Deadpool
Deadpool is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in New Mutants #98. In his comic book appearances, Deadpool is initially depicted as a supervillain of the New Mutants and X-Force, though later stories would portray him as an antihero. Deadpool is the alter ego of Wade Wilson, a disfigured Canadian mercenary with superhuman regenerative healing abilities.
Originally created as a parody of the DC Comics villain Deathstroke, the character was an instant success with readers, becoming a breakout character in the X-Men books, quickly developing a distinctive backstory and earning his own series and a joint book alongside the character Cable with whom he is frequently paired. Part of the reason for his popularity is his tendency to joke incessantly and break the fourth wall for humorous effect.
The character's popularity has seen him featured in numerous other media outlets. In the 2004 series Cable & Deadpool, he refers to his own scarred appearance as "Ryan Renolds crossed with a Shar Pei". Reynolds developed an interest in portraying the character after reading the comic, which was ultimately realized in the X-Men film series, including X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Deadpool, and its sequels Deadpool 2 and Marvel Cinematic Universe's Deadpool & Wolverine.
Publication history
1990s
Created by artist/writer Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, Deadpool made his first appearance on the pages of The New Mutants #98 cover-dated Feb. 1991. According to Nicieza, Liefeld came up with the character's visual design and name, and Nicieza himself came up with the character's speech mannerisms.Liefeld's favorite comic title before X-Men was Avengers, which featured weapons like Captain America's shield, Thor's hammer and Hawkeye's bow and arrow. Because of this, he also decided to give weapons to his new characters. Liefeld, a fan of the Teen Titans comics, showed his new character to then-writer Fabian Nicieza. Upon seeing the costume and noting his characteristics, Nicieza contacted Liefeld, saying, "This is Deathstroke from Teen Titans". Nicieza gave Deadpool the real name of "Wade Wilson" as an inside-joke to being "related" to "Slade Wilson", Deathstroke.
Liefeld spoke on how the character was influenced by Spider-Man: "The simplicity of the mask was my absolute jealousy over Spider-Man and the fact that both of my buddies, Erik Larsen and Todd McFarlane, would tell me, 'I love drawing Spider-Man. You just do an oval and two big eyes. You’re in, you’re out.'... The Spider-Man I grew up with would make fun of you or punch you in the face and make small cracks. That was the entire intent with Deadpool.... I specifically told Marvel, 'He's Spider-Man, except with guns and swords.' The idea was, he's a jackass."
Other inspirations were Wolverine and Snake Eyes. Liefeld states: "Wolverine and Spider-Man were the two properties I was competing with at all times. I didn't have those, I didn't have access to those. I had to make my own Spider-Man and Wolverine. That's what Cable and Deadpool were meant to be, my own Spider-Man and my own Wolverine." "G.I. Joe was my first obsession. Those were the toys in the sandbox with me, kung fu grip, eagle eye, I had them all. G.I. Joe is a world of characters that I have always aspired to participate in. Snake Eyes was a profound influence on my creating Deadpool."
Both Deadpool and Cable were also meant to be tied into Wolverine's history already from the start, as Liefeld describes: "Wolverine was my guy. If I could tie anything into Wolverine, I was winning." Like Wolverine, Deadpool is Canadian. The original story had him joining the Weapon X program after being kicked out of the U.S. Army Special Forces and given an artificial healing factor based on Wolverine's, thanks to Dr. Emrys Killebrew, one of the head scientists.
File:2.9.16RobLiefeldByLuigiNovi1.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The character's co-creator, Rob Liefeld, holding up a copy of New Mutants #98, in which the character first appeared, during an appearance at JHU Comics in Manhattan held three days before the release of the film Deadpool
In his first appearance, Deadpool is hired by Tolliver to attack Cable and the New Mutants. After subsequently appearing in X-Force as a recurring character, Deadpool began making guest appearances in a number of different Marvel Comics titles, such as The Avengers, Daredevil, and Heroes for Hire. In 1993, the character received his own miniseries, titled The Circle Chase, written by Fabian Nicieza and pencilled by Joe Madureira. It was a relative success and Deadpool starred in a second, self-titled miniseries written in 1994 by Mark Waid, pencilled by Ian Churchill, and inked by Jason Temujin Minor and Bud LaRosa. Waid later commented, "Frankly, if I'd known Deadpool was such a creep when I agreed to write the mini-series, I wouldn't have done it. Someone who hasn't paid for their crimes presents a problem for me."
In 1997, Deadpool was given his own ongoing title, the first volume of Deadpool, written by sequentially Joe Kelly, Christopher Priest and Gail Simone. Deadpool became an action comedy parody of the cosmic drama, antihero-heavy comics of the time. The series firmly established his supporting cast, including his prisoner/den mother Blind Al and his best friend Weasel. The ongoing series gained cult popularity for its unorthodox main character, its balance of angst and pop culture slapstick and the character became less of a villain, though the element of his moral ambiguity remained.
2000s
Deadpool lasted until issue #69, at which point it was relaunched as a new title with a similar character called Agent X in 2002. This occurred during a line-wide revamp of X-Men-related comics, with Cable becoming Soldier X and X-Force becoming X-Statix. It appeared that Deadpool was killed in an explosion fighting the supervillain Black Swan. Deadpool's manager Sandi Brandenberg later founded Agency X with a mysterious man called Alex Hayden, who took the name dubbed Agent X. Deadpool later returned to the series, which would conclude with issues 13–15.Deadpool's next starring appearance came in 2004, with the launch of Cable & Deadpool written by Fabian Nicieza, where Deadpool became partnered with his former enemy, Cable, teaming up in various adventures. This title was canceled with issue #50 and replaced by a new Cable series in March 2008. Deadpool then appeared briefly in the Wolverine: Origins title by writer Daniel Way before Way and Paco Medina launched another Deadpool title in September 2008. Medina was the main series artist, with Carlo Barberi filling in on the first issue after the "Secret Invasion" tie-in.
