JUGGERNAUT versus DEADPOOL & SIRYN

Deadpool Sandwich (Marvel)
Where: Deadpool: Sins of the Past #3 When: October 1994 Why: Mark Waid How: Ian Churchill & Ken Lashley

The Story So Far...
PREVIOUSLY ON DEADPOOL... Black Tom Cassidy has been afflicted with a viral wooden growth that threatens to consume his body. His brother Sean uses Interpol connections to bring Weapon X geneticist Dr. Emrys Killebrew to examine the prisoner.

Black Tom's best buddy Juggernaut is worried for his pal, so he stages a daring dual breakout and kidnapping of Dr. Killebrew. He then learns there may be only one hope for curing the infection -- the healing factor of Deadpool!

Deadpool did his best to defeat the unstoppable Juggernaut, but when knives fail, he opts for a vat of molten metal -- big mistake! Now Juggernaut is mad as hell and covered in flaming hot magma!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Juggernaut 6 (Uh oh!)
Intelligence: Deadpool 3 (Alert, Not Alarmed)
Speed: Deadpool 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Juggernaut 7 (Unstoppable, duh)
Agility: Deadpool 4 (Does Whatever A Pool Can)
Fighting: Deadpool 4 (Underrated)
Energy: Siryn 4 (Celine Dion at Eurovision)
Total: Deadpool 26 (Stud)

The first time the Merc' with a Mouth starred in theatres, we took in the sights and sounds of Deadpool: Sins of the Past #2! Now that he's officially back on Blu-ray -- what better time to follow-up with a sequel of our own?

When last we saw him: Juggernaut was toweling himself off after a nice warm shower in molten steel! The result of dousing a magically unstoppable behemoth in liquid metal? Hot stuff coming through!

Juggernaut's hot & bothered and charging toward a second date with Deadpool and Siryn -- but this time: they have a chaperone!

Interpol's best man Danny Peyer has tracked down wanted Wade Wilson for his laundry list of international crimes. DP's hoping Peyer will play cavalry, but against Juggernaut, his men are severely mismatched!

We've seen it all before. Juggernaut slapped Colossus silly in Uncanny X-Men #183, kayoed Captain Britain in Excalibur #3, clobbered Captain Marvel Jr in the crossover of Unlimited Access #3, and walked away completely unscathed from a building dropping on him in Amazing Spider-man #230!

Of course, later in that same issue, Spider-man managed to keep Juggernaut down for a ten count by burying him in a few thousand gallons of wet cement! Spidey scored another win over a decade later by teaming with Wonder Woman for another DC/Marvel crossover in Unlimited Access #1!

We know Deadpool can be pretty crafty himself! Speed, agility, and ruthlessness helped him face the Hulk and live to tell the tale [in Deadpool #4]! Old fashioned survival skills bested Ajax's cyborg strength and cleaning power in Deadpool #19! Good gear and tactics had Cable on the ropes in New Mutants #98! And the greatest power of all was categorically proven to be dance when DP beat Taskmaster way back in Deadpool #2!

Alas; Siryn's sonic scream won't lend itself to a funky disco beat, and the best Danny Peyer can hope to be is David Bowie to Deadpool's gyrating Mick Jagger. The decks are decidedly unstacked with nary an Abba sample, nor rhythm, at hand. Will Deadpool be able to sock it to Juggernaut like the jive turkey he is?

That's what we're here to find out! You can't give it up! Round 2! FIGHT!

The Tape: Deadpool Ranking: Deadpool (#20)

What Went Down...
If running from a flaming Juggernaut sounded bad enough -- Deadpool and his favourite gal, Siryn, find themselves caught between a rock and squad of heavily armed Interpol agents! Lucky for them: Juggernaut beats Interpol!

Deadpool leaps clear of the incoming Juggernaut, dragging Siryn out of harm's way, as well. Peyer has to make his own way -- diving clear in the nick of time, while his Interpol friends open fire. Their ammunition barely leaves a scratch!

Peyer orders a tactical retreat, recognizing Deadpool's set-up. Before he leaves he warns Deadpool their beef isn't over. The threat puts a sightline on Deadpool, prompting Juggernaut to use his mass to bring the roof down!

Deadpool makes a graceful super-hero landing and starts throwing everything he's got in the direction of the ten-foot mountain of muscle and fire. Gunfire, shuriken, and katana blades all bounce and break off Juggernaut's magic hide!

