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• MEMBERS ONLY: Deadpool and My Hero Academia's All Might punching Thanos is still the best crossover team-up in Marvel history [Popverse Jump]
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Deadpool is a character that, for me, works best when part of a team-up. Put him on his own and he feels a bit one note. Pair him with Cable, Spider-Man, or, dare I say, Wolverine and give him someone to bounce off of and suddenly I find him not just bearable but fun. However, the greatest team-up in Deadpool history wasn’t with any other Marvel character. No, it was the time that a missent text led to the Merc with a Mouth and All Might punching Thanos into oblivion.

Yes, All Might, the Symbol of Peace of My Hero Academia fame, showed up in the pages of Marvel Comics… kinda. It was part of a manga series called Deadpool: Samurai where Deadpool went to Japan to fight Japanese crime. Most of the time he’s out there making problems bigger, which is the Deadpool way, but in Chapter 9 of Deadpool Samurai, a clone of Thanos is wrecking Japan and the only one who can stop him is Deadpool.

Actually, that’s not what happens. Instead, Deadpool tries everything to stop Thanos only to fail miserably because of course he does. He merges with Venom into Venny-Pool but gets the symbiote smacked out of him. He calls in Hulk but he gets one shot by the Mad Titan. In desperation, Deadpool tries to call Captain Marvel to save the day (using the same device Fury used to contact her in Avengers: Infinity War, no less) but screws up the text and ends up sending the distress signal to All Might instead, who shows up with an “I am here!” and princess carries Deadpool to safety. Which is how we prefer to be rescued from certain death as well.

It is an extremely flimsy premise for the storyline, but it did the job of getting All Might on the page with Deadpool. As a fun bit of trivia, All Might is drawn by Kohei Horikoshi, the mangaka for My Hero Academia. Considering that Horikoshi has said on record that he’s a big Marvel Comics fan, especially Spider-Man, we don’t expect it took much to convince him to take part in the collaboration.

The bulk of the encounter between the two characters is All Might proposing a team-up attack to take out Thanos and Deadpool fanboying over the whole situation. Which is fair, we think. This chapter came out in 2021 right as My Hero Academia’s fifth season was airing in Japan, which was near the peak of the show’s run. 

There are some really great moments in this brief team-up, particularly Deadpool saying that it only happened because they’d locked Horikoshi up in a basement. It is the kind of meta humor that has become the core of the Deadpool character, but it works remarkably well when you know that Deadpool: Samurai was published by Shueisha in Japan, who also published My Hero Academia in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. There is even an advertisement for reading My Hero Academia at the start of the chapter. The implication of the joke is that Shueisha had Horikoshi chained up somewhere until he finally wrapped up his iconic manga.

After All Might one-shots Thanos into a wall with a United States of Smash and autographs Deadpool’s comic, he then jumps off panel, presumably because his time in his powered-up form was about to end. The whole thing is silly, irreverent, and remarkably memorable because it never overstays its welcome. There are two or three jokes to be made and then the whole thing ends, making way for an incoming battle against Loki at the top of Mt. Fuji (this manga goes places, folks).

That’s what crossovers should be; an exploration of how these two characters from different worlds interact before swiftly moving on to something else. The implication that All Might is running around in the Marvel Comics Universe is there, but by the time you start to think about what that means or if he and Thor really do sound the same, we’ve moved on. The fact that Deadpool reacts with awe and wonder at being wrapped up in All Might’s arms is the most relatable thing the character has ever done.

Deadpool: Samurai understood that and delivered the greatest team-up moment in Marvel Comics. By pairing up one of the most iconic heroes in manga history with the okayest character in the Marvel universe, we get to see both these characters at their best. How much you enjoy the series will depend entirely on how much you like Deadpool’s antics, but this chapter is worth reading for any manga fan.

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