When American Dream of the Avengers turns down an invitation to participate in a martial arts contest, J2 aka Zane Yama takes it upon himself to attend in her place. Travelling via mystical amulet to a small island, J2 meets the (apparently) blind Howard the Duck, the self-proclaimed Master of Quack-Fu.
From Howard we learn that a few dozen of the world's greatest martial artists were invited to the contest, but only a few of the previous generation's 'old fogies' showed up. Suspecting a trap, Howard had hoped to stack the deck in his favour with American Dream, Stuck with J2 instead, Howard attempts to train the big lug to defend himself but has no success. When J2 reverts back to Zane Yama after his powers temporarily wear off, he encounters Blind Al. Concerned for Zane's well-being in the upcoming contest, Al attempts to get past Weasel to talk to the mystery person who organised the contest: Wade Wilson aka Deadpool.
Having followed Blind Al, Zane learns the contest will have a deadly ending. Encountering Deadpool, Zane turns back into J2 to duke it out with the mercenary. Deadpool reveals he set up the contest to alleviate his boredom. Having overheard his plans, the other contestants proceed to kick Wade's butt off-panel.
And that's it. We never encounter Deadpool again in the MC2. It's nice to see both Blind Al and Weasel make appearances in this story if old briefly and the cameos by the various iconic Marvel martial artists is a fond nod to the characters, including Iron Fist in his first MC2 appearance (more on him another time). The real show-stealer, however is Howard the Duck playing the role of the old martial arts mentor. I'd love to see these characters make a return someday. In the meantime, I'm off to book tickets to see Deadpool 2...
Until I stop shamelessly releasing tangentially related content around the release of popular movies, I remain
frogoat