Manga / Deadpool: Samurai

The Merc with a Mouth is in Japan. Hope they survive the experience.

Deadpool: Samurai is a manga published by Shonen Jump starring Marvel Comics’ very own Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool. It ran from 2018 to 2021 and was written by Sanshiro Kasama and drawn by Hikaru Uesugi. Viz Media began publishing the manga in the west in 2022.

The manga finds Deadpool recruited by Iron Man to join a new unit of the Avengers, the Samurai Squad, based out of Japan. Hilarity Ensues.

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Tropes:

• Aborted Arc: Played for Laughs like everything else. The story's premise is Deadpool being tasked with building a Japanese Avengers team. Sakura Spider, however, had already been recruited, and they recruit Neiro and Kage together. However, these three are the only additions to the team, and both Neiro and Sakura Spider are abruptly written out of the story before it ends as if it had been cancelled, specifically like Takaya: Senbu Gakuen Gekitouden. That one at least lasted for around five volumes...
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Captain America's relationship with Deadpool in this universe is much more friendly and supportive, as opposed to their 616 friendship where it took time for Steve to warm up to Wade and even then, there's still a lot of room for misunderstandings and scuffles between the two. Here, Cap knows what makes Deadpool tick, shows more empathy for him when helping him, and is significantly less likely to throw the first punch or shield to escalate a tense situation.
• Art Shift:
  • While fighting Deadpool, Graviton's powers are portrayed as the pages turning upside-down and being drawn in a Western-like art style with left-to-right reading order. The hero also starts talking to the narrator voices in his head for those two pages, just like in his source comics.
  • In the epilogue, a hand-drawn Deadpool is shown interacting with real people while pitching the story to the staff at Jump and then at Marvel.
• Back from the Dead: Confusingly, Thanos is introduced as if he was resurrected by Hydra but after a few scenes everyone starts referring to him as an inferior clone instead.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The ending of the first chapter shows a web-slinging hero had already been recruited for the operations in Japan, but then it's revealed this is not Peter Parker but instead a girl named Hida Haruka.
  • One of the captured criminals in chapter 3 tries using the serum from the first chapter, but Loki hijacks the scene by burning him to a crisp.
  • Deadpool attempts to disrupt the mind control device on Kage by calling a music band and asks readers to tap the page to enjoy the manga (which was originally published online) with music. The next page gives the news that the Deadpool Band broke up, much to the merc's frustration.
  • There's a lot of buildup for Deadpool bonding to Ven— er, "Kage" to kick Thanos' ass, but they're walloped between pages. Then Hulk shows up from out of nowhere!... and gets dunked on too.
  • Loki summons a... less beloved film version of Deadpool to his side, but the guy gets promptly shot down by a plain Palette Swap evil version of Deadpool.
  • In the bonus chapter featured in Deadpool: Black, White & Blood #4, Deadpool acts like he's going to give "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the defeated Disposer... then turns around and asks readers to buy the two Deadpool: Samurai volumes and to not pirate them.
• Big Bad: The story uses Loki as a main antagonist, having him want to destroy Japan for... some reason.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Deadpool tries calling Captain Marvel for help against Thanos, but his Wonderswan is knocked off his hand and calls for All Might instead. Japan's #1 hero defeats Thanos with a United States of Smash without breaking a sweat.
  • Sakura Spider asks the Avengers (just four of them) to back up Deadpool against Loki's army after she and Neiro fail to join the fight. A bored Deadpool says All Might's cameo was way more exciting, and accuses Shueisha of being miserly for not shelling out for the whole roster.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor:
  • Deadpool summarizes Sakura Spider’s existence as the creators going for low-hanging fruit (an anime girl version of Spider-Man) to make the manga more popular.
  • The creators also get a dig in at Marvel, adding notes in the margin to explain who Loki is before commenting that the weird thing about American comics is that they use such notes at all... which in itself is ironic because Japanese comics do use character notes specifically set like that in their original publications on magazines.
  • Deadpool whips out a Shonen Jump issue and checks out some moves he can try while fighting his alternate universe self, but can't do any of them while masked. He then tosses the magazine away, saying Jump sucks and that he'll read Shonen Sunday instead.
