Deadpool & Wolverine is exactly what it advertises itself as: an audacious, frequently profane, nostalgically loaded buddy film that smashes two beloved superhero personas together and dares the audience not to have fun. The good news is that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have genuine chemistry, the set-pieces are inventive, and the sustained commitment to not taking itself seriously is genuinely refreshing in an era of Marvel films that buckle under their own mythological weight. The less good news is that this is still a Marvel Studios product in 2024, and the progressive fingerprints are present even when the film is trying hard to be purely entertaining.

The plot involves the TVA — the Time Variance Authority from the Loki series — recruiting Wade Wilson to go retrieve a specific Wolverine variant from the multiverse. The Wolverine they find is a broken, self-loathing version of Logan who failed to save his world's X-Men and has been drunk in the Australian outback ever since. The central dynamic is Deadpool's relentless, irritating optimism trying to crack through Wolverine's genuine despair — and it works because Jackman has the range to play the despair as real while Reynolds bounces off it comedically without it feeling cruel.

The villain is Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), Charles Xavier's psychic twin — a powerful telepath who wants to destroy the multiverse or at least a significant portion of it. Corrin is effectively menacing in the role, though the character is somewhat underdeveloped by the film's need to balance nostalgia cameo after nostalgia cameo with actual plot. The Void — a wasteland where TVA discards variant beings — becomes the film's playground for bringing back Fox-era Marvel characters including Jennifer Garner's Elektra, Wesley Snipes's Blade, and Channing Tatum finally delivering the Gambit performance that the Fox-Gambit solo film would have given us.

From a VirtueVigil perspective, the film presents a mixed scorecard. On the traditional side, the core relationship between Wade and Logan — two male friends with different personalities who push each other toward better versions of themselves — is a genuinely traditional male friendship story. Wolverine's arc from self-loathing failure to willingness to sacrifice himself is the standard hero's journey dressed in Marvel clothing. The film's nostalgia content — bringing back beloved characters from the Fox era — appeals explicitly to tradition and the value of what came before. And the ending asks Logan to choose sacrifice over self-preservation in a way that honors traditional heroic values.

On the woke side: Cassandra Nova is played by Emma Corrin, a non-binary actor who uses they/them pronouns, in a casting choice that carries identity-politics signaling regardless of whether the script foregrounds it. Deadpool's character has always carried LGBTQ-coded humor and bisexual-coded identity in the source comics, and the film continues that tradition with several jokes and references that the target demographic will recognize as inclusive signaling. Marvel Studios under Kevin Feige has been a consistent progressive cultural force, and the institutional fingerprint is present even in a film that is predominantly trying to entertain rather than lecture.

The film is fun. That is honestly worth saying. In an era of Marvel films that have felt increasingly exhausting and ideologically burdened, Deadpool & Wolverine has the self-awareness to mock the very franchise infrastructure it belongs to. The meta-commentary on Marvel's creative struggles (the film literally jokes about how bad recent MCU films have been) is charming. The action is competent and sometimes inventive. Reynolds and Jackman are a genuinely entertaining pair. Conservative viewers who can engage with the progressive elements critically rather than passively will find enough entertainment value to make the price of admission reasonable — with eyes open.

Trope	Category	Location	Authenticity
LGBTQ Normalization / Queer-Coded Hero	WOKE	Deadpool's established bisexual-coded identity; LGBTQ-coded humor and references throughout	Natural. This is established Deadpool character canon from the comics and previous films. Not a new insertion for this entry.
Identity-Casting / Non-Binary Representation	WOKE	Cassandra Nova — played by non-binary actor Emma Corrin in a deliberate casting statement	Emphasized. The casting of Corrin is an intentional identity-politics choice that signals Marvel Studios' progressive casting priorities.
Marvel Studios Institutional Progressive Fingerprint	WOKE	Ensemble diversity; progressive cultural references embedded in comedy	Natural. Marvel Studios' institutional progressive culture is a consistent feature of their productions.
Female Representation in Action Roles	WOKE	Jennifer Garner's Elektra, Dafne Keen's X-23 — female action heroes in significant supporting roles	Natural. Both characters are established in prior films. Not new insertions.
Male Friendship and Brotherhood	TRAD	The central Wade-Logan dynamic — two men with different personalities who push each other toward their better selves	Organic. The bromance formula at the film's core is a traditional male friendship story dressed in Marvel clothing.
Self-Sacrificing Hero	TRAD	Logan's final arc — a broken man who finds something worth dying for and chooses sacrifice over survival	Organic. The hero's redemption through sacrifice is handled with genuine emotional weight.
Nostalgia and the Value of Tradition	TRAD	The film's extensive nostalgia content — returning Fox-era characters, honoring what came before in the franchise	Organic. The film makes an explicit argument that things from the past have value worth preserving. The nostalgia is sincere, not ironic.
Redemption Arc / Personal Responsibility	TRAD	Logan's arc from failure and self-loathing to choosing to act and accept consequences	Organic. Personal accountability and redemption through action are classically traditional narrative values.