Team Red: From Marvel Fandom to the MCU

There have been articles and videos pleading with Disney to incorporate some of Peter Parker’s established comic relationships into the Marvel Cinematic Universe—with me included in the number of beggars! But the truth is, due to the unfortunate de-aging of Spider-Man, putting Peter decades behind most of his peers, a lot of these relationships just simply aren’t going to look the same. There’s still hope for Johnny Storm, and we haven’t seen a casting for Felicia Hardy yet, but Peter’s relationship with the established Avengers cast is already entirely skewed. Try and tell me that Spider-Man and Wolverine are close friends and I’ll point to Tom Holland next to Hugh Jackman and say, sarcastically, “Yeah, okay.”

However, this doesn’t mean we need to throw everything out completely. There’s a way to salvage some of Peter’s on-page relationships and at the same time create something totally new. Or, at least, something mostly new.

I’m referring to what those in the Marvel fandom have dubbed “Team Red.”

“Team Red” is a superhero team consisting of Spider-Man, Deadpool, and Daredevil. Why? Because they all wear red suits.

This trio did have a minor team-up in 2009’s Deadpool: Suicide Kings, but their on-page interactions were brief, and nothing ever really came out of it (in the official canon, anyway). The fandom, however, really latched onto it and demanded more—creating fan art and video edits to try and create their own reality of the team-up. This, of course, resulted in several more Spider-Man/Deadpool team-ups, including their own dual comic series from 2016-2020, but the three of them as a balanced trio have yet to be explored in any meaningful way outside of fandom spaces.

So here’s my proposition:

It’s hard to find an angle with the Spider-Man/Deadpool relationship in the MCU now that Peter is so young and their positions are so unbalanced! Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool was established on screen before Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. That’s crazy. Their relationship can never be one of equals with a sarcastic and quippy push and pull like it is in the comics. They can never be ‘heartmates,’ and that continues to make me so sad.

However, if we add Daredevil into the mix, this has become an entirely new recipe. The team-up format in Deadpool: Suicide Kings has Deadpool in the middle as the innocent party framed for murder and Daredevil and Spider-Man being swayed to his side to clear his name. Which is lovely of them and part of what heroes do but isn’t exactly the foundation for longevity in a relationship. However, if we center Peter in the relationship, especially a young and newly alone Peter fighting street-level crime on the streets of New York, now we’re open to Hero Lessons from your pals Deadpool and Daredevil.

Daredevil has already been introduced to the MCU from the Netflix standalone shows, so we know he’s there in New York working as a lawyer. He, along with the rest of the universe, no longer knows who Peter is, but I can bet that once he sees this college-age kid alone and fighting crime, he’s going to reach out and see what’s up.

Now, Deadpool has already had his multiverse adventure, so while he’s not yet established on Earth-199999*, it could be very easy for him to decide to hop over because he didn’t like how Spider-Man was being socialized. Because Deadpool is in the unique 4th-wall-breaking position to be the only one who still knows Peter. He can somehow find out that Daredevil is training up Spider-Man to be another goody-two-shoes and come over and decide to mess with it. To be the fun uncle who’ll let Peter do some heinous dismemberments as a treat.

This would create a super fun dynamic of Peter Parker with a little superhero angel and devil on his shoulder (Ironic because the angel would be, in fact, Daredevil) trying to help give him tips and tricks in getting by as a vigilante. Matt Murdock would appeal to Peter’s sense of community, his commitment to the citizens of New York, his innate goodness, and his sense of justice. And then ‎Wade Wilson would appeal to the things that are uniquely Peter: his mouthy banter with villains, his crazy healing factor and how that can allow Peter to be more reckless, and his propensity to be inescapably annoying. All of these qualities are things he shares with Deadpool and what makes them such a good pairing. And all of these qualities are at risk of being trained out of him if Daredevil infects Peter with his Catholic guilt.

It would be a really cool dynamic and a really good setup for Daredevil to get less uptight and Deadpool to establish some self-worth. In the comics, Daredevil saw something in Deadpool to be worth protecting. I just think it would be nice if Deadpool had someone who didn’t think he was a piece of crap. And, of course, Peter gets two new weird older cousins to help him out as he finds his new way in the world.

And they all wear red. Fans already like it, we already have the guys for the job, and we could all use a little more friendship. I just think it would be neat.

*Earth-199999 was the official designation for the MCU, now retconned to be 616 since Marvel Studios wants the MCU to be the primary timeline, but I reject that. It’s not the main timeline. The 616 already exists, and we can’t just decide to replace it with the movies.