Deadpool

Welcome back to the Antihero’s Anecdote! For new readers, there are spoilers below for multiple Deadpool-related entities (as you should expect for future blog posts as well). Enjoy and leave any questions or comments down below. One of the greatest antiheroes and comic book characters of all time. Trained assassin, cancer survivor, former Avenger (kind of), and a genuinely good person. Wade Wilson, better known as Deadpool, was Marvel Comics response to a popular DC villain/anti-hero, Deathstroke (whose real name is Slade Wilson). Like Deathstroke, Wade was a trained master in hand-to-hand combat, swords and knives, guns, explosives, etc. However, there are two extremely contrasting characteristsics between the two, which in my opinion make Deadpool a legendary comic book character. Aside from the uniform orange/steel colored armor that Deathstroke wears being substituted by a red and black skintight suit, Deadpool replaces Slade’s power-hungry and angry attitude with wittiness and jokes. Where Slade commands armies and trains militaires, Deadpool is hanging with Spider-Man or pranking Thanos. Throughout his comics, tv-show cameos, his two solo movies (we do not count the X-Men cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and the influence that they bring, Deadpool truly is a legendary comic book character.

The first Deadpool movie does Wade Wilson’s beginnings juustice, and Ryan Reynolds portrayal of the character percieves the sadness, joy, and chaos that is Deadpool’s origin story. Wade Wilson was a trained assassin for the US Army, mercenary following his dishonorable discharge, and a participant in the Weapon X program, famous for giving Wolverine his adamantium skeleton and powers, and also recieved powers from the program. Wade entered the program hoping it would cure his cancer, since he had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer that already spread to his liver, lungs, and brain. The process gave Wade super-stamina, regenerative powers, agility, superhuman strength but left him completlely disfigured as the cancer was still present. The healing factor kept Wade alive, but did not remove the cancer. The movie does an excellent job explaining hte science behind the process, as his body is deprived of oxygen whilst attempting to draw out the mutant gene. The deprivation leaves Wade’s skins and organs disfigured, but again functional due to his healing factor. Deadpool also possesses some other skills and abilities, varying from precision firearm accuracy with nearly any weapon, a master with his dual katanas, and even being able to read minds and teleport in some forms of his power. Deadpool also had mental health issues, which during his mutation evolved into small subconsiousness that speak directly within his head. Wade is always accompanied by a disembodied voice that warns and urges Deadpool along his misadventures. One strange ability, not seen in many characters, is Deadpool’s understanding of the meaning of life, or at least his. Deadpool has stated that he is depressed as he knows that he isn’t real. He will address the audience of movies and comic books directly, knowing that his purpose is simply to be entertainment for those endulging in said movies and/or comic books. Although this results in many hilarious third-wall breaking scenarios, it is sad to see such a happy and jolly character feel so blue about his life. Deadpool has a team known as the X-Force which normally consists of Cable, a time-traveling cyborg, Domino, the woman of luck, Psylocke, a telepathic mutant, and Archangel, a winged mutant with a very confusing family history. Finally, Deadpool is immortal. This is due to a curse placed on him by Thanos due to reasons which will be addressed in the next paragraph, and it may surprise you as much as it surprised me when I read the comics.

Of all Deadpool’s comic books and alternate storylines, two stand out from the rest. The first is an ongoing storyline that is present throughout numerous comic books, and may even be explored within Deadpool 3, which will be the first R-rated movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The chimichanga-loving “Merc with a Mouth” is constantly seen against “The Mad Titan”, Thanos. Thanos has been known to prank and annoy Thanos for decades of comic books, but the ultimate rivalry between the two is because they are both in love with the same woman. To make matters even weirder, that woman is the personification of Death, and it is to appease Lady Death that originally sends Thanos to unlock the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, and kill half of the population of everything (not a pro-genocidal way to save resources like the MCU suggests). However, Lady Death only uses Thanos as a tool to create death, but she romantically favors Wade Wilson. The two end up getting married in one comic storyline, The Wedding of Deadpool (Vol 11 #27), which broke the Guinness World Record for most characters on a comic-book cover. However, the storyline more frequently used is where Thanos cheats to assure his victory. Here, Deadpool would be unable to love Death unless he himself died. Thanos uses his cosmic power to make Deadpool immortal, rendering it impossible for Wade to ever be with his Lady Death. Although Death still denies her relationship with Thanos, eventually the Titan will perish to Death, while Deadpool roams Earth for eternity. You never think a Marvel character who loves unicorns, innuendos and tacos so much would have such a depressing backstory, but alas, much sadness pursues. The next comic book was a single issue crossover that was a lot of fun to read.

In one comic book storyline, Deadpool single-handedly kills the entire Marvel Universe! Then in a second issue, with even more characters, he does it again! This is impressive, but it has been done many times before (for example, read our Cosmic Ghost Rider post to see Frank Castle kill the Marvel Universe thousands of times, from thousands of other universes, in one battle!). However, one Deadpool issue sees Wade Wilson pit up against a homicidal hillbilly with a more powerful, but equally homicidal, symbiote named Carnage. After Carnage escapes prison and commits serial murders in Kansas, Deadpool watches the news thinking to his disembodied voice about how he is the only one crazy enough to take on Carnage and succeed. Deadpool tracks the homicidal maniac through a hilarity-ensued scavenger hunt. Cletus Kasady, the human within carnage, looks back on his actions of villany as insane, and he should instead stick to reasonless murder. Meanwhile, Deadpool fires a rocket at Cletus, sparking a battle that ultimately ends up with deadpool skewered on an elephants tusk at the nearby zoo and his face being removed by a sonic blast. Deadpool and Carnage ocntinue their wild goose chase, which leads Deadpool into an abandoned lab, where four symbiotes leak out of their dead hosts and bond to Wade. The symbiotes each take an appendage, and they all agrre that Carnage must be stopped (especially the symbiote Riot who is a natural leader, as seen in the Tom Hardy movie: “Venom”). Deadpool ambushes Cletus, who is hospitalized after their last battle, and disguises one of the symbiotes as himself to distract Cletus. Deadpool captures Carnage in a cell, and removes his symbiotes back to the army, thinking of how he can cure even more people of insanity in the future. Deadpool has also said in another storyline that he would not want to bond to a symbiote, as his life is insane and chaotic, and he would never force anything to endure it with him. So another fun story outlined with sadness. That’s why you got to love Deadpool.

From his adventures with symbiotes and Thanos, killing the entire Marvel Universe (twice), and even more stories such as teaming up with Spider-Man, aiding Hawkeye with his deafness, his personal connection to the Avengers and Captain America, or even whatever shows up in the next implementations of the character in the MCU, I could probably do a whole semester of blogs on Deadpool! As much fun as that would be, we have plenty more to discuss and for me to share with you, such as a popular new show on Disney+ with a brand new episode coming out this Friday which is rumored to be a big eye-opener. I may holdoff to avoid spoilers, but you should all watch the show a few times in preperation anyways. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this post on Wade “Deadpool” Wilson.

“Maximum Effort!” -Wade “Deadpool” Wilson