Deadpool: Back in Black is a 2016 comic book limited series from Marvel Comics. It's written by Cullen Bunn with art by Salva Espin and color art by Ruth Redmond.
Set after Spider-Man forced the Venom symbiote off of him using a church bell, the creature went into hiding, gradually regaining its strength with the help of a friendly janitor. Finding Deadpool, who had been Retconned into having bonded with it before Spider-Man, the symbiote eventually re-bonded to him, who accepted its presence.
Deadpool: Back in Black provides examples of:
- Big Eater: Venompool chows down a ship full of Zn'rx, Coldwar, and Killer Thrill's left arm in the space of a single night. He would have eaten the rest of Killer Thrill and Guzz had they not escaped, and would have eaten Spider-Man too had Wade not forced the symbiote to back off.
- The Corrupter: In an indirect manner, after separating from it, Deadpool notes that he never used to admire Spider-Man and wonders if the symbiote pushed all its positive emotions onto him, leaving it only with hatred, rage, bloodlust, and twisted obsession.
- Eating the Enemy:
- After stopping a squadron of Snarks from abducting the Power Pack, Deadpool overhears Jack lament that they'll eventually return. After pondering how to solve this problem in a heroic fashion, Deadpool latches onto the Snarks' ship sporting claws and a Jagged Mouth, and has a super-sized helping of jumbo frog legs for dinner.
- When saving White Rabbit from Guzz and Coldwar, Deadpool Vulks out and chows down on the latter, completely disregarding that he's a robot.
- Venompool is revealed to be the reason Killer Thrill is missing her left arm, slicing it off with his tongue and pulling it into his mouth. Immediately after this the symbiote would have eaten Spider-Man, but Wade refused to let it.
- Go Through Me: When the symbiote separates from him to eat Spider-Man, Deadpool throws himself between it and Spidey, saying that it'll have to kill him too. It nearly does, then relents at the last second and returns to Our Lady of Saints Church.
- Hulking Out: After Black Cat is knocked out by Killer Thrill and White Rabbit is about to be killed by Guzz and Coldwar, Deadpool assumes a bulky, monstrous appearance and easily defeats them. Deadpool subsequently Venomizes when the symbiote takes over fighting Kraven, and in the final showdown against Killer Thrill.
- Innocently Insensitive: Deadpool looks up to Spider-Man, something the symbiote takes umbrage with.
- Interrupted Cooldown Hug: When the symbiote lashes out over its rage towards Spider-Man, Deadpool tries to calm it by assuring it that it's got him now, and that it doesn't need Spider-Man and can let go of its anger. Kraven picks that moment to attempt to apologize over his Mistaken Identity and the moment he mentions Spider-Man's name the symbiote goes berserk again.
- Jagged Mouth: Several of Venompool's Game Faces sport More Teeth than the Osmond Family that are black and blend into his mask.
- Lies to Children: When Julie Power asks what happened to the Snarks, Deadpool says they teleported away before their ship crashed into the East River... burping midway through the lie.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Black Cat — having mistaken him for Spider-Man — is disgusted when Deadpool admits to knowing many floozies and flirts with Killer Thrill, snapping that she's almost tempted to let the bounty hunter kill him.
- Mistaken Identity: He's mistaken for Symbiote Spider-Man by Black Cat, the Power Pack, and Kraven the Hunter.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Whenever he gets angry and/or the symbiote takes over, Deadpool sprouts the massive fanged maw and slavering tongue that would later become the symbiote's trademark.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After separating from the symbiote, Wade bumps into Eddie Brock and unwittingly sets the stage for him to become Venom.
- On the Rebound: The Venom symbiote uses Deadpool as a rebound after Peter rejected it, going on adventures with him before eventually being returned to the Our Lady of Saints Church just in time for its fateful meeting with Eddie Brock.
- Pop-Cultured Badass: Deadpool being who he is, he makes pop-culture references and Shout Outs to media such as Five Nights at Freddy's and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
- Power Incontinence: When Deadpool thinks about Spider-Man in a positive light, the symbiote nearly turns him into street pizza by refusing to shoot a webline. Black Cat catches him and cracks an innuendo about him being low on web fluid in more ways than one.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: As the symbiote's host, Deadpool fought off a Zn'rx battalion who were after the Power Pack, teamed up with Black Cat to fight White Rabbit, and was the target of Kraven the Hunter's "second-to-last" hunt — the latter two having mistaken him for Spider-Man. The symbiote is also being pursued by Killer Thrill, a bounty hunter first seen in the Drax comic.
- Running Gag: Deadpool is mistaken for Spider-Man by the Power Pack, Black Cat, and Kraven the Hunter. He briefly considers taking advantage of Felicia's misunderstanding, but decides that would be too creepy even for him.
- Schrödinger's Canon: Cullen Bunn has gone on record saying that Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars and Deadpool: Back in Black are canon, and included references to the latter in Poison-X and Deadpool: Assassin #4 to cement it as such. However, Venom (Vol. 4) writer Donny Cates stated on Twitter that as far as he was concerned Deadpool bonding to the Venom symbiote isn't canon, with a somewhat-teasing editorial note in Absolute Carnage vs. Deadpool stating that they're not counting it. This led to an argument on Twitter between Cates and Bunn over the canonicity of Bunn's works, with Bunn's stance being backed up by Jordan D. White — senior editor of the X-Men comics — as the reason why Deadpool admires Spider-Man.
- Shout-Out: Deadpool and the symbiote argue with each other a la Smeagol vs. Gollum in the middle of a fight with Kraven the Hunter.
- Talking to Themself: When Deadpool admires Spider-Man one too many times, the symbiote seizes control of him and goes on a tirade about how Spider-Man is a monster for trying to kill it and leaving it for dead on an alien world where it's being hunted. What follows is a Gollum-esque argument where Deadpool and the symbiote alternate control of their body, leaving Kraven the Hunter and three lions watching in stunned silence.
