Deadpool
| Deadpool | |
|---|---|
 Deadpool, from the recap page of Cable and Deadpool #26 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | New Mutants #98 (February, 1991) |
| Created by | Fabian Nicieza Rob Liefeld |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Wade Winston Wilson [1] |
| Species | Human (mutate) |
| Team affiliations | Agency X Great Lakes Initiative Weapon X Landau, Luckman, & Lake Department K Maggia Frightful Four Hell House Heroes For Hire Secret Defenders Six Pack X-Men The Initiative |
| Notable aliases | Jack, Wade T. Wilson, Mithras, Johnny Silvini, Thom Cruz, The Crimson Nutcase, Chiyonosake ("the Wolf of the Rice Wine") |
| Abilities | Deadpool possesses a regenerative healing factor, Enhanced endurance, agility, and reflexes (A side effect of his healing factor), Expert marksman and swordsman, Teleportation, "Comic awareness", Telepathic immunity, Master martial artist, "Cursed with life" (inability to die) by Thanos |
Deadpool is a fictional comic book character sometimes depicted as a mercenary, villain, or anti-hero; who appears in books published by Marvel Comics, usually in the X-Men family of titles. Created by artist Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, Deadpool first appeared in The New Mutants #98 (February 1991).
Nicknamed the "Merc with a Mouth", Deadpool is a high-tech mercenary known for his wisecracks, black humor, and satirical pop-culture references. Like the X-Men's Wolverine, Deadpool is the product of the Canadian government's paramilitary Weapon X program, although his place of birth is unknown. After Weapon X cured his terminal cancer by implementing a regenerative "healing factor" extracted from Wolverine, Deadpool is left disfigured and mentally unstable.
Deadpool was originally an adversary of The New Mutants and later X-Force, developing an infatuation with X-Force member Siryn. Deadpool received two limited series: Sins of the Past and The Circle Chase. He graduated to an ongoing series in 1997, which was known for its slapstick tone and willingness to break the fourth wall. Deadpool's series was cancelled but he reappeared as part of Agent X in 2002 but that series was cancelled in 2003. Currently, Deadpool is paired with Cable, another former X-Force character, in Cable & Deadpool.
It has been noted that Deadpool shares many similarities with the DC Comics villain Deathstroke, particularly in regards to the characters' real names (Deathstroke's being Slade Wilson while Deadpool's is Wade Wilson). However, since Deadpool's introduction, Deadpool and Deathstroke have developed in vastly different directions.
Publication history
Art by Pete Woods.
Deadpool originally appeared in the pages of the New Mutants and later X-Force. The character became quite popular, and eventually received his own miniseries, The Circle Chase in 1993, which was written by Fabian Nicieza with art by Joe Madureira. It was a relative success, and a second limited series, Sins of the Past was created in 1994 by Mark Waid and Ian Churchill. At this point Deadpool began making guest appearances across the Marvel Universe in titles such as Wolverine, Nomad, Silver Sable, and Heroes For Hire.
In 1997, Deadpool was given his own ongoing title, initially written by Joe Kelly, with then-newcomer Ed McGuinness as the artist. It firmly established his nickname "The Merc with a Mouth" and his supporting cast, including his prisoner/den mother Blind Al and his best friend Weasel. Deadpool became an action comedy parody of the cosmic drama, anti-hero-heavy comics of the time. The ongoing series gained cult popularity for its unorthodox main character and its balance of angst and pop culture slapstick.
Deadpool lasted until issue #69, at which point it was re-launched as a new title by Gail Simone with a similar character called Agent X in 2002. This occurred at the same time that Cable became Soldier X and X-Force became X-Statix. The title character of Agent X was eventually revealed not to be Deadpool, and the climax of that series saw the original character restored.
Deadpool's next appearance came in 2004 with the launch of Cable & Deadpool written by Fabian Nicieza. This title is scheduled to be replaced by a new Cable series in March 2008.[2]
Fictional character biography
Breaking the fourth wall
Deadpool is one of few Marvel comic book characters, another being She-Hulk, that have regularly broken the "fourth wall" and called attention to his nature as a comic book character.