Juggernaut reveals his ultimate goal is not to get revenge for past slights, but to collect Deadpool so his best pal Black Tom Cassidy can be cured of a nasty wood infection! As the old saying goes, mutant healing factor today

DP drops a choice reference to Wolverine, but that only gets the concerned Juggernaut in a dither. (He's just so anxious about his friend's condition!)

A massive, smoldering, unstoppable fist swings in Deadpool's general direction -- but he narrowly ducks it, and scrambles to escape through Juggernaut's legs!

Siryn watches frozen in terror as Deadpool calls for some much needed backing vocals! Juggernaut tells her to stay out of it, catching the crawling Deadpool by his ankle only to drag him into his clutches.

Massive fingers engulf Deadpool's neck as Juggernaut exercises his aggressions with a blatant choke. The sight of such obvious peril is enough to shake Siryn from her terror and unleash a bone-rattling scream!

The sonic blast blows the windows of the warehouse they've been fighting in and shakes even the Juggernaut to his core! It's enough to free Deadpool from his powerful grip as Siryn comes to the rescue - gliding him to safety with the knife manufacturer's entire building collapsing on top of Juggernaut!

The Hammer...
Once again we find ourselves in need of a definition for victory!

When it comes to a fighter as unstoppable as Juggernaut: defeat is rarely a permanent condition -- but who ever said it has to be?

Many have tried dropping a building on Juggernaut, but Siryn did it particularly well - and went one better - also rattling him to the core with a sonic scream! Juggernaut goes unseen for the rest of the issue, which is enough to convince me Siryn won the battle - even if the war wages on...

Indeed, Juggernaut does return in the fourth and final issue of the Sins of the Past mini-series. He concludes business with Deadpool, having started their feud a year earlier in Deadpool: The Circle Chase. Which was presumably inspiration for Juggernaut's live-action return in Deadpool 2 -- now on Blu-ray!

If you're just joining us: today's feature fight brings an end to the inconclusive battle begun back in Deadpool: Sins of the Past #2! No doubt we'll return again some time in the future to check out Round 3, and the earlier encounter.

Deadpool doesn't walk away completely empty handed from today's featured fight! Though his efforts failed to register as contributing to victory -- this does mark his first recorded assist on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths, and therefore an important milestone of personal development. Way to go, Wade!

The now-classic Deadpool on-going series launched a few years later in '97 and would continue to pick up the tab on Deadpool's developing crush on Siryn, and path to becoming a hero. Even Dr. Killebrew [mentioned in the first section] comes back for more wacky fun -- at least until he's iced by Ajax. SPOILERS!

There's obvious cult appeal to these early Deadpool mini-series, which really do inform the path for Deadpool in subsequent years - more than I might've noticed at the time. That said, things really go to another level when Joe Kelly starts embellishing the comedy -- and Ed McGuinness defines a big and bold look for the series. Both really contributed iconic detailing to the basic model!

Speaking of big and bold, I've gotta give it to Ian Churchill (and Ken Lashley) - he draws a mean Juggernaut! I actually quite like some of the scenes where  the structure of his musculature and costume armor is more square. It's a slightly different take to the classic model, but I like it! When Juggernaut starts getting too rounded, it just ain't right!

If you wanna see more from these characters be sure to dive into the Secret Archive to find every battle indexed by publisher, series, and issue number. You can also get a full serve by following links throughout this post!

Get the full experience and support the site by purchasing a collected edition with today's feature fight in it - or the Deadpool 2 movie! By shopping with the Amazon links provided, you'll help sponsor the site at no extra cost to you!

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Winner: Siryn (w/ Deadpool)
#133 (+258) Siryn
#46 (--) Juggernaut
#20 (--) Deadpool [+1 assist]
#539 (new) Danny Peyer [+1 assist]

JUGGERNAUT versus DEADPOOL & SIRYN

Luck of the Irish (Marvel)
Where: Deadpool: Sins of the Past #2 When: September 1994 Why: Mark Waid How: Ian Churchill

The Story So Far...
Black Tom Cassidy is a bad seed with a bad problem. A viral wooden growth is claiming his humanity while he serves a life sentence in maximum security prison.

