personality shifts. The motormouth mercenary who uses humor as armor suddenly speaks in quiet, measured tones, claiming he prefers silence. This isn't Wade pretending to be someone else entirely.

It's Wade stripped down to pure function, his identity dissolved in pursuit of becoming the ultimate weapon. Wolverine finds himself chasing this corrupted version of his frequent sparring partner across continents, eventually ending up stranded together.

What follows isn't just action, though there's plenty of that throughout the story. Kelly dedicates substantial page time to Logan and the brainwashed Wade surviving together in the Russian wilderness without food, water, or shelter for seven weeks. These survival sequences become the emotional core of the entire series.

As deprivation wears them down, Wade's personality bleeds through the Delta conditioning. Conversations around campfires reveal vulnerabilities neither character exposes. Deadpool admits he's looked up to Wolverine, envying how Logan earned respect despite his violence.

Wade sees himself as a joke, someone useful for his skills but never valued as a person worth knowing. Logan counters that he's spent decades defining himself solely by what he can do, letting others treat him as a tool because deep down, he believes that's all he deserves.

Delta serves as the externalization of that question. His entire operation revolves around reducing people to their most potent selves, stripping away everything except raw capability. For Wade, already wrestling with cancer and a healing factor locked in eternal combat, Delta's offer represents both temptation and annihilation.

Logan's determination to save Wade speaks to something neither character voices: they need each other. Not as teammates, but as mirrors reflecting the humanity they fear they've lost. When Wolverine breaks through to Wade, it's through refusing to give up.

By the final issue, Wade returns to his normal self, but changed in subtle yet meaningful ways. Not physically, despite everything Delta put him through during the ordeal. The change is internal, acknowledging that beneath everything, they're both trying to figure out their worth.

Adam Kubert's artwork matches the series' brutal tone perfectly. His line work carries the weight of his legendary 90s Wolverine run, all jagged edges and kinetic violence. When Logan and Wade collide, panels explode with motion. Kubert excels at depicting damage that feels genuinely painful despite both healing factors.

The design for Wade Wilson III deserves specific mention. Rather than simply giving Deadpool extra powers, Kubert redesigns Wade into something really unsettling. The energy-blade claws recall the terrible X-Men Origins design, but executed with actual menace this time around.

Frank Martin's colors amplify the shifting emotional landscape. Early issues use warmer palettes when Wade and Logan interact normally, reds and oranges suggesting their volatile chemistry. After Delta's intervention, colors drain toward cold blues. When Wade's personality begins returning, color slowly bleeds back into the pages.

Kelly's dialogue captures both characters' voices with precision. Logan's gruff pragmatism, Wade's deflective humor, communicating through insults carrying affection. Their campfire conversation stands out as strong writing, giving voice to fears Wade buries under jokes.

Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII won't revolutionize these characters, but it adds texture to a relationship usually played for laughs or hyper-violence. Kelly and Kubert prove there's substance beneath the spectacle, examining when immortality confronts self-loss.

The three-issue format works against fuller character development for Delta and Those Who Watch, leaving the antagonists feeling more conceptual than fully realized. Some readers might find the body horror and transformation elements don't push far enough, staying relatively safe given the premise and potential for darker exploration.

But the central relationship lands with surprising weight. Kelly understands these characters well enough to strip away their usual defense mechanisms and examine what's underneath. Kubert's artwork captures both the brutality and vulnerability required throughout.

For longtime fans of either character, WWIII delivers what matters: proof that beneath the claws, healing factors, and endless violence, Wade and Logan remain tragically, stubbornly human. They keep searching for meaning in lives that refuse to end, hoping the next fight might finally answer whether they're more than weapons.

Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII collects issues #1-3 of the limited series, is available in physical trade paperback format through local comic-book shops and major retailers. For digital access, the story is offered on platforms such as ComiXology, Kindle and Marvel Unlimited.