In a past series of serialized variant covers, the hilarious Iron Man, complete with his own set of badass robot armor! This Merc With A Mouth may never come close to becoming a person even remotely resembling Tony Stark in the real world, but at least in his mind, Wade Wilson’s already there.
Seen on one of the final variant covers that when collectively read together act as a Deadpool #SecretComic, written by Gerry Duggan and illustrated by Scott Koblish, Deadpool has found himself on a journey across time and space in an attempt to make it back to his proper home in the Marvel Universe. Accompanied by a sentient barcode named UPC-PO, Deadpool and his scannable buddy inexplicably find themselves able to travel through time, meeting various Marvel heroes from decades past and eventually coming across a version of Doctor Strange along the way.
Swallowing a special gem that the Doctor Strange villain, Dormammu, is hoping to procure, Deadpool and UPC-PO seek out a sorceress named Clea to get it out of his system as quickly as possible. Directing everyone present to send their astral forms into Deadpool to retrieve the gem, Clea tells Wade and company that when they arrive, their minds will "create your ideal physical selves,” giving fans an in to see which MCU hero Deadpool has always secretly wanted to be.
Immediately sucked into Deadpool’s body, Clea notices how everyone has manifested “colorful optimized body images” of themselves, with Deadpool receiving one of the coolest new designs of them all: a Deadpool-themed robot suit! Excited about his transformation, Deadpool removes his armored helmet and reveals that he’s not a full-blown robot but rather a “simple handsome man with some robot threads,” his face now uncannily resembling a blonde-haired version of the one and only Tony Stark aka Iron Man, complete with a sweet ‘stache and multi-million dollar smile!
Considering Iron Man is one of the richest, most handsome, powerful, smart, well-respected, successful, funny, and popular heroes in Marvel Comics, any one of these reasons could explain why Deadpool’s ideal self is a Tony Stark doppelgänger. And although Deadpool has his own cool threads and bombastic weapons to utilize in the field, a suit of armor that can replicate Iron Man’s vast abilities is the one thing Wade secretly can’t up, especially when he could have dreamed himself to be quite literally anything — and anyone — else.
So while this connecting variant cover story was nothing more than an entertaining but fun sales gimmick, seeing Deadpool decked out like Tony Stark is made doubly intriguing since Wade’s transformation comes about when revealing what his ideal self looks like. Wade Wilson and Tony Stark are two totally different heroes, but it’s good to know that Deadpool can pull off an Iron Man look if need be.