Joe Kelly was the first writer to show him breaking the fourth wall, with minor mentions as early as Deadpool #4, when Deadpool is informed that he will have to fight the Hulk in order to obtain his DNA; he protests and begins to sing the theme song from the 60's Hulk cartoon: "No shinola I'm scared! This is the INCREDIBLE HULK here! Doc Bruce Banner, pelted by Gamma Rays, turned into the Hulk-- -- Ain't he unglamorous?!? The FREAKIN' HULK!". The same issue also had the three characters in the story (Siryn, Dr. Killebrew, and Deadpool) break the fourth wall on the title page by talking to the reader for a story recap, a practice Cable & Deadpool writer Fabian Nicieza would later copy to much success. In #22, he refers to Marvel's financial troubles of the time ("Where were you when I bought all that stock in Marvel Comics?") while on a jaunt with the precognitive Montgomery. In issue #28, Deadpool again has a clear cut example of breaking the fourth wall when telling Bullseye what issue they had last met. Furthermore, in #29, Deadpool, interrogating a geneticist, referred to the Spider-Man Clone Saga story and its implications for the franchise's popularity, stating "I don't know if you keep up with these things but the kids hate clones. I'd be crucified if there was a clone in this book." Issues #28 and #29 also contain an in-story moment in which Deadpool turns to the "camera" and comments on an aspect of the story. Later in Deadpool #30, Deadpool again breaks the fourth wall for a recap, dressing himself like Hamlet and using Blind Al's skull in place of Yorick's saying this was a way to replace the now missing gatefolds (for a time all Marvel comics had a fold out recap page that has been discontinued). In Kelly's final issue, #33, Death told a disembodied Deadpool that he was now hers for 30 days, obviously referring to the amount of time before #34 would be released. The Wizard Magazine special, Deadpool #1/2, also written by Kelly during his run, has Deadpool note "Isn't it cool how quickly we get to the story when we only have 12 pages?"
Later in the series, Christopher Priest took it several steps further. In fact, at the time, some ads for the book came with the tag-line "Deadpool: Breaking down the fourth wall, brick by brick!" Priest's first issue in the book has Deadpool walking into a trailer park that's populated by all the heroes whose books were written by and cancelled during Christopher Priest's run, including Ka-Zar, Moon Knight, Hawkman, and various others. Deadpool also throws a duffle bag with the inscription "Every good idea Joe Kelly ever had and everything that made this book work" down a tar pit in this prologue to Priest's run. In Priest's final issue, Deadpool is back in the trailer park, and throws away another bag with Priest's corpse inside, much to the disbelief of the "cancelled" heroes. Deadpool himself makes several in-canon mentions to his knowledge of the universe, first to Loki (in disguise at the time) and repeatedly throughout Priest's run as a mantra: "None of this is really happening. There is a man. With a typewriter. This is all part of his crazy imagination."
At the end of Agent X #15, upon coming back from the dead, he wonders if he "still thinks in those little yellow boxes". In the current Cable & Deadpool ongoing series, Deadpool occasionally narrates previous events for the reader, on one occasion mentioning that the book's editor told him that the current reader is the only person who has actually bought the book. The character also makes frequent in-jokes about the comic book industry. After the events that took place in Agent X, Deadpool was thought to be cured of his knowledge of the fourth wall, but in Cable & Deadpool #23 while summarizing the previous issue, he makes blatant mention of the recap page. He then says "Hmm, I thought I was cured of that 'fourth wall' thing..." Also, recapping the events of the ongoing Marvel Civil War in Cable & Deadpool #31, he says, "And the Boy Scout branch made a big show of cooperating, by having Spider-Man reveal his identity on national TV... as if we hadn't seen the movies already and didn't know it was dreamy doe-eyed Tobey Maguire under the mask!", having previously referred to Tobey Maguire's portrayal and the movies directly to Spider-Man himself in Cable & Deadpool #24. In Cable & Deadpool #30, while fighting the Great Lakes Avengers, Deadpool wonders how they know what he is saying in his little yellow thought boxes. They reveal that he's actually been saying everything out loud. Deadpool then ponders how this is happening, as he was fairly certain he was thinking in the first person narrative. This continues throughout the rest of the issue. The "faulty first person narrative" is also referenced in Cable & Deadpool #31. Currently, he can be found making brief statements explicitly referring to existing in comic book panels. For example, in issue # 36, he makes the statement to the reader after knocking out Taskmaster that "that was probably cheap, even by my standards, probably, but now we can just move on to this..." and jumps to the next panel. Additionally, Deadpool answers his own letter column. Interestingly, although Deadpool frequently makes remarks to other Marvel Universe characters that reference their presence in a comic book, the other characters never seem to make any attempt to figure out what he's talking about. This is probably because nobody takes anything Deadpool says seriously anyway, due to his insanity (his knowledge of the fourth wall may indeed be a result of his insanity, or, at least, that's how it would be perceived by other characters. It should be noted that the idea of a character's insanity revealing to them knowledge of being in a comic book has been used by other characters, in other continuities, such as the Joker).