  • The story's last two references are spent on homaging Takaya: Senbu Gakuen Gekitouden, a series that Shonen Jump cancelled, and The Kindaichi Case Files, a series by a rival publisher.
  • The ending is framed as if Deadpool wrote and illustrated the whole series to pitch it at Jump Comics' headquarters. He happily explains the process to the readers until one of the editors passively-agressively asks him to bring something worthy of Jump's brand instead. The upset merc does things the roundabout way by just asking Marvel's staff to handle the negotiations for him... after killing that Jump editor, of course.
• Bloody Hilarious: The series plays gruesome scenes for comedy, particularly at Deadpool's expense since he can heal from pretty much any injury.
  • Deadpool is blown to pieces by Thanos, but since it happens in the end of the final chapter of volume 1, the hero shows up just fine in the following scene because he had plenty of real life time to rest until the next chapter/volume got published.
  • Thanos then pierces Deadpool's body with a Megaton Punch, but Deadpool just casually wonders if all the ink used for the shower of blood isn't spilling through the page. Flip it and you'll find the same scene and page layout framed from behind, indeed mostly obscured by the large blood splatter.
• Breakout Character:
  • When Neiro and Kage are introduced, Deadpool complains that they're going to steal the spotlight from him and usurp the protagonist role for the next spinoff or sequel. A note in the second volume states that there were plans to feature more of Neiro and Kage, but those were quashed when Neiro proved unpopular with the editors.
  • Oddly enough, Sakura Spider became this despite Deadpool commenting that her personality type is no longer popular among shōnen readers, co-starring in an issue of Deadpool: Black, White & Blood, being featured on a variant cover for Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 #3, and getting her Superhero Origin told in Edge of Spider-Verse Vol. 2 #3 — giving the setting the official Marvel Multiverse designation of Earth-346.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Deadpool considers Hida a lame Spider-Man knockoff and doesn't ever take her seriously. She doesn't even get to tell her backstory and is messily Demoted to Extra during the climax, though she at least calls some backup for Deadpool while at the hospital.
  • Neiro gets to tell her tragic backstory but gets even less page time than Hida after Deadpool beats the brainwashing out of her. She jobs to Thanos and then irresponsibly leaves the story to perform at a concert. In the second volume, her character dossier states her lack of screen time was due to the editors not liking her.
  • The protagonist himself is the Iron Butt Monkey variety, as he's pretty clumsy and suffers a ton of comically gruesome damage throughout the story while trying to take on villains far above his league.
• The Cameo:
  • As Deadpool asks if Thanos has ever been to Planet Deviluke, he fantasizes about Lala, Momo, and Nana... with censor bars over their eyes.
  • As the Deadpools give Loki a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, pages from various Marvel Comics starring him are shown, with noteworthy cameos being Wolverine, Carnage, and Eternity.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Every time Deadpool insults one of the Avengers other than Captain America he is beaten to a bloody pulp. But he's got a Healing Factor so it's ok.
• Conveniently Empty Building: Deadpool blows up a building in the first chapter but assures Iron Man that not a single civilian got killed in the incident because the disclaimer on the page says so. Said disclaimer just declares the detonation was handled by experts.
• Crossover: In his battle against Thanos, Deadpool and co. team up with All Might, and it's metioned that Deadpool previously helped him take down Toxic Chainsaw. This is unfortunately the only actual guest character the manga has, with other series only getting references, like Thanos mentioning how he destroyed Planet Deviluke.
• Death by Cameo: Shuma-Gorath is suddenly killed by Deadpool after appearing in only a few panels. Isn't Japan supposed to like the guy...?
• Distaff Counterpart: Sakura Spider is a Japanese heroine clearly inspired by Spider-Man, while Neiro Aratabi and Kage crib off Venom.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Loki grabs Neiro by the throat, attempts to brainwash her and states he'll "put her body to good use". Deadpool remarks they'll be hearing from Moral Guardians if that goes on any further. Later, while wanting to kill a Fat Bastard otaku in Neiro's defense, Deadpool explains the guy obviously wanted to rape her without actually saying "rape" because "you can't say that in a shonen manga". Deadpool would be surprised at what shonen can get away with outside of Jump Comics...
