Exclusive: ‘Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos’ enter Marvel’s Battleworld

Marvel's game-changing SECRET WARS series continues! It all leads up to the main event. Time runs out. Everything ends. The Secret Wars commence May 6.

Into this fray, a new challenger appears! The Queen of the Monster Metropolis below Manhattan has entered Battleworld and she is not amused. Shiklah – known to some as Mrs. Deadpool – returns in her all-new solo comic by Gerry Duggan.

Back in the world that was, Shiklah was married to the late, great Merc with the Mouth. But on Battleworld nothing is what it once was. 

This even includes the Howling Commandos. They're now under the command of their new mistress Shiklah, complete with a very strange roster.

Image Credit: Marvel Entertainment. Cover by Reilly Brown.

HitFix Harpy sat down with 'Mrs. Deadpool' writer Gerry Duggan about what fans can expect from Shiklah's first solo run.

HITFIX: I”m excited that Marvel the Mrs. Deadpool reveal to Hitfix Harpy because I love Shiklah.

Gerry Duggan: Oh, good! We created her and you”re never really sure what kind of life a character”s gonna have. I hope that when I”m long gone she”s still a character that people get to play with and have fun writing for her. Shiklah is the first time I”ve ever seen a cosplayer dressed as something that I help create. It was a really neat experience.

So nobody”s dressed up as Marcus the Centaur Werewolf yet? I”m so disappointed.

Gerry: [laughs] There”s still time.

Real quick, for any of our readers who aren”t familiar with Shiklah as Mrs. Deadpool – how are we reintroduced to her in Battleworld?

Gerry: We”re almost sort of rewinding a little bit to Shiklah and Deadpool”s first meeting (Editor”s Note: Deadpool was hired by Dracula to retrieve his unwitting succubus bride, Shiklah). It turned out a little bit different on Battleworld than it did in the main universe. It”s a spiritual successor to the Gauntlet arc, but it”s a little more madcap and fun I hope than some of our recent more serious Deadpool stories. I think anyone that liked the Gauntlet will have a lot of fun here.

Is this a Deadpool story or a Shiklah story?

Gerry: It”s very much Shiklah. I”m looking forward to exploring what she does when the chips are down. But she”s only half of this equation. “Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos” will be butting heads not just with each other but with Dracula and some other monsters!

Now these are not the Howling Commandos that fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would know. This looks like the Legion of Monsters to me.

Gerry: Totally. This is the monster version of that. So you”re right. You won”t see – the only Dum-Dum Dugan will be me. [laughs]

The roster is Jack Russell as Werewolf by Night, the Living Mummy, and Frankenstein – who has been fun to write. He”s a dumb guy but he seems to have some deep wisdom. And then I”m bringing back a character called Marcus the Unbeatable Centaur. He has no weakness other than that he”s diabetic. He has a really fun part in this particular story as well.

So on the one hand you have this team that”s very cohesive. But on the other hand, this is very much a Shiklah solo story and she”s sort of having to deal with a lot of stuff from many different directions. So it”s been fun.

Even though it Shiklah”s story, will Deadpool have time to factor in?

Gerry: Here”s the thing: when I get into these things I suffer sometimes from, you know, trying to make a pizza with too many toppings. But yes, Deadpool factors into it in an unexpected way.

The other thing that I”m really excited about – I”ll simply see what we can get away with which is in the shot is we”re going to WeirdWorld in the series. Shiklah needs to go there, do a couple of things, it”s an important goal. That”s a book that Jason and Mike are doing and it”s a really wonderful script.

Are there any specifics about the plot you can share? Or are you under lock and key?

Gerry: You”re gonna see a woman that”s backed into a corner a little bit and then I think react in some surprising ways, I hope. Shiklah is obviously is a very capable person, but one who is figuring out when it might be appropriate to use force and when it might be appropriate to use some subterfuge. And in those missteps we have some opportunities of comedy.

But I”m really excited to be able to write Shiklah and not write her as a supporting character but as her starring role. Oftentimes I hear more from fans hoping for more Shiklah stories and not like ‘Hey, there”s not enough ghost of Ben Franklin!”. So we knew that this was going to be a day that was coming and we thank everyone for being patient and I hope everyone”s on board with it because we would be able to pull some long term stories out of it, I think.

Well, hopefully it does well and Mrs. Deadpool can arise from the ashes of Battleworld, shedding her married name to become ‘Shiklah” in her own ongoing!

Gerry: I would love that.

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