Deadpool's Rob Liefeld Closes His Marvel Career With the Greatest Tribute We Could've Asked For

Warning: Spoilers for Deadpool: Team-Up (2024) #4 ahead!

Although Rob Liefeld may be leaving his career with Marvel and Deadpool behind, his final series for the publisher is more than worthy of the Liefeld legacy. Deadpool: Team-Up (2024) is more than just a who's-who exhibition of some of Liefeld's most popular matchups and characters: the series is also chock-full of the classic Liefeld style that has elevated the man to the status of a living meme.

In Deadpool: Team-Up #4 – written and illustrated by Rob Liefeld – and the preceding issues of the series, the author's personal touch is immediately apparent: static action poses, barely any panels with background or scenery, and the bulk of exposition takes place via alternating panels of chest-height closeups. However, the real treat is when Cable arrives, making his grand entrance by breaking up a fight between Wolverine and Lady Deadpool.

This version of Cable embodies the artist's hyperbolic form in all its glory – making it especially fitting for his final Marvel outing.

Rob Liefeld Says Goodbye To Marvel In The Most Rob Liefeld Way Possible

Deadpool Team-Up #4 – Written By Rob Liefeld; Art By Liefeld; Available Now From Marvel Comics

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Everything about Cable here is classic Liefeld: the character's legs are obscured, the weapons and shoulder pouches are massive, the proportions are noticeably off, and Cable's hands barely seem to interact with the gigantic cannon he's holding. Liefeld's artistic style has become infamous over the years, and his announcement that he would be officially "retiring" from writing Deadpool, and working for Marvel Comics in general, set readers' expectations high for what his ultimate outing with the character would offer. So far, Deadpool Team-Up has not disappointed.

Few people in the comic book industry have a legacy to match Liefeld's. He and his compatriots who founded Image Comics in 1992 had a direct hand in shaping that decade's "grim and gritty" aesthetic of buckled, gun-toting, katana-swinging protagonists, leaving an indelible mark on a generation of comic book fans. Liefeld is also responsible for creating several beloved Marvel characters throughout his thirty-odd years with the publisher: although "Merc-with-the-Mouth" Deadpool is undoubtedly his most popular character, the time-traveling mutant Cable is a respectable second and the probability-altering Domino remains a perennial member of the mutant team, X-Force.

Rob Liefeld's Over-The-Top Art Defined A Generation Of Comics – Marvel Is Central To His Comic Book Legacy

Deadpool & Cable's Creator Goes Out In Style

However, Liefeld is most well-known for his peculiar art style, which has earned him just as many fans as it has detractors. There are dozens upon dozens of internet articles pointing out Liefeld's bizarre grasp of anatomy, reluctance toward drawing feet, over-reliance on gearing up characters with straps, belts, and giant weapons, and so on. For his part, Liefeld appears to have taken his elevation to meme status with surprising grace, displaying little to no ill-will about his notoriety and often joining in the conversation to chuckle at his own expense.

Figures like Cable and Deadpool are Marvel icons. As such, it's an appropriate send-off to see them depicted here one last time in the "proper" way: that is to say, the Rob Liefeld way.

This picture of Cable is worthy of being included with the best of Liefeld's iconic art, and with Deadpool: Team-Up being Liefeld's last series for Marvel, it's something of a relief to see that at least one last meme-worthy image made it into the mix. While Liefeld still intends to work in comics by revitalizing his Youngblood franchise, figures like Cable and Deadpool are Marvel icons. As such, it's an appropriate send-off to see them depicted here one last time in the "proper" way: that is to say, the Rob Liefeld way.

Deadpool: Team-Up (2024) #4 is available now from Marvel.