• Dwindling Party: At the endgame, Deadpool expresses concern that Hida and Neiro could die in their grand battle against Loki. Then Neiro decides she'd rather perform at a concert instead and Hida gets randomly hit by a truck and a car and is sent off to a hospital, leaving the merc-with-a-mouth to face the endgame alone.
• Evil Doppelgänger: As a last resort, Loki summons a bad-boy Deadpool in a white costume who has a series on Shonen Sunday. Downplayed in that "White Wilson" is far from a Dreadpool and Deadpool makes peace with him simply by proving that while he's been playing nice he remains a greedy jackass.
• Easily Forgiven: Neiro is willing to forgive a creep who wanted to make her a mind-controlled sex slave just because he is her fan, owning to a childhood trauma over people looking down on her ugly mother who was nonetheless happy for her success. Deadpool is utterly flabbergasted by this but goes along with it, though the villain does not change and plots to assault Neiro eventually... but ends up abruptly killed by Deadpool over unrelated reasons.
• Evil Is Petty: The big reveal — Loki wants to destroy Japan because Thor became a Demon Slayer fan.
• Expy Coexistence: A subdued, unspoken example as the character doesn't appear but given how Deadpool teamed up with All Might, there's presumably also a version of Twice, a MHA character based off of Deadpool, who also exists in this universe and coexists with him on the same Earth.
• Failed a Spot Check: The otaku is too busy mentally ranting about how he lied about being Neiro's fans and will reactivate the mind-control collar the moment he has a chance to notice Neiro say that if he wasn't her fan she would have happily killed him herself for wanting to rape her.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: All Might asks Deadpool to perform a Combination Attack with him to bring Thanos down, but Deadpool trips while running towards the Mad Titan and ruins the scene.
• Good Feels Good: Deadpool earns praise from civilians for saving hostages from a robbery and tells Sakura that it feels good to be a hero. She's much less impressed when he later refuses Loki's invitation to evil by declaring he's being a hero for fame and glory, though.
• Healing Factor: Deadpool amusingly justifies being able to regenerate from being blown to pieces between scenes by how long it had been since the last chapter or volume had been published in real life.
• Heel–Face Turn: The evil alternate universe Deadpool only works with Loki for the money and gladly defects once good-boy Deadpool tells him that Tony pays much better.
• Hypocritical Humor: Deadpool complains that the Avengers are missing Thor and Hulk when they arrive to fight Loki's army, even though he only recruited one girl for the Samurai Squad who left him hanging too.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • The evil scientist in the first chapter impales Deadpool with his arm, but the hero blows the entire building to the ground and leaves the guy impaled on a spike, apparently dead despite his Healing Factor.
  • The evil alternate universe Deadpool drags the main one towards a fallen tree and impales him on one of its branches as another reference to Logan.
• Irony:
  • Deadpool avoids directly talking about rape while protecting anime girl versions of Spider-Man and Venom because the manga is for shonen audiences, but those scenes would already violate The Comics Code as they are. It's also not difficult to find stories willing to do that in shonen publications other than Jump+. Particularly Arachnid from Gangan JOKER, a long-running series that thrives on Gratuitous Rape and just so happens to feature a female lead loosely based on Spider-Man that its author would gladly use in an official Spider-Man story if he had the opportunity.
  • All Might from My Hero Academia is the only Shonen Jump character who makes a proper appearance in the story. That series has a character named Twice who is clearly an expy of Deadpool himself, but this is never mentioned.
• Kick the Dog: Deadpool randomly asks Thanos how the attacks in Saint Seiya even work, about whether dubstep exists outside of Earth and if he's been to Planet Deviluke. The villain casually replies that he's already destroyed that planet and all the cute girls on it, cementing himself as the ultimate asshole. Also, while he doesn't give a dime about Saint Seiya he does later declare that dubstep sucks just to taunt Deadpool.
  Deadpool: We cannot allow you to exist anymore!!
• Killed Offscreen:
  • Deadpool jokingly apologizes for killing a bunch of mooks while out of view as Iron Man and Captain America discuss his recruitment.
  • Deadpool is implied to have killed the Jump Comics editor who rejected his work before pitching it back home at Marvel.
• Look Behind You: When confronting the random evil organization in the first chapter, Deadpool calls its leader on the phone and asks him to take a look outside... before simply arriving by elevator and shooting everyone up while they're distracted.
