Rob Liefield’s Extreme Universe comics may hit big screen on strength of Deadpool

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If you bring up Rob Liefeld among comic book fans, you’ll get a whole slew of reactions. Some loathe the man and his artwork (which is very 1990s) while others like The Rob and what he does. One thing he did many years ago was create Deadpool.

Given, the Deadpool back then wasn’t the anarchic meta character he’d become, but without Rob Liefeld, there wouldn’t be Deadpool. And without Deadpool doing so well at the box office (and on torrent/pirate sites), Rob Liefeld wouldn’t have the insane film deal he got yesterday. Thus the son becomes the father and the father the son.

Fundamental Films and Akiva Goldsman have acquired the film rights to Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Universe with the intent of creating a multi-film franchise a la the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Whatever That Dreck Is. The Extreme Universe includes Youngblood, Bloodstrike, Bloodwulf, Brigade, and a host of other characters that are sort of like Marvel ones but different. (For example, Bloodstrike is basically Deadpool.)

It’s easy to make jokes about Liefeld’s numerous Blood[blank] and [Blank]blood creations, but good work has come from The Rob through other writers. Alan Moore had an excellent run on Rob Liefeld’s Supreme, turning a Superman rip-off into a love letter to and deconstruction of Mort Weisinger-era DC Comics. More recently, Brandon Graham took Prophet (a Captain America rip-off) and turned his adventures into a sci-fi adventure in the mold of Moebius and European comics. Maybe, with the right creative teams involved, something really cool can come of this.

Assuming these movies even get off the ground, of course. This could be Youngblood: Year One all over again.

[via The Wrap]

Hubert Vigilla
Brooklyn-based fiction writer, film critic, and long-time editor and contributor for Flixist. A booster of all things passionate and idiosyncratic.