An eagle-eyed Deadpool fan may have caught an Easter egg calling back to the '90s in Deadpool: Black, White & Blood #2.Artist Pete Woods revealed the callback on social media, informing fans that the story he worked on in the anthology issue, "Purple Craze," includes a nod to Baby's First Deadpool Book #1 from 1998, a book the artist was also a part of. The short story specifically referenced is "Friends Share Because Friends Care," which includes a parody character of one of children's favorite television dinosaurs. In Deadpool: Black, White & Blood, this character resurfaces: Blarney, the Friendly Stuffed Animal.
The short story from the '90s saw Blarney, an oversized, animated stuffed animal, and Deadpool (Wade Wilson) on their way to a child's birthday, whose wish was to have the two make an appearance. Along the way though, their plane crash-lands and the two get lost among among a frozen landscape. Facing starvation, Blarney willingly lets Deadpool eat him bit-by-bit, because "Friends Share Because Friends Care," though the merc goes a little overboard and begins eating his friend entirely after he slipped into a state of unconsciousness.
In the Deadpool: Black, White & Blood story, Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, has taken Deadpool under his mind control to serve as his protection from anyone who may be after him, since he recently fell out of S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. With Daredevil in hot pursuit of Killgrave and Deadpool forced to help, he brings the manipulative villain back to an apartment. On the table, there is a photo of Wade and Inez Temple at a carnival, holding a smaller version of Blarney.
Inez first appeared in Deadpool #65, and is a mutant who, like Deadpool, used her powers to work as a hired mercenary. Killgrave ordered Deadpool that if the villain died, Wade would be forced to "chop up Inez into ten thousand pieces and eat one piece every hour," not unlike when Wade slow-roasted his dinosaur friend. After Wade outsmarts Killgrave by blowing up the apartment, the first thing he asks Daredevil when he arrives on the scene is whether or not the villain is dead, looking at the photo again out of fear that he may be mind controlled to repeat his Blarney recipe with his friend.
Deadpool: Black, White & Blood #2 is now available to purchase from Marvel Comics, while Baby's First Deadpool Book #1 is available for purchase digitally or to read on Marvel Unlimited. The next issue of Deadpool: Black, White & Blood will release Oct. 6, 2021.
Source: Twitter