Former Weapon X geneticist Dr. Emrys Killebrew is Black Tom's only hope. Brought in at the request of Interpol Agent Sean Cassidy, the good doctor is running out of time and methods to cure the aggressive infection. Lucky for Tom, his brother isn't the only one looking out for his health. Eager to upgrade Black Tom out of the prison healthcare system, Juggernaut goes on the warpath!

Absconded with Dr. Killebrew, Black Tom's condition is hanging in the balance and the key to saving him may just be former Weapon X subject: Deadpool! The mercenary's sinful past with Black Tom is about to bite him in the ass and the unstoppable Juggernaut is first in line to do the biting!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Juggernaut 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Deadpool 3 (Special Ed)
Speed: Deadpool 3 (Atlhete)
Stamina: Juggernaut 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Deadpool 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Deadpool 4 (Trained)
Energy: Siryn 4 (Arsenal)
Vocal Range: Siryn 7 (Blarney Hell)

It's the unstoppable force meeting the unmuteable mercenary! Watcha gonna do brother when Juggernaut runs wild on you? That's the penniless question we aim to answer today! How will we achieve this daring feat of combat analysis? With our trusty numeric power scale and scholarly references, of course!

When it comes to superhuman strength, endurance and stamina - Juggernaut's in the top tier. His powers are derived from the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak: a magical ruby that's pretty tough to come by ever since Cain Marko got his mitts on it. We've seen him use his magic might to go toe-to-toe with heavyweights like: Colossus [Uncanny X-Men #183], Nimrod [Uncanny X-Men #194] and even Superman [DC versus Marvel #1]!

That sounds like bad news for mild mannered mercenary Deadpool, whose skills amount to: DIY home renovation, a skin condition, overactive imagination, access to 24/7 tech support, protection in the afterlife from Bea Arthur, swords, guns, and a healing factor. Fortunately -- it is not so bad!

A few years after today's feature fight, Deadpool scored a victory against an opponent every bit Juggernaut's equal - the Incredible Hulk [Deadpool #4]! He was also able to negate the super-strength of cyborg nemesis Ajax in Deadpool #19, and use unconventional tactics to topple the Taskmaster twice - in Deadpool #2 and Cable & Deadpool #36!

Of course, for all the raging hard muscle of the Hulk - he is still flesh and bone and can be penetrated (by swords). Juggernaut's magic strength tends to make him pretty resistant to being shanked. A whole construction site of pointy things didn't do Spidey any favors [Amazing Spider-man #230]! Then again, he's never been one to take the spider gimmick to its logical, skin piercing conclusion... You know what? He's the Juggernaut, bitch! Deadpool's in big trouble! If he had any clue he'd just run away! Call the whole thing off!

Is she pretty Irish, or Irish and pretty? Isn't "Irish redhead" a bit redundant? Oh, I guess there are Scottish redheads... Wait, is that racist?...

Oops. That's not an option, though. Pretty Irish redhead Siryn is in tow and DP's on the path to being smitten! Juggernaut does have orders not to hurt her [from Uncle Black Tom], but Juggernaut's never been known for being gentle, and Deadpool & Siryn don't know she's supposedly safe. Like her father Banshee, she's got a mean set of pipes on her, though. That rusty dome on his head doesn't seem like it stops sonic screams getting through, either. Yeah, just go with that.

Oh, by the way, Siryn has chosen the knife factory stage.

The Tape: Deadpool Ranking: Deadpool (#26)

What Went Down...

Having made a daring escape from a pack of mercenaries - Deadpool and Siryn have but a moments pause before the true threat presents itself: Juggernaut!

Taking refuge in a nearby "blade manufacturing" factory, the heroes hope to control the fight with walls at their back. If the door was any indication - the walls won't be much help. Juggernaut kicks it down and calls for last words...

Deadpool tips a box of blades over the hulking behemoth, showering him in sharpened steel! Against any ordinary mortal the tactic would surely have been sharp and to the point - but it was a blunt failure thanks to Juggernaut's magical invulnerability!

Deadpool Facts:
Don't throw anything at Juggernaut that you aren't prepared to have thrown back.

Juggernaut gives Deadpool points for originality: few have tried to slow him down with meat cleavers! How many points did he give? About as many as he can scoop up in his giant Cytorrak Gem enhanced fists!

Deadpool shoves Siryn aside as a wave of knives slices through the air - and through Deadpool as well!

