Tom Cruise Asked Rob Liefeld To Design Mission: Impossible Comic Art

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Tom Cruise Personally Asked Rob Liefeld to Design Mission: Impossible Comic Art

Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld reveals Tom Cruise asked him to design Mission: Impossible comic art back in 1996 when the first film opened.

Rob Liefeld revealed that Tom Cruise asked him to create the comic art for Mission: Impossible back in 1996. The comic was released before the first Mission: Impossible film came out and actually stood as a prequel to the movie. Even though this was over 20 years ago, the news means even more now that Cruise and Liefeld are more well known in Hollywood.

Mission: Impossible was originally a TV show which ran from 1966 to 1973. The series was well received but the movie franchise has become so much bigger than the show could have ever hoped to be. The first movie was given a budget of $80 million, which is no doubt a lot of money but was significantly less than the later sequels (unadjusted for inflation, of course). Each film has pulled in massive profits for Paramount and according to Simon Pegg, the franchise won't be stopping anytime soon. Cruise was only in his 30s when the first film was released but despite being significantly older, he continues to be a Hollywood A-lister and do most of his own stunts. Cruise was a huge movie star in the 1990s with numerous hits already under his belt, so his request meant a lot to Liefeld.

With Mission: Impossible- Fallout being released this weekend, Liefeld posted on Instagram the letter that Cruise sent him in 1996 after the comic book was released, as well as its cover. His full post can be seen in the space below.

While Cruise had been acting since the '80s, Liefeld began to be recognized in the comic community in the '90s after he worked on comics like X-Force. Liefeld is known for illustrating and writing many comics including Youngblood and The New Mutants, but he is probably most known for co-creating Deadpool. Many of Liefeld's comics have been turned into movies which of course includes the Merc with a Mouth. The artist often comes out with controversial comics and characters, again à la Deadpool, but he has nonetheless made a successful career working on comics.

Cruise is in the midst of another exciting part of his own career with Fallout receiving stellar reviews and with Top Gun 2 continuing to make progress. That being said, having Cruise personally ask Liefeld to create the cover for Mission: Impossible was no doubt an exciting and big opportunity in the comic creator's career.