Currently, Deadpool also routinely has a fourth-wall-breaking recap page in Cable & Deadpool. While it features him (and/or, on occasion, Cable, supporting cast members, featured villains or guest stars) recapping the storyline in various ways, such as in the form of a late-night talk show monologue, in Cable & Deadpool #36, he is seen in the offices of Marvel Comics, harassing his book's editor Nicole Boose about the current storyline, until she distracts him by convincing him that he needs to speak with the editor of the then-ongoing Civil War event. Earlier, during 'the Burnt Offering' story arc, he is interviewed by Irene Merriweather for the recap page (Cable is similarly interviewed by Irene during each part of the story) and clearly disparages his co-creator, Fabian Nicieza, as his writer, while stating his preference for two of his former writers, Joe Kelly and Gail Simone, referring to their present assignments at DC Comics, all to Irene's bafflement.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Deadpool has been artificially endowed with a superhuman regenerative healing factor by the Weapon X program. As Deadpool had cancer at the time of the gene therapy, it has been suppressed by the "healing factor", which continually regenerates every cell in Deadpool's body to keep the cancer at bay and further mangling his cancer-ravaged appearance. This causes his body to be in a constant state of flux and regeneration, removal of his powers would cause him a cancer relapse, as he himself is aware. As a byproduct of his unique physiology, he possesses slightly superhuman strength, agility, and reflexes.
The healing factor enables him to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with much greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. He can regenerate whole organs and even severed limbs. In at least one instance, Deadpool, after breaking nearly every bone in his body, strapped himself to a rack so his bones set properly. He has survived being decapitated, though his head did not regenerate; it was simply replaced and healed back to his torso.
Additionally, Deadpool's healing factor is proportional to the amount of injury he receives. An excellent example of this is in issue 30 of the Cable and Deadpool series. In one part of a battle with the Great Lakes Avengers, he set off one of his own grenades, blowing a large hole in his abdomen, but regenerated this in relatively little time. Conversely, during the same fight, Squirrel Girl beat him into submission by clawing him furiously, apparently not in enough severity to cause his healing factor to respond as powerfully. His regenerative ability also greatly enhances his stamina. Domino once referred to him as a living 'Energizer Bunny'.
Deadpool’s brain cells are similarly affected, rendering him immune to psychics such as Professor X and Emma Frost. A less welcome side effect comes in the form of apparent insanity. This constant flux may or may not be what causes his irreverent banter and ADD-type personality. His more recognizable demeanor established itself from the moment his healing factor began working at the Hospice. He is completely unpredictable, which has even extended itself to his physical co-ordination when he so desires. After checking Weapon X's files, Cable stated that Deadpool’s cognitive functions would never be normal as long as the regeneration was in his system, and later used the last vestiges of his telepathic ability to correct the damaged areas of the latter’s brain. This allowed greater access to long and short-term memories, but Deadpool’s behavior remained completely unchanged.
Aside from his physical advantages, Deadpool is a superb assassin and mercenary, and an expert in multiple forms of armed and unarmed combat. He favors using bladed and martial arts weapons to meet opponents in single combat, but will just shoot them if he has a bad day or is in a hurry. He typically also carries a small arsenal of both experimental hi-tech and conventional firearms and occasionally comically produces previously unseen weapons from thin air. This was only addressed outright once in a Heroes for Hire story where Deadpool returned Misty Knight and Colleen Wing's various weapons to them through mystery concealment. When asked how, he replied "It involves an awful lot of lubricant".
Deadpool has excellent aim (though not with any given object, like Bullseye), which was temporarily destroyed by the Black Swan. He owns a personal teleportation device, usually located on his belt. This device, created by Weasel, teleports him away from, and occasionally into trouble, and has been prone to numerous malfunctions over the years. He now shares Cable's "body-slide" transporting technology, with the limitation that both of them automatically teleport at the same time. Early in his original ongoing comic, he also possessed an image inducer built by Weasel. It projected holographic disguises in order to go undercover, conceal his bizarre appearance, or goof off, for example to masquerade as Spider-Man's alter-ego, Peter Parker, while trapped several years in the past.