A new Deadpool ongoing series began as a Secret Invasion tie-in. In the first arc, the character is seen working with Nick Fury to steal data on how to kill the Skrull queen Veranke. Norman Osborn steals the information that Deadpool had stolen from the Skrulls, and subsequent stories deal with the fallout from that. The story also sees the return of Bob, Agent of Hydra. This all led directly to a confrontation with the new Thunderbolts in "Magnum Opus" which crossed over between Deadpool vol. 2 #8–9 and Thunderbolts #130–131. In Deadpool #15, Deadpool decides to become a hero resulting in conflicts with proper heroes like Spider-Man and leading to a 3-issue arc where he takes on Hit-Monkey, a character who debuted in the same month in a digital, then-print, one-shot.
Another ongoing Deadpool series, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth, launched in July 2009, written by Victor Gischler, with art by Bong Dazo. In it Deadpool teams with Headpool from Marvel Zombies 3 and 4.
A special anniversary issue titled Deadpool #900 was released in October 2009. A third Deadpool ongoing series, Deadpool Team-Up, launched in November 2009, written by Fred Van Lente, with art by Dalibor Talajic. This series features Deadpool teaming up with different heroes from the Marvel Universe in each issue, such as Hercules. Deadpool also joined the cast of the new Uncanny X-Force team.
2010s
Another Deadpool series by Gischler titled Deadpool Corps was released in April 2010. Besides Deadpool himself, this series featured alternate versions of Deadpool, including a female version of himself named Wanda Wilson / Lady Deadpool, Headpool, and two new characters; Kidpool, a child, and Dogpool, a dog. The series lasted twelve issues.Marvel also published Deadpool titles through the Marvel Knights and MAX imprints: Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War, by Duane Swierczynski and Jason Pearson, and Deadpool MAX by David Lapham and Kyle Baker.
Deadpool vol. 2 was written by Daniel Way and drawn by Alé Garza. In the story arc "DEAD", Wade is "cured" of his healing ability and becomes mortal. As a side effect, he also has his old, unscarred face once again. Although he spent the majority of the story arc looking forward to dying, he suppresses his desires to protect his friend and sidekick Hydra Bob.
After he loses his healing factor, Wilson claims he felt "more alive than ever." However, after a harsh beating from the Intelligencia, Wade realized that he had let his ability to heal compensate for skill so he decided to ask for help from Taskmaster in training. Taskmaster asked Wilson to help him steal Pym Particles from S.H.I.E.L.D., but actually, he allowed Black Box to study Wade in order to prepare his vengeance against Wilson, even letting him know Deadpool lost his healing factor.
Wade managed to defeat Black Box, Black Tom and Black Swan, but in the process, his face was burned and disfigured again. Former FBI agent Allison Kemp wanted to get revenge on Deadpool because of his involvement in an accident which left her in a wheelchair, and she called other enemies of Deadpool such as T-Ray and Slayback and trained them to kill Deadpool. Deadpool infiltrated their base and managed to get T-Ray and Slayback killed when Kemp was about to kill herself in an explosion which would kill Wade in the process, he convinced her not to attack him. At that moment, he was surprised by the returned Evil Deadpool, who informed Wade that the serum they took was not permanent, which was why Wade's face did not heal or a finger he lost grew back, so Wade would return after Evil Deadpool shot him. Daniel Way's Deadpool series concluded with issue 63.
As part of Marvel's Marvel NOW! initiative, a new Deadpool ongoing series was launched. He is also a member of the Thunderbolts. In the 27th issue of his new series, as part of "All-New Marvel NOW!", Deadpool was married for the third time. Initially a secret, his bride was revealed in the webcomic Deadpool: The Gauntlet to be Shiklah, Queen of the Undead. Deadpool also discovers that he has a daughter, Eleanor, from a former flame named Carmelita.
During the events of "Original Sin", it was revealed that Deadpool was tricked into killing his parents by a scientist known as Butler ; however, Deadpool does not know about it.
Much later, he clashed with Carnage, believing the universe was telling the latter to defeat him. After several fights and getting torn to pieces, Deadpool bonds with four symbiotes: Riot, Phage, Lasher and Agony. Playing mind games, Deadpool tricked Shriek by using his shapeshifting abilities to make her disoriented and having her flee. After the symbiotic Deadpool and Carnage fought again, Deadpool captures Shriek and forces her to impersonate himself, making it trick Carnage into almost killing her in the process. Feeling broken after a mental breakdown, Carnage allowed himself to be arrested and was placed in an unlocked cell. While sitting in the cell until he was his own self, Carnage swore vengeance on Deadpool. Deadpool, after defeating Carnage, gives the four symbiotes to a war dog who helped Deadpool fight Carnage to deliver them to the government.
During the "AXIS" storyline, Deadpool appears as a member of Magneto's unnamed supervillain group during the fight against Red Skull's Red Onslaught form. The group of villains becomes inverted to heroes, after a spell cast by Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom. This group was later named the Astonishing Avengers. This Deadpool, referred to as "Zenpool", was pivotal in turning Apocalypse to fighting the Inverted Avengers.
Deadpool's death occurs in Deadpool #250. Deadpool faces off in a final showdown with ULTIMATUM and Flag-Smasher, killing all of them, and gives up the "Deadpool" identity, wishing to have a better life. He, along with his family and friends, are all killed when the Earth collides with an alternate universe's Earth. Deadpool laments that the Secret Wars should have stayed an Avengers event, but then dies at peace, content that everybody else is dying with him.