• Look Both Ways: Played for Laughs when Hida gets hit by a truck while she was so distracted being tsundere towards Deadpool that her Spider Sense didn't kick in. Deadpool begs Hida to get back up but she gets comically run over by a car too and falls unconscious. This leaves her stuck in a hospital while Deadpool moves on to fight Loki.
• Monster of the Week:
  • The scientist in the first chapter and the otaku later on are unnamed villains that die after a chapter or two. Deadpool even invokes the trope named while introducing the latter to Sakura Spider.
  • In a bonus chapter published as part of Deadpool: Black, White & Blood #4, Deadpool faces a villain with shoulder jets named Disposer and describes him as a "disposable" villain who'll never appear again.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Deadpool quotes his movie counterpart's "Maximum Effort" catchphrase in chapter one before taking out an army of goons.
  • After seeing the amount Iron Man is willing to pay him to join the Samurai Squad, Deadpool proclaims that he "Loves him 3000."
  • Sakura Spider’s attempt at a backstory begins with her "taking it back to the beginning one last time".
  • Neiro's appearance while Vulked out and Kage's tendency to extend its head from her back closely resemble the Sony's Spider-Man Universe incarnations of Eddie Brock and Venom, which doesn't go unnoticed by Deadpool.
  • The resurrected Thanos claims to have come back for Deadpool's head for some reason. Deadpool wonders if it's because of him stealing the woman he loves, which Sakura Spider finds a ridiculous notion. In the Marvel comics, Deadpool and Thanos are rivals for the love of the incarnation of Death.
  • When Loki sees the Hulk arrive on the battlefield, he promptly nopes out in a reference to the MCU Loki's fear of the Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok following his epic beatdown in The Avengers.
  • Deadpool-617 kills Weapon XI in the same way the Deadpool from Deadpool 2 did — sneaking up on him from out of sight and putting a bullet in his head.
• NEET: The otaku who Loki promises to give Neiro as a Sex Slave is one, going on a Motive Rant about how he'd done well in school but was unable to get a job before ultimately being kicked out by his parents. Deadpool is absolutely disgusted by him — saying he gives otaku a bad name, the only reason Neiro doesn't let Deadpool shoot him or just kill him herself is because he claims to be her fan, and even Loki says Kage would have eaten him before he could've laid a hand on Neiro.
• No Ending: Played for Laughs and subverted; Loki is defeated by Deadpool and his alternate self in a recreation of the ending of Takaya: Senbu Gakuen Gekitouden, a Jump series that got cancelled and infamously ended abruptly on a shot of its heroes breaking through the villain's defenses. In this series, despite the same "THE END!!" message, the story continues and ends properly with Deadpool making a final boastful speech at Loki.
• No Fourth Wall: As usual for Deadpool, there isn't one as far as he's concerned and he spends his time making sarcastic comments about the story and its production.
• Noodle Incident:
  • It's never actually explained why Thanos had a grudge against Deadpool.
  • Apparently, Deadpool and All Might teamed up to battle Toxic Chainsaw five years prior.
• One-Man Army: After Hida and Neiro become unavailable for the final battle, Deadpool takes on Loki's army on his lonesome. He quickly regrets it and has to be saved by the Avengers.
• Only Six Faces: When Hida gushes about how cute Neiro looks, Deadpool remarks that the illustrator draws all girls the same. He recants his statement when Hida glares at him.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Evil Deadpool states he joined Loki partly because he loathes himself for his many failures and wants to vent his frustration beating the shit out of another Deadpool, which our Deadpool can't help but agree with. The villain complains that Deadpool is acting too heroic when they are meant to be scumbags Only in It for the Money, but Deadpool explains Tony Stark pays much better than Loki and all is forgiven.
• Psycho Serum: The unnamed organization leader in chapter 1 becomes shredded after injecting himself with a serum and gains a Healing Factor.
• Punny Name: Sakura Spider is named Hida Haruka, a pun on "Peter Parker". Her character profile says her aunt is named "Mei" and her uncle is named "Tsutomu", which is written in kanji that can also be read as "Ben".
• Sad Clown: Captain America tells Sakura that he's witnessed Deadpool's grief at losing his girlfriend and believes he just puts on a goofball act to distract himself from the pain of loss. When Hida tries to ask him about it, Neiro stops her and compares Deadpool's antics to her stage persona as an idol.
