Negasonic Teenage Warhead has a very strange history as a character, being almost always underutilized. She first appeared in New X-Men #115 in 2001, but her popularity and modern personality wasn't truly established until the highly successful Deadpool movie from 2016 was released and introduced the character to a mainstream audience.
This particular one-shot comic comes from the modern day interpretation of the character as a punk-like angsty teen with superpowers like psychic and precognitive abilities and it's a compilation from several issues of Marvel's Voices Infinity Comics, particularly from issues 44 to 49 featuring this specific storyline but with a new story added to it.
We open with Negasonic helping Deadpool during average and banal missions, sequences that are among the best scenes of Deadpool since the movies but don't add much overall, only for her to receive a threatening vision of the end of the world, the only way to stop it is by kissing her future girlfriend. The problem is that she doesn't know who this woman is as she has yet to meet her.
Negasonic then reaches out to Emma Frost for help, who recruits a team of women with the most brilliant minds to help: Invisible Woman, Princess Shuri, Dr. Toni Ho, Scarlet Witch, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Jean Grey and Boom-Boom.
What follows is a race against time itself, and the Time Variance Authority, in order to stop the universe from ending by having Negasonic meet with the woman she is supposed to date in less than an hour. Not an easy task.
A very engaging story about how no matter what destiny has in store for us we are all able to forge and change our paths in life with a strong enough will and determination. It avoids any potential pessimism pitfalls when it comes to visions of future doom and offers us a very clever version of this type of premise by fleshing out Negasonic and creating a very personal and intimate story that gives us more sides of her, every obstacle and conflict that's introduced serves to push her limits as a character and that's where the inventiveness of this comic begins, delving deeper into a seemingly only secondary character that was used mostly for gags.
At first it seems like a very typical outing with the mismatched yet highly amusing duo of Negasonic and Deadpool, only to go further with the premise and reach slightly more serious topics. In fact, Deadpool and the strictly comedic portions of the book are sidelined fairly early. It's never too heavy and it's swift and concise enough to hold your attention all the way. The fact that it unites a lot of Negasonic's issues regarding agency and independence with other Marvel women, like Scarlet Witch, is also very telling of its place in culture and the troubles the target audience faces.
At the same time, it's very skillfully done in the visual sense by artists Carola Borelli (Spider Woman 2023), Eleonora Carlini (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hellmouth) and colorists Brittany Peer (Drawing Blood) and Ruth Redmond (Alien, Aliens, Marvel's Voices Infinity, Sensational She-Hulk 2023). Also well written by Andrew Wheeler (Another Castle, Love and War). While you can sometimes notice that the format was originally different and while the added story may feel irrelevant, the entire compilation is well worth your time if you are interested in the premise and the character. If you ever hoped to see more of Negasonic Teenage Warhead other than the brief appearances in the movies, this has you covered.
I found it very heartwarming and humorous, a quick and enjoyable read.
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