A master martial artist, he is known to have beaten Wolverine on at least one occasion, though Wolverine did not have his healing factor at the time, and has stalemated or beaten him on various others. He has fought relatively evenly with Iron Fist. He has also defeated the Hulk by impaling him upon a lampost. In addition, he has engaged Daredevil in hand-to-hand combat, and appeared to have had little difficulty. He has also fought Shen Kuei, a rival of Shang-Chi also known as Cat. Although Deadpool lost in their initial confrontation, Cat admitted the possibility of losing his life should they fight again. Later on in the same issue however, Deadpool was unable to beat Shen Kuei directly (or simply didn't have the time to do so) and resorted to taking a hostage. The combination of his battle-prowess and enhanced physique enabled him to defeat the non-superhuman grandmaster combatant, the Taskmaster, while both his hands and feet were manacled. However, he had also booby-trapped the area, placed his opponent in a very confusing situation, and was first impaled by the latter's sword, which would have killed him without the benefit of his healing-factor. However, the Taskmaster had later admitted that Deadpool was capable of defeating him.
Deadpool uses his continuous, off-the-wall banter to distract, insult, frustrate and infuriate his opponents. Even when at their mercy, he has refused to keep quiet and his constant chatter has even slightly muddled Daredevil's enhanced senses.
Other versions
Age of Apocalypse
Deadpool's counterpart in the alternate reality Age of Apocalypse is Dead Man Wade, one of the Pale Riders, Apocalypse's covert strike team. In keeping with the dark tone of the setting, this version seems to have no knowledge of his existence as a comic book character, although he was introduced before the mainstream Deadpool acquired this characteristic.
His abilities are similar to Deadpool's, with a healing factor acquired through Apocalypse's eugenics program. However, whereas the Earth-616 Deadpool is usually psychotically fun-loving, Dead Man Wade is even more confused, depressed, and disturbed. Wade compares his body to the state of the Earth, mentioning that his body is constantly rotting, not just healing, which is consistent with the inability of Deadpool's regenerative powers to restore his original appearance. Dead Man Wade does not wear a mask, looking exactly as an unmasked Deadpool would.
Apocalypse sends Wade and the other Pale Riders to destroy the sanctuary known as Avalon. Once there, however, Damask betrays the team. In the battle that follows, Nightcrawler kills Wade, decapitating him by teleporting his head away.
The Thing believes Deadpool has taken on the identity of Daredevil (who is dead in this reality) and become a circus stunt-man, using his amazing healing powers to overcome even the most horrific of injuries.
Exiles
The Exiles are a group of superhumans (originally mutants) from different realities recruited by the Timebroker to repair broken timelines. The Timebroker also recruited a second team, who called themselves Weapon X, created to deal with morally ambiguous missions, in which the timelines required assassinations and massacres in order to be corrected. An alternate version of Deadpool was a founding member of the team. Personality and power wise, this version of Deadpool does not differ significantly from the Deadpool of 616. This version of Deadpool was thought to be dead after Sabretooth broke his neck in a reality that was controlled by Sentinels. It was later revealed that any incapacitated members of Weapon X and the Exiles had been kept in stasis. Deadpool was one such member. Deadpool was revived by an alternate version of Dr. Strange who was attempting to research a cure for Mimic who was frozen in stasis due to injuries received fighting King Hyperion. After being revived, Deadpool instantly murdered Strange by snapping his neck. Deadpool took over the Exiles' base, unfreezing the Hulk (Jennifer Walters), using her as a potential ally. However, he was later defeated by Mimic, who had been revived earlier. Mimic had absorbed Deadpool's healing factor. After the battle, Hulk judged Deadpool guilty of various murders she had witnessed him committing. She then smashed him into a pulp. This version of Deadpool is presumed dead.
A zombie version of Deadpool is seen fighting Silver Surfer, but, unlike his Earth-616 counterpart, this Wade Wilson is apparently incapable of healing.
Ultimate Deadpool
Deadpool first appeared in the Ultimate Marvel continuity along with the Reavers in Ultimate Spider-Man #91, where they assaulted the X-Men's mansion during a visit from Peter Parker. He and his team used disguising technology to impersonate the X-Men and surprise them one by one with mutant-gene-targeting stun guns. He is hired by Mojo to kill mutants for sport on television. Deadpool was only truly seen in the last panel of the book, which confirmed the removal of his yellow-worded speech bubbles and a few changes of his costume from his standard marvel "616" counterpart. His outfit is still predominantly black and red.
