Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club

WRECKING CREW versus DEADPOOL, SPIDER-MAN & PUNISHER

(Marvel)
Where: Deadpool: Suicide Kings #5 When: October 2009 Why: Mike Benson & Adam Glass How: Carlo Barberi

The Story So Far...
A standard job for the Merc' with a Mouth becomes a battle for life & death as a hit on Tombstone turns in to a double-or-nothing bet that Deadpool won't survive the next twenty-four hours!

It's the high-stakes gamble of client Conrad O'Shea: who's counting on his mercenary to escape a frame-up for blowing up his apartment building, and the heroes who responded to take him down.

Fortunately for Deadpool; Daredevil helps convince The Punisher and Spider-Man of his innocence -- providing the patsy some much-needed assistance when Tombstone sics his newest bodyguards on him -- The Wrecking Crew!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: The Wrecker 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Thunderball 5 (Professor)
Speed: Spider-Man 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: The Wrecker 6 (Generator)
Agility: Spider-Man 5 (Cat-Like)
Fighting: Punisher 4 (Trained)
Energy: Punisher 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Spider-Man 29 (Metahuman)

My X (nee Twitter) feed recently threw an interesting critique my way that piqued my interest -- so it's about time we expanded the file on The Wrecking Crew!

The Wrecking Crew are: The Wrecker, Piledriver, Thunderball, and Bulldozer.

They aren't just a pack of my favourite goons and yours -- they're a super heavyweight team possessing powerful weapons that were enchanted with Asgardian magic!

This enchantment was first bestowed upon petty burglar Dirk Garthwaite, when Karnilla the Norn Queen mistook him for Loki, during a home invasion and robbery of the Norse god's New York abode. The crook soon decided to share the wealth, recruiting three of his pals into a deadly team of powerhouse thugs!

At first, sharing his power drastically reduced The Wrecker's super-human strength and stamina, but over the years, all of The Crew have found ways to become powered-up opponents for the mighty Thor, as well as other major heroes of the Marvel Universe.

This was the source of Jered McCorkle's assertion that recently losing to Daredevil & Elektra was a career low for The Wrecker -- and despite being a personal favourite, we've only briefly touched upon the misdeeds of The Wrecker and his Crew. Something we aim to correct today!

The Wrecking Crew were the first opponents for The Thunderbolts when the villains-in-disguise went public. Citizen V showed that agility and fighting prowess were sufficient to tangle with The Wrecker, but it took the strength of Atlas to truly deal any damage. A concentrated gas delivered straight to the gullet by Mach-V and Songbird was ultimately responsible for putting most of the team down.

It was a different story when The Wrecking Crew were challenged by a lone Sasquatch, however. The gamma-irradiated hero put up a pretty good fight without his Alpha Flight teammates, but was ultimately out-numbered, out-muscled, and brutally beaten.

So, what do these two cases tell us? That The Wrecking Crew are double-tough, but not untouchable. Citizen V made the best case for surviving a wild mismatch with guile and agility -- something Deadpool and Spider-Man both possess.

We know Spidey can fight above his weight class, having lived to tell the gale after going toe-to-toe with the Hulk. We've even seen him outwit the Juggernaut not once, but twice -- with a little help from Wonder Woman!

Wouldn't you know, but Deadpool has achieved fairly similar feats as well! He defeated Hulk under slightly special circumstances for the jolly green goliath, and likewise survived Juggernaut long enough to get an assist from Siryn for the win!

Mach-V shows us that The Wrecking Crew aren't necessarily impervious to the threat of high-powered inhalants, which is the kind of all-purpose tactical weapon you might find in The Punisher's arsenal. He isn't there at the start of the fight, but will show up soon enough - and you know he isn't afraid to fight dirty!

Punisher isn't afraid to use the weapons of the enemy in his one-man war on crime. He may or may not be able to find a magically charmed option to best The Wrecker, but we know he levelled Rhino with the Satan Claw, and took down a cadre of super-villains, including Mister Hyde, with a stolen Ant-Man helmet and alien guns!

We clearly need more data, and since reviewing & analyzing fights is kinda what we do around here, let's dive in and find out how the street-level heroes fare!

The Tape: The Wrecking Crew Ranking: Spider-Man (#2)

What Went Down...

Deadpool & Spider-Man find themselves facing an unexpected, Asgardian-powered roadblock in their chase of Tombstone -- also known as The Wrecking Crew!

The Wrecker figures any one of them could handle "these stinkin' pipsqueaks" alone, but that won't stop the Merc' with a Mouth and his web-swinging cohort making the quartet earn it. The Crew are happy to oblige.