The merc' with a mouth is officially silenced as his healing factor kicks in to deal with the many lacerations. Still reeling from his earlier battles, bruises, bullets and regrowing an entire hand - Deadpool's living up to his name. He's totally defenceless when Juggernaut decides to get in on the puns. More knives, too!

Deadpool Facts:
Actually, if you look closely - Deadpool is stopping the knives with his Magnum look.

This time Siryn leaps into the path of danger -- much to Juggernaut's horror! She unleashes a sonic scream at a high enough frequency to shatter the blades before they reach her, or the mercenary she's hoping to save!

Little does Siryn realize, her banshee cry also damaged the factory floor. As Juggernaut takes chase of the pair, the ground gives way under their feet -- sending all players to the lower level!

Deadpool Facts:
You smelted it, you dealt it.

Down low in the factory, Juggernaut lands on his keister and cries Deadpool's name! The mercenary has pulled a disappearing act in the fall, so Juggernaut asks Siryn for directions. As it turns out, the nearest man in red & black tights is lurking just overhead -- somewhere near the factory's molten vat!

Doing his best Tarzan, Deadpool swings down on a chain to snatch Siryn off the factory floor as the vat of molten metal spills out onto Juggernaut!

Two years after Alien 3, weaponizing molten metal probably seemed like a pretty good idea. Alas; the unstoppable Juggernaut isn't real concerned about thermostat - and there's nothing to cool him off quick enough to put the ol' metallic freeze on him. All that means is...

... flaming hot Juggernaut covered in molten in the hizzoooouuusssse!!

With only one page remaining, Deadpool & Siryn make a mad dash to meet vengeful Interpol agent Daniel Peyer on the final page cliff hanger.

The Hammer...
Whoops! As per Secret Wars on Infinite Earths rules: we ring the bell when the issue comes to an end. I'm afraid that means this battle finishes in an inconclusive draw.

The fight does resume for a second round in the subsequent issue, which I'm sure we'll take a look at some time in the future. For now, we etch another Juggernaut draw into the records, and press on toward our final Deadpool feature fight for February.

We have, of course, been looking at Deadpool this month in celebration of his long awaited arrival in theatres. The only thing more amazing than Deadpool finding movie stardom after a decade and a half in development hell is Ryan Reynolds hitting on a superhero winner! Somewhere out there a horribly out-of-character Hannibal King salutes you!

By now you've probably seen the trailers, heard the praise, and become aware of sequel and crossover plans. Hopefully you're enjoying digging into the real Deadpool through these comic fight updates. For me, the fun has definitely been reconnecting with what was, at one time, possibly my favourite character.

Deadpool Facts:
Alien 3 is very underrated, Blade: Trinity has some moments, but the less said about Green Lantern the better.

If you caught last week's feature [Deadpool #19], or dug into the Deadpool back catalogue, you can probably already tell the '97 series was a sweet spot for my fandom.

The Liefeld years had blown me by, but by the time the first mini-series was coming ["Sins of the Past" is the second], the mystique of the character had caught up with me. Some time in '93 I got my hands on a X-brand promotional pamphlet that sold the series pretty well. By 1997, a convergence of cult character, comedy, and visuals made for an instantly enjoyable mix.

 

There was a bit of drama recently over [Rob] Liefeld's comments regarding who created the character. He shares credit with X-scribe Fabian Nicieza, but I don't think the movie ever even happens if you remove "Uncles" Joey and Ed from the equation. Without their well rounded work in 1997, I don't think you have the sustained popularity, or the definitive voice of the character. Good formative influences from Deadpool's cool uncles, before the other kids in school ruined him, and he started hanging out with the burnout of the family. [He's doing much better now].

That said, much of what you know of Deadpool is there from the earliest days -- as evidenced by today's hijinks. In 1994, Mark Waid wasn't quite as aggressively madcap in his comedy, but it's serviceable as an against-type mercenary. Very much the shadow Spider-man he's sometimes seen to be.

 

With that, we make a hasty exit. There'll be more of what you know of Deadpool next week when we transition from the merc' with a mouth to another Marvel hero. Can you guess who?

 

As always, if you'd like the full story that goes with our featured fight you can use the Amazon link provided [right] to pick yourself up a collected edition. You can also find more Deadpool battles by hitting the Issue Index or Old Comics Wednesday!

 

Winner: Draw

(+1) #25 Deadpool
(+4) #322 Juggernaut
(new) #378 Siryn