It is inarguable that the “healing factor” is one of the more impactful superpowers out there, and yet it raises many questions once you think about it for more than a second. How do people with healing factors — like Wolverine and Deadpool — keep their hair and nails in check? Why does it always grow back the same amount in the same shape? Can they get haircuts? Tattoos? Piercings? What happens if you cut them in half? Is it starfish rules?
In this week’s Wolverine #23, writer Benjamin Percy and artist Adam Kubert served up a reminder that a healing factor is among the most potentially horrifying superpowers, by making a comic in which a villain put Wolverine and Deadpool in a contracting room full of buzzsaws until their two bodies had been rendered into a single indistinguishable puree. You can see the results of their competing healing factors above.
Because god is merciful, this Poolverine monstrosity was a temporary state, only lasting until each guy’s cells worked out who was who and they budded off of each other like amoeba. Phew.
What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)
Image: Benjamin Percy, Adam Kubert/Marvel Comics
Also, after a year of being a general Krakoan nuisance, Deadpool finally managed to have a heart-to-heart with Wolverine that was convincing enough for X-Force to let him back on the team. Even though he’s not a mutant. It must really put things into perspective to have your cells reduced into a pink slurry mingling with another guy’s.
Image: Gerry Duggan, Kris Anka/Marvel Comics
Speaking of “things that are canon now”: Jon Hamm and Emma Frost. What the Hellfire Gala lacked compared to last year’s drawn-in celebrity cameos, it made up for in the star power of Jon Hamm. And Cyclops mentioning that the actor is one of Jean Grey’s “hall passes.”
Image: Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky/Boom Studios
Flavor Girls is a new series from Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky at Boom that is making big homages to Sailor Moon with a side order of Neon Genesis Evangelion and also some next-level art. I almost regret showing this series of panels that’s deliberately drawn looser for comedy’s sake; there are some gorgeous alien disasters, splash panels, and color choices from Locatelli-Kournwsky and collaborator Eros de Santiago.
Also! Magical-girl fashion spreads in the back of the issue! Who doesn’t love that?