Bulldozer gets the fight started by charging at a leaping Spider-Man, while Thunderball swings his deadly ball & chain into an impact right at Deadpool's feet! Only the sole of one red boot is visible, but it's safe to say Carlo Barberi knows what he's doing when it comes to drawing anatomy past the ankle.

Spidey's an old hand at vaulting over charging powerhouses, but his leap takes him right into the path of The Wrecker -- whose enchanted crowbar smacks him high into the air and out of the park! [It's actually a construction site.]

Deadpool admires the shot with katana drawn, grateful that it wasn't him who was launched into the sky. Alas, he has no spider-sense to warn him of Bulldozer coming back around to run right through him with a rear assault!

The helmeted headbutt to the spine adjusts the mercenary across the battlefield, but he manages to make a neat landing -- and narrowly avoids being clobbered by Thunderball's ball, awkwardly dragging himself clear of the impact!

The dodge becomes a full frontal assault as Deadpool twists his body to bring the end of his blade arcing towards Piledriver -- but the overhead strike is caught between his enchanted hands. The Wrecker does the honors from there.

An enchanted crowbar smashes Deadpool in the face -- and for a moment he's knocked so silly he drifts into another plane of existence. A simpler reality, where dinner's getting cold and it's a Wednesday -- time for reading new issues.

As Deadpool groans in a crumpled mess -- Spidey comes plummeting back down to Earth with an unceremonious "wwhhhaamp".

Wrecker hoists Deadpool's mangled body by the collar and dangles him for Bulldozer to run armored head to chest right through him again. "The Wrecking Crew's tangled with Norse gods. You sissies never had a rat's ass chance."

Things look grim as Bulldozer encourages Piledriver to finish him, but a couple of well-placed web balls send the bruiser's left hook off course into The Wrecker's face!

Back on his feet and ready to rumble - Spidey blasts The Wrecker's eyes with web and his ears with an innuendo that would make Aunt May blush.

The quipping heroes go back to back and prepare for the riled-up Wrecking Crew to bring the fight to them. They compare notes on the Lethal Weapon franchise and The Warriors references as they brace for battle when suddenly -- a third player enters the fray with a powerful energy beam and focused sonic blast!

Bulldozer and Piledriver tumble destructively through the construction site as The Punisher arrives on a Goblin Glider with the Unicorn Power Horn still smoldering at his forehead, and one of Klaw's sonic disruptor blasters on his right hand!

He swoops over the two heroes with pumpkin bombs at the ready, tossing a trio of the explosives at The Wrecker and Thunderball. They're quickly engulfed in thick green gas, but remain unimpressed by the "minor league wannabes".

Spider-Man clues them in that Hobgoblin's "jack-o'-lanterns pack enough knockout gas to put down a herd of elephants."

The Wrecker hangs his head and drops to his knees as Thunderball falls face first to the ground. Deadpool sees that Wrecker joins his teammate, turning the enchanted crowbar against him with a smack to the face!

The Hammer...

In this house we love The Wrecking Crew, so when a doubt about a recent battle between The Wrecker and Daredevil & Elektra [in Daredevil (Vol.8) #24] came across my feed -- I was already primed to want to explore the subject more.

Daredevil himself was actually a part of this little 'Deadpool Team-Up' in earlier issues of Deadpool: Suicide Kings, but he manages to skip out on this chapter, remaining elsewhere until the fighting's over. By that time, the battle has moved on to another of my personal favourite bad guys: the man who hired The Wrecking Crew and essentially started this whole mess -- Tombstone!

So, while we couldn't quite source an exact comparison to The Wrecker's most recent indignity; Deadpool, The Punisher, and Spider-Man provide an interesting case study for street-level heroes taking The Wrecking Crew down.

It's interesting to note that Suicide Kings ostensibly repeats the same strategy that took The Wrecker down in Thunderbolts #1 -- one of the few previous entries we've actually recorded for the villain and his teammates.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any significant earlier examples of knockout gas taking The Wrecker and his crew down. I wonder if writers Mike Benson and/or Adam Glass were influenced by the earlier T-Bolts issue, or just reached a similar conclusion for dispatching them. Perhaps we'll discover a pattern of vulnerability as we explore their various misdeeds in future updates.

I have a few Wrecker battles that have been burning up my desk over the years, but in those examples we'll establish more of the heavyweight brawling he's best known for. Not a lot of tactical tranquilizer gas in those issues, as I recall.

Obviously to address the claim in the inspiring tweet - I'd have to look at that particular issue, but one of the functions of Secret Wars on Infinite Earths is to provide abundant reference for historical precedent, and tangential examples. These records can support or dispute a result - real or imagined. Something that the current trend of so-called "AI" isn't necessarily so good at...

