Anyone who was depending on ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ to “save” the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Disney can claim a partial victory. Financially the film is an enormous hit – Deadpool himself proved prescient with his “Marvel Jesus” self-dub as ‘D&W’ has surpassed “The Passion of the Christ” as the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. Even critics are having trouble completely tanking on a movie that actually playfully acknowledges their lament of superhero content choking out art and the recent MCU slump. While it may have goosed the genre in the best ways, and proves to be an entertaining, hilarious excursion, it’s still very difficult to clearly see the direction forward for the overarching MCU franchise. Fans have ComicCon to thank for illuminating that pathway (hello Doctor Doom, hello again RDJ!)

While the fourth wall breaking character of Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, has been cracking wise in the comics since the 90s, it was Ryan Reynolds’ mission and vision to bring him to life in 2016. That little anti-hero flick was a huge, violent, raunchy hit, coming at the perfect baroque period in the maturation of the superhero genre. Fox followed with “Logan” a year later, fully illustrating this phenomenon with another violent but somber meditation. Like the western before it, all genre that lasts will go through cycles like this, but the spoofs and the mythic takes only work and find success if the audience is fully versed in the tropes. Now, “Deadpool & Wolverine”, which touts itself as the characters’ entry into Disney IP and being the first out of 34 franchise films to claim an R-rating, is perhaps something else entirely – a true spoof that is also in canon.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” plays off of Wade’s timeline messing from 2018’s “Deadpool 2” and Marvel’s recent forays into the multiverse, complete with variants from other dimensions. This allows the filmmakers to usher Deadpool into the MCU via the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, introduced in the ‘Loki’ series on Disney+. It also affords them bringing in an alternate version of Wolverine (also played by the great, and game, Hugh Jackman) without desecrating the memory of the character’s sacrifice. As all ‘Deadpool’ movies must do, the first scene is a status setting point that then flashes back for the first act. In this case it’s an iconic fight scene where Deadpool desecrates the gravesite from the ending of ‘Logan’ and uses his adamantium skeleton to bludgeon and stab TVA grunts. They’re after him because he won’t play ball with the organization’s plan to eradicate his own universe (the now defunct Fox X-Men dimension). It’s all scored to N’Sync’s “Bye, Bye,Bye” and culminates with Wade attaching Wolvie’s iconic claws to his own wrists in an effort to emulate his hero, elevating the sequence to iconic status.

The rest of ‘D&W’ follows this irreverent suit, with non-stop jokes and visual gags evoking various iconic comic books, 20th Century Fox Marvel beats, and even rumored castings that never came to fruition. It’s impossible to say what percent of audiences will “get” everything on screen, but it doesn’t really matter as the byplay between these now iconic characters keeps the momentum going even when the movie spins its wheels in the oblivion zone of the Void (again, a concept introduced in “Loki’ – might be a good series to check out prior to this . . . or not, whatever). New characters are introduced (villainous turns by Matthew Macfadyen of ‘Succession’ and Emma Corrin of ‘The Crown’ and ‘A Murder at the End of the World’ are relatively inspired but not mind-blowing), old characters cameo (best left unspoiled), but nothing tops the infusion of Jackman here.

It really came as quite the surprise that Hugh Jackman would reprise his role for this. After giving an indelible superhero performance providing a beautifully fitting cap to the Wolverine character in James Mangold’s transcendent ‘Logan’, it was hard to imagine what more could be done. Somehow, the actor is able to breathe new life into this comic book accurate costumed version, a Logan that is a totally different character – still haunted of course, and extremely annoyed with Reynolds as expected, but conveying a sense of unfinished business (how very meta). Their fight scenes, as ridiculous as they are due to their healing factors, have an insane piling-on effect, signaling that no matter how much critics and the high-minded might want this genre of art to just go away, there’s just no stopping it . . . LFG!!

Directed By: Shawn Levy

Written By: Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells, & Shawn Levy

Running Time: 128 min.

Rated: R

* * * (out of 4 stars) -OR- B