Breaking the fourth wall and doing things without an explanation is Deadpool’s thing, I get that. Hopping across universes with Cable’s time travel device? Fine, he can do it. Visiting Earth-616 to interview for joining the Avengers about whom he somehow already knew? Okay, nodding along with the Merc with a Mouth. But what about the rest of the unexplainable plot holes in Deadpool & Wolverine?
While Wade being meta just erases every bonkers thing he does, the same does not apply to the people around him who have been pretty ordinary in the first two films: Vanessa, his bartender friend, Blind Al, Dopinder. Anything separate from Deadpool — including situations he has a role in but can’t control — abides by that nifty thing called “in-movie universe” logic and is not left up in the air.
But apart from seriously bungling how time travel actually works in the MCU, Deadpool & Wolverine also casually tosses aside the above requirement and creates plot holes that could threaten Wade Wilson and Logan’s ticket in the MCU, pitching them back to the real-life Marvel Void where things that don’t do the studio any good go (see: Kang the Loser). There are many things with this film I’m genuinely baffled about, but these five take the cake.
5. Alternate Logan’s presence on Deadpool’s Earth-10005 shouldn’t be possible
Forget the fact that taming the Time Ripper was supposed to shred a mutant to pieces but barely gave Wolvy and Pool a scratch (it did blast Hugh Jackman’s costume away) ⏤ Logan’s mere presence on Wade’s Earth is a ticking time bomb, nicely described as an Incursion in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Remember how the “Smartest Man Alive,” aka Reed Richards, explained that 616’s Strange’s arrival on Earth-838 “confuses and destabilizes reality?” “The larger the footprint you leave behind, the greater the risk of an Incursion,” he said. Reed was warning that Strange’s presence would “erode” the boundaries between their Earths, leading them to collide and resulting in the destruction of one or both realities. And what’s a “larger footprint” than Wolverine sticking around on Pool’s Earth?
Oof… that’s one hell of a risk to take. Or in the case of Deadpool & Wolverine’s plot, one hell of a danger to completely forget just to bring Logan and X23 into DP’s Earth. Director Shawn Levy might overlook this, but per the in-universe logic, why did the TVA ignore this massive rule? Sure, Logan saved Pool’s Earth and somehow tweaked the laws to join it. But what about X-23? Unless the TVA is secretly planning the complete annihilation of Earth-10005, this is one massive oversight by the studio, and at a time when it had to bring Robert Downey Jr. back from Marvel retirement.
4. Riddle me this: Why was X-23 in the Void?
Logan ended on a very hopeful note for mutants’ future on Earth 10005, especially X-23, who transitioned from the kid sidekick needing a Wolverine to save to fighting her own fight. But in Deadpool 3, she is not only missing her accent, but also a reason for being there. Mind you, she is the OG Logan’s OG X-23 — the sunglasses, the same way her Logan died, etc. But why was she pruned? She was in North Dakota when we last saw her and now she is back to needing rescuing from another Wolverine? Was she stuffed into the film for the emotional and fan-serving factor? Or…is the Void glitchy? Can someone enter it without getting pruned? Or did Levy just throw caution to the wind, believing the nostalgia would cover it up?
3. Logan of Deadpool’s Earth-10005 cannot be its Anchor Being
The TVA approaching Deadpool, his Earth perishing, Wade embarking on his insane journey to find a Logan from another Earth, the whole Cassandra Nova drama — it all began, and practically relies on, Earth-10005’s Logan dying. That event kickstarted his reality’s slow erasure and set the entire film into motion ⏤ a film whose events are officially set in 2024 while the story of Logan takes place in 2029. Paradox specified that the decline of a universe begins after its Anchor Being perishes — past tense. So, since the impending destruction of Earth 10005 in the beginning of the film was inevitable, was it dying for no obvious reason? Does that mean the fate of a timeline is not really connected to its so-called Anchor Being? Or Logan wasn’t even the Anchor Being? And speaking of Anchor Beings…
2. If a timeline’s life source is its Anchor Being, how did it survive before their arrival?
Unless the MCU starts peddling the theory of reincarnation, this is one hell of a head-scratcher. How did OG Logan’s timeline survive before his birth if was there when he entered his messy world? If it was perfectly fine until his existence, why is it breaking into pieces after he ceased to exist? And, an Anchor Being ain’t some magical creature — this person will eventually die. What will happen to the timeline then? Is this going to be one of the many Marvel mysteries that take eons to be solved, or will it join the questions about Kang that will never be answered?
1. Has the TVA given up on the multiverse?
Paradox had free reign over his side of the TVA, so much so that he installed a Time Ripper strong enough to erase every reality — including the Sacred Timeline. His idiocy brought it all to a point where Cassandra Nova had the Ripper in her hands and made the frankly brainless plan to end all apart from the Void. And yet, the TVA only arrived at the very end, with only a few security guards and Wunmi Mosaku’s B-15. The entire multiverse, as well as the Sacred Timeline, was about to go permanently POOF, and all the TVA could cough up was a frowning B-15? Wow.
The last time the MCU committed so many mistakes and left so many crucial questions unanswered, the one destined to be the franchise’s “bigger villain than Thanos” got canned. Kang was a disappointment even before Majors added “guilty of assault” to the script, and with Downey Jr.’s comeback as Doctor Doom, it is clear that Deadpool does not hold the position of Marvel Jesus. Marvel has a lot to figure out here, and if it doesn’t do so soon, we’re looking at a timeline in which the MCU might need to get pruned along with the folks trying to save it.
Published: Aug 1, 2024 03:40 pm