• Scenery Gorn: Deadpool berates readers for just flipping through a double splash page of the building he's blown up in the first chapter, claiming it took three days for an assistant to draw it.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The puny god Loki runs for the hills as soon as he glimpses Hulk in the distance.
• Shout-Out: Mostly to other manga in Jump's lineup.
  • Deadpool tries to dodge bullets in slow motion just like in The Matrix. He fails.
  • The cover for chapter 3 is a Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba parody.
  • Deadpool starts discussing Dragon Ball with the otaku who brainwashed Neiro after noticing her restraining collar is that same one Broly had.
  • Deadpool thinks the feathers on Captain America's mask look like Arale's hat.
  • When set on fire by a Hydra soldier, Deadpool performs a Fire Punch to kill him.
  • Deadpool randomly asks Thanos how the attacks in Saint Seiya work and whether or not he has visited Planet Deviluke.
  • The device Deadpool uses to try and summon Captain Marvel — instead summoning All Might by accident — resembles a Wonderswan.
  • Deadpool gets All Might to sign an autograph on a book. A spellbook from Zatch Bell!, to be exact.
  • Deadpool is beaten by a bunch of super villains and collapses in a small crater just like Yamcha.
  • Deadpool refuses Loki's offer at a partnership by quoting Rohan Kishibe's boast that there's nothing better than saying "no" to somebody who thinks themself strong enough to tell you what to do.
    • Deadpool compares flashing back to using Ringo Roadagain's stand Mandom.^note Steel Ball Run spent the majority of its runtime in Ultra Jump, but did start in Shonen Jump.
  • Deadpool tries to perform techniques from Shonen Jump manga — namely Total Concentration Breathing from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Three Sword Style from One Piece — against Earth-617 Deadpool, but fails due to his mask and says he'll read Shonen Sunday instead. Evil Deadpool then launches a Kongōsōha at Deadpool, thanking him for the support since he works for that publisher in his world.
  • Deadpool and Evil Deadpool defeat Loki with a "Double Rakozan" (W螺煌斬). A panel-by-panel recreation of the infamous abrupt ending of Takaya: Senbu Gakuen Gekitouden, a 2005 Shonen Jump series.
  • In the final scene, Deadpool tells Loki that he and the other "Jump Heroes" will take on any villains he sends at them... and then swears it by his grandpa's name — a quote from The Kindaichi Case Files, which is not a Jump series but instead from Shōnen Magazine.
• Spoiler Cover: The second volume's cover depicts a Deadpool in a white costume. Upon reading the story, it becomes clear this isn't just a stylistic thing — it's Deadpool-617 instead of the protagonist.
• Talking Is a Free Action: A villain taking control of Kage and Neiro goes on a Motive Rant in middle of battle for a full page but Deadpool claims he perceived it as the guy talking like a Motor Mouth.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: On chapter 6, Deadpool decides to adopt this code of conduct as a shonen hero after Neiro asks him to spare the otaku who wanted to enslave her. There's only two pages left for anything anyway... Cue Hida identifying the thug as a ticket scalper and Deadpool immediately shooting him dead in response.
• To Be Continued: Deadpool pulls up a "To be Continued!" card before he's attacked by the transformed scientist in the beginning, but all it does it bring up a commercial break for two pages. In the volume version of the chapter, he then complains the ads were lazily copy-pasted from the web version.
• Torso with a View:
  • Loki blows a hole into Deadpool's stomach with an energy beam, but it's just a flesh wound...
  • Thanos punches clean through Deadpool's body several times during their fight, but he regenerates from those wounds.
• The Worf Effect: Thanos defeats Kage and Neiro in a single hit, complete with Sakura noting how impressive it is considering Kage's previous performance against Deadpool. Seeing this, Deadpool is just offended that Thanos would deny Neiro the chance of doing anything cool as a heroine. Thanos goes on to beat both "Kagepool" and Hulk silly between pages, but instantly gets defeated by All Might From My Hero Academia.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: Throughout the series Deadpool constantly complains about how stupid, generic or ridiculous its plot and characterizations are. Ironically, the ending reveals that in-universe he wrote the whole thing.

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