Deadpool & Wolverine Concept Art Reveals A Brilliant Universe We Never Got To See

"Deadpool & Wolverine" isn't shy about taking shots at the shortcomings of Marvel Studios in recent years. Not only does Wade Wilson welcome Logan to the Marvel Cinematic Universe by informing him that he's joining at a bit of a low point, but along with a perfect observation about "The Wizard of Oz," Wade tries to stop the recently arrived Deadpool Corps. from giving them trouble on Earth-10005 by mentioning the disappointing chapters of The Multiverse Saga. Deadpool (courtesy of Ryan Reynolds) also describes the ongoing comic book franchise as having "miss after miss after miss," and he's not entirely wrong, as the box office and reviews have proven several times over.

However, "Deadpool & Wolverine" almost included an amazing parallel universe that could have opened the door to a whole new division of Marvel movies that could really shake up the creative side of the studio.

In a new piece of concept art shared by Andy Park, the leader of visual development at Marvel Studios, he reveals that one of the alternate universes that Wade would have traveled through in his universe-hopping exploits would have been a complete different MCU — a proper Marvel Comics Universe where all the Avengers would have appeared as different illustrated versions from various legendary comic book artists. Even Deadpool would have appeared like an animated comic version of himself in this universe. Take a look at Andy Park's concept below!

As you can see, Deadpool would have encountered an assembly of The Avengers. While many of them are classic versions of the characters from decades ago, there's at least one contemporary version among them. Andy Park challenged fans to pinpoint which artists inspired the versions of the characters seen above, and I think we've figured them all out.

Deadpool is clearly in the style of Rob Liefeld (the character's creator), and I don't think it's a coincidence that you can't see his feet in this shot. He's even got profanity censored by the Comics Code Authority. Then, we've got John Romita's version of The Incredible Hulk, Walt Simonson's version of Thor, Mark Bright's Silver Centurion version of Iron Man, and Hawkeye appears to be from Jack Kirby. Plus, the most modern hero here, other than Deadpool, is Jim Lee's version of Black Widow from the '90s.

As for Captain America, we're pretty sure that's Jack Kirby's classic design as well, but we were flummoxed by the unique version of Captain America's shield. This has to be some kind of specific reference that Andy Park honed in on, but I couldn't pin down where that shield appears in Marvel Comics history. Maybe one of you bigger comic nerds out there has the definitive answer.

Honestly, it would have been pretty cool to see this universe in action, and it makes me wonder why Marvel Studios hasn't taken a dive into animated movies yet, especially with the success of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." An animated universe holds so many exciting possibilities and creative opportunities, both visually and narratively. It would allow the exploration of much more strange stories from Marvel Comics, as well as a variety of stunning adaptations of heroes and villains. Rather than only continuing to expand the MCU in live-action and keeping animation relegated to television, Marvel should figure out how to bring something animated like this to the big screen.