Ultimate Deadpool appears to be a human supremacist working with the Genoshan government to hunt down mutants on live television as sport. According to the network, he was a sergeant named Wadey Wilson and after surviving death-defying action in the Wakanda Wars in the early nineties, took the name Deadpool.
Likely as an ode to fans, in issue #93 of Ultimate Spider-Man, his subtitles on television while he appears talking are uniquely yellow. He breaks the fourth wall only to television audiences.
At the end of issue #93, it appeared that Ultimate Deadpool was unmasked as Professor X, but this was quickly proved in the next issue to be a holographic ruse. Deadpool's true face was seen as having no skin and portions of his skull missing, covered by a clear plastic helmet that made his face appear human-shaped when masked. Kitty Pryde phased through him, seemingly causing his cybernetic enhancements to explode and kill him, but by the end of the story arc, Deadpool appears to have survived, with a grip on his mask, ready to fight again.
While Ultimate Deadpool shares very few similarities with his mainstream counterpart, his back-story has much in common with Donald Pierce, who in the mainstream comics was a mutant-hating cyborg who led the Reavers.
Trivia
- Deadpool, sometimes, serves as a comic relief.
- Deadpool has Coulrophobia and believes that "clowns are the world's greatest threat and much more threathning than Galactus eating the whole planet".
In other media
Television
- In the X-Men Animated Series, Morph briefly transforms into Deadpool. Deadpool's face is also seen in a flashback while Professor Xavier is probing the mind of Sabretooth. In season 3 during the mini-series Phoenix Saga an evil psychic projection of Xavier also created an illusion of Deadpool while tormenting Wolverine. In the last episode of season 3 "Weapon X, Lies & Videotape" inside the Weapon X facility, a screen flashes through different Weapon X experiments including a picture of Deadpool.
Video games
- Deadpool has so far appeared in two video games based on Marvel comics. In both of the games below, he was voiced by John Kassir and fights by using martial arts, handguns, explosives, katanas, and his teleporter belt.
- In X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, he initially appears as a boss, having been hired and brainwashed by Mister Sinister. He fights the united X-Men and Brotherhood in the New York City's North Side during Act 4. Deadpool is also unlocked as a playable character once the game is completed for the first time. If the enemy Deadpool is fought using the playable Deadpool, they will argue about which one is the real Deadpool.
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Deadpool is a playable character from the beginning of the game. He makes many jokes, some of which are existential in nature, while talking to familiar people and associates. These special dialogues are with Weasel, Black Widow, a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, Edwin Jarvis, the Ancient One, Hank Pym, Valkyrie, Nick Fury, Black Bolt, Arcade, and Dark Spider-Man (the last two are in Deadpool's simulator mission). Another meta-reference occurs in his simulator mission: while other characters' missions begin with the character discussing his/her origin, Deadpool initially tells a pastiche of the origin stories of Thor, Blade, Daredevil, Storm, and The Hulk as his own before proceeding to tell his real origin. Gameplay-wise, he fights in nearly the exact same manner as he does in X-Men Legends II. His costumes include Classic, Ultimate, Weapon X, and Assassin. The Ultimate costume is from the Ultimate Universe version of the character, the Weapon X costume is from the Deadpool: Agent of Weapon X arc of his series, while the Assassin costume is simply his Classic outfit as it has been updated for the Cable and Deadpool series.
Merchandise
Bowen Designs has produced two Deadpool mini-busts (one with a changeable, unmasked head) and a Deadpool statue. Over the years Deadpool has also had a ToyBiz X-Force action figure, a second figure with a removable mask from the revisited X-Force line, a 12-inch Toybiz figure and another figure in Marvel Legends Series 6. A review with pictures of this figure can be found here. He has also appeared in the Upper Deck vs. CCG and WizKids' HeroClix Collectible Miniature Game.
Bibliography
- Cable & Deadpool #1-present
- Deadpool #1-69
- Deadpool/GLI Summer Fun Spectacular
- Deadpool: Circle Chase
- Deadpool: Sins of the Past
- Flashback: Deadpool #-1
- New Mutants #98
- X-Force #2, 11, 15, 23, 47, & 56
- Wolverine #154, 155
Footnotes
- ^ Cable & Deadpool #39, April 2007
- ^ http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/xmen/disassembled/X-Who.html