When I asked Google if The Wrecker had succumbed to gas in any Marvel Comics, its "AI" result claimed he hadn't. We know that's not true. We now have two very clear examples of that. You might like to keep that in mind next time you're looking for answers to comic book questions, or genuine 100% man-made sources to support. There's a Patreon for that, and I'd really appreciate it.

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has supplied an archive of well over 700 in-depth results & reviews -- ranking more than 1,000 of your favourite characters in the process! You can find them all, and flex your mind muscle, by diving in to the Secret Index for a complete appendix in order of publisher, series, and issue.

I'd also encourage you to live life to the fullest, expanding your horizons and feeding your curiosity, with a rich diet of links to your favourite topics. You can find them throughout most entries on the site. It's a great way to see if I've come back to something interesting, or ventured into new & exciting tangents.

In the spirit of this latest entry -- I'd like to dig in to the other side of the equation. There are a lot of Daredevil and Elektra battles still waiting to be reviewed, but I have a particular example in mind that revisits Daredevil's penchant for tackling much bigger & stronger foes, from an era I've been taking an interest in. It'll be another good comparison for the fight with The Wrecker.

Of course, I presume part of the inciting social media grievance isn't just who defeated The Wrecker - but how.

It's fair to say not all comics are created equal, and I tend to be prone to sharing skepticism about the quality of editorial consistency in more recent issues. It doesn't seem like every writer and editor knows their stuff, or respects the process of building on the past with consistency and restraint, to create enduring iconic characters, and a cohesively developed shared universe.

2009 is a year I look back upon very fondly, but it's also one of the last years that I enjoyed consistent interest and enthusiasm for comics published by Marvel and DC. In my estimation, it's around then that the wheels start getting shaky, the stories are a little hit & miss, and the quality just isn't always there. [Something I'm willing to challenge through actual hands-on reviews, mind you...]

So where does Suicide Kings fit into that? Well, it does feel awfully convenient to dispatch bad guys who regularly throw down with Thor with a little gas, but it's delivered in the spirit of fun, and I don't feel that my intelligence, or the characters themselves, are being insulted by this. Their threat level is well represented, and barring any uncited contradiction, I don't really see any reason their enchantments should protect them from hostile inhalants beyond a general enhanced resistance -- something The Wrecker kinda demonstrated.

We could quibble minor details, like whether or not Spidey should be reduced to a purple stain by The Wrecker's crowbar, but let's just chalk it up to Spidey-senses, fast reaction times, and agile rolling with the "punches". Relax. Sometimes the needs of the story are what actually determines the outcome, and the mountain of overwhelming odds provided by powerhouse villains like The Wrecking Crew exists purely to be overcome. That's just fine and dandy. Get a hold of yourself.

Incidentally, Google's AI did suggest a 2010 episode of the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series, where The Wrecking Crew endures a gaseous dome of gamma irradiation without any issues. It's a series I'm familiar with and enjoyed very much, but wouldn't look to for precedent, because as we all know, adaptations are secondary sources, and prone to playing things fast and loose. Fans concerned with the degradation of The Wrecking Crew need only look at the barely recognisable group seen in Disney+'s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Just don't be deranged about it. Alright? Focus. Don't be strange.

Looking more broadly: I was a fast fan of Deadpool in the nineties and got a real kick out of his first on-going series with Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness. Their combination of tights and comedy was a real blast, and set the ship off to a cult favourite start. The character got a little obnoxious throughout the 2000s, but I found Suicide Kings a pretty decent levelling out.

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #5 appeals to me very specifically with the four main heroes, and focus on The Wrecking Crew and Tombstone. Made that much more appealing by Carlo Barberi's clean pencils, and slick inks & colour from Sandu Florea and Marte Gracia, whom I'm assured aren't pseudonyms.

As someone who's enjoys it when Punisher is more than a psycho with sidearms -- I love the absurd visual and fitting tone of him cruising in on a stolen Goblin Glider, wearing Unicorn's suit & headgear, with a Klaw hand and lobbing Hobgoblin pumpkin bombs. A superb way to level the playing field and have a whole lot of freakin' fun.

The five issue mini isn't going to be a definitive representation for any of these characters, or one of the must-read tomes from Marvel, but if you're familiar with the characters, or curious to dip your toe in with no strings attached, it's a raucous ride through the borderland between organized crime and super-villainy. Worth your time -- and worth us coming back to in the future.

So what more do you need? I think I've covered all the bases and made this the most boring thing you've read all day! My work here is done!

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Winners: The Punisher & Deadpool (w/ Spider-Man)
#55 (+33) The Punisher
#21 (+2) Deadpool
#2 (--) Spider-Man [+1 assist]
#439 (-47) The Wrecker
#440 (-47) Piledriver
#443 (-29) Thunderball
#444 (-29) Bulldozer